Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 23 Entries. Saturday, January 25 View Page Hi! My name is Aurika and I grow giant pumpkins and giant vegetables in the botanical garden of Lomonosov Moscow State University. I will be growing giant pumpkins for the fifth season. And thank you to all the members of this community for sharing information on growing giant pumpkins and vegetables. I am also the founder and head of the Giant Pumpkin Growers Club in Russia. I will be glad of your friendship and support.   Monday, February 3 View Page Hi! Today I want to tell you about my achievements in 2024. I grew a giant pumpkin weighing 487 pounds. I grew a giant cucumber that is 35 inches long and almost 11 pounds. This cucumber is a Russian record. It was my first time growing a giant cucumber and growing it in an open garden, without a greenhouse. I also grew a giant Marrow squash for the first time, its weight was 74 pounds. It's been an interesting year, and I've learned a lot about growing giant vegetables. Thanks for the help and the seeds to Kevin Fortey. If someone needs the seeds of my marrow or pumpkin, write, I will be happy to give you a gift. In the next post, I will tell you about the pedigree of my pumpkin. Once again, I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome, I am very glad to be a part of your community! And learn from you. I'm sorry for my English, I don't know it well, so I use an online translator:)   Monday, February 3 View Page My giant pumpkin of 2024, grown in the Botanical garden of Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia. This pumpkin has excellent potential and pedigree. A friend from Germany gave me seeds 563 Garofano 2017 (2145 McMullen x 2261 Wallace) In 2022, I grew a pumpkin of only 244 pounds from this seed. But the pumpkin started in August, and therefore it did not have time to grow, but it already showed its potential then, growing quickly with minimal care and early cold nights. The following year, as part of our competition, one girl grew a 1,071-pound pumpkin from my seeds, growing it on organic fertilizers, in an open garden, without greenhouses. And in 2024, a 1098-pound pumpkin was grown from this line, also without greenhouses and using organic fertilizers. And both participants of the competition did not have enough experience in growing giant pumpkins. I believe that this pumpkin has great potential, it grew in a botanical garden on acidic soil and with minimal care. I named my pumpkin after a huge star, the red super giant Alpha Orion. I crossed (pollinated) this pumpkin in 2022 with pumpkin 1579 Gawlik 2018 And in 2024, I pollinated (crossed) with the pumpkin of Ian and Stuart Paton 1688 (1885 Werner x 2907 Clone) If you like my pumpkin and you want the seeds, I can give it to you. Write your e-mail, I will write to you, we will arrange the delivery.   Monday, February 3 View Page I am not only the founder and head of the Club of growers of giant pumpkins and vegetables in Russia. But I am also the organizer of the first international online competition of giant pumpkins and vegetables. Since 2022, we have been holding a competition every year where we teach how to grow giant pumpkins and vegetables, thanks to you, among others, to everyone who shares information on growing and helped us, Ian Paton, Kevin Fortey and a friend from Germany, Jonass, answered our questions. And last year, we asked Travis Gienger to choose the most beautiful giant pumpkin among the participants in our competition. We are immensely grateful to him for his responsiveness and help. This year we are holding our competition for the fourth time, we are independent organizers, we decide for ourselves what we will grow and how to conduct the competition, the sponsors do not dictate the terms to us, they only give gifts to the winners. We have the most honest, objective and popular competition. By the way, last season we had people from other countries participate, we have no restrictions on participation, you can participate from any corner of the world. We will be glad to see you in our competition :)   Saturday, February 8 View Page The game has begun :) Growing giant onions is interesting, but it's not clear yet, it's not a very interesting crop among plants for me personally. I grow them only for the sake of the Club members who participate in our competition with giant onions. So that I can understand for myself how a giant onion grows, what it needs and what can happen to it. We grow later than other growers, because according to the terms of our competition, we will grow all giant vegetables without greenhouses in the garden beds. Wish us good luck and we will be grateful for any useful information on growing a giant onion.   Sunday, February 16 View Page The giant onion gave a start.   Sunday, February 16 View Page Hello everyone! Please tell me, is there any information about this pumpkin? I want to find out what kind of pumpkins were in this Gadberry 1347 line. There is no information on the squash pedigrees website. I grew a very small pumpkin from these seeds, initially the plant was weak and painful. I think it's worth continuing to grow these pumpkins or not.   Sunday, February 16 View Page I'm a squash fan, I've been growing squash for the second year and I'm falling in love with them more and more :) Although the results are modest, my dream is to grow squash in different shades of green. Therefore, I would like to suggest exchanging seeds for those who also grow squash. I can offer seeds from my squash, which I grew from Jany 959 seeds. In the photo, a squash from Jany named Jade Turtle and the last photo in the photo collage on the right, this is a descendant from a Turtle. Also, if you are interested, I can offer marrow seeds and any of my pumpkins in return. If you are interested in exchanging squash seeds, write to us and we will arrange delivery. The main thing is to let customs into our countries:)   Monday, February 17 View Page I wanted to show Sebastian Jany what squash was made from his seeds. More precisely, this squash was already from the Jade Turtle squash in the previous photo post. And it grew last year. The funny thing is that it's quite light in color, like a green apple. At the same time, a dark green one grew from the same seeds of a member of our Club (photo in the previous post). It's amazing. Roulette with color and shape. I love giant pumpkins for this, for their unpredictability and magic :) Unfortunately, this squash has rotted, I made a fatal mistake, I spilled it well with water the day before, and at night there was a storm that no one predicted. A day later, I arrived at the botanical garden where this squash grew and saw these spots. It may, of course, start to rot earlier. But surprisingly, this process happened very quickly, I could not immediately remove the fetus and left it for another couple of days. And when I returned, he deflated like a balloon. It's a pity, but I still remember this wonderful squash.   Friday, February 21 View Page I want to tell you about a man who grows giant pumpkins from Russia. Who is a multiple Russian record holder. His name is Andrey Gusev. He has been growing giant pumpkins for more than five years and is increasing the weight of the pumpkins every year. The largest pumpkin weighed 771 kilograms (almost 1,700 pounds). Last year, unfortunately, he had to cut off the pumpkin earlier, breaking the 600 kg mark, because the whip and the pumpkin stalk began to rot. Otherwise, he would have beaten his own record, he had no close competitors at that time. He was also the first in Russia to grow marrows, just over 45 kilograms. Andrey Gusev is a role model for us in Russia, and everyone wants to achieve the same results. We jokingly call him the Russian Pumpkin King :) And in general, he is a very good person, self-sufficient, hardworking, and we are sure that this year, he will again occupy the pumpkin Olympus.   Tuesday, February 25 View Page Our international competition of giant pumpkins and vegetables Agro Giants 2025 will begin soon. The competition is held online, and you can participate from anywhere in the world. Conditions of participation: grow without greenhouses and without heating the soil, ideally with organic fertilizers. We are for equal conditions between people. And we grow them according to nature, we grow them as naturally as possible. We will be glad to see your participation and support of our competition. We have been holding our competitions since 2022 and every year we increase the weight of the winners' pumpkins.   Tuesday, February 25 View Page Today I received the seeds of a giant sunflower, a Russian record of 59 centimeters, just over 23 inches wide sunflower head. It was grown by a member of our club of growers of giant pumpkins and vegetables, she grew this sunflower as part of the competition. This sunflower was grown from the sunflower seeds of Kevin Fortey's record. Which weighed more than 6 kg. This year, as part of our competition, we will grow sunflowers by the weight of a head, and we will slightly diversify the competition option. It will be the same for the width of the sunflower's head. By the way, if anyone needs it, I can send the seeds as a gift. Or exchange with any of your giant plant seeds. I recently sent a parcel of seeds to the USA and everything arrived safely. So I'm ready to send seeds, sunflowers, or from my pumpkins and murrows to anyone who needs them.   Saturday, March 8 View Page Spring has come to us abruptly. This is rare for our climate. But apparently it will soon be the norm, judging by the trend. I decided to take advantage of the moment and start making adjustments to the soil. But there were many questions. I don't understand what the primary procedure is, should I take the soil for analysis first? Or should I apply fertilizers first and then send the soil for analysis? And accordingly, how much fertilizer should be applied if the soil analysis is done after fertilization. There is a lot of horse manure humus and compost. Now I want to add lime, the soil is acidic, peonies used to grow, for some reason the soil after them has a pH of 5.5-6.0. So which is the primary egg or the chicken? Should I take a soil test or apply fertilizers and only then take a soil test? I need help.   Sunday, March 9 View Page I'm starting the season of giant peppers. I couldn't make friends with them last year, I didn't spend much time with them, and I chose the wrong place to plant. This year I will fix all the mistakes, wish me luck!   Monday, March 17 View Page Finally, the cup and awards for the last season of the competition have arrived and we can send them to the winners. Of all the gifts, these awards are the most appreciated by the participants of our competition. This suggests that material prizes are not as important as society's assessment of a person's achievements. After all, the most important reward is what you have grown in your garden beds. Do you think cash prizes are important or expensive gifts?   Thursday, March 20 View Page Which seeds should I choose? What is the best way to crossbreed in the end to continue breeding?   Tuesday, March 25 View Page What are your secret ways to germinate seeds and grow giant pumpkins? :) I have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi dog, but it's not her in the photo :) By the way, I read somewhere that fermentation through the gastrointestinal tract of animals or birds is required for some seeds, otherwise it will not germinate. Maybe it also works with giant pumpkins :) But seriously, which top germination products do you use that works for sure?   Thursday, March 27 View Page Last season, I grew giant tomatoes for the first time. I did this without information about agricultural techniques, how to grow properly. Therefore, I did not form or remove excess fruits, plus I planted them late, in the second half of June. As a result, the largest tomato is 1 kilogram. This year I want to know how to grow. I would be grateful if you could share with me information on growing giant tomatoes. I'm reading the growers' diaries right now, but it's general information. I realized that they start growing around the middle of April, planted in the garden in June. But there is no information on which soil to use for seedlings. How to prepare a garden bed, what fertilizers to use, do you need nutritious soil, or vice versa, should you be more careful with fertilizers? Giant tomatoes are obtained only from mega double flowers, but when they appear, do they need to be pollinated themselves and how to do it? How should a plant be shaped? How should I water it? And how long does the fruit grow? A lot of questions, little information. Maybe there is all this information in one place where I could find all the answers?   Saturday, April 5 View Page I was at the botanical garden today, picking up trash from the garden. Surprisingly, over the winter, the plants turned to dust, leaving only a skeleton drawing of giant pumpkin plants. It's like a dinosaur dig. And at the same time, I calculated the area of the garden. It turns out to be 170 square meters, in feet it is just over 1800. Accordingly, I need to understand now how much humus and compost to add. The botsad administration will send the soil to the laboratory for analysis in a few days. I hope this soil analysis is done quickly. Although we are now experiencing a return of cold snap and snow. Therefore, there is no hurry. And most importantly, I need to figure out how to place 4 giant pumpkins, two of them squash, as well as one giant marrow. Is the south-north-west-east direction important for plant growth? And what is the best way to arrange on this rectangular area so that all the plants fit?   Sunday, April 6 View Page He did it! I will name my best pumpkin of this season "Ovechkin 8", it remains to grow a pumpkin of this weight in kilograms :) Do you name your pumpkins after your favorite popular people or some great places on the planet? Do you believe in the saying, as we say in Russia, "Whatever you call a ship, it will sail," thereby setting yourself up for victory. Or are you looking at the character of your pumpkin and the name comes up at that moment?   Tuesday, April 8 View Page I see that many growers have started growing seedlings of giant pumpkins. The question arose, what is the optimal time for seedlings to be planted in the garden? What size should the seedlings be? And do pumpkin seedlings need any fertilizers for this growth time? I usually germinated pumpkin seeds four weeks before planting, but it was rare to plant them immediately, the weather made adjustments and the seedlings were already more than a month old at the time of planting. Which is better when the seedlings are small, for example, the first real leaf has appeared, or when the seedlings are large if they cannot be planted in an ideal time?   Friday, April 11 View Page I bought air pots, talked to onion growers, and got mixed reviews. I'm thinking of trying to grow seedlings of giant pumpkins. Has anyone used these pots, what are the pros and cons?   Saturday, April 12 View Page I am the head of the Club of growers of giant pumpkins and vegetables in Russia. We decided to hold an All-Russian official weigh-off from our Club of growers of giant pumpkins and vegetables in Russia. This will be the first time it has been held in Russia and it will be independent, where everyone can participate. And these will be objective statistics for Russia. I have read the rules of the international official weigh-off, I have questions, I will be grateful for the help and support. Send me an email raa197@yandex.com