We are going to try to keep a diary of our growing season this year. This will be the start of our 26th season that Elaine and I have been growing giant pumpkins. It is unquestionably the strangest start to any season with all that is going on in the country and the world. This will be the first time that we have ever started a season not knowing for sure if it will be possible to attend a weigh-off in the fall.
We have decided to put in 2 AG’s this year and hope for the best. We live 20 minutes south of Port Elgin along the shores of Lake Huron. Living so close to the shore of the lake has its pros and cons. In the spring time the lake really hurts us by keeping the temperature down with the cold winds coming off the lake. In the fall it helps us because the lake gives us heat off its warmed water. We rarely get a frost until well into October.
We are going to use soil heating cables for the first time this year. Hoping that it will help us with our cooler spring weather. We purchased the cables from Amazon---140W/120V/1.7A 48 feet long. They are supposed to have a built in thermostat. Time will tell if they are any good.
Here we have attached the cable to some plastic fencing with tie wraps. Trying to keep a 3” spacing as per the instructions. Still have not been able to get into patch yet to install cables. The instructions say to lay the cables on a bed of sand
We have started the germination process today. The seeds we will grow this year, if they germinate will be the 2016 Lancaster & 2118 Barron, plus a couple of backups.
After 36 hours @80 degrees in the germination box all seeds have sprouted
It has been very cold here lately, but today it got up to 10 degrees. So, it is starting to warm up. We started preparing the two growing sites. First we did a deep dig to loosen up the sub soil.
After we loosened the soil with a broadfork. We put down a bed of sand for the heating cables to lay on.
Heating cables installed with the fencing facing up to provide a bit of protection when it is removed in the fall
Planting site after the soil has been placed over the heating cables. We positioned a pot in the area were the pumpkin will be planted, so that we don’t lose track of where the plant should be placed. Also, we placed some bamboo canes at the corners of the heating cables, so that the perimeter is marked for safety. We will put up the tents tomorrow.
Another beautiful day allowed us to get the two tents put up today
The tents are 10’ X 10’. The next undertaking is getting power to the patch. The nearest electrical panel is not very close to the garden. Thanks to Lonnie for the help determining the correct wire gauge and breaker size to use.
Serious pumpkin growing for sure
This past week has been very cold here. Chance of flurries the next two days with very low night time temperatures. Will likely wait until next Tuesday or Wednesday to plant pumpkins. We now have power to the patch.
Today we are making some hoop frames that will be used for the night time cover up of the pumpkin plants inside the tents. The frame was made from cedar and the hoops are made from heavy wire.
We covered the frames with emergency blanket material. We are hoping this will reflect some of the radiated heat from the soil and keep the area around the young plants warmer. The frames are very light.
After a series of very cold days and nights the weather looks like it is finally starting to warm up. We decided that today was the day to plant.
Below is a picture of the 2016 Lancaster that we wanted to grow this year. As you can see the first true leaf has an issue. We have seen this condition many times in other years, Sort of a wrinkling of the first true leaves. We are not sure what causes this, but in the past it usually grows out to be a normal plant.
We have decided to double plant this seedling with one of the backup plants just in case. Will wait to see if the Lancaster plant looks normal, before removing the other plant.
Here are the two plants in the ground. 1771.1 Hunt on the left and 2016 Lancaster on the right.
The soil heating cables seem to be working well. The temperature fell to -6 Celsius last night. The soil temperature in the heating cable zone was 65 degrees Fahrenheit, first thing in the morning. Outside of the heating cable area, but still inside the tent the soil was 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Outside of the tent the soil was below 40 degrees.
Below is the 2118 Barron in the ground.
The first morning after planting the pumpkins. We used the hoop frames to contain some heat around the young plants. The measured air temperature inside the hoop this morning was 60° F and the soil temperature was 70° F
This is the 2118 Barron getting opened up. The low last night was 43° F
Well, the past week has been very challenging for us in the pumpkin patch. The young pumpkin plants have not progressed as fast as they should have. We believe, it was caused by sunburn on the tender leaves. We should have put up a screen of some sort to block some of the sun. Also, we should have hardened the plants off better. Basically, for the last week the plants didn’t grow much at all. Today, we decided to cut off the damaged leaves because we were sick of looking at them. Below is a picture of the 2118 Barron after we removed the damaged leaves. It looks very naked now, but we hope the worst is over. The main vine looks like it is just starting to poke out a bit.
This is a look at our four cabbage plants. Thanks to John Butler for the seeds
We started the plants a little later than maybe we should have, but hopefully they will be alright.
The pumpkins are finally starting to grow better after our setback. The plants are not very long yet but at least they are growing. Below is a picture of the 2118 Barron.
This is the 2016 Lancaster. Both plants are about the same size.
The first week of March we started some Mangel-wurzel seeds from the GVGO seed pack. We have never grown them before. We have 4 plants in the ground. Below is a picture of one of them. We also planted 9 tomato plants yesterday
Go team #3
This has been a very windy and cold week. The plants are continuing to grow. This is the 2016 Lancaster it is 6’ long now.
Below is the 2118 Baron it is 6 ½’ long now.
This is our first female flower on the 2118 Barron. We will not be keeping it, because it is only at 6’ on the main vine.
Summer weather seems to be here to stay. The plants are finally kicking into gear. Below is the 2016 Lancaster
Next is the 2118 Barron. Both plants have females at the tips.
We started two field pumpkin plants on the 6th of June. This one is the 175 MacKinnon
Next is the 163 MacKinnon
We planted nine tomato plants for the GVGO tomato contest. (Go team 3) The storm we had on June 10th really battered the young seedlings with the high winds and driving rain. For a while we were wondering if the plants would survive. They seem to have recovered now.
This is a close up of one of the plants
In the first week of April we started some rhubarb plants from seed. They seem to be growing well. We tried doing this last year on a smaller scale and had great success growing from seed. This year we have 25 plants.
This is a look at our strawberry patch. The berries are just starting to ripen now.
Another beautiful week and the plants continue to grow well. We had our first female open this morning on the 2118 Barron
A nice five lobe flower, 13 feet out on the main, crossed with the 2016 Lancaster (4 males used). Only one more female flower on the main, of this plant at 16 feet, but it will be 5 or 6 days before it blooms.
This is the 2118 Barron plant. It is the more aggressive of our two plants. It also tolerates the sun better.
Below is our 2016 Lancaster. It has a female at 13 feet that should bloom in a few days. We still haven’t seen any cucumber beetles, yet this year.
This is how we apply our water to the pumpkins. 1 ½” fire hose attached to a gas Honda pressure pump. Drip irrigation would be better, but we are not equipped for that. We have two 500 gallon storage tanks. One is on a wagon and one is stationary on the ground. We have two sources for our water. The farm well pump will fill up one 500 gallon tank in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Or, we have a natural spring on the farm that my grandfather tapped into with a pipe over 100 years ago and was used to water our cattle up until 20 years ago. To use the spring we just drive the water wagon to the spring and throw in the hose. This time of year the spring slows down and it takes 7-8 hours to get 500 gallons. When we use the spring water it makes us feel like we are not wasting water, because the spring keeps flowing day and night whether you are using it or not.
We had a female flower open on the 2016 Lancaster this morning. Another 5 lobe flower crossed with the 2118 Barron. This heat wave has us a bit worried if the pollination will set.
The 2106 Lancaster doesn’t like the heat at all. Almost every secondary vine has UV leaf damage at the end of the vine from yesterday’s sun. The Barron plant has a little damage, but not very much. Below is one of the Lancaster side vines.
We decided today to put up a quick and temporary shade structure along the tips of the secondary vines of each plant. It looks like they are calling for this heat to stay with us for a while yet.
The tomatoes have started to form a few mega blooms. We put up crude shade structures on the plants that have mega blooms with the hope that it will help with pollination in this heat.
The shade structures we put up seem to helping a lot, preventing most of the damage from this intense heat spell. We have been giving between 90 and 100 gallons of water to each plant every day. We bury vines every fourth day and will soon have to start terminating vines.
The first flower we pollinated on the 2118 Barron is 10 days old today. It measured 32” (circumference) this morning. It has a good shape and still looks shinny. We are hopeful that it will not abort.
Our area has really gone through a hit or miss rain situation in the last few days. We have not received any rain, but regions very close to us got 1 ¼” two days ago. It looks like the heat spell has finally broken, but we need rain badly.
Below, is a look at our 2016 Lancaster that turned 10 days old this morning. Hopefully it is set. The fruit on the Barron plant grew 7” in circumference yesterday.
We still haven’t received any significant rain. We got 3/10” four days ago but that is all. We have been watering every day and the plants are growing well. About 75% of the vines have been terminated, so far. We put up the shelters over the fruit.
Below is a look at our 2016 Lancaster at day 18. It measures 69 ½” in circumference, growing approximately 5” a day
Below is our 2118 Barron that was 20 Days old this morning. We took its first OTT measurement this morning 86”+58.5”+ 57.5”= Total 202” We really like the shape of this one.
We received ½” of rain this past week, but we could use a little more. The 2016 Lancaster was 25 days old this morning. Today’s measurements 101”+70”+63” = 233” OTT for an estimate of 291 lbs. Total gain for the last 7 days was 187 lb. (Roughly 26 lbs. per day)
Next is the 2118 Barron (day 27) 115”+73 ½”+71”= 259 ½” OTT today (estimated 403 lbs.) for a total gain of 212 lbs. in the last 7 days. Roughly 30 lbs. per day.
Just when we thought we were done with vine burying, the field pumpkins have kicked into gear. We have been pruning, training and burying the same way as the AG’s . We have been removing a lot of female flower because we don’t want a pollination until August.
This is one of our Mangel-wurzel’s.