From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Knopp, Germany

since nothing special seems to be happening in germany this year, i thought it might be interesting to see just how bad everyone is doing, and what you predict will win the german and european weighoffs.

how bad - 125 lbs with only about 30-40 days of growthleft if the weather helps out
german weighoff - i predict 500 lbs will win, unless there is someone out there in germany that hasn't had the same weather as the rest of us
european weighoff - 1000+, i believe that the southern growers, france, italy, spain will pull off a new european record

8/11/2004 4:23:44 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

agreed on everything...

How things are looking now I would be happy to reach the weight of my first AG ever from 2000, which weighed 256lbs. If all goes well something between 300 and 400lbs...

What a shame!!!

At least the weather can't get much worse next year! lol

Martin

8/11/2004 9:05:23 AM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I’ve heard of rumors that a beast is somewhere down south...

Here in Slovenia the record of 168 kg could be broken since this year there are quite many growers out there.

I’ve passed my PB already so now I aim to hit over 150 kg.
Jernej

PS: I think that august weather my be great for AGs (not too hot and lots of rain)

8/11/2004 9:53:07 AM

Sancoins / Cher / FRANCE

Hello to everybody,

Yes, this season will have been harder than last year, in spite of the scorching heat, the cold in June of the rain everything 3 days to me but let us keep hope to beat each its own record season is not yet finished and of a quite way as says "Martin", one will begin again the next year by trying to make better.

Jean louis

8/11/2004 1:33:46 PM

Cologne / Germany

Hello everyone, back again after being in hospital:) Strange story, will tell it in my diary tonight.

First thing coming back home today was doing an OTT measurement on the 1236 Eaton (x 1260 Weir) which ended up at 228 inches / 250 lbs. I was pretty surprised. My lovely wife Cristina cared for the plants as good as she could. She did awfully good I think...

Need some time tonight to look for all the new entries here and to add something to my own diary. Maybe we meet in the chat later.

Greetings to all, Ingo

8/11/2004 1:48:15 PM

Belgium Europe

I think i got two pumpkins at +- 300lbs now (in greenhouse).Outside i'm at +- 200 lbs. But the season is. still long.Still 50 days to go.If your pumpkin stops growing 14 days earlier Than another one's you lose 150lbs.Last year Belgian and European(official)record was 447kg.I don't know how those guys are doing at the moment, but till 2003 they got heavier pumpkins every year,and it wouldn't surprise me if they did this year too, in spite of the bad early-season weather.Good luck all !!!
Jos

8/11/2004 4:21:18 PM

Atlanta, Georgia

Hi everyone!
I will also be happy to beat 222lbs. this year which was my first personal best a few years back.

My only hopes right now are my 419 Pukos pumpkins which could still possibly hit over 300lbs. if the weather is ok and I don't get caught by early frost again like last year.

Sounds like Ingo is doing pretty well in Germany so far so my hat goes off to him and I wish all of you a great rest of the season!

8/12/2004 1:33:02 AM

Udine, Italy

My best was ext 215 kg two days ago, 44 days after flowering, hope to control stem stress and end the season at 230 kg, just to enter for the first time in AGGC database. My colleagues of the experimental farm of the University ext. their best 284 kg 40 days after flowering last week, not news this week but I guess that easily go over 300 kg.
Paolo

8/12/2004 2:19:06 AM

Germany (Kirchheim / Bavaria)

Hello to all european growers !
I have two pumpkins on my 940Mombert98:
x 1056.5Dueck00: OTT = 215.0''/circ = 98.0''/...218lbs.
x self: OTT = 214.6''/circ = 92.9''/...216lbs.
I hope that my "940xself" will soon close the hole on the surface.
Good luck to you all - Peter

8/12/2004 2:30:24 PM

Knopp, Germany

Well it is nice to see that there are some good pumpkins going here in Germany, as well as other European countries.

Ingo, saw your last pic in the diary, looks like a great shaped pumpkin, hope it goes real heavy.
Jernej, you are almost there, I bet you smash the Slovenian record this year. You going to try and make it to the Swiss weighoff?
Jean Louis, I really like the look of your Nesbitt, and with Carlos having been in your patch maybe he gave you the magic touch this year!
jos, best of luck with those other Belgium growers, maybe this is your year.
Paolo, I am sure you will get into the AGC database this year, go for it!
Martin, Michel and Peter, I thing that the 4 of us should have a contest for the smallest pumpkin in Ludwigsburg this year. Looks like Ingo is way out in front right now.
I wonder how Steffen and the Zygaldo's are doing......

8/13/2004 9:18:02 AM

Cologne / Germany

Owen I hope we can all make it with full 50 days ahead. Since summer started so late, fall should wait at least until October -)

8/13/2004 11:04:22 AM

Sancoins / Cher / FRANCE

Let us keep hope, there are about 50 days before competitions, We fell all ill big pumpkins AG, and it her learn us culture year by year.
Good chance in all?
Jean louis

8/13/2004 4:18:11 PM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

I didn't get that, Jean Louis...

8/13/2004 4:45:04 PM

Sweden

I have now only one going. (the other one increase from circ 240 to 260 in one day.) Day 53 circ 344 (270kg?)on the gust1000ouw. It´s a little bit better then last year then it ended att 300kg /Lars sweden

8/19/2004 7:59:36 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

Just got back from vacation and there is 33 cm's of rain in my rain gauge...and it's colder here than it was in England for the past two weeks. I'll visit the pumpkins in the morning later and give you all an update...and I'll also have the results of an experiment I made to share with you all. It's 4:30 am right now so I need to get some sleep since I drove from Manchester to Stuttgart all in one day.

Can you all give a new estimated weight of your pumpkins again here soon?

Later!
Michel

8/31/2004 10:40:04 PM

Atlanta, Georgia

Finally got to measure the pumpkins today.
The 419 Pukos has two pumpkins with the largest estimated
at 300 lbs.

The 790 Daletas x 419 Pukos estimates at 279 lbs. and is a beautiful orange color similar to the 1245 Bailey. The 419 Pukos is a pale yellow color.

Looks like Peter is doing much better from his last diary post. Keep up the good work Pete!

9/2/2004 6:31:35 AM

Cologne / Germany

High everyone, just came in from the patch and my 1236 x 1260 is 300 inches now, 556 lbs to the charts, 48 lbs more than my PB 2003. Pretty amazing, only 50 F last night but now very nice sunshine at least till sunday - that´s what the forecast predicted. It´s a heavy wheel so my hope is it´s already 600+, keeping fingers crossed...
Good luck, Ingo

9/2/2004 9:15:37 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

Ingo,

You are sure lucky that you live in that part of Germany. The Rhein/Köln area always has much warmer nights than the rest of the country, at least 5°C more than here... Having 50°F (10°C) these days is an incredible advantage for fruit growth!

Here it went down to 37°F (2.5°C last night and 3°C the night before) and fruits have stopped growing. I expect frost soon... :-(

9/2/2004 10:18:43 AM

Cologne / Germany

Right Martin, but you see how different the weather situation could be even for a "small" country like Germany over a certain season. Most people expect the south of Germany to be the more effective rural area - just think about growing grapevines which is almost impossible in my area.
Nevertheless, good luck to all for the rest of September!

9/2/2004 10:59:05 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

Martin,
I don't have a digital thermometer but the coldest we had was a few days ago when it went down to 4 and 5 degrees.
The forcast for Weil der Stadt for the next few days says
lows of about 14 degrees which means about 10 degrees in my patch. I'm just glad that we won't have the two days of frost like last year on the 4th and 5th of September.
You should see how awesome the howden field pumpkins are growing! Too bad I lost about half of the plants to frost this spring though...

I'll take some more measurements tomorrow so I can find out how much the pumpkins are growing but I'm certain they haven't stopped, and I'll cover a few plants completely with
fleece until October today.

WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!

9/3/2004 2:12:21 AM

Sweden

Up here in sweden have the last days have been quite good, The temperature in ningts is about 13 celsius. My pumpkin is still growing but only 3 kilo/day. circ yeaterday 370 cm. Michel, what was the experiment you write about?
Lars(eaglewood)
Gothenburg Sweden

9/3/2004 1:39:08 PM

Wroclaw, Poland (51 N, 17 E)

My pumpkin is now aprox. 90 kg and I hope it to hit over 100...

9/3/2004 5:49:36 PM

Atlanta, Georgia

Lars,
I was trying to see if when we direct plant the seeds if the true leaf always comes out on the same side but so far the evidence is not conclusive.
It appears right now that 75% of the time the true leaf comes out on the same side as the pointy tip of the seed.
I'll have to plant more seeds again to prove the point possibly and post some pictures of what I mean to clarify it. If I can come to a good conclusion it will mean that people can plant their seeds directly in the garden and know even before the seed sprouts in which direction the first true leaf will come out.
Cheers!
Michel

9/4/2004 4:00:51 AM