Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 16 Entries. Saturday, June 15 View Page Hi & welcome. Both about 3 ft long. Switching the gordo bushel gourds over to this diary... the tomatoes and general kvetching will be under my "little ketchup" banner. Ya gotta be blossom down to be in this diary. So yes the plan is that the big bushel gourd attempts will be blossom down... Have a good year, folks! Ps you can only see three in this pic but there are actually 7 barrels of grass clippings now, which are raising the temp in the hut by about 20 degrees. There is no heater, the little white heater is broken, its only being used as a fan.   Saturday, June 15 View Page The rain is cold (50's) but am hopeful that if I allow the rain and dampness around the plant it will inspire the worms to do their thing. Six barrels of grass and half a truckload of dairy manure so they've got a lot to eat. I want them to get busy! The rain is cold but so is my well water. Havent got any barrels set up for sun-warmed water yet.   Saturday, June 15 View Page I have noticed a bit of this dark leaf tip thing on the bushel gourds and I wasnt sure if it was normal, but now I see it on the tomato companion plant also. Is this a combo of too much nitrogen plus too much potassium? Any help is appreciated. I'm better at I.D.-ing deficiencies than excesses! I'm guessing excess chloride also, maybe? Contact info for this diary: wsu_brandon @ hotmail.com   Friday, June 21 View Page One of the hotter solstices we've had here in Washington. Solarizing the soil where the plants will go.   Friday, June 28 View Page Gourds looking perfect. Under plastic today easing their way back into fully sunny weather after a cool cloudy day. The real challenge begins now, because so far I've just treated them like pumpkins... I will be in unfamiliar territory soon as I have never grown a bushel gourd.   Sunday, June 30 View Page Looking perfect. The companion AG plant (circled in blue) showing a zinc deficiency though, so I tripled the zinc. Might have to add phosphous as a foliar to give the plants both zinc and phosphorus. Zinc belongs under the plant because its immobile, phosphorus could be foliar fed because its mobile... to avoid chemical conflicts. Thats my understanding of it. There are so many ways I could be wrong about all of this. Maybe Travis knows. Anyhow, looking good. Unsure how to take it to the next level. I think I'll just keep feeding the worms and see how it goes!   Saturday, July 6 View Page Just tracking progress here. They've been slow but I think that will change as soon as I start the new fertilizer regimen. Very warm days cool nights this week. Some minor details I will note: the Brown has had some minor leaf disease, like anthracnose or something, I'm removing any disease as I find it, also removing dead flowers, trying to keep the plant in pristine condition as long as possible. There have been some bug bites on the vines and one secondary got a bit of sun scald, it was heading towards crowding some other vines so I just removed it rather than deal with it. The Brown also wilted slightly today while the Sherwood did not. A bit unfair to judge yet because the Sherwood is closer to the sprinkler and the Brown gets more a.m. sunshine. Last, the females have been reasonably sparse on the secondaries, somewhat abundant on the tertiaries, and of course none on the mains. There is a female that may open this evening so I will probably pollinate it. If nothing else I will fry it up like a zucchini when its grenade sized. There's no other blossoms to get excited about yet. But a late July pollination should be ok, generally good/temperate fall weather here.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Potential keeper on the Sherwood. On a centrally located secondary. I might limit the Sherwood plant to about 150 sq ft. I might let the Brown plant get a bit bigger. The bucket will keep the direct sun off it for now.   Monday, July 8 View Page Learning a lot about bushel gourds! I think what I am learning from the bushel gourds will help me grow a bigger pumpkin!   Monday, July 8 View Page Leaf off the Ciesielski bushel gourd.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page Tried to pollinate Sherwood bg at 5 am. Flowers still open but this may not work. Dew on plants, and flowers damp, but I did find some dry pollen inside the male flowers. If it takes it will be the keeper. Possible keeper on the Brown... might open tonight or tomorrow night.   Thursday, July 11 View Page Its 'girls gone wild' here at midnight. The patch is transitioning from "I dont know what I am doing" to "maybe I can try to grow a state record". I am quite happy with this.   Thursday, July 11 View Page Not something I've ever seen at the grocery store, but I will cook these and see if they are like a zucchini. Supposedly edible and commonly eaten in the tropical areas where they grow. Maybe make "bushel gourd bread" if I missed one? Trying not to miss any. I'll try to cull them when they bloom, because any errant green gourds hiding under dense green leaves could easily get to 10 lbs before I spot them.   Thursday, July 11 View Page Its looking like I may have set a gourd a day ahead of Steve's monster, and another a day after. I've bookended the greatest gourd ever grown! It does get confusing though because they are pollinated at night so the DAP would reall have to be the NAP night-after-pollination. My plants are not as big as his nor growing as fast as his. Soon I'll know if this matters.   Friday, July 12 View Page The 193 Sherwood plant. I noticed that at 12 ' the plant switched to making gourds on all the secondaries. Before that I was only getting gourds on the tertiaries. I did an uncontrolled pollination on the Brown bushel gourd, i.e. I mixed pollen from both plants. I probably should have done a controlled pollination. Somehow I messed up the fertilizer and both plants are flush with too much potassium and nitrogen. Also, had to switch to non-organic on these. The main roots were getting sketchy so they got soaked in daconil. Last of all, measuring the growth rates, they are growing about 4" per day which is both a nutrient and a cool dry climate issue. Thats haf the pace of Steve's plant. They might enjoy a hoophouse/ being under plastic. I have enough pvc, and a large enough sheet of plastic. I think I'll have to do this. Washington state just isnt tropical Africa, not even during the summer.   Monday, July 15 View Page Might be pollinated. 193 Sherwood. Added a bit of plastic over the plant for shade, humidity, radiant heat loss at night. I think they would do better in a fully enclosed greenhouse.