Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 11 Entries. Sunday, June 22 View Page Hello - I am a first year giant pumpkin grower. We went to the Nekoosa Pumpkin Festival last fall and watched a HUGE pumpkin get dropped from a crane. Pumpkin guts went flying everywhere. The kids ran out and grabbed all of the guts they could get in their sticky little hands. By three boys ran out there and managed to come back with ONE seed. We were impressed and actually questioned whether the other children trained for this event. We were going to grow a big one next year with our seed. At the end of April, we put the seed in a pot. It was the largest seedling we had ever seen. We had to plant it the week before Memorial Day because it was outgrowing it's pot. Unfortunately, I did not know about the hoop houses everyone uses. We had a few freezing nights and we covered her up with sheets. She did survive, but I think her growth was stunted for a bit due to the cold temps. We also got a bunch of rain a week or so ago, which I am sure didn't help either. She is pretty happy now and her main vine is over 2 feet long. I have been lurking on this website for quite some time, so I thought I would see if I could find out what kind of pumpkin we had started. After getting a response from a post, I found out that the seed that we had collected was NOT a seed from the big pumpkin they had dropped. Apparently, the pumpkin that was dropped had been hollowed out and all of the seed had been removed. They they put different seeds inside it, so that the kids would have something to pick up. Boy, was I mad... So, now we have a mutt...I started thinking about it and some of the best dogs are mutts. So, we will feed her and love her and see what she gives us. We are calling her "Mighty Mutt". She is twice as big as any of the other pumpkin plants that we have planted. We will water her often, feed her fish emulsion and manure. I will get pictures of our Mighty Mutt in the next few days. Thanks for all of the wonderful advice! Thursday, June 26 View Page Holy Cow...Mighty Mutt seems to have really taken off. She is now 4 feet 5 inches. I measured in on the 23rd and she was only 3 feet 4 inches. That is over a foot in just three days. Run Mighty Mutt...Run!!!!! I also have a few secondary vines as well. Any extra advice would be wonderful. My e-mail address is [email protected] Friday, June 27 View Page Split Vine? Friday, June 27 View Page Another photo... Friday, June 27 View Page double main vine? Friday, June 27 View Page Here is our baby...Miss Might Mutt! Sunday, June 29 View Page Just got done measuring Might Mutt and she is 5 feet 11 inches. The 2 little splits in her vine don't seem to be getting any bigger or effecting the growth at all. Thursday, July 3 View Page Mighty Mutt is at just over 7 feet with secondaries growing well. Hope to get photos this weekend. It is supposed to be beautiful. No female yet...all males. I am hoping in about a week I will have enough length and hopefully some females to pollinate. We are a little behind, but chugging along at a good pace. 5 feet in 10 days...I think that is pretty good for a rookie and a mutt :) Thursday, August 28 View Page Got alot of rain last night and I came home to this. Great! Finally got a decent pumpkin going. It is just about 34 lbs. I know it is no great pumpkin, but it was something. Now this...along with a nasty case of powdery mildew. I have been spraying and the leaves are slowly dying, but the pumpkin seemed to still be growing. The pumpkin is very pear shaped, so I am not sure if it is even going to make it. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thursday, August 28 View Page One more thing...the biggest crack is oozing a clear stick fluid. More photos to follow... Thursday, August 28 View Page another view...lots of little cracks too.