Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 30 Entries. Friday, October 17 View Page Hello Everyone, I'm a new grower and new member to BigPumpkins. I wanted to go ahead and start my New Grower Diary as I've already started my prep for the 2026 growing season with a soil test and some fall amendments to what's going to be my four main patches for next year. Each patch is roughly laid out to be 1,250 sq ft. Saturday, October 18 View Page So here are copies of the two soil tests that I had run in August 2025. Looks like the big things that I needed to work on right away are the soil pH, Calcium, and Organic Matter. Those are what I'm working on this fall, so they have time to kick in by spring... I should note this patch has never been amended before, and just barley grown in for a couple months this summer... Saturday, October 18 View Page I can't figure out how to post more than one image per Diary Entry, so here is my second soil test from August.. Same deal, working on pH, Calcium, and Organic Matter this fall so it has time to kick in by spring. If anyone knows how to post multiple images per Diary Entry, please reply and let me know? Thanks! -- I should note this patch has never been amended before, and just barley grown in for a couple months this summer... Sunday, October 19 View Page Putting down some lime, gypsum, and boron on one of my patches in this pic. Monday, October 20 View Page Getting a little help with the amendments from my robot friend, lol. Tuesday, October 21 View Page Loading up the Gypsum... Tuesday, October 21 View Page Extracting some seeds... Thursday, October 23 View Page 12 cubic yards of compost to be split among my 4 patches. So 3 cy yards each... Thursday, October 23 View Page Extracting some more seeds... Friday, October 24 View Page Got the compost moved out into the patches and a little later on, spread out, and tilled in... Saturday, October 25 View Page More amendments and tilling... Saturday, October 25 View Page Frost finally took everything out... Monday, October 27 View Page Checking in on my clones... Tuesday, October 28 View Page They appear from nowhere... Wednesday, October 29 View Page My 2145.5 McMullen (h) Clone, peaking up from the back, and the 1844.5 Holub Giant Squash (h) Clone in front. Got some Aphids on them early on, but I think I have them all killed off now... Wednesday, October 29 View Page My youngest 2365 Wolf (h) Clone is finally starting to take hold and start a vine. This one wasn't exposed to the Aphids from my earlier clones... Wednesday, October 29 View Page My 1885.5 Werner (h) Clone starting some vines / growth tips. This makes me happy. I was worried about this one for a while. This one also was not exposed to the Aphids from my earlier clones... Friday, October 31 View Page Got my soil sample back from a different patch. This one is several miles from my main patches. I'm really happy with the pH... I should probably note that this patch has never been amended or grown in before... Saturday, November 1 View Page Testing some of my seeds from this year. Five out of Five germination!... Sunday, November 2 View Page Stick them in some soil to experiment with. Why not? lol Wednesday, November 5 View Page My seed germination testlings are growing... I'm not planning to overwinter these, but I might experiment on them some... Wednesday, November 5 View Page Sooo, being the newbie on the block, I didn't think I would ever own one of the famous seeds that everyone talks about. But look what happened to fall into my hands a couple days ago! I'm super excited to give this one a try. It's definatley going into one of my four main patches this coming spring! Friday, November 7 View Page My testlings are growing.. The middle one is a little leggy. The lighting isn't ideal down here in the basement. lol Monday, November 10 View Page Couple of my test seedlings.. Apparently the basement lights at my office are not the proper Kelvin (temperature) for plant growth. See how leggy they are getting... Monday, November 10 View Page Couple more of my test seedlings. Little different setup. Bag over them for humidity and a plastic spoon to help keep them from falling over.. Moving to my grow room at home so they don't get MORE leggy... Wednesday, November 12 View Page Went and got a ton of soil amendments yesterday... Wednesday, November 12 View Page Thoughts on Soil Amendments given my low CEC. So, the CEC number is basically how well the soil will hold the nutrients that I give it. Given that my CEC is pretty low on these new patches that have never been planted, the question comes to mind, should I amend in the fall or wait until the spring. After some research, I think adding my amendments now is probably the best bet as it gives me more time to re-test and adjust if need be. So given my current CEC, 80% of the amendments that I put on now should still be held come spring in my loamy soil. (see attached screenshot). Seems it should hold better than I expected. So looks like I'll be amending this week if the weather permits, retilling, and replanting cover crops, lol.. Then I'll give it a few months and re-test to see where I'm at. Nitrogen isn't a worry, because I can feed that. My pH is the biggest concern, so I'll be home testing that a few extra times to make sure I get it in that sweet spot by spring!... Wednesday, November 12 View Page So, now the thought comes to mind, how much Peat Moss would it take to raise the CEC in one of my 1250 sq ft patches from 15 to 25 (loam soil)? Roughly, 35 cu yards... That's 249 bags of peat moss from Ruarl King (3.8 cu ft ea) for one patch. Which is basically $5,000 USD for ONE patch.. That's a big NOPE for me, lol.. Alternativley I could do 40 cu yards of shredded / composted leaf matter to achieve the same results.. So it looks like I'm going to be collecting leaves in the future!... Thursday, November 13 View Page Some of my clone cuttings seem happy this morning! Thursday, November 13 View Page This is an expensive hobby! I think I need a sponsor... Anyone want to sponsor me? :)