Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Friday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year - to a new pb and not too hot 2010. Formally kpatch thought i would start clean slate. Friday, January 8 View Page 10 degrees last night , We in the south are allways complaining about the heat. But I have to say it is rare to get this cold. 20 maybe today ,I got cold at work , can't remember when I was so cold. Tuesday, February 16 View Page Not much going on. Cold and flurries. Getting cabin fever. Working compost piles. Picked up a load of horse poop. Did the bird count , birds are going through seed fast with the snow and temps. Looking at line ups for pumpkins, have room for three. Would like to grow five!! Friday, March 5 View Page Spread some compost , crushed maple leaves and some humic acid last week. Hope to till in this weekend. Still maybe a little too wet. Need to make my spring test soon. Going with 3 plants in 2000 sq ft. Narrowed field to 10. For sure 1180 Pukos. Other 2 up in air. One is for orange. Friday, April 23 View Page All seeds germanated. One is very weak looking. All four under grow lights. Backups in papertowels. pics soon. Patch part tilled , put down chicken compost and some alfalfa meal today before all this rain. Saturday, April 24 View Page And did it rain. I got 3 inches and 30-40 mph winds. Glad pumpkins are not dealing with it. Look out ky and east here they come. Sunday, April 25 View Page Under lights 1180 Pukos , 1022 Pingrey, 1199 Werner. Germ chamber 1622 Young , 1333 Young , 1136 Conally. Monday, May 10 View Page 1180 1002 1136 in ground. 58 and rainy today, may tie record Wed of 90. Gotta love my weather Monday, May 10 View Page That should be 1022. Saturday, May 22 View Page Pulled 1022 last week and replaced with 1333 Young. Cuke beetles ate it up. 1136 Connolly ribboned, pulled today put 1199 Werner in its place. Puts me another week behind Only have one backup plant left, taking chance with all these thunder storms I'm having. I probably grow watermelon in its place Thursday, June 10 View Page Extreme heat warnings! Great isnt this just June 10 !! Mid to upper 90s. Thunderstorms. Leaf tips burning. Oh well theres next year. Sunday, June 20 View Page Somebody turn off the heat ! 99 today 100 tomorrow upper 90s all week. Misting everyday, some leaf burning any way. Plant may suffer if and when this heat subsides short on leaves. Gotta believe northeast is having ideal weather right now. Tuesday, June 29 View Page Blankity Blank *#!!!!! stump is spewing! Dangit! Thursday, July 15 View Page Complain and gripe diary. 4-5 inches rain in 48 hours. Looks like I lost 9 Tomato plants and all 4 pepper plants. Roots are drowning. The higher the ground the better the plant looks. Now 97 degrees today. Chalk this year up to a learning experence. Third year and not much to show so far. Theres always next year. I don't see how one person can manage 8-10 plants. I have a hard time with 2. 2-3 hours a day in the ninetys makes me wonder somedays. Tuesday, August 3 View Page 102 yesterday 104 today heat index 120 ,same for tomorrow. What a year!!!!!!!!!! Tuesday, August 3 View Page Allmost forgot low tonight of 81 steamy huh? Wednesday, August 4 View Page Can't really do much but hope kins hold on till after this wave of heat. Afraid to do any ferts just spraying fungicids for now. Thursday, August 12 View Page One of my watermelons Thursday, August 12 View Page Other melon Thursday, August 12 View Page 1333 Young est 400lbs big ribbed and light color. Thursday, August 12 View Page Comic wifes friend sent us, ha ha. Saturday, August 21 View Page What a week , temps upper 90's plant sucumbed to heat and downy mildew before I even had to do anything about it. Frustrating year to put it mildly. Told wife thinking about giving up on pumpkins in our climate. New interstate being built a couple miles away so heat is only going to go up some more. When I bought my place in 1982 I thought I was far enough out. Wrong! Temps go up each year with urban sprawl. Cutting all the trees and building subdivisions. Gripe gripe as my wife says. But you should not give up. Not a excuse but I have had gardens for over 20 years and growing ag pumpkins for 3 . Sure big pumpkins can and will be grown in the south but the odds are just lower. Someone should do a list by growing zones not just states. Ok I through wining now, well almost, 87 and steamy at 10pm. Saturday, August 21 View Page Sorry for all the type errors. Monday, August 23 View Page Weatherman just said we've had 39 straight days above 90. Thurs 89 forcast wow!!!! Wednesday, September 8 View Page The 1333 Young went 15% heavy @ 818 , new pbest. Thats all for this year. Weighed watermelons at work , 123, 106 and 96 not to bad for first real attempt. Try to post pics soon, tired tonight after 6hr round trip. Friday, September 10 View Page My first year attempts at big watermelons. 96 106 and 123 in middle. Friday, September 10 View Page The pumpkins displayed at Tennessee State Fair. Right front 977 then left to back right 919 my 818 and 654 hope I got these right. Friday, September 10 View Page The 1333 Young now the 818 Taylor 15% heavy! Saturday, September 11 View Page That should be 956 for first and 658 my bad. Sunday, October 24 View Page 818 on display at West Tennessee extension office Jackson Tn. They have a pumpkin display and seminars on commercial growing. Sunday, October 24 View Page Cut it open in Jackson. It started going down.I only got 10 seeds that even looked half vialble. About 20 people started asking for seeds. I gave most of the good ones away. Couple people got p**** when I only gave them 1 or 2. I almost took them back! Sunday, October 24 View Page Worked all day cleaning up patch. Sunday, October 24 View Page Got 15yds of leaf compost. Oh yea! Sunday, October 24 View Page Took 2 days off work. Put compost down and tilled it in. Spread 8 lbs of crimson clover , 3 lbs mustard and 20 lbs of winter rye down. Raining today for first time in over 28 days. Something is coming up in patch since Wed. Sunday, October 24 View Page I planted one of my 553 seeds middle of august. Couple things I wanted to do. One was to try different sprays and to get a 1180 Pukos cross. The plant was a monstor . Hope I can get some seeds from this cross. 553 is 594 Van hook is 955 Brinkley x 998 Pukos, It is only at 204 ott almost 200lbs. Sunday, October 24 View Page Forgot I sprayed 30 gallons of humic acid- mollassas brew on patch. Some elemental sulfur to lower ph. Organic matter was 5%. Hope 15 yards of leaf compost helps raise it.