Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 65 Entries. Friday, February 4 View Page My first update 2005. Here you can see the seed I will grow this season (if it germinates). I paid $60 for it at the Pumpkin Nook's Seed Auction.   Monday, February 14 View Page As you know from the previous seasons, I every day pee in large cans. This season I pee directly in the watering can. Once a week I empty the can and pour the urine into tubes, to make sure that the pumpkin soil gets the maximum of nutrience.   Monday, February 14 View Page My daughter Sara (she’s in the middle of the bottom left picture) is at the moment visiting Afghanistan, and of course she brought a Sweden Drill, which I designed for her specially for the travelling purpose (the soil drill is in two parts). Afghanistan has huge environmental problems, but unfortunately the developmental organizations doesn’t understand the value of recycling biological garbage. The streets are full of piles of garbage, which would be splendid material for soilization and growing of vegetables and fruits - and why not pumpkins? As I explained in my growing diary (in 2004), soilization means to drill holes, and to put fresh biological garbage into them, and then growing close to these holes. In the top right picture you can see how afghans has drilled a hole, close to a bush, and are putting garbage into the hole = soilization. The best time for soilization is in the fall. For more reading on this, go to this link: http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=16722   Saturday, March 26 View Page While we are waiting for the growing season to start: here's a pic of my daughter and my 12 kg / 26,4 lb fodder beet, grown in 1999.   Saturday, April 2 View Page In the spotlight! If you want to grow 'em big, there's no time for sleeping!   Saturday, April 9 View Page Ok 1446 Eaton, it's time to wake up so the fun can begin! Today I've filed and soaked the $60 seed.   Tuesday, April 12 View Page The 1446 Eaton didn't germinate, so today I've filed and soaked a new seed: the 1420 Larue, wich cost me $40.   Wednesday, April 13 View Page After 24 hour the 1420 Larue sprouted, so now I will place it in a peat pot.   Sunday, April 17 View Page The 1420 Larue 5 days old. Within one or two days I will plant it out in my greenhouse.   Thursday, April 21 View Page The 1420 Larue 9 days old. It was 7 days old when I planted it in the greenhous.   Thursday, April 21 View Page A pic of the 1420 Larues greenhouse.   Wednesday, April 27 View Page The 1420 Larue 15 days old.   Monday, May 2 View Page The 1420 Larue 20 days old.   Saturday, May 7 View Page Today the 1420 Larue is 25 days old, and the main vine is now getting ready to land on swedish ground. So raise your seats and place your tray tables in a locked upright position, because soon the big adventure will begin!   Saturday, May 7 View Page Here's a pic of the stump of the 1420 Larue.   Thursday, May 12 View Page The 1420 Larue 30 days old.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page The 1420 Larue 35 days old.   Friday, May 20 View Page The 1420 Larue is now 38 days old, and the first female fruit appeared today. But it's too early so I have to remove it and wait for the second or third to appear.   Sunday, May 22 View Page The 1420 Larue 40 days old, and the main vine is about 3,3 m/ 11 feet long.   Friday, May 27 View Page Larue 45 days old.   Friday, May 27 View Page A pic of the Larue's stump.   Sunday, May 29 View Page Today I drill the last hole for soilization of Larue's main vine. I fill the hole with fresh stuff from my outdoor lavatory. Here you can see it; http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=16195   Wednesday, June 1 View Page 1420 Larue 50 days old. The main vine is now 6 m/ 18 feet and is growing about 30 cm/ 1 foot per day. This week, the weather has been cold and windy in the southern Sweden.   Wednesday, June 1 View Page A pic of the opposite side of the 1420 Larue.   Monday, June 6 View Page 1420 Larue 55 days old.   Friday, June 10 View Page Larue 59 days old. To the left the female (with 6 lobes) wich I will go for and wich I have pollinated this morning. It's the third fruit on the main vine and it's growing 6,3 m/ 21 feet out from the stump. So, Eaton and the world record it's time to watch up!   Friday, June 10 View Page Here's a closer wiew of the fruit.   Friday, June 10 View Page Here you can see the six lobes.   Sunday, June 12 View Page Here you can see how I use a long and soft rubber-band to help the Larue to come down in a correct position (90 degree) to the vine. I pull with approximately 0,3 kg/ 0,66 lb. Normally it will take about 2-3 days. Today the Larue fruit is 2 days old.   Sunday, June 12 View Page Here you can see it from the upper side.   Wednesday, June 15 View Page Larue 5 days old.   Monday, June 20 View Page Larue 10 days old and the weight is today 5 kg/ 11 lb.   Saturday, June 25 View Page This is the last pic of Larue on one scale. The weight is today (15 days old) 25 kg/ 55 lb.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Here I adjust the level of the stem and the blossom end.   Thursday, June 30 View Page Larue 20 days old and the weight is today 71 kg/ 156,4 lb.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page Larue 25 days old and the weight is today 134 kg/ 295 lb.   Sunday, July 10 View Page Larue 30 days old and the weight today is 210 kg/ 462,5 lb.   Sunday, July 10 View Page A pic of Larue's stem side 30 days old.   Friday, July 15 View Page Larue 35 days old and the weight today is 280 kg/ 617 lb.   Friday, July 15 View Page Here's a pic of the 1420 Larue's plant, the pumpkin (35 days old) and the greenhouse.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Larue 40 days old and the weight today is 346 kg/ 762 lb.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page Larue's stem side 40 days old.   Monday, July 25 View Page The Larue is now 45 days old and the weight today is 403 kg/ 887,7 lb. Yes, what you see is correct: she has a split, and it happened yesterday (day 44). As you can see the blossom end is a Dill ring, so the split wasn’t a surprice for me. But I hope I can grow her to at least 454 kg/ 1000 lb. At her best, she has grown 17 kg/ 37,5 lb per day. Al, for this year you can feel safe from me, but watch out next year if I decide to grow once again!   Monday, July 25 View Page A sad pic: the Larue blossom end split. It’s so deep so I can see into the seed cavity.   Thursday, July 28 View Page Here you can see my competitor Lars "Eaglewood" trying to ruin my pumpkin career. When I look at that smile a cold shiver will ran down my back.   Thursday, July 28 View Page Fortunately, as you can see, I managed to stop him in time. In the future, all visitors will have to go through a security check before they enter my pumpkin patch.   Saturday, July 30 View Page Perhaps Eaglewoods attack gave her a little kick, because today 50 days old the weight is 443 kg/ 976 lb, not so bad for a lady who has split.   Monday, August 1 View Page Incredible! After 52 days I’m now beating my own record – today the weight is 454 kg/ 1000lb! Now I leave my lady for a couple of days of holiday.   Saturday, August 6 View Page It seems like my lady has done well without me when I was on vacation in Stockholm, because today (57 days old) her weight is 476 kg / 1048,5 lb. At the pic you can also see my daughter Sara, who safely has come back from Afghanistan again.   Monday, August 8 View Page It's a sad day today, because I think my silicon lady has stopped growing, only 59 days old. The split was to big and to deep. The UOW will be 482 kg / 1061 lbs. The weight is of course without my cat Silver, 15 years old!   Monday, August 8 View Page A view from my roof.   Wednesday, August 10 View Page Here I remove the seeds from the 1061 Gustavsson 05 uow/dmg.   Saturday, August 13 View Page Here’s my indikator-clock wich I used to see wich day the 1061 Gustavsson stopped growing. I can see a movment down to 0,01 of an milimetre. Day bay day and hour by hour I can follow the growing speed and I can exactly see wich day it stopped growing. Some times when a pumpkin stopps growing and the pressure into it becomes zero the indikator-clock can go back a little. After the indikator-clock stopped there’s no weight gains which some growers think.   Saturday, August 13 View Page The last pic of me together with the 1061 Gustavsson 05 uow, because now I will start to make pumpkin juice of her (and save in cans) to put in my soil in the fall, winter and early spring. From the day I pollinated the 1061 Gustavsson I havn’t used any kind of nutrience water I have only used ordinary water. I saw that Jack LaRue also does the same. During the fall and winter I put in the most of the nutrience in my soil (soilization). As you know since earlier I don't use any kind of artificial nutrience, just fresh biological garbage from my kitchen and garden.   Monday, August 15 View Page Sorry guys, but I will not send out any seeds from the 1061 Gustavsson 05, because most of them was rotten and actually this plant has been a problematic plant. I have also test germinated some of the seeds and I have never seen anything as tiny as those seedlings. I’m sorry Jack but I will not grow 1420,5 LaRue again.   Wednesday, August 17 View Page Here's the link for the 2005 growth chart for the 1061 Gustavsson: http://www.geocities.com/skurupsborren/growth-chart-1061-gustavsson   Thursday, August 18 View Page The stump of the 1420 Larue. I have remove all the leafs around it.   Saturday, November 5 View Page Halloween greetings from Sweden! This pumpkin weighed 100 kg/ 220 lbs before I carved it out. It was grown on the 1420,5 Larue and was self pollinated in the middle of August. Perhaps I will use a seed from this pumpkin next year when I make my next attempt to break the world record. For each year my soil gets better and better. So, who knows what will happen in my pumpkin patch next year...   Friday, November 25 View Page Today I ran out of biologic garbage, so my farmer friend brought me a bale of fresh pressed straws. The weight of the bale is around 400-500 kg/ 880-1100 lbs. I hope this nutrience will be enough to break the wold record. If not, I don't know what to do!   Friday, November 25 View Page Here you can see how I have started to use the bale; I've started to drill it down (soilization) into drilled holes in my pumpkin patch. I have never soilization so much of garbage in my pumpkin soil as this fall.   Sunday, December 11 View Page In the following pics you can see what I’ve done to prevent the soil from freezing inside the pumpkin greenhouse. At this pic you can see a bale of straws, which a farmer friend brought me.   Sunday, December 11 View Page Before I spread out the straws I cover the soil with plastic foil. This will keep the moisture in the soil, and the straws will stay dry during the winter.   Sunday, December 11 View Page Here I’ve spread out the straws about 0,3 m/ 1 foot thick. So now the worms and the micro-life can work all winter without freezing. In the spring and summer (next year) a great deal of the biological garbage in the soil has been transformed to high quality nutrience.   Saturday, December 17 View Page As you can see I have today also covered the soil outside the greenhouse with straws, but offcourse first I have soilzated the soil.   Sunday, December 25 View Page To the left, you can see this year’s christmas present from Santa to my pumpkin patch! It’s a 500 W lamp on a tripod, to make my evening/night soilization easier by lighting it up. At this pic you can also see how I make it possible to soilizate even though the rest of the swedish soil is frozen. Before the ground is frozen I cover the soil with straws and when I wish to soilizate, I simply remove a part of the straws. And when finished, I cover it again.