Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 7 Entries. Sunday, September 13 View Page One week until our Southern California weigh off and I'm finally getting around to posting my first diary entry as the season is winding down. Here's a rundown of how the season has gone. Sorry if some pictures aren't in the correct orientation. I can't figure out the BP diary anymore. The season started off with the idea that I would just grow for fun, no pressure of competing, no expectations. Just a fun relaxing year. I only made one seed request last winter because when I first saw this pumpkin I knew I had to grow it. It was beautiful orange with great shape and had great genes. It was the 1619.5 Gansert. Thank you so much Norm. I hope I've made you proud! I started the season off by screwing up and adding compost to the patch shortly before I had a soil test done. The results came back skewed and left me having to wing it based off knowledge of my soil and what it usually needs from past years experience. As the season began I started 2 1619's and planted them opposing each other across the patch with the idea of culling down to one plant for this patch. About a month in I was trying out a new spreader/sticker and damaged both plants leaves and the one plant I was favoring took the worst damage. Grudgingly I had to cull my favored plant and go with what I considered the backup plant which was a perfectly fine plant too. After a few weeks it was just a distant memory as the backup plant was growing great and tearing through the patch. Norms 1619.5 Sunday, September 13 View Page My pollinator plant for the 1619 would be my own 1421 (2024) which looked like this. They both had that similar shape in the back end and great color and of course great genes too. Sunday, September 13 View Page Pollination took place on 6/18 with the 4th pumpkin down the main as the other three weren't in the best place and a raccoon also decided two of them were toys to play with and scratched them all up. Unfortunately the 4th pumpkin also got a scratch along its side and I knew it would turn into a huge scar as the pumpkin got bigger so I started looking down the vine for other options when I had the idea that I might be able to train the pumpkin so that the scar would be hidden on the bottom. That worked out perfectly. Sunday, September 13 View Page Day 20 and I wasn't too impressed with the growth so far as it was a couple days behind my best pumpkin I have grown (the 1601). But around day 20 it turned out to be the turning point of my take it easy, relaxing approach to the season as the pumpkins growth kicked into gear and started blowing away PB daily weigh gains growing like I had never seen before. Now the season had become serious! It was time to put myself in gear and give this pumpkin everything I had. The pumpkin put on an average of 55 pounds a day for 3 weeks straight reaching a height of 64 Lbs. a day. By day 30 the pumpkin was sitting at a very respectable 630 lbs. I was having a hard time believing my tape and had to measure twice on a few occasions. I'm sure my neighbors had to have heard me saying "no way!" more than once. I've had growth in the 40's before, but nothing like this. I was telling Norm that this plant was doing amazing things! Around day 35 I starting to get nervous thinking this thing was going to split open and actually did start splitting the stem so I backed off the water to try and throttle it down just a bit but it didn't even seem to really faze it. My wife said we should name it Secretariat because it was just like he was. running his own race. Sunday, September 13 View Page Here we are today less than a week away from the weigh off and she is a true Gourdzilla and a giant beauty! This should be the first 2000 lb pumpkin to be grown in the southern half of California! That's something I thought would never be possible this far south.at least not in my small partially shaded patch. It took a bunch of work, care and researching various things but wow, what a thrilling season! Sunday, September 13 View Page I must have one picture of the salad too. Imagine walking through this forest. ;-) Sunday, September 13 View Page I must have one picture of the salad too. Imagine walking through this forest. ;-)