Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 66 Entries. Saturday, January 26 View Page What's this white stuff on my patch?? This is Monrovia!!! Saturday, March 29 View Page This is my new toy!! It is a Kabota with a 4 foot pto rototiller with three speeds. My friend Tony is tilling the patch for me. I still need to practice with it ALOT. Oh man this makes it easier than a 5hp tiller. Saturday, March 29 View Page This season I added about 12 yards of composted horse manure. The compost pile is at the other end of the yard where I'm adding to it daily with the two horses. This is another shot of Tony working the patch. Saturday, March 29 View Page 23 bags of gypsum was added along with an 80lb sack of alfalfa pellets. Saturday, April 19 View Page Pumpkin from last year...Big Max, maybe 65 pounds Saturday, April 19 View Page pumpkin from '07 maybe 20 pounds...alittle scarred from the horse and birds pecking Saturday, April 19 View Page '07 pumpkin...maybe 45 pounds...alot of scarring from the birds, still seems hard and intact Saturday, April 19 View Page This year's cover crop ready to be tilled under Saturday, April 19 View Page Buds. Lucy the cat loves her collie friends Monday, May 5 View Page Someone mentioned in a message board thread or their diary that they used their bird egg incubator to germinate their pumpkin seeds. What a great idea!!! So here it is....thankyou to whomever that was. I'm sorry I can't remember your name. The temp is set at 89-90 degrees. The humidity is @80%. Monday, May 5 View Page I found these great sized jiffy pots at Home Depot. I didn't know they made them this big!! 8 fit nicely in the incubator. The soil is jiffy potting mix with alittle Myco added. The seeds were soaked in seaweed/ myco-sol for 5 hours after the edges were filed. Monday, May 5 View Page It's not snow, it's plastic! I FINALLY got around to solarzing the patch last week. In order to benefit at all from this I will have to cut a hole in the center to start the seedlings and increase it in size as the plants grow. That way at least the outsides will have alittle more time under the plastic. I'll just make sure I add sufficient mycorrhizae after I remove it and also keep it well away from the tender seedlings. Monday, May 5 View Page The starting line-up: 1524 Starr 07 (227 Leland x 985 Werner) 1556.5 Werner 07 (1308 McKie x 985 Werner) 1292 Urena 07 (1200.5 Urena x 1502 Wallace) 1535.5 Glasier 07 (1092 Martin x 992.5 Glasier) 1350 Wallace 07 (1068 Wallace x 998 Pukos) 1470 Wallace 07 (1502 Wallace x 998 Pukos) 1408.5 Daletas 07 (1068 Wallace x 805 Pukos) 1235.5. Daletas 07 (1370 Rose x 1068 Wallace) All unproven seeds....I LOVE to try new things!! Monday, May 5 View Page trouble! Wednesday, May 14 View Page These are some of the rose bushes at the north end of the yard. Roses do VERY well here in Monrovia! They like the heat. At the left is the arbor off of the back bedroom. Most of that is a Ruby Seedless grape, with a small Concord at the edge. To the right is the main entrance to the upper garden where I grow the jol pumpkins. Right now it is ALL weeds. Shame on me!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page Here is looking south past the arbor. You can see where the horse lives. She gets pretty much the center of the yard!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page I Finally got four plants set out (the only four I ended up with!) I cut a 6x8 foot square out of the middle of the plastic to put them in so I can keep solarizing the rest while they grow alittle. It also warms the soil and keeps weed seeds out for now. The chosen four are: 1292 Urena '07 and 1470 Wallace '07 pointing north 1408.5 Daletas '07 and 1556.5 Werner '07 pointing south I have to narrow these down to 2 when I can tell more how the plants are doing...I HATE that part! Wednesday, May 14 View Page I have surrounded the growing area with two pet pens that have chicken wire over the top. In the past the birds have raised havoc with the seedlings and the markers! I also dug in 2 pounds of fish powder and one cup of blood meal for some nitrogen for the babes to grow on. Wednesday, May 14 View Page I'm standing in the driveway lookin east towards the AG patch and the horses' round pen. See all that shade? I considered taking out the Deodore in the center but thought better of it because the afternoon sun in the summer is brutal and I would have had to put a shader over the whole patch. Why not let the tree be the afternoon shader? Lol! Also, I remember looking at a pic of Chris Anderson's patch in Don's 'book 2' and seeing the trees surrounding the patch. Most people's patches are in full sun but I truley believe that here in Southern California you would have roast pumpkin if you didn't have some serious shade protection. Wednesday, May 14 View Page BTW these egg incubators are good for more than hatching eggs and pumpkin seeds. At least Polly Pumpkin thinks so. Wednesday, May 14 View Page OK now I'm being silly...This my picture looking into the dining area. I guess I always wanted to live in a rustic cabin of sorts...can you tell?LOL!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page oops...I meant 'kitchen'. I pretty much designed the kitchen around this stove. What can I say, I love the country and old things.....and of course, AUTUMN!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page Here's a picture of the 1014 Holland being craned out of the patch last October. Maybe I can come up with another way to do it this year without having to call a crane service! The guy thought I was kinda nuts when I first asked him...but I think he had fun when he finally saw I what I was talking about. Let's face it, there aren't too many giant pumpkin growers in this neck of the woods. You REALLY have to explain stuff to people! Lol! Wednesday, May 21 View Page Due to a war with Verizon (I lost) I had to change my email address to: [email protected] The only difference is the '1' after autumnloft. The plants survived the killer heat-wave over the weekend, more or less. Photos in a little while. Saturday, June 14 View Page This view shows the two contenders for the south-facing plant. On the left is the 1556.5 Werner. On the right is the 1408.5 Daletas. The hose runs right between both. Saturday, June 14 View Page An overhead shot of the Werner plant. Saturday, June 14 View Page Here is the 1470 Wallace plant facing north. It is next to the 1292 Urena, which will probably be culled. Saturday, June 14 View Page Still the four plants waiting to be thinned to two. Monday, June 23 View Page This was taken yestarday, during the heat of the day. We hit 109 on Saturday and Friday may have actually been hotter. Today we should get a break (90's). The plants were getting 4 hours of overhead water to try to keep cool. They were still stressed. Monday, June 23 View Page The Daletas plant is not very heat tolerant. I think the Werner that I culled was alittle better on hot days but it had its own problems. You can see the Daletas plant stressing even under the overhead sprinkler Sunday, July 13 View Page This is the first fruit on the 1408 Daletas plant,about 8-9 feet out. Pollinated on 6-30, it measures 33.5" as of this morning (7-13) Sunday, July 13 View Page This is fruit #2 on the Daletas plant,about 11-12 feet out. It was pollinated on 7-4 and measures 22" as of this morning (7-13) Sunday, July 13 View Page I cranked around fruit #2 to improve its vine position and I think I put too much stress on the stem...you can see how curved the stem is. I thought I heard something when I foolishly did this the other day. It's still gaining, but not as much as the first fruit is. Could this be stem stress already or is fruit #1 simply getting more from the plant because of position? Ironically the second fruit's measurement is already larger than the first fruit's 10-day measurement....what a decision to make!! Sunday, July 13 View Page Here is the first 1470 Wallace plant pollination on the main.. the first two never made it to blossom stage. Pollinated on 7-10, this fruit is probably 14 feet out. I sure hope it takes!!! Nice long shape. Sunday, July 13 View Page This Daletas plant sure has me in a pickle. This blossom 'half' opened yestarday (only two petals) The crazy thing is fully opened this morning. Is the pollination date today or yestarday??? It is 4 lobes and about 18 feet out or so...obviously it is now open pollinated. Sunday, July 13 View Page It seems so esoteric to be sitting here talking about pumpkins. Dad passed away last weekend after a very brief battle with pancreatic cancer. It all happened so fast...it doesn't seem real. We had the service on Thursday but I still feel like calling him and 'telling him how it went' He would have been 69 next month. Thursday, July 17 View Page This is the fruit on the 1408 Daletas plant....about 11 or 12 feet out, 5 lobes. Today is day 13 ( I guess some would say day 12 if you start counting one day AFTER pollination) I messed up with adjusting this one...I cranked the pumpkin around away from the vine instead of moving the vine away from the pumpkin and ended up with this curved stem...should be interesting to deal with later. Thursday, July 17 View Page This fruit is 41 inches this evening. It was pollinated on July 4th. It has been gaining a steady 5 inches every 24 hours....3 at night and 2 during the day. Thursday, July 17 View Page This one is also on the Daletas plant, about 15 feet out. It was pollinated on 7-13. I like the shape of this one. Thursday, July 17 View Page This pumpkin is on the 1470 Wallace plant. It was pollinated on 7-10 (4 lobes) and is about 14 feet out. It is presently just under 17 inches. Sunday, July 20 View Page This is the Daletas plant and fruit looking north east. At day 15 the fruit measured 56" this morning. Alittle off last year's mark but not too bad...we are 10 days ahead of last year's pollination and therefore have more patch to fill so I'm hoping it will spike in a week or two after more secondaries have been terminated. Sunday, July 20 View Page This is turning out to be a fun shaped pumpkin. Good shoulders but very round as well. Sunday, July 20 View Page Looking south at the Wallace plant. Note the leaf die-off happening already at the center of the plant. This year's early heat wave really took its toll. I've revised the christmas tree pattern and turned the first three secondaries up so they parallel the sides of the patch and grow longer than usual. Sunday, July 20 View Page Fruit on the Wallace plant. Day 10 today, measuring 26" this am. Funny-shaped little thing...I would have prefered more shoulder, but it is early and the 'torpedo' is still filling itself out. Sunday, July 20 View Page It really would be worth while to look into a shade structure for next year. Relying on overhead sprinklers to keep the plant cool is causing its own problems. The roots have become very lazy and close to the surface. Sunday, July 20 View Page oops...I messed up the above post. The Daletas fruit is day 16 @56" (not day 15) Thursday, July 31 View Page 1408 Daletas fruit: day27 105.5,69.5,69.5 ott244.5 Just over 300 today. Thursday, July 31 View Page 1480 Wallace fruit: day 21 79.5c. Saturday, August 2 View Page Picture of the patch today...it's hot again..90's I really need to invest in a mist blower. I've tried to stay organic and not spray pesticides but the cuke beetles are eating us alive. Also the plant die-off at the stump has occured much sooner this year with all those 100+ days back in June and July. Saturday, August 2 View Page We are fortunate to have two nice pumpkins again this year. It's a long way to cutting time though so time will tell. Saturday, August 2 View Page I also still havn't used my soil soup system. I am REALLY anxious to see what compost tea can do for the leaves on the plants. I wonder if it helps make them more heat tolerant. Wednesday, August 27 View Page Day 54 for the Daletas fruit. Ott is 343. Last 4 days saw minimal growth. I did water-solubles today to try to boost things alittle. Wednesday, August 27 View Page Day 48 for the Wallace fruit. Ott is 313. I've never had one like this before. Very flat like an elongated pancake. Tuesday, September 16 View Page This is the 1408 Daletas fruit at 74 days. It is just shy of 1,000 lbs. VERY slow growth. Tuesday, September 16 View Page Here's Hertie Gertie. This is the 1470 Wallace fruit at 68 days. Just shy of 800 lbs. Tuesday, September 16 View Page Meet Andy. He's been here about 4 days now. The local FD rescued him from out of a wheel well and turned him over to my vet. Now he's here with the rest of the Autumnleaf zoo. Tuesday, October 7 View Page Here we are at the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin and Harvest Festival....waiting to be unloaded by the more-than-capable fork lift operators. They were amazing to watch. Over 60 pumpkins to off-load this morning! Kudos to all the folks who put on this contest! Tuesday, October 7 View Page I really need to build a new pallet for next year. Getting this basket case out was a chore. Tuesday, October 7 View Page Here they are pulling Jake Van Kooten's monster out....can you believe size of this fruit? And it went heavy too!! Tuesday, October 7 View Page The volume of pumpkin flesh sitting in this tent was phenominal...the top 14 pumpkins ended weighing over a thousand pounds!! Tuesday, October 7 View Page Alot of talent went into growing these. Leonard Urena is one of those. He is nothing short of amazing. Tuesday, October 7 View Page oops...the other pic shows Pete Glasier and Jon Hunt (among others). This one is of Leonardo (I think) Tuesday, October 7 View Page Sea of Giants Tuesday, October 7 View Page This is my friend Carol. She was brave enough to make the trip up with me for the event. We drove over 360 miles to get there....about 6 hours. It made it that much more fun to have a friend to share all of this with....thanks Carol!! Tuesday, October 7 View Page Here's 'Gump' waiting to be put on the scale. Tuesday, October 7 View Page Here I am looking sort of dumb-founded after seeing that Gump weighed over a hundred pounds over chart.