Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 110 Entries. Saturday, February 27 View Page Good luck to all and let the games begin ! Cover crop of fall rye is doing really well. After checking the soil pH with my new Kelway pH meter I have discovered that the acidity has increased over the winter. I added 55 lbs crushed oyster shells and 55 lbs dolomite lime to try to bring it up to 7.0   Saturday, February 27 View Page If anyone would like some seeds please send me an email. I have some Chan 1043's which are 4 for 4 over 1000 lbs. In other words 4 plants have produced 4 pumpkins over a 1000 lbs! I also have some Chan 1339's which is the largest pumpkin coming from the Chan 1043.   Friday, March 25 View Page Cindy gave me some good advice about getting good seed genetics for a path to success. So here is a flow chart I made to study the genetics of pumpkins grown by the 3 amigos of BC. As you can see there are a number of the best genetics in the world represented in in our pumpkins. So here's my picks for 2016. 1) 1117 Chan 2) 1427 Carley 3) 1339 Chan   Friday, March 25 View Page The grass is greener on my side !   Saturday, March 26 View Page Yahoo !! I can relive my childhood. 1965 Valiant HiPo v8 and a 4 on the floor. Had one 1966...50 years ago ! Got it yesterday !   Saturday, March 26 View Page If Ron does it .....I'm doing it !! Keeping the biomass.   Monday, April 4 View Page My new walking boards. Any old(or new) 12 inch wide pieces of plywood painted with any old left over paint will guarantee a couple hundred pounds. For those just starting this crazy hobby, walking boards prevent compaction. For giant pumpkins, compaction is the root of evil...I mean evil to all roots!   Monday, April 4 View Page My new secret weapon...perlite. This should improve the efficiency of my expensive nutrients. I'm going to try 10 bags in my 2000 sq ft patch.   Monday, April 4 View Page My seed selection this year is based on the fact that the parents and some grand parents were all heavy plus pumpkins. 1427 Carley.... Thanks Scott   Monday, April 4 View Page My own 1117 Chan. This seed has the following genetics. The 1177 Carley...+4. The 1684 Delaney...+18. The 1495 Stelts... +25.The 1985 Miller ... +10. The 1117 itself was + 12.   Monday, April 4 View Page Urena 1710. I'm growing this one because Urena tapped me on the shoulder at Elk Grove and gave me one of his best seeds. Thank you Leonardo ! His seed also happens to a cross between the 1st and 9th largest seed in the world! No excuses for me now...lol   Sunday, April 10 View Page We have had a beautiful week of good weather. Today's the big day for cultivating. First thing was to cut the rye grass cover for a second time. This is a first, I have never mowed the rye cover.   Sunday, April 10 View Page This next procedure is called subsoiling. It's a big prong that you drag through any agricultural land to improve drainage. I made a "groove" in my patch every 2 feet. The groove is much deeper than the cultivated soil.   Sunday, April 10 View Page This the subsoiler. One of my neighbors is a very successful farmer who grows all kinds of vegetables, potatoes, cabbage, strawberries etc., with absolutely NO irrigation whatsoever!! He told me that subsoiling is the most important thing he does for controlling moisture to his crops.   Sunday, April 10 View Page This is the finished subsoiled patch. Doesn't look like much but imagine a network of drainage ditches running deep under your patch.   Sunday, April 10 View Page This is my new secret weapon... I hope! Seems like more and more growers are using Perlite. This also should improve and control moisture to the plants. I added 10 bags(40 cu ft) to 1900 square feet.   Sunday, April 10 View Page The Perlite was spread out and cultivated . I was a little worried that 10 bags would be too much. But as you can see in the cultivated row on the right I think I could have used 20 bags.   Sunday, April 10 View Page The finished product and now its Miller time !   Thursday, April 14 View Page Getting ready to start the seeds. Filling 1 gallon pots with ProMix and soaking with water for a day. Then I bring them into our kitchen (with my wife's blessing???)to warm up the soil to room temperature. This is 5 days before planting seeds. Seed filing and soaking begins on April 19th.   Thursday, April 14 View Page Adding amendments to the soil where the hoop house will be erected. To an 8ftx8ft patch of soil I'm adding the following.2.5 lbs 0-0-22, 2.5 lbs 0-0-50, 7.5 lbs alfalfa meal, 7.5 lbs kelp meal, 7.5 lbs granular humic, 3/4 lb Epson salt. All this is dug in with the Pony.   Monday, April 18 View Page Making a cloche to set the plants early is super important. A good chance they wouldn't make it if planted around May 3rd in our area. My method is 40 inch pieces of 1/2 " rebar pounded into the ground 2 ft apart and then inserting 1/2 inch PVC pipe over them. This takes 5 minutes and it can be taken down faster. Also, can be reused forever.   Monday, April 18 View Page The only fasteners you need are 5 zap ties to secure the ridge pole onto the hoops. Did I mention in the previous post that hoops are 12 ft long? Done. Easy! The hoops and rebars can be used at the end of the season to create pumpkin covers when the nights cool down.   Monday, April 18 View Page Tomorrow is the day! Filing seeds the hi-tech way...Dremel   Monday, April 18 View Page This is what the filed seed should look like. You should see 3 layers and that's enough filing. The small dark spot is filed a little too much. The most important thing is to stay away from the pointy end. That's where the main root will emerge.   Thursday, April 28 View Page If Freud saw the diagram of my irrigation system he would know he was dealing with a crazy man ! It works !   Friday, April 29 View Page Setting up and testing my Netafim drip system. I always start with a ring around the plant and expand it as the plant grows. Eventually the whole patch will be covered with the drip system.   Saturday, April 30 View Page These plants are 11 days old and will be transplanted to the hoop houses today. Started 6 of each of the Carley 1427 and the Chan 1339. These are the 2 best of each.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page This is a Carley 1427 8 days after the seed was placed into ProMix with mycorrhizae. Planted on April 30th.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page This is a Chan 1339. Once again it was placed in ProMix 8 days before this picture and planted on April 30th.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page Getting 44 seeds ready for the 2nd Annual Savage Family Pumpkin Contest. Many thanks to Glenn Dixon for supplying a bagful of Dixon 384's. This seed produced the Savage 990 last year for farmer Jim....in his 1st year of growing! Seeds have been soaked in water for 4 hours and placed on wet paper towels in Ziploc bags. The bags are then placed on our heated floor under a baking sheet. It's a pleasant and constant 72*F. In 60 hours they will germinate and then planted in ProMix.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page The grow rack. Dixon 384's well on their way. The top has fluorescent tubes while the bottom row has LED's. Fluorescent seems to be a lot better. Btw....Janet will be very happy to get this S**t out of her kitchen !!!   Wednesday, May 11 View Page In direct sunlight my hoop houses get too warm and the leaves suffer some sunburn. As you can see I have covered the south side with 2 layers of Remay cloth and the plants seem much happier.   Wednesday, May 11 View Page A few days ago I posted a diagram of a crazy man's irrigation system. Here it is! I can pump fresh water or liquid fertilizers to the drip system or overhead sprinklers. I can also bypass all this and feed the drip system with fresh water from the tap. Now if I can computerize all this....hmmmmm?   Wednesday, May 11 View Page Another view of the system.   Thursday, May 12 View Page My Chan 1117's were slow to germinate and a little slower to break ground. So the plant on the left was the largest best plant of the 6 that were started. The one on the right is clearly smaller and slower growing . Check out the next pic.   Thursday, May 12 View Page So 9 days later(this pic of out of order), the plant on the right has taken over the lead by a wide margin. What I'm trying to say and demonstrate is that growing 1 seed is a bit of a crap shoot and if you can start 6, so much the better to select a strong grower. And, I guess it's always wise to plant a backup if you can.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page Just a progress pic.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page Another progress pic.   Thursday, May 19 View Page Just a tip for growers with plants busting out of their green/hoop houses. A simple wind screen around the plant will help a lot to keep soil and air warmer around the plant.   Thursday, May 19 View Page Bamboo stakes, some plastic and binder clips....very simple. These happen to be shielding my tomatoes.   Monday, May 23 View Page Progress pic of the Chan 1339   Monday, May 23 View Page Progress pic of the Carley 1427. Also, backups for the 1339 and 1427 were pulled today.   Saturday, June 4 View Page Chan 1339 Growing nicely but length is behind last year. However, vines are twice as thick. Insecticide for aphids applied today.   Saturday, June 4 View Page Carley 1427 Growing nicely but developed a kink(next pic). Vines are thicker than last year's plants as well.   Saturday, June 4 View Page The dreaded kink on the Carley 1427. I don't think I've had anything like this before so it will interesting to watch. The good thing is that the vine ahead of the kink is bigger than the stump behind it.   Saturday, June 4 View Page Chan 1117 This seed was slow to germinate and slow to grow. It is really behind schedule but very healthy otherwise. The mother, a Carley 1177 was also a slow grower so I haven't given up on it yet The Chan 1117 was a very pretty orange pumpkin. Someone paid me $700 for it ! I hoping for $700 again lol!!   Friday, June 10 View Page Chan 1339. Quite a bit behind last year. We've had cooler temperatures and a bit of wind for the last 2 weeks.   Friday, June 10 View Page Carley 1427. Also behind the growth of last year's plants but are very healthy.   Friday, June 10 View Page Chan 1117. Way behind last year's plants. Nothing to do but hurry up and wait.   Tuesday, June 14 View Page Not our best pumpkin growing season weather wise. Sometimes June is called Junuary referring to the fact that June in Vancouver can quite cool. High is 59 F° and low is 48 F°.   Monday, June 20 View Page Carley 1427 12'2" long. Female pinched off at 10'6".   Monday, June 20 View Page Chan 1339 10'4" long. No females showing up yet.   Monday, June 20 View Page Chan 1117 8'4" long. This plant is considerably smaller than the other 2. Last year the plant growing in the same spot was also the smallest but it caught up eventually to produce the Chan 1117. A female was picked of at 8 ft . So this year we have had the earliest females on the smallest plants.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Carley 1427 pregnant at 15'8". Its been wet and cold with some sun forecasted for the future...??? Plants are struggling to fill in. Its 50 F this morning!!!   Saturday, June 25 View Page Chan 1339 small for this time of year and no females.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Chan 1117 really small ! but healthy   Thursday, June 30 View Page Carley 1427 growing nicely with 11 secondary's. There's a female on the main vine. Should be ready to pollinate soon. this is my biggest plant.   Thursday, June 30 View Page Chan 1117. This is the runt in the patch but is beginning to take off. There's a female at 11 ft and we'll leave it on because it's getting late for a 2nd pollination. Glenn Dixon came by yesterday for a patch tour and some growth booster....Growth Products Nitro 30 2 oz with 2 tbsps. Epson salt. I applied it this morning through a hose end sprayer set at 3 gallons. Thanks Glenn ...can't wait to see the results !   Thursday, June 30 View Page Chan 1339. Growing nicely with a female at 14 ft. It's the one that will be pollinated first.   Saturday, July 2 View Page This is my watering system powered by a 1 Hp Little Giant pump. It is connected to my Netafim drip system and to 15 Rainbird sprayers. I mixed Bravo fungicide and Merit insecticide in 15 gals water in the 45 gal drum and took 2 minutes to spray it over the 3 plants. The same drip system is also connected to the municipal water system. It's timed to come on every 12 hours for 6 minutes.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page The patch on July 5th. Foreground left is the Chan 1339. Far right is the Carley 1427. Middle back is the Chan 1117.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1st female on Chan 1339 pollinated on Aug. 2nd   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1st female Carley 1427. Waiting and waiting and more waiting for it to open. It has taken longer than normal.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page 1st female Chan 1117. Maybe tomorrow???   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Pollination day of 1427 Carley   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Pollination day of Chan 1117   Thursday, July 7 View Page Day 5 Chan 1339   Monday, July 11 View Page What a great day !! 1 st in class Best Interior   Tuesday, July 12 View Page DAP 10 for the Chan 1339   Tuesday, July 12 View Page Correction : Today is the real DAP 10 for the Chan 1339   Tuesday, July 12 View Page A shot of the Chan 1339 plant. 27 ft wide and 20 ft long. The plant will fill the rest of the empty space. Hopefully we will get this plant out to about 800 sq ft.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Chan 1117 DAP 7. The stem is obviously too close to the main vine. If we leave it the way it is we will have problems later when the shoulder of the pumpkin hits the main vine.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page We've had pumpkin sex, now we have pumpkin orthodontics! Crooked teeth moved by very gentle steady pressures over a long period of time. That's why you see so many elastic bands hooked onto teeth by braces. This rubber mat wants to straighten out causing gentle steady pressure between the pumpkin and main vine. Stay tuned to see if it works. Btw...we have had steady rain for a week and the vines are brittle as ice.   Saturday, July 16 View Page DAP 10 Chan 1117. All kins were attacked sometime between noon at 4 pm. Dusted with sulfur to see if we can save it.   Saturday, July 16 View Page DAP 10 Carley 1427. This was the worst attack. I think it was birds but also a squirrel in the area. Its still growing and I have baby #2 pollinated as a backup. At this point its a big experiment.   Saturday, July 16 View Page DAP 14 Chan 1339. My best pumpkin and hope the damage will heal. Have been cutting back the other 2 plants to give this one more space to grow.   Sunday, July 17 View Page This is the trick I learned from Glenn Dixon. It has never happened to my kins before so I didn't bother to protect them from critters in the past. So you can teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks Glenn. An inexpensive laundry basket from Walmart will save a lot of grief and tears.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Sprayed a concoction this morning. 20 gals from the 45 gallon mixing tank. Total ppm measured at 705 TKO 1 cup Companion 1 1/2 cups Kelp 1 cup Solubor 4 tsp Bionutrients 4 tsp   Wednesday, July 20 View Page I'm going to show you the 3 ugliest pumpkins you have ever seen. If you remember all 3 of my kins were attacked on the same afternoon by some unknown creature. After dusting with powdered sulfur these are what the wounds look like. This one is not too bad.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page As the pumpkin grows , so does the wound. Doesn't seem to be slowing the growth.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page If this one survives it will be amazing. All 3 kins were my first pollinations. Number 2's are pollinated. There will be no world records coming out of Richmond this year. Oh......if this is not bad enough, the last 2 kins have stem splits!!. If its not too bad we might be able to perform some surgery to save them. Stay tuned!!   Friday, July 22 View Page Chan 1339 DAP 20 44" circ. 5" overnight. Averaging 4 " per day for 4 days.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page Thought I would do a super natural concoction today because we're going away for 4 days. Liquid Kelp 1 cup Mykos 5 tbsp. Azos 5 tbsp. Companion WP 5 tbsp. Actinovate 2 tbsp. Yucca 1 tbsp. BioNutrients 4 tsp Chelated micros1 tsp   Thursday, July 28 View Page Chan 1339 DAP 26 OTT 166   Thursday, July 28 View Page Chan 1117 DAP 22 OTT 162   Thursday, August 4 View Page This is a new personal achievement....my ugliest pumpkin...ever!!! Chan 1339 Blossom end on the mat already.   Thursday, August 4 View Page Chan 1117 OTT 223 inches Smallest plant ...biggest pumpkin in the patch. Its not pretty either.   Thursday, August 4 View Page The "dud". Carley 1427 Baby #3 no pollination. Best plant in the patch... might be sterile. Powdery mildew starting to form in the patch. I've always had a major problem with p/m and have hit it with every biological and chemical fungicide I have. Will see how fast it progresses.   Sunday, August 7 View Page An interesting observation. In my patch I have separated all the drip and spray fertigation systems to each individual plant. The 1427 plant at the top of the picture has bigger leaves and is quite a bit greener than the other 2 plants. This plant could not pollinate and has no pumpkins growing on it. It has not been fertilized or watered for 10 days. I'm thinking that the pumpkin sucks so much nutrients away from the plant that the other 2 , which I have been pounding with fertilizer, are needing a bit more nitrogen. Thanks to Dr Glenn who gave me some Growth Products Nitro 30, I've been applying it to try to stimulate a little more growth and chlorophyll.   Wednesday, August 17 View Page Chan 1117 As you can see the pumpkin has a blossom end pointing up and the stem pointing down. Some would call this a bird bath. I call it one ugly kin! Aahhhh but wait !....I have and uglier one. Btw about 577 lbs.   Wednesday, August 17 View Page Chan 1339 Now this is ugly! If you remember I had a bird attack when the pumpkin was about the size of a volley ball. I not sure if this had anything to do with the way it grew. Weight is about 486 lbs   Thursday, August 18 View Page I foliar feed my pumpkins something almost everyday. Usually the solution is around 500 to 700 ppm. A lot of discussion goes around about how high can you feed the kins and not ruin the leaves. I mixed 3 sets of Growth Products TKO solutions...2000, 1500 and 1000 ppm's. Then I selected 3 leaves on the same secondary for each of the 3 strengths. To a trained eye,( Dr Glenn Dixon)there is absolutely no difference in the leaves in all 3 strengths and the unsprayed leaves after 6 days of growth.   Thursday, August 18 View Page Had a nice day away from the pumpkins last Sunday. Drove from Vancouver, BC to Oak Harbor, Washington for the annual Mopar car show in my 1962 Valiant. Bonus!! won a 1st place in my class.   Friday, August 19 View Page Do you like the balancing act?? If you don't have one of these toys check it out. It's a 42 inch long pruner. Great for removing tertiaries, old flowers and tendrils.   Friday, August 19 View Page A blow up of the pruner. It has a grabber for all the things you cut off so that you pull it out of the patch after you cut it off all in one fell swoop.   Thursday, August 25 View Page Chan 1339 This was one of the ugliest pumpkins you ever saw ....from the blossom end . However, the stem side is looking pretty good. The circ is up to 303 inches. With the cooler summer that we've had, it's a challenge to get some real serious growth. The last 2 days have been 20 lbs so it's not over yet. It's my goal to keep my 4 year 1000 lb streak going....no PB's. The Chan 1117 is circ 324. Sorry forgot to take picture...old age is my excuse.   Thursday, August 25 View Page First tissue test that I have ever done. I decided to analyze what I have been giving the plants all summer and to see if I was doing anything seriously wrong. My new philosophy of pumpkin growing is " shut up or blow it up"! so in trying to apply this to my plants this year I have followed the " Moron" system. Just put more on....fertilizer that is. I also gave the plants something every day. This sounds pretty bad but I tried to do it intelligently. Looking at my tissue test I actually achieved a decent result. So it seems that a few micros are low and wouldn't you know it but I didn't add any this year because I thought everything else would take care of those micros....obviously not. There's always next year to achieve perfection...lol!!   Thursday, August 25 View Page Chan 1117. Still growing with a circ of 150". A very wide pumpkin. The mats underneath the kin are 24 " wide.   Thursday, August 25 View Page Chan 1117. Side view. This kin wants to flop over on its stem. In fact I'm needing to pull the main vine out from underneath every few days. Strangely, my other kin grew over its blossom end.   Sunday, August 28 View Page Thought I would show a couple of pics of the secondary roots of the Carley 1427. These are the biggest secondary roots I have ever seen. This is part of the 6th or 7th secondary vine. I don't know if it is due to Tracy Carter's vine burying mixture or my extra ferts this year. I also watered less and this may have caused the roots to go deeper in search of water.   Sunday, August 28 View Page Another huge secondary root.   Sunday, August 28 View Page Even though the pumpkins are weirdly shaped, the pic of the patch looks pretty good. The leaves of my plants are the best in all the years that I have been growing. I'm attributing this to the first thing everyone should do after they cut their pumpkin off in the fall. That is, pull all the leaves and vines and remove them from your property. Them I sprayed the whole patch with a fungicide called Bravo before planting fall rye.   Sunday, September 4 View Page Chan 1117. DAP 60 OTT 346 897 lbs. The patch is looking better and healthier than it has ever been. It's no wonder as I have done no less than 24 applications of biological and chemical fungicides. Having said that there is still quite a bit of powdery mildew on my plants but not enough to kill them.   Sunday, September 4 View Page Night time temperature dropped to 8 deg C or 46 deg F. This usually spells the end to serious growth up here in BC. So trying to squeeze out that last little bit of growth I applied 25 gallons of good old fashion 20-20-20 at a 1100 ppm concentration. Btw 1100 ppm is the reading you get following the instructions on the 20-20-20 label. This probably is the last fert I will apply this season.   Sunday, September 4 View Page Chan 1117. This kin keeps changing its shape. I used to call it Fuggin which is short for fuggin ugly ! It's been attacked by birds, raccoons and rats but it keeps on growing and changing. Its new name " The Throne", will become obvious.   Saturday, September 10 View Page Presenting.....The Throne ! Chan 1117, DAP 66, OTT 354.   Saturday, October 1 View Page Had great fun on lifting day. Wouldn't let anyone measure this one in the truck. It looked the biggest when in the truck but I knew it measured the smallest.   Saturday, October 1 View Page The one on the truck and the 1st on the trailer are mine and the last 2 are Glenn Dixon's. Going from left to right they were 3rd, 5th, 2nd, 4th. It doesn't get much closer than that! Kudos to Scott Carley for a 1st place finish and holding his number 1 status for 3 years in a row!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Epilog of 2016 Chan 1339 produced the Love 1036 Chan 1117 (throne) produced the Chan 958 Very pleased that the "patch" has produced 5 kins over 1000 lbs and now we have all winter to ponder the plan for 2017. Janet and I will be going to Elk Grove for growing tips in the spring so watch out! 110 lbs of crushed oyster shells shallowly mixed into the soil with the Pony so as not to disturb the worms. Tomorrow I will sow 30 lbs of fall rye as a cover crop and the 2017 season will begin.   Tuesday, November 8 View Page The pumpkin became a TRUMPKIN !!! The Chan 958 was donated to a pumpkin carving contest and was to be carved when we were away on holidays. This is the picture I received via the internet. How good is that !! I thought that on election day that this was a most appropriate posting !!!