Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 68 Entries. Sunday, April 10 View Page Happy New Year! My first post this year is to confirm that Iīm planning a 150 sqft plant (again), hopefully with a real pumpkin this time. A brief history of my 150 sqft adventures: 2013: Blossom end split even before the fruit reached 100 lbs. 2014: Mosaic virus early in the season, fruit got a bit over 100 lbs. 2015: Sterile plant on the 150 sqft patch, did not set a fruit. Yesterday I had to mow the cover crop, and now we can see the mound prepared for the plant. The stump will be on the mound close to the red line, INSIDE the 150 sqft area, of course.   Tuesday, April 12 View Page Started the first set of AG seeds today: 1317 Clementz, 1362 Lieber, 769 Lombardi, 1659 Miller, 1004 Wagler, 706 Wagler   Thursday, April 21 View Page Today I transplanted the first four seedlings into the patch (2 x 1362 Lieber, 2 x 1004 Wagler). The four seedlings went on one site (1362s back to back with the 1004s, 4 ft spacing between the two 1362 as well as between the two 1004 seedlings). This should give them some weeks time to develop some noticeable differences which might make the choice (as to which one needs to be culled) a bit easier. The cotyledons of my 1004s look pretty aggressive :-)   Friday, April 22 View Page Today I transplanted the 2nd set of seedlings, the 1317 Clementz is growing back to back with a 1659 Miller now. The 769 Lombardi went into the 150 sqft patch. Interestingly, the 769 Lombardi seed from 2007 isnīt the youngest seed, but it was the first seedling of my 2016 line-up with completely opened cotyledons...just a couple of hours earlier than the 1362 Lieber and 1004 Wagler seedlings.   Friday, April 22 View Page Hereīs the patch today, the seedlings are in their little hoophouses now. The red lines indicate the 150 sqft patch.   Wednesday, May 11 View Page Time for an update, the last week of April had been pretty cold and dark, therefore the seedlings havenīt grown alot, but as soon as spring arrived with some sunny and warm weather they began to grow. As to tunnels (1) and (2), the 1362 Lieber seems to be a bit more aggressive than the 1004 Wagler, but at the current stage I cannot tell which plant of each seed will be the keeper. Tunnel (3), the 150 sqft plant, it looks like this plant is a bit behind now (despite its quick start), the hypocotyl isnīt as thick as of the other plants and leaf development is one leaf behind most of the other plants. Iīll try to be patient and see what happens. A backup plant (706 Wagler) is ready and can sit in its pot for maybe another 2 weeks before I need to make a decision. Note: the backup seed was started 10 days later...plant might be too strong for a 150 sqft patch, LOL. Tunnel (4): Iīm happy with the development of these two plants. Well, the 1659 Miller was a bit behind the 1317 Clementz from the very beginning (the 1st true leaf started 1 or 2 days later) and is at a similar leaf stage as the 769 Lombardi, just with larger leaves and a thicker stem.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Today I decided to set a backup plant into the 150 sqft patch. The 706 Wagler plant is 10 days younger than the 769 Lombardi plant.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Patch today.   Wednesday, June 1 View Page 150 sqft patch today: There is some difference between the two plants, the initial favorite (769 Lombardi) is starting to grow a main vine now, the 10 days younger backup plant (706 Wagler) has a main vine of similar length but with less leaf nodes. The 769 has smaller leaves and shorter leaf stalks, the 706 has...oh well, perfect features for a plant that needs to fill 500 sqft soon. Even though I donīt like the light green color of the leaves of the 769 too much (because Iīm sort of used to seeing the dark green leaves of the other AG plants), this color might be advantageous when it comes to issues such as sunscald, and the smaller leaves, short leaf stalks and short internodes might be helpful for a 150 sqft plant. Looks like I will let them grow next to each other for at least another week (or two) before I really need to make a final decision.   Wednesday, June 1 View Page Here are the plants on the larger patches: In case of the 1362 and the 1004 Iīm glad I did the double planting side by side, because the plants seem to help me with the decision Iīll have to make soon. The 1004...no question, plant 2 wants to climb hills which I canīt see. Plant 1 has a much more well-behaved main vine. The two 1362s seemed to be very similar (both of them pretty aggressive), but again it is plant 2 which wants to say goodbye. Its main vine is 2" shorter, the first signs of secondaries donīt look as nice as those on plant 1 and in the process of touching down the main vine of plant 2 has developed some kind of a kink. For the 1317 and 1659 I donīt have to report any troubles, they are slightly behind the 1362s and 1004s and very well-behaved. Well, the 1659 wanted to change the direction of its main vine growth, it will be directed back into the right direction as soon as the main vine is longer and more flexible. Here I need to say that I hate to force short vines (the internodes of which are still in the phase of stretching out) into particular directions, because I have made the experience that some vines try to push themselves against any kind of barrier they hit, as if they wanted to push themselves against walls they want to climb. Hence, trying to force them into a particular direction might make things worse.   Thursday, June 9 View Page Update: Backup plants of the 1362 Lieber and 1004 Wagler are gone, in both cases I culled "plant 2". The other four big plants are fine, and surprisingly they have main vines of almost the same lengths. All of them are growing nice secondaries. For the 150 sqft patch it looks like the backup (my 706 Wagler) will become the keeper, Iīm not happy with the growth of the 769 plant.   Saturday, June 25 View Page The bumble the bee, the pump the kin...one of the most exciting moments of the year is approaching, tomorrow will be the first pollination of my 2016 season :-) Ok, I will be a replacement for the bumblebee, but maybe it works...the bumble the me, the pump the kin.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Today was the day of the first pollination (1004 Wagler x 1362 Lieber, 6 lobes, female at 10.5' down the main vine). The baby pumpkin looks fine and so does the long stem, the angle and everything else, but you can imagine that Iīm not so happy about the shape of the lobes and the little thing called "seeds in the flower". Anyway, the next female is another 7 leaf nodes further down the main vine, like 2 weeks later pollination. Therefore, Iīm still keeping my fingers crossed that this first pollination will be successful and the pumpkin will grow without causing too many sleepless nights.   Sunday, June 26 View Page Patch today.   Monday, June 27 View Page A beautiful 5-lobe female on my 1659 Miller plant, about 11' down the main vine. Even though I donīt like this round shape too much, the lobes are pretty and the stem is...awesome!   Wednesday, June 29 View Page Pollination today: 1362 Lieber x 706 Wagler. A beautiful 6-lobe female (the previous one...5-lobe, asymmetric, only half the petals opened and the others had been waiting for the next day, 3 times seeds in the flower) which opened two days earlier had been culled on the spot. This one here didnīt really want to open at 8.30 a.m., but I think thatīs the smallest problem to worry about.   Saturday, July 2 View Page This morning was pollination of the one and only female on the main vine of my 1317 plant...this must be the keeper because I canīt see another female in the vine tip yet.   Sunday, July 3 View Page As you can see, the 1362 Lieber plant (on the left) has smaller leaves and shorter leaf stalks than the 1004 Wagler plant (on the right). Otherwise the behavior of these plants is very similar (vine lengths, number of secondaries, vine thickness, vine flexibility...), now Iīm really curious to see whether the big leaves of the 1004 would turn out as an advantage (itīs pretty cloudy this year, some additional surface for catching some sunlight probably canīt hurt, and some shade probably helps to limit weed growth) or as a disadvantage (after some storm, or in terms of mildew troubles etc.).   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Today I discovered two long splits in the main vine of my 1317 Clementz plant. One of them was on the bottom side of the vine, hence no problem, but the other one (top pic) was on the top side. Hence, I cut a big plastic bottle in half (alongside) and attached four shashlik skewers (into each skewer I cut a half inch long slit and attached them to the half bottle using some epoxy). The 2nd pic shows what the whole construction looks like. 3rd pic: This simple piece of not-too-expensive-and-everyone-has-at-home stuff makes a good roof for keeping the vine split dry. Note: Between the hemi-bottle and the vine there are about 3 inches of room which should allow for some air flow.   Wednesday, July 6 View Page Thatīs under the canopy of my 1004 Wagler plant. ...just as an example, because under the canopies of the other plants it looks very similar.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Patch is filling nicely, by end of July it should look like a green sea.   Thursday, July 14 View Page Look, a pretty red-orange one, never had such a nicely colored one so early in the season. Interesting species though, looks like a Cucurbita cinderellis var. melissiformis. (Donīt ask for details of the cross, thereīs no pollination information available.)   Thursday, July 14 View Page So far it looks like on each of these four plants the first pollination had been successful. Guess which one probably doesnīt want to become an orange pumpkin :-(   Thursday, July 14 View Page 150 sqft patch news: All fingers crossed that on this plant the first pollination will also be successful. Yes, first pollination today, it is true. I must admit the plant had two earlier females on the main vine, but the 1st was at 5 ft and had some seeds in the flower and the 2nd had its stem fused with the leaf stalk. Therefore I decided to remove them (instead of pollinating them) and to be patient and wait and see... ...and what we see now is: An excellent shape, the shape I had been waiting for, and...OMG, a 3-lobe female. They seem to be pretty rare (I try to think positive, LOL).   Thursday, July 14 View Page Thatīs the place where the insects can do pollinations as they like...I just donīt care.   Wednesday, July 20 View Page As you can see here under the canopy of my 1004 plant, I have not removed the tendrils. It takes some effort being ahead of tendrils development by guiding the vines into their individual directions (using some wooden sticks), but now it looks like (in addition to some of the sticks) the tendrils form a nice stabilizing structure.   Monday, July 25 View Page Looks like the set of first pollinations became my keepers. They spent some days in hibernation (weather was cold and dark around end of June and beginning of July) and I pollinated 1 or 2 more females on each main vine, but suddenly the 1st ones finally decided to grow and the other pollinations remained in some kind of hibernation of a stage which would correspond to day 10-12 size-wise.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page 150 sqft plant/fruit: The first pollination on my 706 Wagler plant is growing :-) and I like the shape and color of this pumpkin :-)) Also, this plant is quite different than my other AG plants. Whereas the others are growing back to back two plants on each site and have enough room to put the nitrogen available into vine growth (without any signs of excess N), the early terminating of vines on the 150 sqft plant and the room and minerals available for the roots of this plant without a back to back competitor makes it pump everything into the leaves (right now), but I expect it to pump-into-kin soon.   Wednesday, July 27 View Page Itīs time for another comparison of my 1004 Wagler plant (background) vs. 1362 Lieber plant. Growing back to back, having their roots in the same soil, being plants of very similar size with similar fraction of secondaries terminated, the skyscraper feature of the 1004 must be genetics.   Friday, July 29 View Page As expected, we are close to end of July and the patch is basically filled by the plants.   Saturday, July 30 View Page For some of you probably the first time you see a female sit on top of a male.   Wednesday, August 3 View Page 150 sqft pumpkin (706 Wagler): Not sure if I had mentioned that before, I LIKE THE COLOR AND SHAPE OF MY 150-SQFT-PUMPKIN :-)   Wednesday, August 3 View Page Patch today. Now weīve had 3 days of rather cold weather and with many many clouds, but the size of the plants seems to buffer at least the lack of sunshine, fruit growth hasnīt slowed down too much.   Wednesday, August 3 View Page Pumpkins today. Iīm happy with their growth curves. All of them!!!   Tuesday, August 9 View Page 150 sqft pumpkin: Oh, did I mention that I like COLOR, SHAPE and GENETICS of this pumpkin? Itīs growing on a plant from a seed [1223 Radach (= 2009 Wallace x self) x 1495 Stelts] and pollinator is the 1317 Clementz, which also grows an orange fruit.   Thursday, August 11 View Page Sometimes I find diary entries where it looks like the main vine is wrapped around the fruit after about 2 or 3 ft or some distance like that. Now imagine what would happen in case of a really big fruit, which is growing to maybe 4...5 ft diameter? Imagine it will be pushing the stem and main vine backwards, and in this course it will also pull the wrapped-around main vine closer to the fruit. Better try to let the main vine continue in its initial direction (after the S-curve), or you try to curve the main vine backwards, or if you need to sort of wrap it around the fruit because of limited space in the other two directions, leave some room of at least 5 or 6 ft between the fruit and the main vine.   Saturday, August 13 View Page Patch today.   Sunday, August 14 View Page Today CORNCOB ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTIONS presents: "The Switch" (Male on top).   Monday, August 22 View Page Again, under the canopy of my 1004 Wagler plant. Itīs about one month since the last picture taken from under the canopy, and Iīm glad the weeds havenīt grown too much (NO, I HAVE NOT DONE ANY WEEDING). In past years the patch was full of all sorts of weeds around mid August.   Monday, August 22 View Page The pumpkins are growing, but weīve had some cold days and nights, something that had some bad influence on the daily gains.   Monday, August 22 View Page 150 sqft pumpkin...I canīt complain.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page 150 sqft pumpkin: It developed a really nice color, even though the shape of the fruit got worse. Here you can see the vines of my 150 sqft plant, have removed the leaves now and will be picking the pumpkin tomorrow.   Tuesday, September 20 View Page ...and look what Iīve found on my 1004 plant today, a pumpkin which is still growing. Itīs not a world record fruit yet, but thereīs plenty of time (weigh-off will be in five days), hence it looks pretty promising.   Thursday, September 22 View Page Picked my pumpkins yesterday. Here is the fruit on the 1004 Wagler plant, and the other fruit in the background was grown on the 1659 Miller plant. (Ignore the little green FP.)   Thursday, September 22 View Page Here is the fruit on the 1362 Lieber plant   Thursday, September 22 View Page And here is the fruit on the 1317 Clementz plant.   Thursday, September 22 View Page Now hereīs the series of pumpkins I have grown this year. The arrows indicate which plant served as the pollinator (arrow starting from the pollinator plant and pointing towards the female...letīs call it a pollen flow chart).   Sunday, September 25 View Page This is my 1004 Wagler x 1362 Lieber, it went 9% light and became the 925.2 Wagler 16. Good news: Even though it isnīt a new PB, itīs the best of my patch this year, Iīm glad to see that the best came from my own seed.   Sunday, September 25 View Page Also, my 706 (uow) Wagler 15 seed [1223 Radach x 1495 Stelts] seems to have some nice potential (for weight, for going heavy and for some orange). This pic shows 3 pumpkins grown off the 706 Wagler (1080 Balke, 4% heavy; 916.8 Krengel, 3% heavy; 529.1 Wagler, +- 0%). All of them have a very similar shape, starting from an egg-shape and, as the pumpkin grows, stretching towards the blossom end. Looks like thereīs less risk of blossom end splits. (BTW, the 529.1 is my 150 sqft contest entry, pretty late pollination, 14th July.)   Sunday, September 25 View Page Stem end of the 1080 Balke.   Sunday, September 25 View Page ...and another one of the 1080 Balke, it shows the color much better.   Tuesday, September 27 View Page In addition to the crosses, here are the results now.   Thursday, October 6 View Page The weight of my 150 sqft pumpkin: 240.0 kg (you can find it on the GPC list as the 529.1 Wagler). Note: For the 150 sqft contest, according to the rule of conversion of 1 kg into 2.2 lbs, it would mean 528 lbs.   Thursday, October 13 View Page Opened my 779(uow) Wagler 16 fruit (1659 Miller x 1317 Clementz) and found a great load of seeds inside. As the pollinator plant (1317 Clementz) also had an orange fruit, this could be a nice cross for big and orange. Time will tell.   Sunday, October 16 View Page A last pic of my HDA winner 529.1 Wagler 16 before it will be opened...   Sunday, October 16 View Page ...and here it is, the 529.1 Wagler (706 uow Wagler x 1317 Clementz). Good news: It had a decent seed count :-)   Sunday, October 16 View Page Also, the 925.2 Wagler 16 (1004 Wagler x 1362 Lieber) had its last day today, and it also had a pretty good seed count.   Thursday, October 27 View Page Lantern #1 this year, the time has come...   Thursday, October 27 View Page People approaching the entrance will see the friendly "WELCOME" face, and then....hur hur hur ;-)   Monday, October 31 View Page Here is my 760 (UOW) Wagler 16 (1317 Clementz x 1004 Wagler), found a good load of seeds in this fruit as well.   Monday, November 7 View Page Carved a new lantern last night.   Wednesday, November 23 View Page Fruit off the 1362 Lieber plant (1362 x 706), it went awfully light and I was wondering why...and now I seem to have a clue.   Sunday, December 4 View Page That time of year has come...when Iīm glad I have a lantern left for X-mas decoration ;-)   Wednesday, December 7 View Page An awfully dark and rainy night, but the Christmas Lantern is shining :-)   Wednesday, December 14 View Page Marrow 85.1 Wagler 16 (63.9 Bohnert x self), grew on a plant in a shady corner next to my house, the roots of this plant shared the same 50 sqft raised bed with 5 Hokkaido plants, 2 sunflowers and 3 tall corn plants. This marrow plant must have had some potential, I guess.   Tuesday, December 20 View Page Thereīs someone sitting in my sofa corner, someone to hug, someone to cuddle... Anyone jealous?   Saturday, December 31 View Page Happy New Year to all of you. Look what Iīve found in the basement a couple days ago. It has been there since quite a while, and it was me who should have known that it was there (I dug it out of the ground this summer, and havenīt taken much notice, I brought it into the basement and again I havenīt paid much attention). Now Iīve found it again, and Iīm happy.   Saturday, December 31 View Page For those lovely people who just set a bookmark to my 2016 grower diary (rather than accessing my diary from the BigPumpkins home page), here is the link to my 2017 grower diary ;) http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2017&grower=58180&action=L