Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 195 Entries. Monday, April 5 View Page Time to start my 2010 diary. Monday, April 5 View Page I have dug up some of my mothers flower bed to grow some tall corn and for some tall sunflowers. Thought it would be a good spot to put them as there is a lot of shade there and the will grow up along the deck, where I can see them everyday. Monday, April 5 View Page I dug out about a foot deep trench and first put down some potting soil as the ground there is not very good. Monday, April 5 View Page Then I put down a layer of straw covered in goose manure. That should help the corn and sunflowers to grow big. Monday, April 5 View Page And then I covered it all up and will let it sit for a week or so before I mix it all up together. Tuesday, April 6 View Page This year I am growing some giant onions. Here they are in the picture. As you can see, they are quite small for the time being. They got started late and we lost about half of them do to getting knocked over. They look really good though. Hope to grow a big one. Tuesday, April 6 View Page As you can see, they really needed transplanted. They have good roots on them. I also cut the tops on them after I transplanted them. Tuesday, April 6 View Page While I am on the adventure of growing some new giants this year, I have also decided to grow Giant Watermelon. The seed that I am growing is: 140.5 Vincent Can't wait to see how big of one I can grow. Tuesday, April 6 View Page Funny to have a giant pumpkin growing in my greenhouse in early April. The PEC 4-H Giant vegetable club wanted all the members to grow some of there seed to discover germination so I planted 2 of my Vader seed. This is the Vader 1152. I think I am going to keep the plant growing and maybe plant it this year. Tuesday, April 6 View Page This is the other Vader plant I have growing right now in the greenhouse. It is a Vader 973. Hope to keep this one too and then plant it. Sunday, April 11 View Page Here are the watermelon plants at 7 days old. They look really good. I have more planted but they haven't come up yet. Hopefully soon they will peek threw. Monday, April 12 View Page Here is the Vader 1152 at 6 days old. It is doing really well. Might need to transplant it soon if it keeps growing at this pace. Monday, April 12 View Page Here is the Vader 973 at 6 days old. It is not as big as the 1152 but still growing well too. Sunday, April 18 View Page Got the dirt all mixed up today in. Looks really good. Sunday, April 18 View Page The watermelon are doing really well. They were starting to get root bound so I transplanted them today. They look really small in the 6" pots! Sunday, April 18 View Page Here is the vader 973. It is still growing really well. Looks really good too but might have to put it in the ground in a couple of weeks as it is starting to get to be to big for the pot. Sunday, April 18 View Page Here is the Vader 1152. Also looking really good. The plant are 29 days old now. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here are the giant onions. Tehy are looking really good! The tops are getting to be really big so I am going to cut them down again. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here they are with the tops cut. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here is one of the giant cabbage that I am growing this year. They are really root bound so I am transplanting them. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here are the giant cabbage. They are looking really healthy and growing well. Hope to get anouther big one this year! It would be great to beat last year's weight of 53.8 pounds! These cabbage are also for the 4-H giant pumpkin and vegetable club. Tuesday, April 20 View Page Here are the giant Kohlrabi. They are also looking really good. These are also for the 4-H club. Saturday, April 24 View Page Here are the seeds that I am growing this year. Pumpkins; Shan 387, 1677.5 Hunt, 1156 Hunt, 994.5 Hunt, 912 Hunt, 964.5 Hunt,1127 Vincent-McGill and 1339.5 Vincent-McGill. Squash; 1236 Vincent-McGill and Razo 1097. Tomatoes; 3.15lb and 3.23lb Marrow; 73.6 Wursten and 37 Brewster. Pear Goard; 98.9 R Vincent and 129 Vincent. Cantolope I have started them all in pots. Saturday, April 24 View Page Here are some of the pumpkins and squash. Saturday, April 24 View Page Here's the picture Saturday, April 24 View Page And here are the other giants. Tuesday, April 27 View Page What a morning! I wake up to my sister's voice telling me that 'It is snowing out!' Well, she wasn't kidding. Here is a picture of the snow that was on the ground this morning. Tuesday, April 27 View Page Here is a closer picture of how hard it was snowing. Tuesday, April 27 View Page And now the snow is all gone! Is is 15 degrees celcius now and sunny. Just how I like it. Hopfully no more snow to come. Sunday, May 2 View Page The watermelon are doing great! Still growing like crazy! Sunday, May 2 View Page Here are the Pumpkins. All of them came up but for one Shan 387. I have re-planted the seed in hopes that the new one will grow. Everything else looks really good! Sunday, May 2 View Page Here are the Marrow's. All five of them grew. Looking good! Sunday, May 2 View Page The Pear Gourds. All of them are looking good. There is still one that is growing but he is a little behind the others. Sunday, May 2 View Page Here are the giant tomatoes. So far only 3 out of 6 have growen. Hope the others come up soon. Monday, May 3 View Page Here is the Vader 1152. The plant was starting to die so we finally put it in the ground yesterday. I have a greenhouse over it to keep it warm. I also have sticks supporting the main vine as it is sticking straight up in the air and we don't want it to break Monday, May 3 View Page Here is the Vader 973. You can see the greenhouse that I have over plants. I have also put sticks under the main vine to help support it. Monday, May 3 View Page Here are the giant cabbage and Kohlrabi. They are very healthy and growing well. The four plants to the left are cabbage and the two plants to the right are Kohlrabi. Saturday, May 15 View Page Here is the Vader 1152. The main vine has started to run but the leaves aren't looking so great. We have had some frosty nights and the plants don't seem to like that so much. Going to wait a couple of weeks them decide if we are going to keep them in or pull them out and plant something else where they are. Saturday, May 15 View Page Here is the Vader 973. It is also in the same vote. Saturday, May 15 View Page Got the cabbage and Kohlrabi in the ground today. The first two in the front our kohlrabi and the other four are cabbage. Looking good! Tuesday, May 18 View Page Look at those Pear Gourd plants. They are growing well and got awesome looking plants! I only have three that grew. The other seed didn't germinate. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Here are three of my giant Marrow plants. I transplanted them today as the roots were coming out of the bottom of the 6" pots. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Look at those watermelon grow. This is my first year growing them and I can't get over how fast they have grown so far. They are the 140.5 Vincent 08 seed. Tuesday, May 18 View Page The tomatoes are staring to come along. I also transplanted them today as they were getting root bound. These ones are 3.15lb tomatoes and I have one 3.23lb growing but it is very little. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Now for the giant pumpkins! These plants are manly the Hunts. In the front row, seconded one to your left, being the Canadian record 1677.5 Hunt. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Here are some more pumpkin plants. These ones are mainly the Shan 387's. Looking good and getting ready to go in the ground in about a week. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Here are my Vincent-McGill Squash and Pumpkin plants with the Razo 1097 mixed in with them. They are also looking good. Tuesday, May 18 View Page I have started some sunflowers in the greenhouse as backup for the ones outside. the two in the lighter pots to the left are 164" Vincent 09 and the one in the darker green pot to the right is 185" Vincent 09. I also have a couple other backup plants too. Tuesday, May 18 View Page Here are the sunflowers that got planted right in the ground. They are coming along nicely. I have planted three to a hill as when they start growing more, I will pull the two that are the weakest plants and leave the strongest one to grow. Tuesday, May 18 View Page I have not mentioned my corn as none of it grew. I planted over 15 seeds and it was all duds. Too bad put now I will just have to grow more sunflowers in its spot. Sunday, May 23 View Page It sure is amazing how fast stuff grows even just over a week. Just take a look at the tomatoes. Sunday, May 23 View Page The sunflowers are also looking really good. I will soon be planting them into the ground as the weather has been very hot lately and they are big enough to go in. Sunday, May 23 View Page The watermelon jumped in size too. All the plants just love this heat! Sunday, May 23 View Page This is just one of the marrow plants. I would have to say that it has more than doubled in size over the past few days. Sunday, May 23 View Page The Pear Gourds are in the same vote. Just growing like weeds. Sunday, May 23 View Page And I just can't get over the size of these pumpkin plants. We are aiming to get everything in the ground tomorrow as the plants are just getting to be too big for the pots. Monday, May 24 View Page Got all the giants in the ground today except for the sunflowers. As we were planting, our dear friends by the name of "Cucumber beetles" came along to have a meal. Let’s just say they didn't last very long. It feels great when you can look at your field and see all your giants planted and ready for another fun year. I am hoping that we get a rain very soon as it is so dusty here and we don't want to have to water the plants. Tuesday, June 1 View Page Glad to see rain. We have gotten a little over 8mm of rain in the night. The plants are just going to love this as is has been so hot and dry. Tuesday, June 1 View Page Here are the sunflowers looking good and getting big. As you can see, I have had some bugs eating the leaves. Killed some eggs that were on them the other day. I have to pick and choose between then now to let one grown in a hill instead of two. Tuesday, June 1 View Page I said that I had no corn to grow this year but luckily the 4-H club had extras so I got a couple. Just got them in the ground before the rain. I have three plants in. Tuesday, June 1 View Page Look at those cabbage and Kohlrabi. They are just taking right off and with this rain they will just jump in size. The first two are the Kohlrabi. Got the Kohlrabi in a lot sooner than last year so I hope to beat last years weight of 25.2lb. Tuesday, June 1 View Page I still have the tomatoes in the greenhouse as they are behind what they should be. I just might get them in the ground this weekend. Have to see. They are looking really good. Tuesday, June 1 View Page Just look at how those 140.5 Vincent 08 watermelon are doing. They are running and as dark green and healthy as can be. They have just been loving the heat for the past couple of weeks. I have 6 watermelon plants in this year. Tuesday, June 1 View Page I got the giant onions in the ground on Saturday. They are a little beaten up from moving greenhouses. I have 8 plants in. I pulled dirt up around them as we have found that the onions get sun burnt and we don't want that happening to these onions. Tuesday, June 1 View Page I still have those Vader plants in and they are still growing. This is the Vader 1152. Got a good main vine and the secondary vines are just starting to come out on it. Tuesday, June 1 View Page The Vader 973 is doing the best of the two. It is running well and got good secondary vines coming off it. Hope to get a good size pumpkins off this plant as it is ahead of the other plants. Tuesday, June 1 View Page Here is my 98.9 Vincent pear gourd. Colour is as dark green as can be. haven't started running yet, so they must be getting a good root base on them. I have three plants in with two being 98.9 Vincent and the other one is 129 Vincent. Sunday, June 6 View Page After a couple days of good rain and getting the field all worked up, it is just so beautiful out here. These are mainly our prize Winners we grow. They are coming along good. Sunday, June 6 View Page The cabbage and Kohlrabi are growing well. Loving all the rain. After i'm done taking pictures I'm going to weed them. Sunday, June 6 View Page The giant onions are doing very well. I need to weed them too. Starting to see them get a little bigger in size. One thing I am doing is every time I weed them, I pull some dirt up around the bulbs as i don't want them to get sunburned. Sunday, June 6 View Page I still haven't seen much growth in the pear gourd plants. I guess that they just take a while to get "Growing." This is the 129 Vincent. Sunday, June 6 View Page The watermelons have just taken right off. They have little blossoms that will be out in a few days. All six of the plants are really close in size to this one. Sunday, June 6 View Page Here is one of my big babies! This is the 1677.5 Hunt. It is looking really good. We hope to get some good crosses with this one and a pumpkin over 1000 lb's as it has the potential. Sunday, June 6 View Page Look at the size of the Vader 1152. It has a great main vine on it and the secondary vines are starting to get some length. Sunday, June 6 View Page The Vader 973 is also looking really good. It is a little shorter that the Vader 1152 but got a better start at the secondary vines. It is funny to think that I thought about pulling out these two Vader plants because they weren’t going anything. I guess that they were just making roots. Sunday, June 13 View Page Been a long time since I have put a picture of the sunflowers on here. They are coming along great! Got the last of them transplanted this weekend. The tallest sunflower stands 35" or 2'11" tall. It is a 185" Vincent 09. Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is my wonderful tall corn with some sunflowers in-between them as we didn't know where to put the rest. The tall corn is coming along but my tallest corn stalk is actually an Indian corn seed that started growing in my greenhouse and I kept growing it in there and decided to plant it outside to see what it would do. So far it is growing really well standing 34" tall or 2'10". Might be the tallest one or at least have the prettiest cob of corn on it. Sunday, June 13 View Page I am so happy with the size of the cabbage and Kohlrabi plants. The first two in the pictures are the Kohlrabi. I have just over a month head start on the Kohlrabi and about a two week head start on the cabbage from last year. Sunday, June 13 View Page The giant onions have grown a lot in the last week. They are looking really good for being late. Got lots of new growth coming. Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is the 98.9 Vincent pear gourd plant. Finally the pear gourds have started to run but they are running upwards. I will have to support them so that they don't break off when they go to lay down. Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is one of the four tomatoe plants. Thanks to my dad, they have finally gotten in the ground. Looking good but behind where they should be. Sunday, June 13 View Page The watermelon are running ever which way. They have blossoms out now and are still very green. They are also loving all this ran and hopefully some heat coming this week. Sunday, June 13 View Page I have totally forgotten to put pictures of my marrow on. The marrows are doing great! I have three plants that are right around this size and two that are a little smaller. This is a 73.6 Wursten 09. Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is anouther 73.6 Wursten 09. This marrow plant is my biggest one of all five. Looking good! Sunday, June 13 View Page GREAT NEWS! Today we pollinated our first pumpkin off the Vader 973! We crossed it with the Vader 1152 as it is the only one that has blossoms open on it. So exciting! Hope it is a good one as it only had three lobs but we said that we should pollinate it anyways. Thursday, June 17 View Page Pollinated two of my 73.6 Wursten 09 marrow today. The plants are a bit small but we will see how they turn out in a couple of weeks. Thursday, June 17 View Page Forgott to say that I crassed the 73.6 Wursten 09 with the 37 Brewster. Friday, June 18 View Page Pollinated the Vader 1152 today with the 1156 Hunt. My dad likes the sound of this cross. Hopefully is turns out to be a good one. Our pollinations are two to three weeks earlier than last year! Should make a difference in the size of the pumpkins and plants. Thursday, June 24 View Page Today the 912 Hunt opened. Crosssed it with the 1156 Hunt. Saturday, June 26 View Page Today is a very exciting day out in the pumpkin patch1 The 1677.5 Hunt is open. We crossed it with the 1339 Vincent- McGill. All the pollinations have been closed. Maybe we can get John Vincent to grow this seed next year if it turns out. Sunday, June 27 View Page Lots of plants had open flowers this morning. The 1156 Hunt was crossed with the 1339 Vincent-McGill. My other 1156 Hunt plants was crossed with the 994.5 Hunt. One of the Shan 387's was crossed with the 1236 Vincent- McGill. Another Shan 387 was crossed with an 1156 Hunt. And another Shan 387 got crossed with the 1677.5 Hunt. One of my 1339 Vincent-McGill was crossed with the 1156 Hunt. The other 1339 Vincent-McGill was crossed with a Shan 387. Along with all these pumpkins open, I pollinated another 73.6 Wursten Marrow with the 37 Brewster. What a day of pollination. Monday, June 28 View Page Only had one plant with a flower open today. It is the 1236 Vincent-McGill squash and I crossed it with the 1677.5 Hunt. Tuesday, June 29 View Page The 1127 Vincent-McGill is opened and I crossed it with the 1156 Hunt. Wednesday, June 30 View Page My other 1236 Vincent-McGill squash plant was opened today. I crosssed it with the 1156 Hunt. Thursday, July 1 View Page Happy Canada Day! Anouther one of my Shan 387's opened and I crossed it with the 964.5 Hunt. Friday, July 2 View Page Look at this beautiful 1677.5 Hunt plant. The plant is a healthy as can be with a pumpkin set on it. Looking really good. Hoping for a 1000 pound pumpkin off this plant. Friday, July 2 View Page Look at how well the Vader 1152 is doing. Got a nice size pumpkin growing. We have had a couple of cool nights going down to about 8 degrees celius so it is a little cool for the pumpkins to be growing a lot in a day. Looking like it is going to warm up in the next couple of days. Friday, July 2 View Page Here is the Vader 973. it is a nice white pumpkin. Not sure what we are doing right now with the pumpkins on the Vader plants as we haven't seen much growth in them in the last couple of days. I am going to measure them at 20 days old to see if they are on a 1000 pound growing rate or not. Them that is the time that we will have to decide if we want to keep them or not. Friday, July 2 View Page Here is one of the Shan 387's that was one of the first to be pollinated. Looking really good and growing well. Need to start moving the vines around it so that it doesn't start growing on top of the vines. Friday, July 2 View Page Here is the size of the 98.9 Vincent pear gourd plant. As you can see, the other two plants are starting to run into it. I need to start directing the vines on all three plants real soon. Just starting to see female blossoms coming out. Looking Good! Friday, July 2 View Page Two of my 73.6 Wursten plants are the size of this one. Looking really good with dark healthy leaves and marrow set. Behind this marrow plant you can see prize Winner plants that we grow for 4-H as a fundraiser. Friday, July 2 View Page Look at the size of the 73.6 Wursten 09! I have two marrow the size of this one. WOW!! I just can't get over the size for how early it is. This marrow was pollinated on June 17th with the 37 Brewster. I would say that I am doing well for my first year growing these. I think that they are really neat to grow! Friday, July 2 View Page The tomatoe plants. Very small for this time of year but they seem to be coming around and growing. WE are going to put cages on them in a week’s time to help support them. Friday, July 2 View Page My Billy Lamb onions are growing well with this heat and rain like everything else. They have nice green tops growing now. We keep pulling dirt up around the onions as we don't want them to get sun burnt. Friday, July 2 View Page My Billy Lamb onions are growing well with this heat and rain like everything else. They have nice green tops growing now. Friday, July 2 View Page The cabbages are growing well. They are about a week or so ahead of last years plants. Friday, July 2 View Page This Kohlrabi has another Kohlrabi growing on it. Cool! Both of my Kohlrabi plants are doing really good. Nice green and healthy, just what I want to see. Friday, July 2 View Page Dad’s out working up the land for the last time. With getting almost 50mm of rain in one week the ground got a little on the hard side. Now the plants will be able to root themselves a lot easier now with soft dirt. Friday, July 2 View Page I just can't get over the size of these sunflowers. They are 6' 4" right not. Everyday you can see a difference in the size of them. WOW! I have them tided to our deck right now as I have lost two to wind. Friday, July 2 View Page The tall corn really isn't that tall right now but I am hoping that is will soon take off just like the sunflowers did. The corn stand 3'. Sunday, July 11 View Page I finally have watermelon started on a couple of my plants. They look really good and are almost the length of a water bottle. Wednesday, July 14 View Page Look at the Vader 973! WOW! Measures ott 200 weighing 179 pounds. it is doing really well with a huge plant feeding it. Wednesday, July 14 View Page Here is the 994.5 Hunt. Also a white pumpkin and looking good. Measures ott- 155 and weighs around 89 pounds. Also got a very healthy plant to feed it. Wednesday, July 14 View Page 1156 Hunt. WE do have some yellow pumpkins growing. Not all of them are white. Is it growing really well with a huge amount of plant feeding this pumpkin. Hoping for a big one! Wednesday, July 14 View Page Look at the size of the 73.6 Wursten 09! The marrow looks really neat and is 29 inches long. It is defiantly something neat to grow and we are very happy with how it is growing. Wednesday, July 14 View Page We are just setting Pear Gourds on the plants. This is a 129 Vincent. Looking really good with a healthy plant. Also something neat to have growing in the garden this year. Wednesday, July 14 View Page In three days you can see how much the watermelon have jumped in size. Looking really good as my sister and I spent some time in them last night weeding. Got about two per plant set right now. Looks good. Wednesday, July 14 View Page The Kohlrabi"s" are still growing well. I now have two Kohlrabi growing on this one. The other one is on the other side of the Kohlrabi. Keep growing! Wednesday, July 14 View Page The cabbages are also doing very well. This is the biggest one of all four of them. One of them tonight was a little limp, not sure what from. Hopefully it will perk up tomorrow. The other two are looking really good. Wednesday, July 14 View Page The tomatoe plants are filling out and just starting to put tomatoes on them. My sister is working hard at keeping them pruned for us. Wednesday, July 14 View Page The onions are still growing a bit but nothing to what we thought they would be growing like. We will just have to see what happens. Wednesday, July 14 View Page A very gorgeous plant that the 1677.5 seed has produced. You can see where the pumpkin is set and tonight we built shade shelters for the pumpkins as they are starting to get sun burned. Hope this works. Wednesday, July 14 View Page Here is the 1677.5 Hunt pumpkin. It measures ott- 139 weighing 66.8 pounds. Looking good! Wednesday, July 14 View Page The sunflowers! I feel very small standing in the middle of the sunflowers. They are now 9' 1" or 110" now. The two that I am standing in the middle of are both that height. The sunflowers are really cool and I am very happy that I put some in this year. Sunday, July 25 View Page My sister Sarah was hoping that on her Birthday she would be able to pick one of her Giant field Pumpkins and she did so two days later. This is our own seed that we have been crossing for years to get the perfect pumpkin and they seem to turn out just how we want and big. Sunday, August 1 View Page WOW! This Pear Gourd is growing like crazy. It is my biggest one with another not much smaller in the patch. I have four pear gourds set with two per plant. My one plant doesn't have any set on it yet. Sunday, August 1 View Page The 1236 Vincent-McGill is a beautiful squash and right now my only squash. The other squash plants kept aborting the squash I set so this one is my baby. Here are its measurements. S-S 72, F-B 66, Circ 90 =OTT 231 estimated weight - 269 pounds. It is at day 33. We really need a rain as it has been so hot and dry lately. If we don't see rain this week, then we are going to lay pipe and water the giant veggies as they really need it. Sunday, August 1 View Page Day 39 for the 1677.5 Hunt. For a while it was hardly growing but now it has started to take off. It measures S-S 75, F-B 72, Circ 105 = OTT 252 Weight-345 pounds. Saturday, August 7 View Page The sunflowers are growing well. My tallest one is about 15 feet now! WOW! Monday, August 9 View Page Things are slowing down as there has been no rain. We have been trying to water from our pond but we can't get our pump to work. The 1677.5 Hunt measures, S-S 82, F-B 78, Circ 118= OTT 278 est. 458 pounds. It is at 47 days old. Monday, August 9 View Page The 1236 Vincent-McGill measures, S-S 78, F-B 71, Circ 95= OTT 244 est. weight 314 pounds. It is at day 41. Sunday, August 15 View Page Everything is still growing with a little shower today. We sill haven't been able to water from our pond as we can't get the pump fixed. The 1677.5 measures, S-S 86, F-B 83 Circ 125= OTT 294 est. weight 539 pounds. It is now at day 53. Sunday, August 15 View Page The 1236 measures, S-S 81, F-B 74, Circ 102= OTT 257 est. weight 365 pounds. It is now at day 47 and dad is going to work at the pump again tomorrow to see if we can get it going. Monday, August 16 View Page GREAT NEWS!! Dad got the pump up and running late this after noon. We ran it only for a short period of time as we don't want to the pumpkins to explode from growing so fast. The other Giant vegetables will just love the water too. Sunday, August 22 View Page Most of the sunflowers are now headed out or are heading out. The tallest one is about 16 feet. We have covered most of the sunflower heads with mesh bags to keeps the birds from eating the seeds. I have been watering the sunflowers every other day to keep the heads growing big. Sunday, August 22 View Page This is the biggest cabbage of all four. When we where dry it didn't look to good but now that we have been watering the cabbage have greened right up and started forming heads. Dad says that this cabbage is a head of last years. We have good potential to beet last year’s weight. Sunday, August 22 View Page I started out growing two Kohlrabis’ but one split open and started to foam so I pulled it out. This Kohlrabi is doing very well. It's got another Kohlrabi growing off it that is half the size of the main one. It has a couple baby Kohlrabi’s growing off it also. Sunday, August 22 View Page I thought the one pear gourd on my diary already was big but this pear gourd is BIGGER! It wasn't far behind my big one and soon by past it. Looking good! Sunday, August 22 View Page Giant Watermelon look small on camera. I just can't get over the size of this watermelon. It is my biggest one. The plants where dieing down put they have now perked up and are green now that we have watered. Sunday, August 22 View Page 61 days for the 1677.5 Hunt. Not doing to bad. It has been cooler in the last week and you sure see it in how much weight it has put on. It measures S-S 88, F-B 85, Circ 130 =OTT 303 est. weight 588 pounds. Sunday, August 22 View Page Here is a really pretty pumpkin. This is a 1156 Hunt x 1339 Vincent-McGill. It is 56 days old. It measures S-S 85, F-B 76, Circ 105 =OTT 266 est. weight 403 pounds. Thursday, August 26 View Page Every year, every grower looses a pumpkin do to rot or an animal eating it. This year we lost a pumpkin. The 1152 Vader rotted on us today. We were showing some friends from New Jersey the pumpkins and could smell something rotten. Low and behold it was a pumpkin and just had to be the 1152 Vader that must have been over 500 pounds. The walls were around 6 inches. It was a mess to clean up but we still have lots of pumpkins in the patch to keep growing. Saturday, August 28 View Page Pumpkin Patch day at the Langridge's with the 4-H group. Here is the overview of the patch. The first pumpkin is my sister, Sarah's 1127 Vincent-McGill x 1156 Hunt. It is a pretty pumpkin. Saturday, August 28 View Page Here are the measurements for some of the pumpkins. 1677.5 Hunt F-B 87 + S-S 89 + Circ 133 =Ott 309 est. weight 623 pounds, 1156 Hunt F-B 85 + S-S 91 + Circ 114 =Ott 290 est. weight 518 pounds, Vader 973 hasn't been growing much over the last week and is very cantaloupe so I think it is almost done growing measuring at F-B 83 + S-S 82 + Circ. 115 =Ott 281 est. weight 472 pounds. Saturday, August 28 View Page The 1236 Vincent-McGill is still doing very well measuring at F-B 77 + S-S 83 + Circ 109 =Ott 269 est. weight 416 pounds. Saturday, August 28 View Page Here is the biggest pear gourd in the patch. It is growing very little and the plant is dying down but it is a really giant to have in the garden this year. Saturday, August 28 View Page Here is my sister Sarah and I at Glen Huffman's as we are on our patch tour with 4-h enjoying Glens clean well kept patch. Sarah is also my growing partner and competition for this year along with our dad. Sunday, August 29 View Page The sunflowers are all headed out now. I am still watering daily as the heads just keep growing rapidly. The picture you see is baby sunflowers that have started to grow off the 16 footer. I have been pruning it as I don't want the other heads to absorb the nutrients that could be going into the head Sunday, August 29 View Page Here is Sarah posing with the first giant tomato we picked off this year. Not sure what it weighs as we don’t have a little scale to weight it on but we know it is a good size. Thursday, September 9 View Page Harvesting giant veggies for Picton Fair tonight! It's hard to believe that Picton fair is here already. The 4-H Giant Pumpkin and Vegetable Club weight off is tomorrow night and I just can't wait. For a giant pumpkin I am taking the Vader 973! Hope it goes heavy! Will let you know how I make you. Saturday, September 11 View Page What a weight off we had this year at Picton Fair! The 4-H club had a great display and lots of Giant Veggies. Sarah and I both did very well bring home the Grand prize with the Vader 973 weighing 505.6 pounds!! It was an amazing night! I don't have any pictures yet but when I get some, I will post them. Monday, September 13 View Page Pumpkins are slowing down as it hasn't been very nice the past week with lots of rain and cold weather. I am covering them every night except when it rains as it is a pain to dry the blankets. Here are the measurements of today. 1156 Hunt F-B 90 + S-S 93 + Circ 135 =Ott 318 est. weight 678 pounds, 1156 Hunt F-B 88 + S-S 94 + Circ 119 =Ott 301 est. weight 577 pounds, 1236 Vincent-McGill F-B 78 + S-S 86 + Circ 110 =Ott 274 est. weight 439 pounds. Saturday, September 18 View Page Here's our front lawn covered in Prize Winners again this year. These are the "mini" giant pumpkins we grow for a 4-H fundraiser. This year we are going to be donating to the 4-H Milkshake booth that supports all the 4-H clubs. The milkshake booth is set up each year at fairs around the county of Prince Edward to raise money for each of the clubs. It is the way that most of the clubs get money and our old booth is too small and we are in need of a new one as the milkshakes get more popular each year. So we are fundraising for a bigger and better booth for 2011. Hope to sell out! Saturday, September 18 View Page Here is Sarah posing with her 3rd place pumpkin that she grew this year. This is Sarah's first year having a giant pumpkin all to herself and was very happy to get third place at the weigh off Friday night! it was over 400 pounds, (I just can't remember exactly what). Good Job Sarah! Keep up the good work!! Sunday, September 19 View Page It's Sunday and time to post the measurements. We had a beauty week with warm weather so the pumpkins grew well. Here are the measurements. 1156 Hunt F-B 91 + S-S 93 + Circ 138 =Ott 322 est. weight 703 pounds, 1156 Hunt F-B 89 + S-S 94 + Circ 122 =Ott 305 est. weight 600 pounds, 1236 Vincent-McGill F-B 78 + S-S 87 + Circ 113 =Ott 278 est. weight 458 pounds. Pictures of the pumpkins are going to be posted next Sunday. Saturday, October 16 View Page Wellington Pumpkinfest is here for 2010! We started our morning off by getting up bright and early to get pumpkins and squash loaded for a long ride on the hay wagon. Here is my 1677.5 Hunt. We picked it early this morning and the bottom was flat! What a relief! Saturday, October 16 View Page I thought my dad was tall being 6'3: but not next to his sunflower. Congradulations dad with your third place sunflower! (I am not positive what the exact hight was but will find that out.) Saturday, October 16 View Page Sarah took second with her sunflower that was a little over fifteen feet. This time I gave both dad and Sarah a run for their money with my... Saturday, October 16 View Page 192" first place sunflower! For my first year, I think I did very well. I felt very short standing beside this sunflower. I plan to take the seeds out tomorrow to get drying. Sunday, October 17 View Page Here is our float for the parade. We did a giant vegetable and fall display. On the side you can see; my squash at the very front, my sister's pumpkin in the middle and my dad's squash at the end. Two of our three watermelons and a sunflower. We also have field pumpkins and pear gourds. Sunday, October 17 View Page Here is our float for the parade. We did a giant vegetable and fall display. On the side you can see; my squash at the very front, my sister's pumpkin in the middle and my dad's squash at the end. Two of our three watermelons and a sunflower. We also have field pumpkins and pear gourds. Sunday, October 17 View Page Here is our float for the parade. We did a giant vegetable and fall display. On the side you can see; my squash at the very front, my sister's pumpkin in the middle and my dad's squash at the end. Two of our three watermelons and a sunflower. We also have field pumpkins and pear gourds. Sunday, October 17 View Page Here is the back of our flout with Sarah and I ready to wave at all the people. Sunday, October 17 View Page I thought that this was a neat picture. Here are my family’s pumpkins and squash (excluding my pumpkin) all in a row. To the left is a Shan 387 squash, 994.5 Hunt pumpkin, 1097 Razo squash, 1156 Hunt pumpkin and a 1236 Vincent-McGill pumpkin all waiting their turn to be weighed in. Sunday, October 17 View Page I ment 1236 squash. Sunday, October 17 View Page First for us was the watermelon getting weighed in. My dad placed fourth with his 61.2 pounds. Great job Dad! Sunday, October 17 View Page Next was my watermelon. I placed third with mine weighing in at 79 pounds. Sunday, October 17 View Page Sarah got second beating both my dad and I with her watermelon. It weighed 83.6 pounds. Good job Sarah! Sunday, October 17 View Page All the watermelon can form the 140.0 Vincent seed. Here is my field pumpkin. Not as big as the one I took to Picton Fair. I didn't place with this but it weighed 43.8 pounds. The seed is from our own seed that we have been crossing different varieties of pumpkins over years. Sunday, October 17 View Page Here's dad with his fifth place field pumpkin. It weighed 45.0 pounds and you can just guess who beat dad by 0.2 pounds... Sunday, October 17 View Page Sarah! She got fourth with her 45.2 pound field pumpkin. Great job Sis! Sunday, October 17 View Page Dad took fourth place with his 392.4 pounds squash. It is a 1097 Razo seed and it was an open pollination. Sunday, October 17 View Page Sarah took third with her 445.8 pound squash. It is the only squash we have gotten from the Shan 387 seed. The chances of getting a squash are about 1 in every 20 seeds. The Shan 387 was crossed with the 1236 Vincent- McGill. Sunday, October 17 View Page I took second with my 560.2 pound squash. All of our squash went heavy to chart with mine going just over 17% heavy! My squash was a 1236 Vincent-McGill crossed with the 1677.5 Hunt. We didn't reach our goal this year in squash or even beet last year's weight but we are all proud of what the weight turned out to be with having no water on the field for three weeks when it got hot because we ran into problems with watering. Sunday, October 17 View Page Congrats Sarah with placing 19th with her 617 pound pumpkin! Her pumpkin also went heavy to scale. It is a 994.5 Hunt crossed with the 1339 Vncent-McGill. Great job with everything you took to Wellington Pumpkinfest this year Sarah! Sunday, October 17 View Page What a pretty pumpkin dad took coming in at 18th place weighing 632.8 pounds. It is a 1156 Hunt crossed with the 994.5 Hunt. Dad's pumpkin also went heavy to scale. Congratulations dad on a great growing year! Can't wait until next year! Sunday, October 17 View Page Russ Laundry was the judge this year. here he is cleaning up my pumpkin to get ready to go on the scale to be weighed. Sunday, October 17 View Page The pumpkin went Heavy!! Weighing in at 782.8 pounds. The pumpkin is the 1677.5 Hunt crossed with the 1339 Vincent-McGill. We beet our personal best with this pumpkin but it didn't beet our goal we had set for this year. I had a great time growing again this year with meeting more growers at Wellington and spending family time out in the patch with my dad, sister and even my mom helped me cover and tape the pumpkins. Saturday, October 30 View Page Here is the 1677.5 Hunt getting the seeds taken out of it so it can be carved for Halloween. This is how thick the walls were just above the stem. Looking good! Saturday, October 30 View Page Great picture of myself cutting the eye out of my pumpkin. I was a little nerves as I no longer own the pumpkin but Matt (the man behind me) told me that I needed to help carve out the pumpkin. It was a lot of fun getting to help carve it out. Saturday, October 30 View Page Here are the eyes all cut out. Looking good. It will have a mouth just under the blossom end. I’m not sure what else matt’s son has in store for this pumpkin but I’m sure it will look great all lit up. Sunday, October 31 View Page Sarah, mine and dad’s pumpkins and squash lined up on the front lawn ready to be carved for Halloween. Sunday, October 31 View Page Dad is cutting into his 1156 Hunt. Sunday, October 31 View Page WOW! 12” walls on the stem end of the 1236 Vincent- McGill squash!! We had a hard time getting into this squash and now we can see why! That is amazing with a nice healthy inside. Sunday, October 31 View Page 1156 Hunt had 10” walls on the stem end! Great! Sunday, October 31 View Page 994.5 Hunt had7.5” walls on the stem end! Sunday, October 31 View Page Looking good dad! Dad had his pumpkin ready to go before I was even drawing the outline to my face. Sunday, October 31 View Page While Sarah was busy carving out her duck… Sunday, October 31 View Page Dad was hard at work trying to carve the face out on my squash. Sunday, October 31 View Page PUMPKIN ON FIRE! I never thought I would see the day. Dad wanted to make our pumpkins really bright this year and I think he did. This is just after dad lit his pumpkin up. It had a huge flame burst out. Looked really neat from the road! Sunday, October 31 View Page As soon as we put the top back on the pumpkin, it started to roll smoke out the eyes then leading to the mouth. Looking really spooky. Sunday, October 31 View Page Shortly after we had dads’ pumpkin of fire, we lit mine up. It too had a big flame coming out of the top. Sarah went with the safe root by putting a lamp inside her pumpkin to light it up. We had a lot of fun lighting pumpkins on fire and making them look spooky. Got a complement for a couple driving by that dads’ pumpkin looked great and wanted to know if we did the smoke rolling out of the eyes and mouth on purpose Tuesday, November 2 View Page Sent up a giant watermelon (140.5 Vincent) and giant pear gourd (98.9 Vincent) to the Royal Winter Agriculture fair this year. Hope they do well. Sunday, November 7 View Page My family went up to the Royal today for the first time. We had a great day and really enjoyed ourselves. Good news on the giant watermelona and pear gourd. The both placed... FIRST! Very exciting news and neat to see. Thursday, November 11 View Page I would just like to thank my dad for all his time and effort in the giant veggies, my sister for all her hard work in the giants, John Vincent for all the help, time and taking my veggies to the Royal for me, Phil Hunt for giving me a bunch of his seeds to grow this year in the patch and for everyone else who helped me achieve my goals and succeed in growing these giant vegetables. Thanks and hope to see everyone again next year! (picture; me with my giant pear gourd before it went to the Royal)