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.