Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 47 Entries. Monday, January 10 View Page :)   Friday, February 18 View Page This is a pic from last summer, high and dry.   Friday, February 18 View Page Today, and rising. Yeesh, not prepared for this.   Friday, February 18 View Page Now the bench is gone.   Friday, April 15 View Page Started these five today, well, soaking first. I'm a sucker for the oldies. I'm hopeful that the 2008 Neptune will pop as well as the 20 or so 250 Hamilton's that are soaking. The cross is 670 Daigle x self from 2010. Hopefully one of them will germinate as well.   Friday, April 15 View Page This ETS unit is our primary heat source. Not only is it an efficient heat unit, it is also good for drying the kid's boots and germinating seeds.   Friday, April 15 View Page There are 20 - 250 Hamilton seeds and 1 squash seed in this seed tray. Hopefully 1 or 2 will sprout.   Wednesday, April 20 View Page Pleasantly surprised that the 2008 Neptune popped along with the 779 Williams.   Wednesday, April 20 View Page More than a little surprised that two of the 20 250 Hamilton seeds germinated. The seeds are from 2010 and the cross is 670 Daigle x self.   Thursday, April 21 View Page This is the last post I’ll do on the subject, but I’m mildly blown away. So far 9 of the 20 250 Hamilton seeds have popped and they are 12 years old. Maybe because they were unopened in a container filled with rice all this time or maybe it’s because they were soaked in undiluted peroxide for five hours. Maybe because the bottom heat is in the mid nineties, I don’t know. I expected a few but not this many and not so soon.   Thursday, April 21 View Page 2008 Neptune 2014 coming along nicely. I’m going to baby this one. Like the others it popped in 4 days. I hope it’s a good one, I have a few others that appear to be duds.   Monday, May 9 View Page Finally have one in the ground, two more to go. The stronger plant is the 779 Williams- 1552 Young x 800 Young- HD award winner. Thank you Mr. or Ms. Williams, the 779 arrived in the AVGVG seed pack this year.   Monday, May 9 View Page Finally have one in the ground, two more to go. The stronger plant is the 779 Williams- 1552 Young x 800 Young- HD award winner. Thank you Mr. or Ms. Williams, the 779 arrived in the AVGVG seed pack this year.   Monday, May 9 View Page Finally have one in the ground, two more to go. The stronger plant is the 779 Williams- 1552 Young x 800 Young- HD award winner. Thank you Mr. or Ms. Williams, the 779 arrived in the AVGVG seed pack this year.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page Dodged a bullet. The overnight low was supposed to be 3 but when I got up it was 0, and guess who didn’t turn the heater on?   Tuesday, May 10 View Page The 779 Williams looks no worse for wear, can’t say the same for it’s mate on the right. R.I.P.   Friday, May 13 View Page Got the next two in. Late, but last week was like March and this week is like July and hot.   Friday, May 13 View Page The one on the left is 2008 Neptune. I nearly tossed it but yesterday I had it and some other back ups in the greenhouse with the doors and windows shut. It was around 40 degrees and while the others were flagging the 2008 stood straight and tall. I had to give it a chance.   Friday, May 13 View Page The one on the left is 2008 Neptune. I nearly tossed it but yesterday I had it and some other back ups in the greenhouse with the doors and windows shut. It was around 40 degrees and while the others were flagging the 2008 stood straight and tall. I had to give it a chance.   Saturday, May 14 View Page A little late but this one is for fun not competition. The seeds soaking are blue moon x 675.5 Maydan *.   Saturday, June 25 View Page Something is eating the leaves, and by the looks of it there is more than one species coming for dinner.   Saturday, June 25 View Page This looks like catapilar but I don’t know.   Monday, June 27 View Page First batch of the year   Monday, June 27 View Page I literally stumbled upon this product at Home Depot. Two ways of delivering to the soil, manually mixing it with the soil or by adding some to water, so…….I added 50g to this batch and another 50g in the morning.   Sunday, July 3 View Page Started 49 long gourd seeds today. Why 49? 47 of them are 10 years old- 25 and 22 of my 96 and 90 from 2012 and 2 - 119 Ansems from last year. The crosses are all solid, hopefully a handful will pop.   Sunday, July 3 View Page I don’t know how effective this method will be but it’s convenient. Going to place this in a greenhouse where the daytime temps are 90+ degrees.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Pollinated this female on July 4, about 12 feet out on the 779 Williams plant with males from my 2008 Neptune. Looks promising and I like the cross, sorta/ kinda similar to the 359 Foss.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page This one should be interesting. The cross from a few years back is 675 Maydan* x blue moon. So far the plant has the characteristics of a smaller variety but it’s only now started to run.   Saturday, July 9 View Page Well, it looks like she took. This female from the 779 Williams ( 1552 Young x 800 Young ) was pollinated by two males from my 2008 Neptune. Nice long stem, not sure if I’ll terminate the main or not, will decide this week if she’s a keeper.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Not good! I uncovered the fruit this morning to find this. It’s deep and ugly and I don’t know how to treat it other than maybe a fan.   Sunday, July 24 View Page 20 DAP and nothing spectacular. Should be pretty though, 1552 Young x 800 Young pollinated with a 2008 Neptune.   Sunday, July 24 View Page Normally I wouldn’t post a pic of a very young fruit but this one is only 5 days old. That’s the good news. There isn’t any bad news but the cross is 675 Maydan * x blue moon so it won’t get very big. the plant is smallish it is by far the most aggressive plant I have ever grown.   Sunday, July 24 View Page This was supposed to be just for fun so I planted the seedling in a hole filled with promix and some Myke. The rest is ordinary top soil and the plant is growing like crazy   Wednesday, July 27 View Page Only 8 days after pollination, I swear, and it’s growing faster than anything. I need to keep reminding myself that the fruit is unlikely to get very large because of the cross, squash x blue moon. It’s growing in ordinary topsoil, but since I noticed the rapid growth I buried all the vines after “ dippling” the vine channel with Myke.   Thursday, August 4 View Page 14 DAP on the 675 Maydan * x blue moon. Nice shape and very “ ribby”.   Thursday, August 4 View Page Day 21 on the 2008 Neptune x 779 Williams. Underwhelming.   Thursday, August 4 View Page Day 30 for the 779 Williams x 2008 Neptune. Rookie mistakes on all the plants. In my zeal for an early/ ideal pollination I pollinated too early and all the plants have shut down. Trying to encourage 3rd stage growth.   Thursday, August 4 View Page I know what this is, what I don’t understand is that only the Black Russian plants were affected. All the others are fine and they are different varieties.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page This is the 675 Maydan x blue moon still growing on a small plant. I’m estimating it’s around 100 lbs or so. Only one fruit on this plant.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page Unlike it’s sibling, this plant is growing two with two more in the near future. I’m going to let this one run wild and do it’s thing.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page This baby is a couple of days old. I think there is some kind of hybrid vigor happening. The fruits on these two plants are growing way faster than a normal ag.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page 779 Williams in the foreground and 2008 Neptune in the background. Neither of which are impressing me much. They are still growing ……. we’ll see.   Tuesday, August 9 View Page Sweet potatoes and everything else doing great, I may even throw a bushel gourd plant in the ground.   Tuesday, November 8 View Page This squash weighed approximately 100 lbs and is the offspring from a cross made- 675 Maydan* x blue moon. Two of the made it to maturity. This one too on the characteristics of a very large blue moon while the other retained a dark green quash color.   Tuesday, November 8 View Page Seeds drying for the exotic seed exchange. The ones on the left came from blue moon looking squash about 100 lbs and the seeds on the right are from the same cross, AG squash x blue moon but this one had a dark green smooth surface and both are F2. Also sending F1 seeds.   Tuesday, November 8 View Page This one just made me laugh.   Thursday, December 8 View Page Speaking of weather, it’s been pretty mild lately. So much that the fish in the pond have “ woken up “.