Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 55 Entries. Monday, January 6 View Page Start of the new year here in Western Connecticut. Just perusing the auctions and doing some yard work. My small patch has winter rye on it. Starting to get excited for the new Spring growing season. Getting some lists and orders ready. Pretty cold today and overcast. Good day to catch-up on some Pumpkin YouTube (Pumpkintube)   Tuesday, January 7 View Page Back to school begins...getting our LaMotte Soil Testing Kits re-supplied for the students. These are very nice kits for teaching the students about pH and plant nutrition, it they are not as accurate as I would like. Typically we send the soil samples to our local extension to compare/contrast our findings.   Wednesday, January 8 View Page Landscaping & Brush clearing is on the schedule today. It's bitterly cold out here though the sun is shining. Also found out I need a new bar for the chainsaw.   Thursday, January 9 View Page Trying to reconfigure this side area of my house near where my patch will be. I really want to setup some type of fertilizer injector system that can feed both patches via soaker hose along with a regular hose for my other vegetable crops. Taking on a lot of plant care this summer, hopefully if I can setup some type of automation it will help. Last year,my first year growing a giant pumpkin, I was hand-watering the feed every time I fertilized and only used an irrigation timer for the clear water. It was a big pain. Hopefully I can MacGyver something.   Friday, January 10 View Page What are some of your favorite non-giant-pumpkin related plants to grow? We have a collection of cacti and succulents in the greenhouse. This one is a specific cultivar of Crassula called "Gollum" after the Lord of The Rings. I really find it looks interesting compared to the regular flat leafed Jade's you often see. We took a trip to the New York Botanical Garden years back and their conservatory inspired us to take up our own Cacti/Succulent collection. This Crassula is about 10 years old and was started from a small cutting of another. It's a mother plant that we use often to propagate new cuttings.   Saturday, January 11 View Page Won 1-set of this auction lot last night at the SNGPG auction. This will bey first year trying Bushel Gourds. I also picked up a few 313 Connolly BG as well. Do you run these plants similar to pumpkins. Based on my research I think they can be started much earlier and can have a longer overall growing season. Any specific tips? Finding information specifically on growing giant BG's is proving to be difficult when compared to pumpkins.   Sunday, January 12 View Page I've been exploring different fertilizer and supplementation options for this upcoming season. Last year, I mainly just ran a 20-20-20 GP water soluble fertilizer and rotated a Cal-Mag every few weeks. I'm definitely getting more serious about a program but it's so much different than what I am used to when growing traditional spring bedding plants in the greenhouse. Last year, for some of my other vegetable crops, I supplemented my GP fert with this Agro-Thrive product and it produced some good results. I'm thinking this might be a good option in lieu of something like Neptunes.   Monday, January 13 View Page Picked up this poster a few years ago. Love the artistry of it and it's a good reminder of some native ornamentals to use in my region. Speaking of trees - I'm thinking of tapping my sugar maples for syrup this year. I've only really done it twice.   Tuesday, January 14 View Page Saw this posted on social media and it got me thinking about soil health and slowly building a healthy biology in your patch...rather than just flooding it with high doses of synthetic. Good things take time.   Wednesday, January 15 View Page Put together this Venturi injector manifold. A little different than the Dosatrons we run in the greenhouse so now I need to do the legwork of figuring out flow rate, pull rate, and ppm dosing. Hoping this makes things a little easier for fertilizing this upcoming season.   Thursday, January 16 View Page Cleaning out and reseeding the NFT Hydroponics system today. Going to be pushing some Dragoon Lettuce this month and perhaps some fresh herbs. Last month we had some poor air circulation and ended up with powdery mildew problems, hopefully with the new fans there's no problem this time.   Friday, January 17 View Page Added some AG's to my seed binder....   Friday, January 17 View Page These are what I will trying out this year.... 2453 Sherwood 2023 Andrusz 317 Connolly BG 309.5 McCaslin WM   Saturday, January 18 View Page Watched this old movie last night...wow, it was bad.   Sunday, January 19 View Page Aquaponics on the docket today ... Had to empty, clean out, and refill the tanks due to several blockages. Typically we just run some lettuce in the DWC Rafts and some cherry tomatoes in the pebbles. I tried a regular field pumpkin in the system last summer, but it really didn't produce much. This season we'll do some cukes and miscellaneous lettuce seeds we have.   Monday, January 20 View Page Beautiful day to clear some brush for my new compost bin....   Tuesday, January 21 View Page Love this time of year. Getting students ready to seed their vegetable and herb crops today. Lettuce, spinach, arugula, bush beans, carrots, radishes, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes. Also seeded some Mache, which is a hardy corn salad green that does really well around here - most students never know about it.   Wednesday, January 22 View Page Anyone have recommendations on a grow light for a hoop house. I'd like to supplement with some lights prior to May to get my pumpkins off to a good start. Wondering what other people use....   Thursday, January 23 View Page Germination tests with my 752.5 (2024).   Friday, January 24 View Page Germination experiments Day 2. I'm liking the humidity and temp settings. For these 3 I didn't sand the edges down like I normally do. I guess we will see if it delays them at all.   Saturday, January 25 View Page Getting some other duties done today...100lbs of pork butt into dried sausage.   Sunday, January 26 View Page Bushel Gourd seeds in the mail today, excited. Never had much success with propagating long gourds. Any ideas how to get the best germination?   Monday, January 27 View Page Germination experimenting continues. Sowed three 752.5 Tuccio's. No filing, direct buried into moist soil with high 97+ RH and 70-75 temp. 3.5 days all poking through. Interesting...   Tuesday, January 28 View Page Sprung a leak...ugh.   Thursday, January 30 View Page Glass on the floor. Looked up.... Now onto cleanup   Friday, January 31 View Page I am considering growing watermelons hydroponically this year. I really don't have anymore yard space after the pumpkin and bushel gourd. Would something this size (77 gallon) work? I don't have room/access for an IBC tote. The best I may be able to do is a 100 gallon stock tank. Also not crazy about the black color. I may wrap it in some reflective insulation paper I have.   Tuesday, February 4 View Page Flipping through an oldie but a goodie...   Tuesday, February 4 View Page Another one I absolutely adore...   Thursday, February 6 View Page No pumpkins on the menu today....took the boy ice-fishing. 10" thick in Connecticut.   Tuesday, February 18 View Page Back from the dead....bad case of the flu all last week. Luckily these geraniums weathered our ice storms nicely.   Wednesday, February 26 View Page Ground finally warm enough to get a good soil sample. Off to the lab, let the fun officially begin!   Thursday, February 27 View Page Just got the new edition. Not a ton of new information from 18th edition. A few extra chapters on Cannabis, which isn't my cup of tea. A good primer on CO2 supplementation but no nuts/bolts which is really what is needed for new growers.   Saturday, March 1 View Page Easy task today, just buried some 2x4's to stabilize the fertilizer injector manifold I'm building.   Monday, March 3 View Page Seed starting some bushel gourds... 317 Connolly 414 Trombley 313 Trombly Sanded down, 30 minute peroxide soak, 24hr water/kelp soak, then into the potting mix.   Tuesday, March 4 View Page Lots of planting today ...   Thursday, March 6 View Page Welp...looks like I have some work to do!   Saturday, March 8 View Page Irrigation manifold mostly set. 3 ports. One to each patch's soaker system, then another to the loose hose for my vegetables. Fertilizer injector bypass as well. Next is testing and figuring out dosing for the injector.   Sunday, March 9 View Page Home pumpkin seedling setup all put together. Heating mat, LED high bay. Ready for germinate some seedlings in a few weeks.   Monday, March 10 View Page Starting some watermelons... All 2024 McCaslin. 309.5 276.2 262.2 256.0 We'll see what we get going...   Tuesday, March 11 View Page Does anyone use these for walking around their patch besides walking boards? Unfortunately walking boards are really not useful to me. I tried them last year, but between balancing issues and reach, I really wasn't able to get much use out of them. The cleats would essentially aerate the soil while you walk; however, they do have the risk of damaging plants with a misstep. Honestly, I really just want to tell my wife I need to put on my "pumpkin shoes" before going into the patch. lol   Friday, March 14 View Page Ok, was finally able to get some bed prep done this morning. Tilled in some vermiculite, perlite, and compost. Want to add some of the nutrients I'm low in as well, but that'll be for another day. The main pumpkin patch was 225sq.ft. last year and I've now expanded it to 400 sq.ft. I also still need to till in the new area above the walkway, which is only 150sq.ft. That will be for a bushel gourd.   Tuesday, March 18 View Page Testing out a new compost tea brew...seeing if I can stir up some better biology in my soil. 1/2 tsp Recharge, 1/2 tsp unsulfulred molasses, 1/2 tsp kelp, aerating for 18-24hrs. We will see....   Friday, March 21 View Page What looks like 3 cotyledons on my bushel gourd seeling. Never seen that before!   Saturday, March 22 View Page Ugh. We hit 70 degrees this past week in CT. Cooked my hydroponic lettuce and they never bounced back. Couldn't get the shade cloth up in time. No we are back down to 40s lol. Gotta love Spring weather.   Sunday, March 23 View Page Started my 2025 seeds this morning. Purposefully doing it earlier than normal this year. We will see how it works out.   Tuesday, March 25 View Page Germinations underway.... I think it was a poor choice to put them in such large containers. Originally I wanted to ensure I wasn't constantly repotting them and disturbing the roots, but the heat mat is struggling to keep all the soil at a consistently warm temperature. The blankets help reduce heat dissipation, but now I know for next time.   Wednesday, March 26 View Page Ok, so I think this is interesting. I seeded 8 AG seeds (see previous post) and the first two to break ground just happen to be from Connecticut weigh-off pumpkins (2032 Scott & 1925 Noel). I'm wondering if there's something metaphysical going on here. Or maybe I'm just going crazy from watching too many Shroud of Turin videos lol.   Friday, March 28 View Page Hoop up. Going to leave as is until closer to pumpkin being out there....Boss on the deck wondering why I'm spending so much time outside in the patch lol.   Saturday, March 29 View Page Compost bin finally finished....   Sunday, March 30 View Page The 150 patch, 15 x 10. Not exactly sure what genetics to throw in their yet. Considering 1925 Noel, 2023 Scott, 1950 Leonard or 1991 Thompson   Monday, March 31 View Page Planted over 1,000 tulips in front of the greenhouse last Fall. Excited for the weeks to come. Gloomy day though...   Wednesday, April 2 View Page Girls are doing ok. The 2032 Scott & the 1991 Thompson have curling cotyledons. I'm presuming I gave them a little too much water recently. Otherwise everything else is looking ok.   Friday, April 4 View Page Hobo structure is up lol. I am going to have to find a better system next year. Maybe a pop up house or something who knows. Nice and toasty in there though.   Monday, April 7 View Page Girls putting on some leaves...   Tuesday, April 8 View Page Get ready Connecticut...15 burgeoning young Horticulture students just sowed their Giant Pumpkin seeds. You may be seeing them at the Ridgefield, Durham, or Woodstock weigh-offs this year!! Student with the heaviest at a GPC Event gets a grand prize from the school too!