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Omaha, NE (N41-15-42 )

Cmon. There's got to be a few of you out there that have had a painful year. Share your pain!
We had 19 days in July with rain. Two inches last night, along with 85MPH winds and small hail. Most days when I'm walking through my patch, I can't see my shoes through the mud/sludge, and have been shopping for hip waders. Patch is having severe drainage problems. Stunted growth on vines. I have come very close to turning the patch under several times, but want to get one of the fruit to mature enough that I can harvest seeds.

8/4/2004 3:20:03 PM

a few of us? how about the whole state of wisconsin. we had a wet spring, and we have yet to have a summer. the end of june and early july had night's in the 40's and even 30's in some areas, delaying fruit set. we had a burst of hot weather for a week or so, at which time the plants suffered because they had gotten used to the cold weather. then it was dry. and not very warm. it finally rained and now the 10 day forecast shows high's in the low to mid 70's and lows down in the 40's again. before we know it, the leaves on the trees will be turning color, and it will be fall without even having a summer.

8/4/2004 3:48:02 PM

Edmonton, Canada

This one is good. We had a huge hailstorm rip through the area. A week and a half later, the plant was beginning to recover, and an even bigger storm came through. The plant was pretty much completely shredded - twice!

Add to that; frost in late June, flooding, and cold temperatures, and you've got my season wrapped up!

8/4/2004 3:54:04 PM

Ohio

I used 4 times the the rate I should have using 0-0-60. I had three pumpkins on this plant that was bowling ball size that turned to pudding Pumpkin Pie.
Brooks

8/4/2004 4:54:47 PM

Eveleth MN

Take Brigittes post and subtract about 5*f from her temps and add late June frost and you have my season to a T..... still got ~100# fruit growing though........

8/4/2004 5:39:11 PM

Key West, FL

I couldn't get A set on time on my 783 because the first one had seeds in the blossom and I didn't want to set it even though I now know I should have. The next one was pollinated on the 10th or so, it stopped growing. Now the one on that plant on a Secondary is all funky looking and small... On my 746 I got a large hole in the main vine so I cut back to a secondary and trained that as the main. I'm now 10 days behind or so, I get a nice pumpkin set, its going fine and then it started to get a weird shape which led to it splitting wide open at the stem 3 days ago. Now I'm down to one plant. On my 880 I had a good July 1st set and things were going great (even though the 1/2 of my vines on this plant had just cracked or broke off over night, including the main right after this pumpkin) but then the stem on the pumpkin got a bite or something which led to it cracking almost 1/4 of the way through the stem which was starting to make the pumpkin deform and would have eventually led to an early death I think. So I trained a Secondary that had 2 females that would open soon on it. Well both those females had seeds in the blossom. I'm growing one of them now and it's doing great, but it's behind some, I hope I can catch up..

8/4/2004 6:11:12 PM

Colo.Spgs.CO. Pikes Peak Chapter @ [email protected]

Try living in colo, we get hail with every storm lately, we got more today, I think this is storm 9 or 10 with hail, as I am now loosing count, and we have had only 3 days this summer where the temp hit 90 degrees. Almost all of june and july were wet cloudy and cold, and it seems all the local growers here are a month behind. Hopefully it is time to catch up if we can with our recent better weather......Good luck to all..

8/4/2004 7:35:29 PM

Wv

the pain below...had a stem snap a couple weeks ago

8/4/2004 9:33:20 PM

White Bear Lake, Minnesota

I can say I've had most everything happen also. Flatvines, a patch that looks like an abortion clinic, animals chewing on the fruit and vines, wind, rain, cold weather and a bad year for growing pumpkins in general. But ya know what, the animals are fun to watch and it has been fantastic sleeping weather.
Keep yer hoe in the ground, were pullin' fer ya.
James

8/4/2004 11:52:40 PM

Choctaw, OK

The whole dang state of WI....yup. Especially the costal growers (near lake Michigan), what a horrible spring they had...to wet and the lake kepted them cool.

Cold temps in late june early july here toyed alot with setting fruit...they just wouldnt grow and nothing got a good start. All growth rates are down and nothing wants to jump the gun and grow...unless it was pollinated on july 11th or later which is pretty late for the cold sept weather we usually get around here. Now we are at it again with mid 40's for lows for a few days....grrrrr!!!!! Its supposed to be atleast 59 for the low this time of year. One thing i can't complain about is sunshine..plenty of it with cool sunny days and dang cold nights. The one time it did get hot and dry, the pumpkins finally grew. Any time rain comes along, it just brings in a COLD CANADIAN AIR MASS and screws everything over.

Case

ps...Colorado has a good case for worst state to grow in for the year. Lol...geeze. You west (past CO) coast growers have it way to easy I tell ya. Dont even start with us upper midwest growers and some east coast areas.

8/5/2004 12:09:40 AM

Colo.Spgs.CO. Pikes Peak Chapter @ [email protected]

I correct myself on the last post , as 2 hrs after the last post we got our second hail storm for the day along with 2 inches of rain in an hour....When will nature be nice to us colo. growers again ?? The setbacks just are never ending, but thank goodness for hail protection...JK..

8/5/2004 12:58:58 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

I have no pains...except for my 2 herniated back discs.

8/5/2004 2:31:08 AM

Sauk City Wisconsin

I also think wisconsin sucks this year! Took me forever to get my plants to a good size, now I'm dealing with july 20th and july 31st pollinations. I'm going to build a greenhouse over my plant and see if I can keep my fruit growing once sept comes around....

8/5/2004 2:50:43 AM

Deer Park, WI

chalk up another complaint under the WI list. Data shows its the coldest damn summer since 1996. 44 degrees last night, and im tempted to pull out my blaze orange. I think Embarrass, MN had a frost too. Did i mention its AUGUST for heaven's sake? Im thinking 1st place at Nekoosa this year will be HALF of what it was last year.

8/5/2004 10:11:59 AM

Eveleth MN

Embarrass MN DID get a light frost last night (about 15 miles from my house) I had a niced balmy 38*f at 5am this morning and I was worried about my plants since I live in one of those "low lying areas" that they talk about when they say "patchey frost". None at my place thank god, it would have been only 37 days since my last frost, I usually get about 100-110 days between frosts.

8/5/2004 6:02:18 PM

Indiana

Joze so it would be worth the drive from Indiana to Nekoosa with an 800#er? hmmmm now if i can just get an 800#er.
Steve

8/6/2004 10:20:52 AM

Williamsburg,KY

got the pain too...lost my 250lber just yesterday, have antoher one growing that is 350lbs so..good Lord willing, it may make it tothe local contest and win the big $10 prize..its amazing what some will do....better luck next season

8/7/2004 10:29:46 AM