Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 61 Entries. Saturday, April 9 View Page April 8, 2011. We live in Ogden, Utah. 4600 feet above sea level. I Prepared the plastic greenhouse I bought at Lowe's. I'm setting it up on the enclosed patio because it's still snowing outside.   Friday, April 15 View Page The seeds sprouted in three days, grew wonderfully for three more and died. The autopsy reveiled a poorly drained growing pot. All six pumkins drowned.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page I planted new seeds received from Matt McConkie, McConkie 834, on April 25. Matt is the reigning chmpion in Utah with a sister plant hitting 1186. Matt explained that these seeds came from a pumpkin that exploded at 834, but would have grown to 1300. They have been growing in new boxes for three weeks and look like they might survive.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page I moved all six pumpkin, four Zuccinni, eight tomato, watermellon and cucumbers to the new greenhouse on wheels. This used to be a 7 X 16 foot tilt-bed snowmobile trailer. I bought it for dirt cheap and modified it to be a trash hauler. It looks like a pretty solid greenhouse now. My two lovely assistants gave the camera operator something nice to focus on.   Tuesday, May 17 View Page I researched hydroponic gardening two years ago. I needed to do something non-traditional because of the limited space in my yard and the surrounding trees. Hydroponic growing boxes with Miracle-grow potting mix, water in a tank and wicks to bring the right amount of water to the potting mix proved to be the solution to my propblem. Here are my strawberries, onions, peas, carrots and four kinds of pepper growing in boxes on the North side of my house.   Saturday, May 28 View Page The Mckonkie 834 pumpkins are growing like Jacks' beanstalk. I moved them from the three gallon containers into 12 gallon containers. These containers are of my own design. I looked at several styles of wick hydroponic containers on the internet. I even bought a nice 5 gallon hydroponic bucket from Diamond Bar Growers here in Ogden. The $40 price tag made me want to reverse engineer their bucket and make my own for less money. I now have four different sizes and styles of buckets ranging from 3 gallons for $6 to 17 gallons for $15. There are now 70 buckets and tubs growing flowers, gardens and giant pumpkins.   Wednesday, June 8 View Page All 6 pumpkins are growing well.I gave two to my son in Roy, Utah and two more to neighbors. I'm keeping the largest two. Sadly, three of the four I gave away have been destroyed by storms.   Monday, June 13 View Page I named the smaller of the two I kept, Magilla. There used to be a cartoon about a Gorilla named Magilla. It seems appropriate. He now lives in a 17 gallon bucket on the south side of my house. You may notice the lack of growing room.   Monday, June 13 View Page The larger McKonkie 834 plant is still growing inside the greenhouse on my trailer. We're still getting storms with snow. I named this pumpkin "Ruteger". The name comes from a mix of Rudi at Notre Dame and Rutiger from Bart Simpson. It just sounded cool.   Sunday, June 26 View Page This is the McKonkie 834 on the side of the house. He has spread to 4 hydroponic tubs. I'm writing these entries on Aug. 2, 2011   Sunday, June 26 View Page My son the pumpkin carving artist made this sign for "Ruteger the trailer park pumpkin". He now lives permenantly in the trailer parked in my driveway. Why? Because it's the sunniest place in my yard.....and I don't want to pick up a 1,000 pound pumpkin with my bad back. You can see my son's carving by looking up " giant pumpkin last supper" on U-tube. It's sooo cool, 16 hours time-lapsed to 4 minutes.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Ruteger, Mckonkie 834, is now living in 7 large hydroponic tubs and loving it.   Monday, July 4 View Page Ruteger and my 10 year old grandson frolicing in the trailer.   Monday, July 4 View Page Ruteger really is growing in a trailer parked in my driveway.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Ruteger is pregnant. I messed up the date of entry again.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Giant pumpkins have big blossoms.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Ruteger is growing like a space alien. He is over the walls and the back bumper of his 7 X 16 ft. trailer.   Sunday, July 17 View Page Ruteger jr. is looking good. This is my first grand pumpkin so I don't know what to expect or really how to treat him. The Utah Giant Pumpkin Association gave me a pamphlet that sort of helps. It doesn't really address hydroponic growing. I have changed from Miracle Grow 20-20-20 ,with a dash of phosphate, to 18-18-21, with a dash of potash. Ruteger likes it.   Tuesday, July 19 View Page Ruteger, McKonkie 834, is growing. There are three smaller pumpkins still growing on this vine, but this is the one I'm keeping.   Saturday, July 23 View Page This pumpkin plant will need it's own zip code pretty soon. I have 16 hydroponic tubs feeding Ruteger, with a total of 110 gallons of potting mix and water.   Saturday, July 23 View Page Ruteger, the worlds largest trailer park pumpkin, ( he/she lives in a trailer parked in my driveway) is alive and thriving.   Sunday, July 24 View Page The temperature is now in the high 80's and low 90's. The humidity is around 35%. Ruteger is now drinking 35 gallons of water a day. I built this little pump station and timed it to turn on 4 times a day for 15 minutes. I add 3 tablespoons of 18-18-21 fertilizer to the tank three times a day.   Monday, July 25 View Page I had to add more buckets to the outside of the trailer.   Monday, July 25 View Page Ruteger likes the more dependable water and food supply. I added more buckets and tubs. I'm trimming nearly 6 feet of vine growth every day.   Monday, July 25 View Page This is as big as I want the vine to grow, I'm running out of money for buckets and room to put them.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page Ruteger is still growing in vine and pumpkin. I'm unsure of his/her weight, I need to read the booklet.   Saturday, July 30 View Page Ruteger is peeking over the side of his/her crib.   Saturday, July 30 View Page It's time for Rutegers first measurement. He's 72" around the waist. I think that translates into 112 pounds. I'm now adding 4 tbl of 18-18-21 Miracle Grow and 1/2 tsp potash three times a day. The pump turns on 5 times a day.   Sunday, July 31 View Page Here is Ruteger playing in his crib. I think he weighs 127 pounds today, up 15 from yesterday.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page The McKonkie 834 on the side of the house has spread into 4 hydroponic tubs and seems to handle the weather well.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Ruteger is about 150 pounds.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Magilla, the ugly stepchild pumpkin, forgotton on the side of my house has finally managed to keep a baby alive long enogh to measure it. He weighs 35 pounds.   Tuesday, August 2 View Page Magilla is growing in an 8 foot wide side of my yard. You'll notice he is sitting on a stone pathway. This vine is also growing in hydroponic tubs, 14 of them.   Wednesday, August 3 View Page Ruteger is pregnant all over the place. Thanks for the tip about phosphate fertilizer to increase blossoms.   Friday, August 5 View Page Ruteger is now about 172 pounds. I increased his food to 5 tablespoons of 18-18-21 plus 1/2 teaspoon of potash three times a day.   Sunday, August 7 View Page Here is a different way to judge is growth.   Sunday, August 7 View Page Powdery mildew. I discovered powdery mildew yesterday morning. I started a spray program of fungicide and fish emulsion at night. I also installed a fan to keep a lot of air moving through the vines. I/m reading a lot of growers emails about bugs, but so far they haven'tfound Rutegers hide-out.   Sunday, August 7 View Page Ruteger is almost 200 pounds this morning. He's eating a bottle of 18-18-21 a week, plus potash. I found this fertilizer at IFA for $4.50 instead of $6 for Miracle grow at Lowe's. The mildew hasn't spread, maybe the fan and chemicalsare working.   Sunday, August 7 View Page Ruteger getting a light baby oil rub down this morning.   Sunday, August 7 View Page The fan is working well, no more mildew. Ruteger is now drinking more water though. I'm increasing his watering schedule to 6 times a day and his fertilizer to 6 tblsp of 18-18-21 three times a day plus 1/2 tsp potash three times a day.   Thursday, August 11 View Page Here's Ruteger after his baby oil rub down. Circumferance is now 97", estimated weight is 133 pounds. The powdery mildew is mostly gone. I had to add hydroponics tub #28 for a bragging vine headed for the front sidewalk.   Thursday, August 11 View Page I installed a few lights to compensate for the shade from two neighbors trees. This is one very full trailer.   Saturday, August 13 View Page Ruteger ( McConkie 834) measures 99" around the waist, about 245 pounds.   Saturday, August 13 View Page Ruteger gets about a dozen visitors and tourist every day. Neighbors are bringing out of town relatives to see "Ruteger, the worlds largest trailer park pumpkin".   Thursday, August 18 View Page We've had three bad storms roll through in the past week. Each one has ripped leaves from the vines and even torn off a small portion of one vine. The powdery mildew is still giving me some trouble. Ruteger hasn't grown much the past few days. He still measures 102 around the waist with an estimated weight of about 254.   Saturday, August 20 View Page This is Ruteger in his bathrobe. He wears it night and day, like a three year old with a blankie. I took a tour of three professional giant pumpkin patches today. I can't believe the time, money, technology and love these people donate to their pumpkins. I saw pumpkins pushing 1,000 pounds with 5 more 900 pound cousins in the same patch. I learned a few things from the pros today. #1, talk to the professionals early and often so you don't have to make all of your own mistakes. #2 Pumpkins nead shade from the harsh Utah sunlight, not more growing lights in August. #3 Pumpkins needto grw fast when their young and pliable,they get brittle when they age. #4 Be careful what you feed your pumpkin, too much fertilyzer is as bad as too little. #5 Foliar feeding with fish emulsion realy works to grow pumkins as well as stop fungus. And #6, growing giant pumkins on a trailer parked in a driveway without tons of compost and deep roots is hard work and probably won't get you the biggest pumkin in the world.   Sunday, August 21 View Page This is Ruteger. He's about 104" around the middle, 60" over the top and about 265 pounds. He hasn't grown much during the past week. I believe I over sunlit him, over fertilyzed him, over fanned him and I let wind storms rip 1/4 of his leaves off. I took away the lights, installed some shade cloth, flushed his water tanks with clean water and took away the fan. I also started spraying alittle fish emulsion on him at night. Ther are new vines and several blossoms beginning to grow, I hope he starts to put on a few pounds.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Ruteger has about run out of steam. He measures 105" around the waist and 60" both ways over the top. He hasn't grown much in the past 10 days. His vines are now growing like weeds and there are blossoms everywhere. He's grown at least 100 new leaves in the last 10 days. I'm tempted to let one of the new little blossoms grow a new pumpkin. As to the ribbon vine problem. It didn't manifest itself until the vine was 4' feet from the root. I didn't know it was a ribbon vine until it was nearly 15' from the root. It has aborted three babies by then and I started reading to understand why. When a side vine started growing a healthy pumpkin, I felt blessed and proud. It looks like 300 pounds really is the limit for a ribbon vine or side vine.   Sunday, August 28 View Page Wahoo!! More than 10 days with no growth at all and suddenly Ruteger starts to grow again. He now measures 107" around the waist. At least one of my rescue efforts has worked.   Tuesday, August 30 View Page Ruteger has a sister. Her name is Ruteger. ( Thanks George Foreman for making this naming thing legal) She was fertilyzed on Saturday, 8-27-2011. She has doubled in size every day since. She's growing in a clear area of the trailer with just enough room for a 200# pumpkin, so I'm going to see what she can do by weigh off on 9-24.   Monday, September 5 View Page Ruteger is still about 300 pounds. He has grown about 200 new leaves. I don't know if I should call it a season and cut his umbelical cord or keep trying to bulk him up.   Monday, September 5 View Page This is new baby Ruteger, she was fertilyzed 9 days ago. Weigh-off is coming on 9-24, could be interesting to see what she'll do in 19 days. I do have one advantage....Ruteger is already growing in my trailer, Pumpkins, vines and water tanks all go to the weigh-off, still growing.   Thursday, September 8 View Page Ruteger and his little sister Ruteger have both stopped growing. Mother Ruteger, the vine, is growing like a weed. Magilla has also stopped growing, even though he is on the south side of my house in a separate mini-patch. I don't know if it is temperature,sunlight, fertilyzer or age that causes them to stop.   Saturday, September 10 View Page Several people have asked me for more details about my cheapo hydroponic grow boxes. I got most of my inspiration from Diamond Bar Grow Systems, you can see their fancy grow boxes at dbgrosystems.com . If you have the money...they work wonderfully. I'm a little :)- cheaper than that, so I built my own out of whatever was handy; 5 gallon buckets, dollar store wash tubs and kitty litter boxes, Home Depot storage tubs, etc. If you try to use the premade planter boxes with water reservoirs from Lowe's and Walmart, they don't hold enough water for large plants on hot days. If you use plastic wash tubs or kitty litter boxes,Place one box inside of the other with something to support the top box above the water line. I found cheap plastic 3" tall cereal bowls at the Dollar stores and drilled 1/4" drain holes in their bottoms. I measured the height of the bowls and drilled a 1/2" drain hole in the side of the bottom box, 3/4" below the top of the cereal bowl. This gives a 3/4" air gap between the top of the water and the bottom of the top box. This is important to prevent drowning your plants. Next, I drilled a 1-1/4" hole inthe bottom of the top box to install a 1" PVC stand pipe. This pipe will stick up above the top of the top box and extend to the bottom of the bottom box, allowing you to check your water depth and add water as needed. Next, I drilled 4 each 5/8" holes in the bottom of the top box, one in each corner. These holes allow wicking ropes to be placed through the top box into the water of the bottom box. The wicking ropes draw water up to the potting mix in the top box without drawing too much water. They also serve as a guide for the roots to find the water in the bottom box. My giant pumpkin roots actually float on the water of the bottom box.   Saturday, September 10 View Page This picture shows a 5 gallon bucket from Wallmart. I cut the lid to fit inside the bucket, cut a plastic 4" diameter drain pipe to support the lid, drilled the drain hole 3/4" below the level of the lid for water drainage, drilled holes in the lid for the stand pipe and wicks. I also added the wicks. The wicking ropes can be any finely woven rope ( not coarse poly rope). I tried expensive rope from Lowe's and Scott's extra tough paper towels before I found Harbor Freight's green camo rope. It's only $6 per 100 ft. and it doesn't fall apart by the end of the season. My next entry will discuss fertilyzer.   Saturday, September 10 View Page Miracle Grow's moisture control potting mix is the bomb for growth medium in a pot, It has coir pith from coconuts and stays fluffy for years. It also has nutrients that last for the first thirty days or so. I added 1/2 teaspoon black seaweed and 1/2 teaspoon Biogrow endo plus to each cubic foot of potting mix. You can find this at hollandsgiants.com. I added a teaspoon of common 16-16-16 slow release fertilyzer after the plants started growing large and every month after. I added 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of Miracle grows' water soluable 20-20-20 every day when the plants were really growing well. I fried a few plants last year by adding fertilyzer before the plant was strong enough to handle it. I changed to Miracle grow's 18-18-21 when I wanted to bulk up the fruit but not grow a lot of flowers. I bought a 25 pound bag of Technigro 17-5-25 at Intermountain Farmers Assosiation. It works well when the plant is big and tough. I used this same mix of fertilyzers on my Strawberries, peppers, Zuccini and tomatoes and they're all big, productive and healthy. I hope this helps, send me an e-mail with more questions.   Saturday, September 10 View Page I had to support the 5 gallon buckets with a steel conduit because anything smaller would rip the bucket apart when it got heavy on a hot day. The square tubs are up on cinder blocks to elevate the plants above the walls of my trailer. Some tubs are on top of the tool box or just sitting on the driveway..   Saturday, September 10 View Page I quickly learned better than trying to bottle feed a giant pumpkin. At his best, Ruteger consumed 65 gallons of water and about 10 tablespoons of fertilyzer every day. I built a watering station out of a 17 gallon tub, a 1/4" water line from my house water ( T'd from my swamp cooler) and a float valve like my swamp cooler. I placed a fountain pump in the water tank with an 8 way drip irrigator nozzle sending 1 gallon of water per 5 minutes through each of 8 hoses to 8 tubs. I later added a second tank and pump to handle the next 10 tubs. I still had to water 8 more tubs every afternoon when I got home from work, but nothing wilted while I was gone.   Saturday, September 10 View Page As temperatures climbed towards 95 degrees, I adjusted the timer to turn on the pump 5 times a day, especially during the heat of the day.   Saturday, September 17 View Page Scott and Joy Smith are sad to announce the passing of Ruteger, their adopted giant pumpkin. Ruteger was pronounced dead at 9:05 AM, Saturday, September 17, 2011. The autopsy revealed a large abcess on his tummy consistant with over eating and a lack of excercise. Ruteger was born? on July 17, 2011 to Magilla and Ruteger (real names are GVGO 14?? and McConkie 834) Smith in South Ogden, Utah. Ruteger became a celebrity shortly after his adoption in August, 2011, with several admirers visiting him every week.   Saturday, September 17 View Page Rutegers birth Parents are devestated by the loss of their favorite son, both are shedding tons of leaves, his three parasitic little sisters have declared this a day of feasting, his half brother, Magilla has started a fast in Rutegers memory. Ruteger will be composted today in the Davis County landfill in east Layton, Utah. Scott and Joy would like to thank the members of UGPG for all of their support and advice. We also want to give a warning to all of those who are trying to fatten their pumpkins even when the little tykes are complaining of being too full...STOP BEFORE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU!