Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 24 Entries. Saturday, February 1 View Page Happy New Year fellow growers!! Wishing everyone Rots of Ruck!! This what I'm growing this year.   Saturday, February 1 View Page I'm adding more heating cables . More IS better.   Saturday, February 1 View Page I'm adding a diesel forced air furnace(or 2) to help with nighttime temperatures. More IS better.   Saturday, February 1 View Page Germination test of the poor white tipped Chan 2252.5's. All 6 have germinated nicely. This is 3 days after a 1 hour soak.   Saturday, February 1 View Page Germination testing on the 5 worst white tipped Chan 2252.5 seeds. They all germinated at the same time as the previous 6 seeds. This leads me to believe that the perfect 2252.5 seeds will all germinate nicely for those of you choosing to grow one...or 2.   Saturday, February 1 View Page I've potted 2 starters to see what the cots and true leaves will look like.   Wednesday, February 19 View Page Test of 2252.5 Chan 2024   Wednesday, February 19 View Page trying to rotate pic   Wednesday, February 19 View Page I guess you'll need to turn your head...lol. So this is a test of a "white" tipped 2252.5 Chan seed. I soaked and germinated it in paper towel and a ziploc bag. The seed was planted in a 1 gallon pot of last years' dried up ProMix with no added amendments or fertilizers. The pot was placed in our bathroom with 2 LED grow lights leaning up against the wall as its only source of light. I wasn't very kind to this seed to say the very least and it still grew. The 1st true leaves are very normal although lacking in some nutrients. The plant is quite aggressive in that it is starting to vine out. About 200 of these seeds have been given to clubs and distributed around North America. Some of the seeds were sold to support the local club in BC. It should be a good seed to grow as all seeds that were sent out were perfect seeds and not "white tipped". It was the Canadian Champion for 2024.   Tuesday, March 11 View Page This is the "white tipped" Chan 2252.5. It's been growing in the same 1 gal pot that it started out in. I'm posting this picture for 2 reasons. The 1st is to demonstrated that a white tipped seed is normal and ok to grow. The 2nd reason is to demonstrate that pumpkins will grow using 20-20-20 fertilizer as it's only source of nutrients. In fact my wife grew a 892 lbs Howard Dill winner using only 20-20-20 all year. It was the Love 892. So if you are just starting this hobby and want to grow a giant pumpkin, you can use 20-20-20 as your nutrient source until you learn more about fertilizers and soil.   Tuesday, March 11 View Page What a trip I had at the Green Bay Convention !! Ya...I tripped on the stairs to the stage and landed flat on my face in front of 250 people !!! But....I still got my prizes. I couldn't have made a fool of myself in front of a better nicer group of people. Many thanks to all the GPC organizers and the great friends we made at the convention.   Sunday, March 23 View Page BORON This is what I've learned by studying boron. It's a unique micro in that it doesn't bind to other "stuff" in soil. It's so free that rain and watering can flush it out of the soil. It's huge role is in the formation of the "meristem". Meristematic cells are the undifferentiated cells that go on to form all specialized cells in any plant. The specialized cells are in the vine tip, in both female and male flowers, in the seed formation and the growth of the fruit. Once B gets into a cell it's locked in. It's an immobile micro. Since it is needed throughout plant growth, flower formation and fruit formation, it must be made available constantly from transplant to harvest. In the soil B can go from enough to not enough in a matter of days! Most lab reports will suggest that a range between 0.8 to 1.2 ppm is adequate. That may be true if that amount is present in the soil every day but it's such a low amount it could deplete very fast and BINGO!...no growth. I started going to higher B levels after a grower (the Boron Moron lol) accidentatty miscalculated her amendments and added 3 times the "suggested" amount. She had her best year. Many growers I've talked to, are aiming for between 4 ppm to 6 ppm. My 4 best years have been at that level with my highest level being 7.43 ppm on my PB last year. I get a soil test done every month and know where my nutients levels are. Borax is used in the spring amendments and Solubor dissolved in water is applied through drip irrigation and added throughout the growing season. Please use the comments section to post any corrections to my discussion. Boron is important!   Saturday, March 29 View Page PERLITE is expanded volcanic glass heated to 1000 deg C until it pops like popcorn. Comes in fine, medium and coarse grades and coarse seems to be the preferred size. It improves water absorption and improves drainage. This makes for a more beathable root zone and helps prevent compaction. It is completely neutral in the soil. My 1st addition to my patch was in 2016. I thought that if ProMix used it then it must improve the soil somehow. I didn't know much about Perlite and I had never seen it documented being used in large quantities in pumpkin patches. Since 2016 I've added over 100 bags of Perlite to my 2000 sqare ft patch. Drainage is very good and vine health is always excellent. The white specs in the freshly cultivated soil is Perlite.   Saturday, March 29 View Page Seeds soaked in a very light powdered kelp solution for 4 hrs at room temperature.   Monday, March 31 View Page 5 for 5 Barron 2144's. Seeds germinated in 48 hrs   Monday, March 31 View Page Kelp solution is used to wet paper towels and wrung dry. Then placed on a heated floor at 78 degF.   Monday, March 31 View Page The seeds are covered with a bathmat to keep the heat in and all that is covered with a cookie sheet to keep the light out. The floor heating thermostat is set to 78 degF. As you can see from a previous pic that all 5 seeds germinated in 48 hrs. A very simple method that I have been using for years. I think that 1 point to be taken from this is that you do not need very high temps to germinate. A grow mat would substitute fro a heated floor.   Monday, March 31 View Page Seeds were started in ProMix M in 1 gallon pots and placed under LED grow lights. Someone lent these to me and I'm not familiar with red lights so I've replaced these with my old white LED's.   Monday, March 31 View Page Just to emphasize 78 deg F .   Sunday, April 6 View Page Day 8 and 1st true leaf is forming nicely. This unsophisticated grow room is our kitchen set to 74 deg f. Grow lights are very white but show a little red on picture. Lights are on approximately 16 hrs a day. Hoops are up and soil heating cables energized. Soil temp is 72 deg f.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Top 54 deg is the air temp of the hoophouse. 2nd 54 deg is the non heated soil temp. 77 deg is the heated soil temp of North hoop. 84 deg is the heated soil temp of the South hoop. Today I will install a small space heater in each hoop to increase the night time temps and check/set the heaters tomorrow morning.   Thursday, April 10 View Page I'm starting to partition the greenhouse into a smaller space so that the heaters and CO2 generators won't need to work so hard when the hoops are removed.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Babies will be going in the ground on Saturday.   Thursday, April 10 View Page I think it would be crazy/fun/ informative to start a list of growers who are starting Barron 2144 seeds. Worldwide list would quite large and I know I would like to follow other growers with the 2144. Names could be added to the "reply" box.