Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 27 Entries. Saturday, February 24 View Page This will be my first season of growing big pumpkins. Last year, my wife and I stood with our kids at the Irvine Railroad weigh-off and got hooked. The backyard grass comes out in a week (after a social event my wife wants to host), and I’ll mend the soil a bit before adding drip irrigation. We have a good deal of clay the deeper you go, and some heavy rains have saturated us over the last month. Looking forward to what this year brings!   Sunday, March 10 View Page Small update, the tiller I bought works great. I hadn't watered my lawn in 6 months, and it was still thriving. The constant rain kept it alive, despite my hope it would have died off long ago. I threw some grub killer out, noticed quite a few out there when I turned the soil. I need to mix in some soil amendments and compost, then begin laying out the drip watering hose with my automatic sprinkler system. My neighbor was getting rid of a 30' strip of turf. We inherited it, and it'll be the pathway to the hot tub during the growing season. No turning back now!   Monday, April 8 View Page Started seeds a day ago. Already have 2 pushing through at a little over 24 hours under my light. Soil surface temps hold at 76* with my setup on the temp gun. I am going to need to move to larger containers, I don’t know what I was thinking with these little things. Rookie mistake.   Tuesday, April 9 View Page 2023 Andrusz (brown pots) and 894 Rickard (black pots) 48 hours in. Hoping to see more movement this time tomorrow.   Friday, April 12 View Page Progress report: Growth! Looks like one dud seed, but I’m not concerned. Huge thanks to KC Kevin. Picked up a couple 1708’s from him today, they are pictured front right in the photo.   Sunday, April 14 View Page Picked up a used IBC tote locally. Time to clean it and get the irrigation system in place.   Monday, April 22 View Page Been extremely busy in non-pumpkin life. Haven’t taken many pictures as a result, but imagine the same plants as above…. Just bigger! As of today, the plants are in the ground!   Friday, May 3 View Page It’s been a minute, here’s an update. This is my true first day off in about 3 weeks, so I found some time to snap photos. I’ve been hand watering twice a day because my irrigation is still in progress. Well, my wife has been doing it while I’m away, then I’ve been catching the second watering. Hoping to make the waterings more frequent with less quantity per instance with my pump setup. I have 3 plants going in identical shade covers. Still learning to read the leaves.   Friday, May 3 View Page 2023 Andrusz   Friday, May 3 View Page 1708 Donahue   Friday, May 3 View Page 894 Rickard   Sunday, May 26 View Page Ive got a few updates to write about. Here we go! A couple weeks back I cracked the main vine on my Rickard. It slowly got worse, turned into a heck of a kink, and the plant overall has not been doing all that great. I planted one of my backup / crash test plants and it’s very likely going to take over as my 3rd plant. My other plants are doing good. Outgrowing their shade structures. I purchased a good meter and I discovered the PH from the city water is 8.2. It honestly surprised me it was that high.   Friday, May 31 View Page Photo update. Bigger shade cloths are on the way. Built the trellis in the background last weekend for the wife. Also, our sweet corn is doing almost as well as all the weeds on our hill.   Monday, June 3 View Page New larger shades are in and at 40%. Old ones were accidentally 70%. The 3rd plant is still on the small side so it’ll get a shade upgrade another day.   Thursday, June 13 View Page 2023 pollination attempt #1, courtesy of my wife while I’m working. The 1708 looks to be on track for pollination this weekend.   Sunday, June 16 View Page A week makes a bit of a difference!   Sunday, June 16 View Page Father’s Day “Tea Time”   Sunday, June 16 View Page Forgot to attach the photo   Monday, June 17 View Page 1708 pollination day   Tuesday, June 25 View Page Here’s the 1708 at 7 DAP. The first pollination of the 2023 didn’t take, and I should have another attempt in a couple days. We’ve had an absolute scorcher of a heatwave the last few days and so far the plants are surviving, minus a leaf or two.   Thursday, June 27 View Page In another “I’ve got a lot to learn” moment, here’s my tissue results. Big thanks to the original, and much wiser Kevin from Mission Viejo for always offering sound advice when I need it!   Tuesday, July 2 View Page The 2023 plant has been a bit of a saga, but here we are 4 DAP, crossed with the 1708. This is the 3rd attempt, the 1st never took and the 2nd had seeds in the blossom, so we aborted it.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page Here’s the 1708, 14 DAP.   Saturday, July 6 View Page Couple changes - My wife has called dibs on the area where the 3rd vine was. That plant is now gone to make way for her colorful & weirdly shaped decorative pumpkin plants. I mean, she did let me take over the entire backyard. I guess she can have a piece of it back :). I put up 20x30 shade cloths this morning, slightly larger than the old ones. I should have used this size from the beginning.   Monday, July 8 View Page Man this is fun. The fruit on my 1708 Donahue plant is estimated at 121 lbs , DAP 20. The fruit on my 2023 Andrusz plant is estimated at 8 lbs, DAP 10.   Friday, July 12 View Page As promised to the wife, she gets her own little garden to plant her decorative pumpkins in. She’s already outside breaking it in, Halloween isn’t far away. I’m certain I didn’t make it big enough now that I’ve stepped back from it, but it’s a start!   Friday, July 12 View Page Tomorrow is DAP 25 for the 1708 (pictured) and DAP 15 for the 2023.