Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 74 Entries. Thursday, January 17 View Page Here is the start of 2008 season.... Hope we have better weather this year, last year was pants in the UK... Dug over patch in with a crop of winter rye, added some 200kg of manure the contents of my garden compost. Also extended the patch some 6ft onto the lawn. Got seeds this year from IanP, thanks ever so much! Hope to make a boat out of my big one this year and sail down the Grand Union canal... Wednesday, March 5 View Page We have been doing lots of work in the garden for the last few weeks. Pulling up privet and replacing with a fence. Gained a lot of our land back but feel bad about the lack of bird nesting sites now. We have put up three bird boxes, all have blue tits in and one has a wireless camera in so we can see the action inside.. The patch now has an external frame to hold in the compost and create a little micro climate. (Not that warm in Solihull!) Tuesday, April 1 View Page Finally got patch ready with about a month to settle down prior to planting. Dug over lots, added the following: 1/2 dustbin full of wood ash mainly beech and oak 6kg of calcified sea weed 20 bags of rotted oak/maple leaves box of blood fish and bone, Dug over again. Finally added approx 800kg of well rotted horse manure. levelled it. (need to get a rotorvator!!!) Saturday, April 5 View Page Decided to start seeds off. Had a go at some gently edge sanding, not that confident so i did not go down deep. Soaked for approximately 8hours at 30degC in a very weak seaweed solution. The 'big ones' are complemented by some of my hundred weight variety from last years best. Also some 990 Hume squash seeds and some giant beetroot. Sunday, April 6 View Page Here they are potted in 2 ltr Lilly pots split and taped. Compost is general potting designed for strawberry, which is supposed to contain more food than normal compost. Weather taken a turn for the worst. Last week was mainly 16deg and partly cloudy, today has been max 6deg with bands of hail/rain and snow. Sunday, April 6 View Page Here is a pic of my germination box. Basically a cloche inside my alloy green house with a 100watt tube heater thermostatically controlled. Usually gives good results. This year i will be running it a lot warmer, close to 30degC previous years i have run it at 25degC. The 100W may not be up to the job for constant temp over night. Sunday, April 6 View Page Forcast is not good overnight, so i have put a quilt over the whole lot. Sunday, April 6 View Page Here are my russainn giant sunflowers, hope to have a wall of these around my patch. The kids like these. Last year we had 14 1/2 ft high. Sunday, April 6 View Page Forcast was right! 3 inchess of snow and -3deg at 8am. Inside temperature of the germination box down to 22degC, I hope the seeds are still a little sleepy and wont mind the cold at this point. Sunday, April 6 View Page Here is the patch, just as the soil was starting to warm up, we get an artic blast of cold weather. Will sheet over in black poly to warm up a little more. Sunday, April 6 View Page Here is the local temperature for the last few years, normally safe to 'go' the first week in April for a transplant in May. -3Deg C well off the chart!!! Oh well i guess its global warming:>) Off to go sledging later with the children and perhaps build a snowman or 2.. Tuesday, April 8 View Page Added 60Watt light bulb to supliment the tube heater in the propogator. Also changed the thermostat to a more accurate one which will actually go up to 90 deg F. The cold snap continues in the UK well below average temperatures. The temperature of my pots in the propogator now stable at 83degF even at -3degC outside. I had a sneak peak at the green squash seeds, main tap root is out and the seed edge starting to split. Not disturbed the pumpkins, soil still moist. Maybe leaves tomorrow! Wednesday, April 9 View Page IT'S A GIRL!!! Less than three days and the prime female is up, IanP recommended this one as the best of the bunch, so i'll try for this one as my main pumpkin. Wednesday, April 9 View Page IT'S A BOY!, might use this one as the pollinator for the 963. Wednesday, April 9 View Page Look at all these!, all my hurded weight from last year up and out in less than 3days, more advanced than the AG's. Not sure this is a strain thing or just that the AG's were furthest away from the heater! Moved my 250W twin tube heater to my wooden greengouse in preparation for when the pumpkins get too large for the proporgator. The wooden greenhouse is always 3-4degC warmer than the alloy one, no glass on to the floor but has cedar panels which i guess are more insulative. The weather a little better in the midlands, still cool but have has some nice sunny spells. Long range suggests end of next week is up in the high teens. Great... Thursday, April 10 View Page Day 4 for the 963 paton Thursday, April 10 View Page Day 4 1188 Paton, the 1024 Paton has not fledged yet, and has not swollen. I will give it a few more days in the proporgator and then start again with another. The 990 Hume squash are also going strong. Weather settled back to more like the average now. Thursday, April 10 View Page Day 4 the hudred weight look really good. Will pull them out of the proporgator at day 6 and put them in the greenhouse to slow them down a little, will leave the AG's and squash in there a little while longer. Saturday, April 12 View Page Temps still below the average at the moment. Reduced propogator down to 75deg f no i have the seeds up and out and at the height i want. The temperature has been vey stable since the addition of the lightbulb and the new thermostat. Saturday, April 12 View Page Here are my main ones at 6days. The 1188 quite leggy at the moment. I think i will transplant these into larger pots before the roots fill these one, the 1188 may topple the pot that it is in and damage itself at a later date. the 963 looks 'stout' and strong with the compost at the rim of the pot now. Saturday, April 12 View Page Here are the 990 Hume Squash, they look really good. Saturday, April 12 View Page Here are the 1002 Paton and the 790 Bhaskaran 06. The 1002 looks a little weaker than the 963, the bhaskaran looks quite poorly at the moment. Hopefully the next set of leaves will be a little better. The 1024 Paton never made it! Pulled seed up and had not swollen at all. I have a spare but will save for next year i think. Saturday, April 12 View Page Here are the hundred weights at 6days. All look very healthy. Monday, April 14 View Page Here is the 1002 Paton, looks nice. Started taking good photos now with camera instead of phone. Monday, April 14 View Page 963 paton. I repotted into 10ltr square buckets, roots were out of the bottom of the lilly pots already. Monday, April 14 View Page Here is the 1188 Paton, the seed leaves on this one were a little deformed with both on one side of the stem. The first set of leaves look normal though. Monday, April 14 View Page The 990 squash look very nice. Friday, April 18 View Page Here are the hundred weights @12 days. Friday, April 18 View Page Here is the 1188, the second leaf looks more normal than the seed leaves. Friday, April 18 View Page The 963 is way in the lead out of all of my pumpkins, the vine/stem is around 15mm in diameter and the second leaf is easily 3 times the size of all of the others. Friday, April 18 View Page The 790 Bhaskaran has finally picked up and looks like it may survive. Friday, April 18 View Page Still very cold in the UK at the moment with easterly winds from poland/norway. Temperatures are forcast to pick up mid week and next weekend is due to be 22degC. My runner beans and sunflowers need planting out soon, may go for the 'heat wave' next weekend. Sunday, April 20 View Page Here are the three main contenders, will plant them out tomorrow night into some home(ish) made tunnels. Still extremely cold in the UK, Max 7 deg C today, more like January again. Sunday, April 20 View Page Having a try at a compost tea. Never done before, put some cane sugar (mollasses i hope), rotted compost, chicken manure pellets, seaweed extract, soil and some rotting kitchen waste. Got a small air pump in aswell. I think i will try the first batch on one of my hundred weights just in case it burns and like acid! Sunday, April 20 View Page Here is the 'house' for the 936. Very impressed with this one £14.99 from Lidl, 6ftx5ft with lift up vent flaps with a fly screen on the one side. Have build a little wall of black engineering tiles at the rear of the tent for a bit of thermodynamic inertia. Sunday, April 20 View Page Here are the protective covers for the 1188 and the 1002. I will ut some shade cover over the glass proporgator so as not to 'fry' the contents. Dug in some slow release phospate in the growing areas to hopefully encourage roots for the next few weeks without disturbing the plants. Also sprinkled some chicken manure all over the patch for a bit of calcuim. Monday, April 28 View Page Compost tea worked the second time around. The first batch was very acidic and smelt a lot like vinegar. The Ph was 4.5, so this was discarded. Second batch much better, got some proper mollases + warmer temps and bingo, nice froth that smells like a damp forest. Hope the p's like it! Monday, April 28 View Page Here is the 963, not much going on, looks healthy and enjoying some warm sunshine in the UK at last. Monday, April 28 View Page The 1002! Monday, April 28 View Page and the 1188, this one looks much greener than the other two, this one has a glass house at the moment where as the 963 and 1002 have opaque PVC. Monday, May 5 View Page The 963 has started to spread now. Looks nice and healthy Monday, May 5 View Page The 1002 looks yellow and a bit fragile. will move heater in to boost it up a bit overnight. Monday, May 5 View Page 1188, nice and dark green with stiffer leaves than the other plants. Has not started to spread yet though. Monday, May 5 View Page Sun flowers starting to fly now. Will provide a nice back drop to the AG's in the late summer. Need to plant a few more Hume squash, looks like i have lost one, with a soft vine. may have had a 'frost' or very close to it last thursday. My lad wants to have a green head on his guy for bonfire night this year... Friday, May 16 View Page Finally we have had a nice blast of summer, much warmer than it should be for this time of year, lots of sunshine which has brought my p's on a treat. Reverted back to more normal temps now though... Friday, May 16 View Page 963, lloking good, vine is getting some weight now to start to drop towards the floor. It was groing straight up for a while looking more like a 'tree'. Sunday, June 1 View Page Here is my 963. By far my largest and has responded extremely well to some overnight heating. Main vine about 6ft long now growing rapidly now. Will need to either remove cloche and let it roam free or build something else. I always get dusty mildew late august which seems to switch off any more growth any suggestions on how to avoid this would be greatly welcomed. I am sure if I keep it undercover so morning dew can not form would eliminate it completely. Sunday, June 8 View Page Here is the 963. Going strong now, no sign of flowers yet.. My hundred weight variety all have a 1 inch diameter bulb under a female flower. Sunday, June 8 View Page Here are my sunflowers taken about a week ago... they are now about 5ft tall.. Friday, June 13 View Page Here is the 936, First female flower at 10ft, cooled down now in the midlands so slow growing at the moment... Friday, June 13 View Page Here is a 5 lobe hundred weight that i polinated today. Scary one for haloween, born on Friday the 13th..... ;>) Friday, June 13 View Page Here is a strange hundred weight. Looks like it has a double vine with lots of female flowers on it. The leaves have are mottled green and yellow, i will terminate all of the male flowers so as not to spread the anomoly, but will let the females finish for a laugh.. Sunday, July 20 View Page Long time no post!... Had a bit of a nightmare here in the midlands... My 963 was not up to the 75mph winds we had a couple of weekends ago and snapped the primary vine at about 16ft. I have had to resort to a secondary. Picture is at 14days, starting to get a move on now. The 963 seems very prone to splitting. Probably more due to wild temps in the UK, (only 16degC today). There is a 1 inch split on the secondary close to this one. I have set another on a split free secondary about 5days behind this one. I may try to grow 2 mediums on this one rather than one giant. Both my Hume 990 squash have also split primary's by the autumn winds in july!, however these are longitudinal splits an have self repaired. I have some nice pumpkins on my shed roof that are doing better than the ones in intensive care! Saturday, July 26 View Page My 963 is starting to up its pace. Nice and warm this week in the uk. Saturday, August 2 View Page Here is my 963, swelled up a lot this week with the warm weather, started to slow down now though, hope it is due to the cooler nights after the hot spell rather than being finished. Friday, August 29 View Page Having another burst of growth at the moment, warmed up overnight/day in the midlands put on 20lb since the photo. Split may of opened up again though... :>( Hope it holds out for the next could of weeks. Does anybody know what the surface roughness is caused by. This happens every year to mine around the end of August both on AG's and hundredweight varieties, is it normal or are they defficient in something, please email me if you have any suggestions. Monday, September 1 View Page Here it is with a cap and beer after a long day in the sun...>) Monday, September 1 View Page Sunflowers nearly finished. Most of them that survived the mad winds in June are about 14 ft tall, will measure them at the weekend when i collect the heads for winter bird food. The squirrel likes these so i have to get them in early, last year he felled a stalk to get at the seeds.. Saturday, September 6 View Page 963, going orange now, the split on the end has stopped weeping and spreading out like the other one at the bottom of the pumpkin. The weather over the last few days have been terrible, lots and lots of rain. Up around 30lb in the week, hopefully will end up around 300-325lb when the plant finishes. Measured the plant area, all this from a 12x14ft plant. Quite pleased with it for my first year of big AG's. Previous PB was 77lb from a Hundred weight pumpkin last year. Thanks IanP for the seed... :>) Tuesday, September 9 View Page Here is a rear end view of my 963. Green where it has been shaded under a leaf. Lots and lots of rain... more forcast as well on thursday. Tomorrow is sunny spells and 20degC so see if we can 'orange' up the green patch. Tuesday, September 9 View Page Here is my 990 hume squash. not huge but a quality blemish free surface. It is around the 100lb mark. Very nice one for haloween. Tuesday, September 9 View Page some comical hundred weight ones growing out of my compost heap ontop of my shed. Monday, September 29 View Page Here is my 963 on the vine, plant is very tired now. Still putting on a few lbs/week though. Very pleased with the size of fruit compared to the plant. There is a depression on the top of the fruit that fills with dew and rain so i have put a rain cover on. Hope to get it to Southampton if i can get it through my house. Tuesday, October 14 View Page Here is my produce on the way to the XPG weigh off at southampton Tuesday, October 14 View Page My 963 sideways in the landrover. Major problems to get this beast through my house, still a few strong men and a few layers of skin off knuckles later and it was through! Tuesday, October 14 View Page My 963 in the line up ready for measuring. Tuesday, October 14 View Page The moment of truth, ,,,, came in at 307lbs which was 12%heavy. Great stuff for my first year. Came 5th in the line up as well and got a nice rossette! Tuesday, October 14 View Page My sons squash (990Hume) gained the squash prize! great stuff. My kids have been on the patch preparing it for next year! Tuesday, October 14 View Page Here is our rossette collection from the day. We got 5th, 7th 8th and 10th. Was a really good day out at southampton, brilliant weather (better than most of the summer in the uk!). Well done to Ian and Stuart Paton for there efforts in sorting the day out and also not forgetting the monster 1457 euro/uk record. Will definitely be down next year..:>) Wednesday, October 15 View Page Here is the size/weight of my 963. Interesting to see that the initial shape of the pumpkin is consistent throught the growth period. Came in 12% heavy. Sunday, November 9 View Page Here is our 89lb squash (990 Hume), got a lot of seeds out of this one, but was polinated by my 963 paton so i guess we will end up with squmpkins next year. There were no male flowers on the hume at the time of polination. Sunday, November 9 View Page Here is a cross section of my 307lb AG, managed to recover around 140 mature seeds from inside. Sunday, November 9 View Page Here is the 307 carved up, missed haloween due to a holiday but we did this one for bonfire night. Was a bit more manageable after carving and getting a lot of weight out of it. The flesh is now chicken feed. Was still very thick and really needed a few more candles to shine through. Sunday, November 9 View Page The end of the 2008 season! Up in smoke... Looking forward to next year now. Winter crop is coming up nicely on patch and collecting leaves/manure to dig in after christmas. Thanks again to all who have helped me in this first year of AG growing.