Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 139 Entries. Monday, February 27 View Page Where has the growing year gone already? Roughly a month or so left and the approach of I'll start the diary tomorrow has gotten me pretty far behind, lol. Will attempt to get it current over the next couple of weeks. As usual nice to kick off the season with the goodies that show up in the seed exchange. Thanks Andrew for doing the legwork on it this year!   Friday, April 14 View Page Attempted an early start this year for the state fair pumpkin in order to have something a little more competitive than our usual entry. Portable greenhouse with a little space heater to ward off the night chill was the setup. No soil cables so greenhouse was in place for a couple weeks sealed up to warm the soil some ahead of planting day.   Friday, April 14 View Page The chosen inhabitant for the greenhouse was the 2287 Sadiq. Liked the prospect of large with a chance of orange from this one.   Friday, April 14 View Page Found a local cattle lot that was willing to let me have some of the pile from when they cleaned the pens. Little green yet so stockpiled to use after it ages for another year or two. Not a whole lot of black dirt on top of my clay here so a little more organic matter shouldn't hurt much. Already have pretty much the full local weed profile in the garden so should help replace that stock as well when I decide to apply it, lol.   Sunday, April 16 View Page Seeds selected to go in the other 3 AG spots this year were the 1217.5 Vester, 1361 Friermood, and started two of our 1170 squash from last year to compete for the last spot.   Sunday, April 16 View Page Watermelon Lineup for this year is the 176.5 Davis, 284 Dawson, and 330.5 Vial. All are 302 Kent melons so any crosses between them should be OK going forward.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page All the giants are up and looking good. 1361 Friermood strongest out of the gate.   Monday, May 15 View Page Even though the greenhouse was staked down good, high winds collapsed it in place. Warm enough out finally was time to move it out. 2287 Sadiq starting to run.   Tuesday, May 30 View Page Always lose the garden to weeds by the end of the season. Going to grow on some of our recycled weed fabric this year. Although black isn't ideal color for the heat that will eventually show up this summer, hoping reduced weed competition will keep the plant healthier even if a few leaves get scorched once in a while. Will punch holes for the nodes to root through as the plant vines out. Thinking this will help retain soil moisture as well vs. how fast our thin soil normally dries out.   Thursday, June 1 View Page Been growing these strawberry tomatoes last few years after receiving some seeds in the seed exchange. Started this plant in February to get a head start. Went in the garden with several tomatoes already set. Nice getting fresh tomatoes on the first of June.   Friday, June 2 View Page One of the new bee colonies this year has split, time to get the gear on and start another one! Can't say spinning out all the frames at the end of the year is my favorite activity, but the results of that work is hard to beat.   Sunday, June 4 View Page Looks like it's going to be a good year for Broccoli   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Time for a patch tour. Waited to start most of the field pumpkins till later this year to see if I can get better growth later in the season. Started this one from our 94 seed to have something for the state fair in August.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Long gourd for the year will be the 131 Tobeck   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 2287 Sadiq coming along nicely. Little shorter between the nodes than I'm used to but been a cool spring so far.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Side view of the plant. As seen in previous pic, sweeping the secondaries back behind the plant and will terminate when they hit the back of the patch. For me seems to be a little easier to manage the plant this way vs. the traditional Christmas tree pattern   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Other AG's in the patch are a couple weeks or so behind the 2287, but all are starting to run. Left is 1361 Friermood, middle is the 1170 squash, on the right 1217.5 Vester.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Extra bushel gourds in the garden then planned. Had an extra 236.5 from our gourd last year left over after watermelon grafting. Healthy and aggressive plant so hated to waste it. Planned on a 370.5 English and 384.5 Terry. Terry never germinated so back-up 370.5 English went in its place.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Tropic Giant and Megaton cabbage for the state fair. Have tried some of the true giant varieties but seems like they're a little slower to develop and just start to head up when it's time for the fair. Don't have the setup to get them started early enough and nurse along until it's plant out time to have them ready by fair time.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Giant Kohlrabi are from Supershmelz variety from unknow growers and Glazebrook's seeds. Will find out later had these planted a little close to each other as the leaves between them were fighting for space.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 4 plants of Giant Zucchini from seeds out of one we grew last year. Cross was Clayton x 13.23 Brown   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Couple Lunga Di Napoli Squash plants, from our 73 and 68.5 squash from last year. Marrow and Butternut plants will go into this area later as well.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Melon lineup starting from top right going down the hill are the 330.5 Vial on bushel gourd stock, 176.5 Davis ungrafted, and the 284 Dawson on bottle gourd stock. Had a 176.5 Davis grafted on rampart gourd stock but even though it looked healthy when planted out, it decided to dampen off when in the garden. Started another one to replace so that plants a bit behind the others. At the bottom of the strip are the 64.7 Terry and the 56.74 Davis cantaloupe plants. Having trouble getting the competition tomatoes to go so no pics of those yet.   Thursday, June 8 View Page First pollination on the 2287 Sadiq at 9.5 feet out. If we go with it will be our earliest pollination ever by around 3 weeks. Even though it's not far out there's 18 secondaries behind it as mentioned before spacing between nodes has been pretty tight on this plant so far.   Tuesday, June 13 View Page Interesting tendrils on the 1217.5 Vester. Never had leaves on the ends of them before.   Saturday, June 24 View Page Nice 1st truss mega on the 2.72 Greene MegaDom x Dom plant   Monday, June 26 View Page Back from vacation, looks like the 2287 Sadiq has grown some while we were gone. Day 20 measurements in a couple of days   Thursday, June 29 View Page After spending last few days getting caught up on vine burying and pruning, big wind came through and reversed those efforts.   Thursday, June 29 View Page Another shot of the damage. Overall frustrating, but we were lucky as others in the area had hail that did a lot more damage than we experienced.   Thursday, June 29 View Page Getting quite a bit of good stuff from the garden now   Thursday, June 29 View Page First pollination on the 1217.5 Vester   Saturday, July 1 View Page Time to pollinate the 94 Field Pumpkin   Sunday, July 2 View Page Pollination day for the 1361 Friermood   Monday, July 3 View Page Well, the hopes for a good state fair pumpkin are out the window. Same disease that's plagued us the last couple of years. Day 20 measurements were OK, but nothing special. Day 25 today and it only grew 12 lbs total last 5 days indicating it had aborted.   Monday, July 3 View Page Another shot of the leaves on the vines near the pumpkin. In real life had a bronzish hue which I thought was yellow vine disease. Had been keeping the cucumber beetles at bay pretty good so far this year with some systemics at surface applied insecticides but had a few show up while we were on vacation. If you see something that would lead to a different diagnosis let me know as would like to be able to beat whatever is causing this so we can get a few more to the finish line. Should have took a pic to the pumpkin before packing it out of the patch as it had changed colors to a nice orange with a starburst pattern while it was in the process of aborting.   Monday, July 3 View Page This was supposed to be the other pic of the leaves   Friday, July 7 View Page Pollination day for the 1170 Squash. Completes all the initial pollinations for the current competition plants if this one takes.   Sunday, July 9 View Page Cleaned up the 2287 Sadiq. Gave it a few more days to verify it was a plant issue and not a pumpkin issue. Other sets were aborting and more vines started showing the issue so removed the lost cause.   Tuesday, July 18 View Page Interesting blossom on the #2 370.5 English plant. Two females with a leaf bundle on this stem coming from the main vine. A little short of target distance from the stump but if it takes probably will go with it. The other 370.5 has had a couple main vine blossoms as well but plant wasn't very big at the time. Other two BG plants are bigger than this one so working on getting fruit set on all three at the moment.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Day 20 on the 1217.5 Vester, OTT 195 for a 173 lb estimate. Not big compared to what I've seen others getting this year but our best day 20 numbers ever.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Day 20 for the 1361 Friermood, OTT 188 for estimated weight of 155. Our second best day 20 numbers ever.   Saturday, July 22 View Page Grabbed a pic of a pollen heavy honeybee on one of the volunteer sunflowers while doing to morning inspections today.   Monday, July 24 View Page Watermelon pollination dates get lost in the shuffle when pollinating several blossoms each day until we get a few to stick. Calling this one day 25 on the 330.5 Vial so I can start tracking daily growth. OTT 128 for an estimated weight of 63 lbs. Crossed with 284 Dawson.   Monday, July 24 View Page Day 25 on 1217.5 Vester, OTT 238 for an estimated weight of 311 lb. Averaged 27.6 lbs/day so ramping up nicely. Can see a pretty good difference from five days ago. Don't think I mentioned the cross on pollination day photo, pollinated with the 2287 Sadiq.   Thursday, July 27 View Page Day 20 on the 1170 squash, OTT 155.5 for 91 lb estimated weight. Little behind where I would like it to be.   Thursday, July 27 View Page Day 25 on the 1361 Friermood, OTT 235 for an Estimated weight of 299 lbs. Averaged 28.75 over last 5 days so ramping up nicely as well. This one was pollinated with 1217.5 Vester for the heavy genetics from that seed.   Thursday, July 27 View Page Leaving for a weeklong fishing trip in the morning. Went ahead and measure the 1217.5 Vester tonight just to have another data point to see how it's trending. OTT 255 for estimated weight of 382 lbs. Dropped to 23.9 lbs/day so went the wrong direction for the last 3 days. Going to worry about this one over the next week hoping it's not in the process of aborting.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Back from vacation, the 2.72 Greene tomato from the first truss mega decided to start blushing while we were gone. Don't know if it was the heat wave or something else that caused the early blush. Nothing to write home on for final weight.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Have a cantaloupe finally going on the 64.7 Terry. Will be pushing to be competitive for the fair.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Couple long gourds starting to run on the 131 Tobeck. Would rather wait till they set at the top of the trellis, but they have around 9-10' before they hit ground which should be enough room for a fair gourd. Not sure why ours tend to stall and get fat at the base instead of continuing to grow down.   Saturday, August 5 View Page 330.5 Vial still doing well at day 37 coming in at a 154.5 OTT for an estimated weight of 108 lbs. Averaged 3.7 lbs/day for the last 12 days.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Sigh of relief on the 1217.5 Vester as it picked the pace back up some while we were gone. DAP 37, OTT now 301 for estimated weight of 629 averaging 27.5 lbs/day for the last 9 days. Daily gains not overly impressive but we'll take a growing pumpkin over a dying one. Still one of our better pumpkins ever at this age so if it survives still have a chance at a PB with this one.   Thursday, August 10 View Page Couple field pumpkins ready to pollinate this morning. First up is the 36.3 House pollinated with the 168.7 Baggs   Thursday, August 10 View Page Next up is the 168.7 Baggs., check out the lobes on the female. Never had a field pumpkin female look like this before, hopefully its a good sign of things to come. Selfed this one.   Thursday, August 10 View Page Unfortunately lost the 1361 Friermood. Measured when we got home from vacation and it only averaged 18 lbs a day while we were gone, down from the 28 lbs it was doing. Figured it was done at that point, but measured it again 3 days later and it hadn't put on any inches confirming its demise. Off to the state fair with it. 1170 squash seems like it is dead in the water as well leaving us with only one live pumpkin at this point.   Friday, August 11 View Page 1361 Friermood downgraded to the 510 Harrington. Ended up in 5th place at our fair. Given the size it was when we got home vs, where it was at on day 25, guessing it stopped growing around day 30. Sorry Todd we didn't get this one a little further along as it seems to have good potential.   Sunday, August 13 View Page 64.7 Terry starting to show some netting, but fair weigh day for the other giant vegetable categories is in a couple of days. Going to leave a little bit of potential on the table with this one.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Day 45 for the 330.5 Vial. OTT 166 for estimated weight of 132 averaging a little over 3 lbs/day for the last 5 days.   Sunday, August 13 View Page 1217.5 Vester never hit a high gear but still maintaining at a steady pace. DAP 45, OTT 331 for 833 lb estimated weight. Averaged 25.5 lbs/day for the last 8 days.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Good day at the fair in the other giant categories today. Had 8 wins between the wife and I. Set one new fair record and missed 3 others by a couple lbs or less.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page New fair record with 1.06 lb Bell Pepper   Tuesday, August 15 View Page 2nd in giant tomato   Tuesday, August 15 View Page 12.06 lb zucchini from the Clayton x Brown cross from last year.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page 25.83 lb Kohlrabi, was still really healthy at harvest. Kind of hated to pick it for the fair.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Cantaloupe came in at 38.91 lbs.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Managed a 2nd with the early pollination from our 94 Field Pumpkin. Only weighed 57.3 lbs, turned at day 15 so didn't get a lot of growth on it. Only noteworthy thing about it was it went 21% heavy so some potential there with the seed.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Lunga Squash   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Long gourd from 131 Tobeck   Tuesday, August 15 View Page 104.2 lb Watermelon., which was a cull from the 330.5 Vial plant. With only 2 plants doing well, let this cull go in order to have something for the fair. Didn't seem to impact the main fruit growth rate too much compared to historical curves.   Tuesday, August 15 View Page Even managed a ribbon on a pretty vegetable entry with these orange tomatoes.   Saturday, August 19 View Page Couple tall sunflowers hitting the top of the 12' trellis. Put these in late as an afterthought and haven't done much with them for care.   Monday, August 21 View Page Brought the 510 out of the 1361 Friermood home from the fair today. Thought it was interesting how much more orange it is now compared to the day it was weighed. Gives a better indication of the good color potential of his cross.   Wednesday, August 23 View Page 330.5 Vial DAP 55, 178.5 OTT for estimated weight of 162 lbs. Averaged 3 lbs/day for the last 10 days.   Wednesday, August 23 View Page Dink on the 1170 squash after the plant went down. Turned it up right to grow Cinderella style since it was smashing it's vine and stem. Wasn't the smoothest transition but might give us a squash to weigh   Wednesday, August 23 View Page 1217.5 Vester DAP 55 now 356" OTT for an estimated weight of 1,027 lbs. Averaged 19.4 lbs/day last 10 days Like how the lobes are growing over to fill in the blossom end that seemed underdeveloped for a while.   Wednesday, August 23 View Page This shot shows some color development in the area that's not covered by the blanket very well. Looks like it could be a nice orange with starburst in it if we can get the rest of the pumpkin to match.   Thursday, August 24 View Page 2nd tomato weighed this year nothing to write home about as well, so still letting my tomato challenge teammates down. We are going the right direction though. Problem is not really anything out there that looks like it's going to do much more than this at the moment.   Saturday, August 26 View Page Couple of the tall sunflowers made it to the top of the 12' trellis, one a couple feet or so above.   Monday, August 28 View Page Tall sunflower blossom in the morning. Curious how tall it actually is, but that would mean climbing to the top of the trellis. Think I'll wait until we harvest to see how tall it is. Need to find the tag for it so i remember which seed it was as well.   Thursday, August 31 View Page Best one of the year so far, 3.9 lbs from the 2.72 Greene MegaDom-Dom cross. Have the next round set on the plants now so hopefully can get one more that can help the team during the fall weigh-off season.   Saturday, September 2 View Page 330.5 Vial OTT 189 for Est weight of 190 lbs. Averaged 2.8 lbs/day last 10 days   Saturday, September 2 View Page Cinderella squash not doing much on only one vine. Only put on 15 lbs last 10 days.   Saturday, September 2 View Page Second knot head squash on the 1170 looks like it's starting to grow a little bit though.   Saturday, September 2 View Page 1217.5 Vester slowing down but still gaining weight at DAP 65. OTT 367 for 1,118 Est weight. Averaged 9.1 lbs/day last 10 days. Nows measures just an inch smaller than our previous PB giant from last year.   Wednesday, September 6 View Page Few long gourds hanging on the 131 Tobeck, probably more than what we should let grow to max out results.   Wednesday, September 6 View Page View from the other end of the trellis. Haven't broke 10' yet, but getting closer.   Wednesday, September 6 View Page 370.5 English DAP 50, OTT 195 for 190 lbs est weight. Averaged 4.8 lbs/day last 10 days.   Wednesday, September 6 View Page 3 Bushel gourd plants in the plot. All the intended sets on two of the 3 plants aborted for some reason, but finally seeing some little sets take on them. Only plant showing wear at this stage is the one with the bigger gourd on it showing how much the fruit pulls from the plant. Other two plants turned into a jungle.   Thursday, September 7 View Page 330.5 Vial DAP 70 now at 192 OTT for est weight of 199 lbs. Averaged 1.7 lbs/day last 5 days. Aphid damage really starting to kick in losing a lb/day from previous gains. Failed to mention previous measurement surpassed our best ever melon OTT so everything here on out is a bonus.   Thursday, September 7 View Page Been so focused on the 330.5 Vial that I haven't mentioned the other melon plant in the patch. Decided to grow two on the 284 Dawson to have enough for the weigh-offs this fall which will limit the final weights some. Here is the first one coming in at 170 OTT on DAP 65 for an estimated weight of 141 lbs.   Thursday, September 7 View Page Melon #2 on the 284 Dawson is DAP 55. OTT 163 for 125 lb est weight. Aphids moved into this plant shortly after they took over the 330.5 so gains from here on out will be limited as well.   Thursday, September 7 View Page 1217.5 Vester DAP 70, 370 OTT for est weight of 1,144. Only averaged a little over 5 lbs/day last 5 days.   Thursday, September 7 View Page Butternut on the 103 Jarosh growing OK but don't have a good feel for any weight estimates.   Thursday, September 7 View Page Will be tough to get any good squash/marrow out of this patch. Lost to weeds a while back only hope is there's a hidden gem in there somewhere.   Friday, September 8 View Page The double field pumpkin ended up with a rupture at the blossom end so won't make it to the finish line.   Friday, September 8 View Page Scorpion pepper grown from seeds that were in the seed exchange a couple years ago are starting to turn.   Monday, September 11 View Page Noticed some mice droppings around the pumpkin platform couple nights prior. First night was a bust with a couple of trap misfires but connected on two today. There's a little space under the pumpkin that's pretty inviting for them so will have to be vigilant the rest of the way.   Monday, September 11 View Page 370.5 English DAP 55 up to 202 OTT for estimated weight of 208 lbs. Averaged 3.6 lbs/day last 5 days.   Sunday, September 17 View Page Had a pretty good hailstorm the night before. Did a number on the plants left in the patch which will hurt late season growth going down the stretch.   Sunday, September 17 View Page Anything not covered by a tarp structure sporting some war wounds today. Went through the sheet or blanket covering to mark up the fruit.   Monday, September 18 View Page Wanted to show the difference between the two watermelon plants. The 330.5 Vial was grown on bushel gourd rootstock, which is what I've used in the past. This crown is a little larger than what I've had in the past, but fairly comparable when using this rootstock.   Monday, September 18 View Page This is the 284 Dawson on bottle gourd rootstock. First year using this and looks like I did this plant a disservice by letting two melons go on it. Crown is about twice as big as the BG rootstock and the secondaries are more numerous and bigger as well. Going to have to do a better disciplined trial next year to see if this rootstock will contribute to better daily gains.   Thursday, September 21 View Page There was a discussion about whether the age of a pumpkin would influence the probability of it going heavy to chart. One factor that isn't discussed much is the orientation of the fruit when being measured. OTT of an upright pumpkin will not be the same as one grown on its side unless it happens to be a perfect sphere. An example of this would be this small squash. Measured Cinderella style as grown gives an OTT of 186 for an estimated weight of 151 lbs.   Thursday, September 21 View Page Measured on its side how most are grown gives an OTT of 193.5 for an estimated weight of 169 lbs. That's 7.5"/18 lb difference on a small fruit. The better predicter of final weight will be found out when weighed in a couple of days.   Friday, September 22 View Page Tall sunflower all loaded up ready to head to Nowthen weigh-off.   Saturday, September 23 View Page Squashed weighed in a 172 lbs, which would be either 14.1% heavy using the upright measurements from the way it was grown or only 1.8% heavy using traditional side grown measurements.   Saturday, September 23 View Page Chris did a good job with the Nowthen weighoff. Here he is hamming it up with our tomato entry.   Saturday, September 23 View Page Tomato came in at 3.76 lbs   Saturday, September 23 View Page Ended up getting first in the tall sunflower category at 16'8". This is our best sunflower which is pretty good considering it was a late start with little care. Mother was 20'3" Brown.   Saturday, September 23 View Page Was nice having some competitive categories for non-gpc fruit. Here is our butternut entry which came in at 34 lbs.   Saturday, September 23 View Page Our long gourd entry for this weigh-off came in at 114". Have some longer ones still hanging for upcoming weigh-offs back home.   Tuesday, September 26 View Page There was some discussion about the lack of a marrow chart in the forums. Took the last 3 years of OTT data that had been entered into the GPC database. Excluded some obvious outliers and came up with the beginning of a curve for them. Data was pretty limited, but so far decent R2 for the formula so looks promising. Will find out if future data helps or hurts the curve.   Friday, September 29 View Page Lifting the 1217.5 Vester out of the patch for the weigh-off in Bloomfield   Friday, September 29 View Page Pumpkin safely on the trailer. Final OTT is 389 for an estimated weight of 1311. Anything over 1170 will be a PB.   Friday, September 29 View Page While we have the tractor, might as well save the backs and use it to get the 370.5 English BG out of the patch. Final OTT is 214.5 for and estimated weight of 241 lbs.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Pretty good day at the Bloomfield weigh-off. Took 1st with this 3 lb tomato.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Also managed a 1st for this 116.75" LG that tied our PB from last year.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Tough year for marrows for us. Have a few on the plant, but none that are anything special. This 33 lb one got us a 2nd only because there were only 2 entries.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Lunga Di Napoli squash plants gave us a couple different shapes this year. One was these longer, skinnier ones more like last year's parent squash.   Saturday, September 30 View Page The other shape was these shorter, fatter ones.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Pleasantly surprised by the weight of this squash. Our PB at 52.5 lbs.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Only disappointment for the day was how light the BG went to chart. Weighed 212.5 which was 12% light. Looks like this seed has done well for others though so still have faith in the 370.5 seed for future grows.   Saturday, September 30 View Page Any disappointment in the BG was quickly erased when the pumpkin hit the scale. Never thought we would even be close to this weight this year. 1655.5 beats our previous PB by just shy of 500 lbs and was 26.3% heavy compared to chart.   Tuesday, October 3 View Page Pumpkin wasn't going to last long with the crack and the heat so time to harvest seeds. At 26% heavy figured she would be pretty thick and that was confirmed when the 12" sawzall blade was too short to go through on the initial cuts on top. Had to switch over to a longer hand saw to gain access.   Tuesday, October 3 View Page Most ribs were between 12"-13" with the thickest one coming in at 14"   Tuesday, October 3 View Page Only 8" of space between the top and bottom on the inside. Seed count wasn't the greatest but will have a few extra to share with the clubs if there's any interest. Looks like we were the only ones to grow the 1217.5 Vester this year. Believe Danny's seed deserves to see more dirt and could do something great in the right growers hands, especially if we were able to get it over 1600. Also see pollinator 2287 Sadiq seed grew 3 over a ton this year and tends to go heavy as well so like the prospects of this cross going forward.   Saturday, October 7 View Page Next up was the Anamosa weigh-off. Field pumpkins were a struggle for us this year. Looks like this will be our biggest of the patch this year unless one of the late sets make anything. Mother seed was the 168.7 Baggs.   Saturday, October 7 View Page Finally cracked the 10' barrier with our personal best 120" coming from the 131 Tobeck.   Saturday, October 7 View Page Also finally got a melon over 200 lbs with the 330.5 Vial coming in at a PB 202.5 lbs! Had been dead in the patch for a bit and weighed a few more lbs but was still just under state record when first harvested a few days prior.   Saturday, October 14 View Page Made the Stillwater weigh-off this year as well to see the giants that showed up. First year we were able to hit four different weigh-offs. Other fruit categories were well represented as well this year.   Saturday, October 14 View Page Of course, the one that had everyone guessing what it would weigh before it hit the scales was Charlie's monster   Saturday, October 14 View Page Was lucky to be able to place in a couple categories. Got 2nd with this 3.44 lb tomato from the 9.65 x 5.71 PDX Marley seed   Saturday, October 14 View Page Got 3rd with this 171.5 watermelon. Cross was 284 Dawson x 330.5 Vial and went 6% heavy. Other melon from this plant went 8% heavy so will have to try the Dawson seed again to see what it can do when only raising one fruit on it.   Thursday, October 26 View Page Had a couple other tall sunflowers going. Got shorter the further they were from the sprinkler. This one made 15'9" from the 26'2" Butler seed.   Thursday, October 26 View Page This one was just out of range of the sprinkler and got very little water through the summer. Only got to 11'8" but definitely could have done better with a little more care. Seed was 24'6" Butler.   Sunday, October 29 View Page To finish the year off, had our biggest Kohlrabi ever at 30.88 lbs   Sunday, October 29 View Page Scale weight   Sunday, October 29 View Page On the scale   Sunday, October 29 View Page Scale certification sticker. Thanks to Sheriff for providing the scale on short notice to get an official weight.