Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 9 Entries. Thursday, February 20 View Page 2025 season begins! Looking back on my first attempt at a giant pumpkin in 2022… My 808 Grubbs 19 seed was doing great, growing about 25 lbs a day by the chart when mice ate a hole on the bottom of the pumpkin on about day 50 after pollination. This ended the season in mid August, pumpkin was just under 1,000 lbs by the crane scale. Tried again in 2023 with both plants lost to bacterial disease in late July.   Friday, February 21 View Page 2023 before things went south. Drone view of both plants growing from the center of the garden, one growing to the left, and one to the right. This was taken just before pollination.   Saturday, February 22 View Page 2023s season ended here, rot setting in at the blossom end, not sure where this came from, best guess is that it was in the soil from last year.   Saturday, February 22 View Page A closer look at 2023s dead pumpkin. Plan analysis was sent to the lab...   Saturday, February 22 View Page Western Laboratory analysis showed high pseudomonas, I am assuming this was the culprit, but not sure why, plan was dry and little rain, using drip irrigation. Has anyone else delt with something like this?   Sunday, February 23 View Page 2024. I didn’t try to grow pumpkins last year, instead gave the patch a break and tried to eliminate any disease in the soil. Starting with hydrogen peroxide. Ran 2 gallons of food grade peroxide through my drip irrigation system from the fertilizer injector at the end of 2023 season.   Sunday, February 23 View Page 2024. The next step to prepare for the patch for 2025 was solarization. This is a non-chemical way to (hopefully) sterilize the soil using trapped solar heat. Clear plastic covered the entire garden through the summer months to trap heat and try to kill off any pathogens. Mid-summer the plastic sheeting was removed, and the soil was tilled. Then new plastic sheeting was reinstalled shifted over a few feet to cover previously exposed areas.   Sunday, February 23 View Page 2024. Soil prep continued into the fall with many loads of mulched leaves from the lawn-vac added to the patch. Leaf-mulch was about 6 inches deep. This pic was taken before the mulch was worked into the soil with multiple passes on the tiller. More HP on the tiller would have made this a lot easier. The central area was the last to have the solarization cover removed, and leaves were added here later as well.   Sunday, February 23 View Page The patch viewed from above as it currently sits at the end of February. I have my potted tulips buried in leaf mulch waiting for spring. Next week should be much warmer and hopefully this is the end of the winter weather.