Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Sunday, May 30 View Page This is how my season started this year. After a couple weeks in the patch I lost most of my plants to seed corn maggots. This is either the 1556 Werner or 1258 Wallace, I forget which it is now. Sunday, May 30 View Page This is the 1421 Stelts bare rooted. The plants I had that didn't get taken out by the maggots I dug up and washed away most of the soil. A couple I found maggot holes in the stems and sure enough they were filled with maggots. The 1421 however didn't have any holes in it so I transplanted it into a big container and hoped it would make it. After I finished that I called my local Agway and found out what else I could do for the maggots. They suggested I try Lorsban, since I'd already done a Merit drench pre-season, and thats what I did. I also decided to try to wait them out a bit, thinking if I waited a while maybe all the maggots would hatch out. This was my first experience with seed corn maggots. I'm guessing they came from the fresh manure I got in the fall. On Monday I finally put the plants back in the patch. All the plants are way behind where I hoped they would be at this time but atleast they are alive, for now. It's almost June 1st and I still seedlings in the patch. After losing part of my origianl starting lineup here is what it looks like now: 1421 Stelts 1236 Harp 1041 McKie 1154 Doucet I also have a few of my own seeds in the ground. Tuesday, June 1 View Page The plants have been back in the ground for over a week now and all are alive. Hopefully the maggot problem is over. The 1154 Doucet is my best looking plant at this time. The 1041 McKie and 1421 Stelts are looking good too. Even if they are all way behind where they should be. The 1236 Harp is by far my worst plant. My girlfriend's 1236 Harp is looking much better than mine right now. They are planted in spots right beside each other so the soil should be nearly the same in each spot. I need this little guy to get going if I'm going to win our 1236 Harp grudge match/battle of the sexes! Thursday, June 24 View Page Not much to update on. No pollinations in the patch yet and none coming soon either. The plants are way behind where most others are at right now. I guess thats what happens when they go in the ground three weeks late. I ended up losing one more plant to the seed corn maggots since my last update. The 1154 Doucet, 1421 Stelts and 1041 McKie are all looking good, just behind where they could be. My 1236 Harp is a nice plant too but way behind the others. Monday, July 5 View Page The plants are all doing well now. My 1236 Harp has really taken off and is just a bit smaller than my other plants. It has turned out to be very nice plant after getting off to the slowest start in the patch. Most of my pollinations are in now. Here is what I have so far: 1154 Doucet x 1236 Harp(Vanessa's plant) 1041 McKie x 1421 Stelts 1421 Stelts x 1236 Harp(my plant) I should be getting the pollination I plan on keeping on my 1236 plant in the next couple days. The plan is to cross it with the 1421. Wednesday, July 7 View Page I finally pollinated my 1236 Harp this morning. It was pollinated with Vanessa's 1236 Harp, so its a 1236 x sib. I also pollinated Vanessa's 1236 this morning. It was pollinated with my 1421 Stelts plant. Our battle of the sexes is now if full gear with both our plants getting pollinations on the same day. Her 1236 plant is bigger than mine, but mine will grow the bigger pumpkin! Sunday, August 29 View Page I dont' have any world beaters in my patch but I do have a few nice ones considering the aweful start I got off to. Here is a pic of the pumpkin on my 1236 Harp plant. I really like this pumpkin and hope it holds up till weigh-off time. It has a bit of a Dill ring that is making me a little nervous about a possible rib split, espcially with it still growing at around 25 lbs/day. It's not the biggest in the patch but is second or third largest. I haven't measured for a few days so I'm not sure if it or the fruit on my 1041 McKie is bigger. I believe it will end up somewhere between the 1041 and my 1421 Stelts pumpkin as far as OTT goes. But I won't be surprised if the 1041 outweighs it, it thumps like a rock. Monday, September 6 View Page Here is a pic of Vanessa trying to give the pumpkin on my 1421 Stelts a hug. With my later pollination dates its still kind of young, it just hit 60 days, I'm not sure what kind of growth its going to see though with the weather cooling off. Its still growing faster than everything else in the patch and was still averaging over 20 lbs a day up until the cold snap on friday. It now has an average of over 20 lbs/day since its pollination, that will start to drop now that the weather looks to have changed to more fall like than summer like however. I'm hoping it can keep gaining at least a little each day thru September. Saturday, September 25 View Page 1193.7 Snyder(1041 McKie x 1421 Stelts) on the scale at Cooperstown, good for 4th place. I taped this one at 1086. At Coop they taped it at 1117. So it went somewhere between 7-10% heavy. Coop was a great WO, I really enjoyed it. I would encourage anyone who is thinking of going for the first time to give it a try. Sunday, October 3 View Page 1223 Snyder(1236 Harp x open) on the scale at Altoona. It went just a touch light at about -3%.