Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 21 Entries. Thursday, January 2 View Page Something cheery to brighten this January day. This pumpkin went 500.5, and was an orange/orange cross (608 Ollila X 1432 Northrup). It should have been bigger. The plant was awesome, but suffered through nickel sized hail in mid-June which caused my plants to stop for about 10 days. Wednesday, January 8 View Page Here is a bit more on the pumpkin on page one (January 2nd) of this year's diary... a little re-cap from last year. Here is a section of the main vine on harvest day. As you can see, the vine suffered severe damage back on June 12th, but eventually healed. But, the fruit went very light. I think it was like trying to draw water through a pinched straw. Wednesday, January 8 View Page Another shot of my damaged vine. Of the four plants that I had in the patch, two had severely damaged mains (such as this) and two had their mains chopped off! Yeah... Wednesday, January 8 View Page Now, here is roughly the same section of vine back on June 12th, 2013. That huge hit came from a hailstone. It later healed, but the vine was permanently degraded in my estimation. Wednesday, January 8 View Page Here is a shot of the damaged leaves of that sad day. By the time I got home from work I could not walk in the patch without sinking into the soil, up to my ankles, because the ground was so saturated. I'm estimating that there were several inches of (large) hailstones piled up all over. So why show all this? My 500.5 is a true orange/orange cross, which I think has much more potential than 500. The plant itself, the 608 Olilla, turned out to be the best plant I've ever had once it recovered from the storm. If anyone wants to grow it, shoot me a message. ;-) Thursday, January 9 View Page Here is the 500.5 (608 Ollila X 1432 Northrup) on weighoff day. (The 608 Ollila is 1059 Vincent-McGill X self). Thursday, July 24 View Page This fruit is on the 454 LaRiviere, and while I don't crunch the numbers much, it looks like the biggest I've ever had on day 20. Next entry will show the numbers. Thursday, July 24 View Page Day 20 numbers on the 454. Friday, August 22 View Page I post in various places, including Facebook and Google+. Sometimes I forget to post here, but here is an update. This rain, is what most of the month of August has been like. We didn't get any heat here until the third week of June, and then we had six weeks of summer weather. This fruit is on my own seed, the 500.5 from last year. Currently it's at 600 with five weeks to go. Friday, August 22 View Page This one on the 454 LaRiviere started strong, then slowed. It's currently around 550 and will be harvested Aug. 28 for the state fair. Friday, August 29 View Page Eastern Idaho State Fair, first place on the 454 LaRiviere, 569 pounds. Tuesday, September 16 View Page Really hoping for a personal best on this one. Currently taping 349 OTT. Grown on my own seed, the 500 from last year. Wednesday, September 17 View Page Somehow the picture didn't show up. Here it is again. Saturday, September 27 View Page I won the Howard Dill award at the Utah Giant Pumpkin Weighoff. 849 pounds, grown on my own 500.5 seed from last year. Saturday, September 27 View Page What a day! In the driving rain... Monday, September 29 View Page Another pic from Saturday, meant to show up two posts ago. Somehow it's always "hit or miss" with loading pics to this site from a Mac. ;-) Monday, September 29 View Page Another, with my mom. For those interested in these genetics, it was grown on my own seed, the 500.5 from last year. So I have some of these to hand out. I have a number in mind that I want to keep, and some that will go to my club. After that I have probably 140 to 150 seeds available. Contact me first to find out if they are still in stock. If you have seeds to trade, that would be fantastic. Thursday, October 2 View Page Minor point of correction, when I sent info to the "Howard Dill Club" I said that the 849 went 15% light. Technically it's only 11% light, based on the official measurement taken at the weighoff. Grow 'em big! (Even if not heavy!! lol...) Tuesday, November 4 View Page An example of what the post office did to a seed that I sent to someone. $2.10 apparently isn't enough, they need to bust it as well. Wednesday, December 3 View Page Sending seeds with one stamp! A BP.com user sent me seeds with one stamp as an experiment. It worked! Wednesday, December 3 View Page Another shot. Smooth edges on the protection rings are important. When I tried this, sending seeds to another, I did a quick hack (literally) and the jaggy edges on the rings caused the envelope to be shredded. Also, it's important to tape the seeds inside the rings, and also to the inside of the envelope.