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Atlanta, Georgia

This year I had lots of germination problems and the ones that did germinate looked pretty bad. Later the plants got hit by cold and were further damaged. My 699.5 Conley plant started to flatvine and I pulled her out immediately. A better way to say it would be to say that I tore her violently out of the patch because I went thru the flatvining deal last year and won't go there again no matter what seed it is!

Good news though is that my 869.5 Calai is growing nicely but she sure like to grow straight up in the air. She is putting out two leaves at most of the leaf axils though but by removing one the plant looks pretty much in order and about two feet longer than the pics Owen just posted. My digital camera is still not working.

Best regards to all and lets hope that the weather continues to warm up.
Michel

6/14/2005 1:47:37 AM

Austria

Michel,

Ok, i have no comparison to former years and there are not many pics submitted by germen growers in the last time, but as far as i can tell, I`m doing quite ok here for a beginner. My plants are not so far behind those of Owen as it seems. I will post some pics in the next days. I had germination problems really bad. I will have to change my method and number of "involved" seeds for next year. I can have three plants and i have three. If none will flatvine, i can say, i`m quite happy. My first best looking plant is now still suffering a bit from transplanting stress, so the 628 Olsen and 621 Pley have caught up well. I think it helped a lot that i built these green houses for warmer soil and as windbreakers, even when storms and wind remove some of them to my neighbour`s garden every second night ... Despite the bad weather i feel quite optimistic mostly due to the need of bigger greenhouses ... grow babies, grow!

6/14/2005 3:54:26 AM

Itzetown City

Thank you for watching my diary. ;-) But be aware, I´m only one step behind you. LOL

6/14/2005 4:59:19 AM

Austria

Wow Michel, your Calai seems to perform really nice so far. Can`t wait to bury the vines of my plants too, need a little patience though.

6/15/2005 10:38:11 AM

Austria

Being positiv all the time I have to change this now, mentioning my 826 Handy really didn`t like the transplanting from the pot into the patch. Since then it almost refuses to grow (just does a very little), the cots and first true leaf already turning deep yellow ... Having had the best start by far, it is now really looking poor in comparison. Will have to see, what the 474 does in the patch of my buddy.

6/15/2005 10:50:57 AM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Yesterday I was having particularly good luck,I read this post and thought I won't say anything the pumpkin gods won't like it.
Then last night wind took out the large plastic pipe tunnel that I had just put up the day before over the 977 Hester and 873 Blalock.I didn't even know it was windy it was like some sort of crop circle.

6/15/2005 4:29:18 PM

Atlanta, Georgia

Mark,
Did those plants survive?

6/16/2005 1:11:40 AM

Austria

Also hope that those english plants did survive!

This may be interesting for Owen. Having visited my buddy Ede yesterday, I found somebody having good luck with the 474 Olsen. I gave him the seedling considering - to be honest - this was the one withe the smallest leaves, but the most (like 2 ahead) and found his plant yesterday, bigger than mine are. Many really big leaves and the main vine growing VERY aggressiv throwing out numberless leaves (but into the wrong direction, it will have to be trained). I feel happy for him and you know, this is what I really wanted - good competition but obviously I underestimated his "green thumb" and his guano fertilizers. Hope the plant keeps on pushing just as it does now. I expect Ede to get the giant fever and buid a sunnier patch for next year, as he has lots of space to do this. We already have plans to visit Ludwigsburg (as spectators to be realitic ;-)) in October. In case of beginner luck if we have a pumpkin to bring, we will bring ist.

6/16/2005 4:04:57 AM

Knopp, Germany

Thank you for the update on the 474 Heino. I almost grew it myself this year, maybe I should have. It would be nice if you could post a picture (or send me an email) of any pumpkins that it might produce.

Looking forward to meeting you at Ludwigsburg.

6/16/2005 4:38:49 AM

Austria

@Owen: I will certainly keep you informed, how the 628 and 474 are doing and what they finally will have produced. I hope the 474 vine (unfortunatly going exactly with the first leafs direction and running into a wall) can be trained and the plant gets enough space in the patch. Too bad I didn`t have my camera with me yesterday. Next time I will, in oder to update my diary.

6/16/2005 5:07:33 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

Yesterday I went out to water at the main patch and some of the plants look really good!(After pruning a bit...). The 894 Glasier is the nicest and the 497 White (869.5 Calai x Self) is the second best.

Martin's 495 plant is small since it had a late start but it is looking healthy.
The same goes for my 738 Glasier and 855 Kuhn.
I will try to take some pictures soon.

It is very nice at least to hear from all of you and how your plants are doing!

Martin is very secretive this year so I hope he is on track for a thousand pounder!

6/17/2005 1:47:10 AM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Mike and Steel,Yes they survived look battered but will get over it,they are still small lots of new leaves to come.

6/17/2005 3:12:09 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

HaHa, Michel,

I hope you are right! If being secret leads me to the 1000 pounder I will continue to be secretive for sure!
But then, if secrecy really leads to the 1000 pounder I should get quite some competition from Peter, Ingo, etc.

But to be honest, I kept a nice, long diary last year that took quite some time to do and I had hoped to use it as a reference for this year but I found it doesn't really help because the weather just differs too much from year to year to do the same things at the same time each year. If the weather is cool and wet plants are slower but spraying needs to start earlier, etc....
Also, to some degree I have to agree with Kyle Little that all those seedling and plant pictures are not of much help unless you want to show a certain problem or disease (like I did earlier with the wilting problem).
Maybe I will post a few pictures in a few days when the first pumpkins are pollinated and start to grow...

Good luck to all and grow'em big and orange!

Martin

6/17/2005 4:43:22 AM

Wroclaw, Poland (51 N, 17 E)

Out of 15 seeds I started only ONE gave me a nice seedling. when I palnted it out to the patch it got nearly totaly eaten by slugs, and then went double vine. I thought that it was the end, but now the plant seems to do good. It is too small for its age, but well.. it is better than nothing

6/17/2005 11:10:05 PM

Cologne / Germany

Well it´s not secrecy, it´s just the lack of any interesting stuff to report this year for most of us. So far(?)
My plants are doing ok with the warmer weather but the temp dif from 50 at night to 90 at day is outstanding, conditions almost like in a desert. The only effect to recognize is much more flower activity, already removed some females.
Good luck to everyone and maybe we have something to pollinate in July...

6/19/2005 3:26:38 PM

Austria

Update:

Life can be a rollercoaster really. Doing good with the 474 Olsen my grower-friend Ede had al reasons to be optimistic, but it now clearly turned out to be flat vine, the vine tip is very very bushy and the main vine just looks a big computer cable. Too bad, wish I would have kept that one, so he had a healthy plant ... however he will continue growing it, We`ll see ... Michel, I read you would never go through the faltvine deal again, why is that? ... just wondering if there was a chance to grow a plant even it goes flatvine ... couln`t find anything about this in Don Langevin`s book

6/20/2005 2:54:03 AM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I had a flat vine, which resulted in two normal ones... I guess it depends on the severity of the case.

6/20/2005 3:32:02 AM

Cologne / Germany

Double vines..oh well..have this problem actually with 2 plants, but one was pruned and the vine turned single, the other one might need a few days more.
After so much weather problems in spring I´ll go with whatever I have, and also I don´t think minor mutations are a reason to pull a plant so I agree with Jernej here.

6/20/2005 7:40:37 AM

Knopp, Germany

Sorry to hear that Heino. Perhaps Ede will get lucky and it will split into 2 vines. At that point you can decide whick looks better and trim the other off.

6/20/2005 7:55:48 AM

Austria

Thank you all for the kind advices. After all it seems quite likely that flats do doauble-vine. I will tell Ede to read this, he may be grateful for the news, his season does not have have to be over yet.

6/20/2005 8:22:20 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

Steel,
My 582 Hester flatvine last year looked somewhat like yours and there was no way to stop it from doubling and doubling and it got so bad that it could not even grow one centimeter per day, nor could I try to cut the hundreds of growing tips and leave only one. It was discouraging because it was my only plant in the home patch so I ended up with no plant at home.

This year the 869.5 Calai is in the home patch but always wants to grow straight up. The main vine kinked a bit at about the 12 foot mark which is also a great disapointment this year and many secondaries fell over as well. Funny that my last 869.5 Calai two years ago grew very nicely and I don't think I will use this 869.5 to pollinate anything. I'll probably use Martin's 495 to pollinate whenever possible.
Good luck everyone!....and nice plants Peter!

6/22/2005 1:54:49 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

Martin,
I agree with you about how the growers diaries can not help us here very much, and my main reason for not keeping much of a diary is because it's my last try here in Germany of course. I'm not even bothering to record the weather anymore either.
Gotta run!
Michel

6/22/2005 1:56:32 AM