Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 117 Entries. Monday, March 27 View Page The soil sample is in the lab, the weather has been very nice and both patches have just been subsoiled. Sub soiling is the breaking up of soil that has hardened over winter. It also breaks up the hard pan that is created by the repeated rototilling of the soil. The arrow in the picture points to the subsoiling tine that goes down 18Inches . This is at least 6 to 12" below the hard pan. This helps the movement of water both up and down depending on the situation. Wishing everyone a great year and broken records.   Sunday, April 2 View Page This is the the line up. Seeds are soaking. This is my earliest start.   Sunday, April 2 View Page The CO2 distribution setup is installed. Now if anyone can tell me how to keep the greenhouse cool while I try to keep it enclosed to trap in the CO2, please let me know. It will be quite a juggling act as it is quite warm in there already and all the sides are not installed yet !!   Monday, April 10 View Page Heating cables and air space heater both working to make a nice comfortable environment for the transplants. 70f in the soil and 66 inside the cloche. This is the 1st time I've used space heaters and without them you can never get the air temperature high enough.   Saturday, April 15 View Page One of 2 Mendi seeds for this year. Also it is my earliest start time and transplant which usually is around the 1st few days in May. Let's hope it makes a difference.   Saturday, April 15 View Page This is the 2nd Mendi seed I'm trying this year. Usually I would transplant 2. This year I'm only planting 1 to lessen any competition that might be occurring. The backup plant is going to be transplanted to a much larger pot.   Saturday, April 15 View Page Not quite sure why the pics are going in sideways. Please let me know if I'm missing a trick ?#**?   Sunday, April 16 View Page I bought a chainsaw in 1972. The salesman gave me a chain/bar cover that said" The guy who dies with the most toys....WINS!" This is one of those toys. The CO2 system was set up this morning with the help of super growers of that other good stuff lol.   Thursday, April 20 View Page Another toy....4 probe meat thermometer at 7 am Orange outside air temp(greenhouse) Green inside cloche air temp Blue soil temp Purple heated soil temp   Thursday, April 20 View Page The greenhouse is working great! Our spring weather has been cold wet and lacking sunshine. These are the numbers at 11am on a cold, windy, and cloudy day.   Thursday, April 20 View Page My CO2 experiment has been a little disappointing. Mainly, I think, it's because the greenhouse is not airtight enough. Need to work on that. Went through $40 CO2 in 3 days!!   Friday, April 21 View Page Desperate times call for desperate measures. The hoops and soil are warm but we have had very little sunshine. We'll see if the light helps. I can see from the picture that I should lower the light by quite a bit.   Thursday, April 27 View Page A cubic yard of Perlite in the second patch of 700 sq ft.   Friday, April 28 View Page Our topiarized cherry tree in full bloom   Friday, April 28 View Page Nice stretch of warm weather finally arriving. First time unheated soil temp (64 F) over 60. Air temp with all doors and windows open and all fans running (91 F). Growth is really coming on strong.   Friday, April 28 View Page The Mendi 2356   Sunday, April 30 View Page First year for CO2. Because the greenhouse is not air tight , the CO2 level varies from a high of 1100 to 700ppm's. As I plug the leaks in the poly, the CO2 lasts longer and longer and is more stable.   Monday, May 1 View Page Amendments spread and rototilled in. Heating cables installed. Hoop is going up. I had 4 plants that were transplanted from 1 gallon pots to 3 gallon pots. These were to be my backups and the best one was to be chosen for baby #3. And....the winner is.....a Barron 2118. I'm very happy with this choice as it has given me a personal best and a couple of 1st place finishes. The 1st 2 years, the 2118's were grown in a greenhouse. This one will be grown outside after it outgrows the hoop.   Monday, May 1 View Page The 2118 Barron   Monday, May 8 View Page Amazingly this root sprouted today and cried out to be buried.   Monday, May 8 View Page Vine burying on May 8th is nuts!!!...but you gotta do what you have to do.   Monday, May 8 View Page The vine burying mixture. The very dark material is compost from the landfill. The light soil is mostly sand and is a lawn mixture. The small left addition is mycorrhizae. the The middle is Azos. The right pile is Gaia Green 4-4-4.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page A heat wave is predicted and the misters are installed and ready. We had some record breaking highs in the next few days. Ironically the same day last year we had record breaking lows!!   Friday, May 12 View Page 2356 Mendi in the foreground. 2183 Mendi in the background.   Friday, May 12 View Page 2356 Mendi out growing the hoop.   Monday, May 15 View Page A female on the the 3rd secondary of the 2356 Mendi. Also a female on the main at 9ft. I taking this as a sign that the soil is well balanced. So far the only thing I've fed all 3 plants is water.   Monday, May 15 View Page Last night was very hot and dry so I decided to leave the greenhouse open all night for the 1st time this year. What I forgot to do was shut off the misters. They ran for 20 hrs. straight. Thank goodness for the interval timers. The plants loved it!   Friday, May 19 View Page The Mendi 2356 and 2183. Even though both seeds started at the same time , the 2356 is about twice the volume of the 2183. Both plants throwing out females.   Friday, May 19 View Page Barron 2118. This is a surprise as it was grown outside in a hoop. It was transplanted 2 weeks after the Mendi 2183 which was grown inside the greenhouse. Both are the same size. The Barron is also throwing out female flowers.   Wednesday, May 24 View Page A baby forming on the Mendi 2356 at 15 ft. Fingers are crossed for a May pollination !!!   Thursday, May 25 View Page The 1st secondary was terminated this morning. I terminated it 5 ft from the edge of the greenhouse to allow space for secondaries close to the pumpkin to gain extra length. The reasoning is that the nutrients won't have as far to travel to the pumpkin and to develop new growth a little later in the season.   Saturday, May 27 View Page Let's hope the pumpkin will be as big, beautiful and orange as the azalea in our back yard !!   Saturday, May 27 View Page The 1st secondary of the 2183 Mendi to be terminated 5ft from the edge.   Saturday, May 27 View Page Aaannnd presenting...the aaamazing...2356 Mendi !!   Monday, May 29 View Page What a difference 2 days make !! The 2356 Mendi opened this morning along with 2 male flowers from the 2183 Mendi. What timing eh?   Monday, May 29 View Page Pic of the baby   Thursday, June 1 View Page A friend asked me how I vine bury so here is a series on my vine burying technique. The pile of soil is 2/3rds compost and 1/3rd sandy lawn mixture. I add 2 handfuls of Gaia Green 4-4-4, 2 handfuls of Mykos and a handful of Azos.   Thursday, June 1 View Page It's all mixed well with a rake.   Thursday, June 1 View Page It's placed in pails and taken to the vines.   Thursday, June 1 View Page I never touch the vine unless I'm removing a tertiary or the tendrils. When the vine lies flat, I mound a lot of soil on top of the vine.   Thursday, June 1 View Page Hopefully you can see how much soil is on top of the vine.....a lot!   Thursday, June 1 View Page This shows the vine growing over the drip tape. The vine burying mixture is piled on top of the vine and the drip tape. As I said before I never touch the vine or the drip tape. Drip tape is made to emit water even if it's buried.   Thursday, June 1 View Page This is showing a small flower starting to grow out of the vine on top of the drip tape.   Thursday, June 1 View Page Vine mixture is piled up on everything. Those flowers will grow right through it all.   Thursday, June 1 View Page If you look closely at the base of the leaves you will see the little white top roots trying to find water and nutrients. If I see them and can reach them, I'll bury those with more soil. So that's it. About as simple as vine burying can be. No messing around with the vines. No digging trenches that mess around with the vines. No moving drip tape that messes around with the vines. No worries about flowers. If there was a tertiary that you wanted to keep just bury it as well. They all will grow out on their own.   Sunday, June 4 View Page Mendi 2356 #2 pollinated by Mendi 2183. 13 secondaries behind it.   Sunday, June 4 View Page The "S" bend was created for Mendi 2356 #1. You can see #1, 2 and three in this picture. #2 was pollinated today. The plant is 24-25 ft long. The amazing thing is that I still haven't added any fertilizer, foliar or drench, since it's been planted. The only nutrients it gets is from the soil and the burying mixture containing 4-4-4. I credit the Langley soil calculator for giving the plant perfectly balance soil. As the Patons told me...."if the soil is good everything will follow". I really believe that now !!!   Sunday, June 4 View Page All this sunshine we're getting is also fantastic for the blueberries.   Sunday, June 4 View Page The Mendi 2356 plant.   Sunday, June 4 View Page 2356 Mendi #2 pollinated by 2183 Mendi.   Monday, June 5 View Page 2183 Mendi #1 pollinated by self.   Friday, June 9 View Page This year I'm going to use a 4'x 4' piece of 3/4" plywood under the pumpkins. This piece has been painted to protect it from water and sprayed with a layer of contact cement to hold a thin sheet of ABS plastic. The smooth surface of the plastic is intended to allow the the pumpkin to move on the growing board with little effort. Thanks to Dave Stelts for tips with this growing board !! Btw...this is a simplified form of his method.   Saturday, June 10 View Page 2356 Mendi DAP 12   Saturday, June 10 View Page The ABS plastic glued on to the plywood. Sure looks like a happy place for a pumpkin to grow on. We'll know in about a 100 days.   Sunday, June 11 View Page This is the Barron 2118 and the 1st female pollinated is on Dap 1   Monday, June 12 View Page The Mendi 2356 is on the growing board. Should be a little easier to move the pumpkin around.   Wednesday, June 14 View Page Mendi 2183 #1 Dap 9. Looking good . Hope she takes! 20 secondaries behind her.   Wednesday, June 14 View Page My sea of leaves. Mendi 2356 to the right. Mendi 2183 to the left.   Tuesday, June 20 View Page Mendi 2183 Dap 13   Wednesday, June 21 View Page I plumbed the fertigation system into the misters for fungicides. It worked better than I had hoped for. This should help in controlling my serious infestations of powdery mildew. I'll let you know in about a hundred days.   Monday, June 26 View Page 2356 Mendi Dap 28 OTT 211 lbs Averaging over 25 lbs per day   Tuesday, June 27 View Page The stem is cracking on my Barron 2118. It hasn't gone into the pumpkin yet. Will it survive?? Stay posted Also, would anyone know how to contact Brian Langley, the fellow who invented the Langley soil amendment estimator.   Saturday, July 1 View Page Happy Canada Day ! Off to a car show and some R&R with good friends.   Monday, July 3 View Page Mendi 2356 Dap 35 529 lbs. The 2356 is slightly off the pace of my 1911 but we are maintaining a 24 day advantage. It was pollinated 28 days earlier than the 1911.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page This is the Mendi 2183 Dap 30 307 lbs BUT it's growing backwards !! You can see that it overhangs the board by 3-4 inches. When I placed it on the board it was 4 inches from the edge. You can see from the bends in the main vine the effect of it all.   Tuesday, July 4 View Page It was amazingly easy to slide it on the plastic sheet.   Friday, July 7 View Page Some thoughts on the terminated end of secondary vines. In my patch after terminating a vine it wants to start shooting upwards. Often 2 nodes would be up in the air and not able to root. I wait for the vine to settle to the ground and hold it down with 2 bamboo stakes. Then simply bury the whole end.   Friday, July 7 View Page The buried end. If there were 50 terminated ends then possibly the plant could gain 100 extra roots. Significant I think.   Saturday, July 8 View Page Mendi 2356 Dap 40 734 lbs   Friday, July 14 View Page This diagram shows the way I grew all 3 plants this year. It was suggested by Ruben Mendi and I think it has helped to keep the plant a little more vigorous. So all 1st few secondaries are terminated 4 ft short of the border. Then #6 secondary is trained to grow backwards to fill the space left. #7 secondary is trained to grow forwards to fil the sides of the patch. In so doing you would have younger fresher leaves and vines close to the pumpkin feeding more directly than very old leaves on the first few secondaries.   Friday, July 14 View Page This picture shows the space left on the side of the patch to allow #6 secondary to grow into. Also note the sticks propping up the last leaves ( thank you Ian Paton) of each secondary as mine tend to flop over and kink the stem. Every leaf counts.   Friday, July 14 View Page This crack developed very early but has healed (luckily) beautifully. There is also another crack down the left side.   Friday, July 14 View Page This crack just developed and its no surprise as this pumpkin is growing like a pig.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page If you're OC like me , these gadgets will give some good information. They're water flow meters.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Read the instructions to see what info can be garnered from these gadgets.   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Barron 2118 Dap 38 Ott 269   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Mendi 2183 Dap 45 Ott 347   Wednesday, July 19 View Page Mendi 2356 Dap 51 Ott 365 1101 lbs   Thursday, July 20 View Page The 2356 Mendi is growing over the blossom end so much so that I can't get my cell phone under to get a picture. Since I'm growing on a hard board, I can't dig a hole to protect it. Looks like the pumpkin may protect itself by growing a hollow space around the blossom. Since I never water overhead or foliar feed , it never gets wet under there. I'll keep a fan blowing in that direction.   Monday, July 24 View Page When the crack formed....agony. When the crack grew longer and wider....disappointment. When the crack healed...ecstasy !!! A menral roller coaster for sure. Dry sulphur brushed onto any wound seems help 99% of the time.   Friday, July 28 View Page 2356 Mendi Dap 60 1311 lbs   Thursday, August 3 View Page Dap 60 Ott 405   Thursday, August 3 View Page A picture for the 2183   Friday, August 11 View Page Barron 2118 Dap 61 ......a milestone.....1011 lbs   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Barron 2118 Dap 71 1139 lbs. Plant is in great shape. The leaves, size of plant and shape are the same as other 2118's I've grown but the color is totally different. This one is much prettier for sure and has a chance to beat my outside PB of 1379 lbs.   Tuesday, August 22 View Page Previous picture was old ...sorry. This is the new pic of the 2118   Wednesday, August 23 View Page 2356 Mendi Dap 86 1631 lbs. This was the 1st to pollinate and was the largest in the patch for a long time. At one time it was 200 lbs more and now its 200 lbs less than Mama Bear. Interestingly, all my biggest pumpkins over the years grow toward the South.   Friday, August 25 View Page Happy 78th Birthday to me !!! In Chinese culture 8 is a lucky number. Papa Bear(Mendi 2356) is Dap 88. Mendi 2183(Mama Bear) Dap 82. Weight 1888lbs!!   Monday, August 28 View Page The 2118 Barron is doing so well that it was decided to build a temporary greenhouse over the top. The moment we covered the patch you could feel the heat building. We built this in 1 day. Hope it holds up to the wind and rain. This pumpkin is dedicated for the Terminator weighoff in Portland Oregon on Oct 21st. Wow 54 more days to grow !!!   Friday, September 15 View Page Photographing the photographer from the newspaper   Monday, September 18 View Page Trouble in paradise !!!! This soft spot developed in a growing crack on the Mendi 2356 3 days ago. The dark spot on the crack looks bad but is very hard. The pumpkin flesh has been scooped down to where its very firm . Hopefully it will dry up and heal over. Have 2 fans on it help the situation. 80% of the lesion is dry but a small spot is not cooperating. This is the one that was intended for Half Moon Bay. October 9th is a long time away !!   Tuesday, September 19 View Page My sincerest condolences to Richmond Dave on the death of his Papa. He was rotten to the core. Taping in at 1750 lbs he could have died from obesity.   Wednesday, September 20 View Page A seniors walking group came by for a patch tour and they are posing with Mama, my biggest pumpkin. Circ 18 feet. It will be going to California along with Baby, my smallest. They will be lifted by a crane truck on Sunday. The excitement is growing not only for the weighoffs but for the 1000 mile drive from Richmond to California. One of my worries was what I was going to do with the pumpkins for the week between weighoffs. Someone suggested that I contact Leonardo Urena. I Facebooked him and he replied in 5 minutes and offed his home to store the trailer and pumpkins. Now that's camaraderie !! Thank you Leonardo !   Sunday, September 24 View Page I think this good be nominated for a Howard Dill Award for more reasons than one !!   Sunday, September 24 View Page We have lift off!!   Sunday, September 24 View Page California here we come !!   Saturday, September 30 View Page I won !!!! at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Sacramento. 2212 lbs. It has become the largest weighoff in the world !! There were 58 entries which might have broken a record. Brian Myers and all the people involved couldn't have done a better job. Many thanks to all of them.The long 950 mile drive was well worth the effort. Now onto Half Moon Bay.   Saturday, September 30 View Page I won !!!! at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Sacramento. 2212 lbs. It has become the largest weighoff in the world !! There were 58 entries which might have broken a record. Brian Myers and all the people involved couldn't have done a better job. Many thanks to all of them.The long 950 mile drive was well worth the effort. Now onto Half Moon Bay.   Tuesday, October 3 View Page We were treated to a fabulous tour of the Hudson Winery by Leonardo Urena. Leonardo has created the most amazing garden for the winery visitor and wine tasting center. His collection of and knowledge of cacti is 2nd to none ! It's truly beautiful. The section of the huge garden that this picture was taken is where he grows amazing variety of unusual plants and flowers. In the same garden is the full array of edible veggies that are sold in a little store in Napa . It's truly amazing that a pumpkin brought me to this garden of Eden.   Tuesday, October 3 View Page Leonardo 's hall of gourds.   Tuesday, October 3 View Page One of Leonardo's amazing cactus   Sunday, October 8 View Page A great time at Cameron's Pub, a gathering that has a 50 yr history as long as the Half Moon Bay weighoff. This is the growers meeting, the night before the big day. A big shout out to Cameron for hosting all the growers, their wives and support team with free food and drinks. What a party!! Grow a pumpkin and join the fun.   Monday, October 9 View Page 30,000 reasons why you might want to break the world record. The ultimate prize for Travis at the post weighoff luncheon at Half Moon Bay. Congrats Travis!! The drive across America was worth it!!   Friday, November 3 View Page The 2183 has been an amazing plant. It grew aggressively and was relatively resistant to disease. It grew into a nice shape. It was solid and tough. Cut off the vine on Sept 24th. Transported to California and back to Canada. On display through hot and freezing weather and still did not have 1 soft spot or blemish when we cut her open 38 days later for seeds. And now it's giving more seeds than any other pumpkin I've grown....about 500.   Friday, November 3 View Page End of season soil sample sent for analysis just because I'm curious. I really don't think it tells you much but we'll see when I get results .   Sunday, November 5 View Page Amazingly there were 590 of the biggest seeds I've ever grown. I'll be starting a chat in "General Discussion" for the best way to send seeds to the USA. When crossing the border from Canada into the USA with a pumpkin, the border patrol never asks anything about the pumpkin itself. When crossing with seeds only, we would get hauled into Agriculture and questioned for 1/2 hour!! Go figure !!   Sunday, November 5 View Page This is Trevor Halliday with 1 of his Howard Dill winners. He's the rising pumpkin growing star in Maple Ridge British Columbia. His 1st year was a 700 pounder. His 2nd year was 2 x 1400 pounders. This is his 3rd year. 1742, 1692.5 and 1028 lbs for a jacket winning grand total of 4462.5 pounds !! PLUS 2 of them were Howard Dill winners !! AND he grew these outside with no greenhouse !! Pretty awesome....eh ??   Sunday, November 19 View Page Some growers were asking about my CO2 setup. Main generator was this space heater with an oscillating fan behind it to push the CO2 throughout the green house. It generated a lot of CO2 in a short period of time raising levels from 400 too 1400 ppm in about 10 minutes. Once the level reached 1400 I shut it off and turned the compressed CO2 system on.   Sunday, November 19 View Page This is the "black box" that regulates the compressed CO2 levels. You set the high and low levels and it will turn the regulator valve on or off. I found that a tank of CO2 did not last very long(3 days) and it was quite a chore and expense to go get another tank. So the reason that I couldn't use the space heater continuously was because it gave off too much heat. Even though the system was very clumsy I think it did the job of making the plant grow very fast. A female was pollinated at 15 ft on May 28th!! Will use CO2 again next year but will devise a better system.   Sunday, November 19 View Page Forgot to mention that the CO2 black box has a continuously operating fan which is sampling the CO2 levels constantly. It should also be placed at the same level as the leaves...about 3 ft above ground level. CO2 only works with sunshine so it shouldn't be used throughout the night.   Sunday, December 10 View Page Some of the 2212 seeds developed these really ugly black spots. These are the worst and some had no spots at all. The pumpkin was harvested Sept 24th and seeds removed Nov 2nd. I thought I would test a few to see if it was a problem.   Sunday, December 10 View Page They all germinated normally.   Sunday, December 10 View Page I let them grow a bit on the kitchen table in the zip lock bag(not ideal conditions). Then I teased a couple of them out of the paper towels and transplanted them in ProMix as I would normally do.   Sunday, December 10 View Page Seeds in 1 gallon pots.   Sunday, December 10 View Page A closeup of the plant that doesn't seem to show any signs of malformation. I'm going to conclude that the blacks spots are insignificant. One thing I did before filing the seeds was to rinse the seeds in a 10% solution of bleach for 1 minute to eliminate any disease that might have caused the black spots. Conclusion: seeds are normal and grown under very crude conditions and rough handling.   Wednesday, December 13 View Page I've heard back from a few growers who have experienced similar spots on their seeds and they all assure me that the seeds are good. All of them soaked their seeds in a 10:1 bleach solution for 1 minute and then rinsing with clean water before germinating.   Wednesday, December 13 View Page This is a 2356 Mendi x 2183 Mendi. It taped 1743 lbs when it developed a soft spot 2 weeks before weighoffs. As you can see it grew over it's blossom end. I have lots of seeds. Send me an email if you would like any.