Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 35 Entries. Saturday, January 3 View Page January 3rd, added about 6 inches of mulched leaves and tilled them under to start off 2026, this really helps my heavy clay soil but doesn't actually add a lot of nutrients. I also took down the fence on one side and move it back a few feet so I can get my riding mower around the perimeter this summer. Sunday, February 8 View Page February 8th, it was dry enough and the ground had thawed. A second pass with the tiller helped work in the remaining leaves that are already starting to decompose. Trying to get a head start on the soil this year when the weather allows. Monday, March 23 View Page Soil analysis to start this year. I plan on adding ammonium sulfate to bring down the pH and add nitrogen, in addition to elemental sulfur, and feather meal. I will add the sulfur now as it takes a while to breakdown and lower pH. I will add the rest of the amendments closer to planting to minimize loss to leaching before I have plants on the ground. Boron was within the normal range, but this needs to be higher to help with Calcium movement. I definitely do not need to add any calcium thanks to all the limestone in our area. Friday, April 3 View Page In the past I have used concentrated hydrogen peroxide as a soil drench to help eliminate any soil borne diseases. New this year I am trying ZeroTol. It is similar to the H2O2, but also contains paroxyacetic acid, which has a longer antimicrobial effect in the soil. This all breaks down to water, oxygen, and a small amount of vinegar. The vinegar also has an antimicrobial effect and breaks down in a few days so should not effect pH. I'll add beneficial microbes back in when I amend the soil here in a few days. Sunday, April 5 View Page Our new baby goats are just a couple days old, 8 on the ground so far. Sunday, April 5 View Page A couple more jumping around... Tuesday, April 7 View Page Mini-greenhouses are set up with improved ventilation this year, should be more automated to keep plants at an ideal temperature day and night. Saturday, April 11 View Page Final patch prep work this weekend. All amendments added, and one final till to mix it all in. Micronutrients added after the soil analysis were: 2.2 oz Chelated copper 1.5 lbs Borax 3.5 oz Manganese Sulfate Also added TerraGrow and mixed in some WOW humic/fulvic acid + seaweed powder, but will mainly water this in during the season as the plant grows. Saturday, April 11 View Page Fertilizer amendments: 25 lbs of feather meal (for a slower released nitrogen source) 2 lbs urea (faster available nitrogen, but short lived) 4.4 lbs Ammonium sulfate (nitrogen + sulfur) 20 lbs Elemental sulfur (pH correction) Saturday, April 11 View Page All amendments tilled in, next I'll work on getting the irrigation set up and about a million other details. The cattle next door were very intrigued... Monday, April 13 View Page This year I will try to grow 2 plants, the 2266 Kisamore and the 2453 Sherwood. I plan on double planting the mini greenhouses and keeping the best. I will also start some of my own seed from last years 1241 (2206 Rodebaugh x 2006 Wolf) as a back up. Monday, April 13 View Page 2026 growing season has started, soaked these seeds about 12 hrs before planting them in some black gold seed starter mix. Fingers crossed! Friday, April 17 View Page One of the 4x4 post to hold up shade cloth had bent significantly as often happens with treated lumber. I came up with a simple solution for this common problem. 1. Attach some short 2x4 scraps to the post at the apex of the bend to act as a fulcrum. 2. Find the old weather head pipe you have been saving for some reason. 3. Chain the weather head to the top of the bent post 4. Wrap a 10,000 lb ratchet strap around the bottom of the pipe/post, and tighten as much as possible without bending the pipe. 5. Tighten the ratchet strap a few clicks each week until the post is in the desired orientation, the leave it in this position several more weeks. 6. Attach another 2x4 along the side of the straightened post before removing the pipe, otherwise the post will eventually return to its original bent position, as I learned from experience. Saturday, April 18 View Page 100% germination, and young plants breaking through the soil. Starting sunlight exposure right away in the mini greenhouse to make hardening off easier this year. 50 degrees outside, but the thermostatically controlled ventilation is keeping the greenhouse in the low 80's. Saturday, April 18 View Page Temperature data from the mini greenhouse. Sensor placed in there this afternoon shows the ventilation system keeping temps between 80-85, with fan set to turn on at 85. Monday, April 20 View Page 4 plants in the ground, DAS 7. Double planted the mini-greenhouses, one with two 2266 Kisamore plants, the other with two 2453 Sherwood. Wednesday, April 29 View Page Major hail storm yesterday. This pic was from down the road, at our house it was more golf ball sized. Lots of damage with baseball/softball sized hail. This stuff went right through local greenhouses not to mention peoples skylights and windows. Fortunately it was not this big at our house and I had hail netting over the mini-greenhouses so at least the plants are safe. Monday, May 4 View Page In the past I have never had trouble getting plants started in the spring, but it is always a time consuming process hardening them off. This year we had perfect weather when my seeds sprouted so I tried direct sun exposure as soon as they started to emerge from the soil, the same as if I had directly sown them in the ground (or so I thought). Well it failed miserably, completely burning off the growing tip on 3 out of 4 plants. A couple may grow out of it but it set me back a week or two. The lesson here is don't mess with what works. Fortunately I have a couple back ups growing that look great if I need them. Wednesday, May 6 View Page 2266 Kisamore seems to be pulling through with new leaves looking good at this point. Wednesday, May 6 View Page Planted one of my backups in the other mini-greenhouse, my 1241 from last year (2206 Rodebaugh x 2006 Wolf). It has some sun damage but nothing too bad. Two younger plants I started later will also be contending for this side of the patch, a 2453 Sherwood and a 1903 Desrosiers. I wish I room to grow them all. Thursday, May 7 View Page 2453 Sherwood and Ken's 1903 getting some shade as the hardening off begins on these backups soon to be planted in the mini-greenhouse Tuesday, May 12 View Page 2266 Kisamore, DAS 29. Starting to take off and is lying down nicely. Tuesday, May 12 View Page A different story in the other greenhouse, one fried 2453 Sherwood clinging to life but starting a new growing tip, 1241 Hough looking good but growing straight up despite my best attempts to redirect it. New today in the center is a 14 day old 2453 which might outgrow the other two which are 2 weeks older. Time will tell which plant will make the cut. Wednesday, May 20 View Page 2266 is filling out the greenhouse, won't be long before it's out of space. Monday, May 25 View Page Busy weekend, one final pass with the tiller and added some additional feather meal before setting up all the irrigation. Plants have outgrown the mini-greenhouses, this was taken just before they were rolled away. Monday, May 25 View Page Back-end of the mini-greenhouses showing the thermostatically controlled intake vents, which are covered on the inside with insect netting to keep the bugs out. Also, for comparison the small plants outside the greenhouses were all started indoors at the same time as the greenhouse plants which are now about 8 feet long. Monday, May 25 View Page The main thing I have been working on this season is finally done. My patch is now completely enclosed in netting. I used insect netting on the sides and shade cloth over the top and at the ends which should keep out all the squash bugs and vine borers. Smaller insects may be able to get through the shade netting, but should be much less bugs overall. I am trying to prevent losing another plant to yellow vine disease, or storm damage this year so hopefully this will help. Monday, June 1 View Page First female flower of the season on the 2266, 12 feet out but the plant is still too small to keep this one. It's been raining every day, with 3 inches the last couple days so it's been hard to get much done. I did get some vines buried, and worked in some pumpkin power around the plants. Monday, June 1 View Page 2266 at 49 DAS, I am training the secondaries in a swept back pattern. Main vine is growing great but secondaries in the midsection stalled out. More recent growth looks good though. Not my best start. Planning on a late June or early July pollination. Monday, June 1 View Page 1241 has better secondary growth. It was my back up but out grew the 2453 significantly so now it's the keeper. I ran out of time to get the fabric under the main before it took off. 49 DAS Thursday, June 4 View Page I removed this early pumpkin, and while checking the lobe formation noticed this. This is an example of seeds in the blossom. You can see the tiny white seeds on the side of this lobe. Apparently this can lead to a deformity or split as the pumpkin grows, so if you see this, pass it up for another as your keeper. Sunday, June 7 View Page Hope to see some like this in a week or two! Plant is still a little smaller than I would like for a pollination, only about 14 good secondaries behind this one. Sunday, June 7 View Page 1241 growing well so far, the space I have for each plant is 20x40 so keeping the secondaries trained back to grow more narrow and long father than wide. Sunday, June 7 View Page 2266 Kisamore. Both plants really taking off. Got all the vines buried, watered with some root shield plus, added terra grow a couple days later, and got most of the weeds pulled. Sunday, June 7 View Page It's hard to tell from the photo, but that's not fog it's pouring down rain. 2 inches in 30 minutes. Plants held up well but probably washed out a lot of nitrogen from the soil.