Hunt's Diary for 2017

Our parsnip weighed 9.8# at the Royal Winter Fair. That is a new PB for us, but no Canadian record.

Over all it was a very good season for us. Next year we are giving the garden a rest & will only grow some tomatoes & other giants veggies. No pumpkins or squash.

Congratulations to all those growers who grew a new record giant veggie, grew a new PB or attended one of Ontario's weigh offs. Hopefully 2018 will be a great season for all our members. We would also like to thank all those growers who shared their season with our membership though this site.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the GVGO spring seminar.

Cheers,

Jane & Phil

PS. Don't forget to renew for 2018. There will be a $6000 reward to the 1st Canadian GVGO member to break the 2,000# barrier & become the winner of the GVGO's 1-Ton Challenge. Contact us at gvgogrowers@gmail.com).

1511 Haist Sq lit up.

The 1937 Urena (1278#) & the Canadian flag. Canada 150 years. The watermelon was @ 135#.

The 1803 Hoelke (1514#). Happy to welcome all visitors.

2145 Mcmullen (1515.4#) My niece started carving this Owl??? & couldn't finish it. I put the left eye in, carved the maple leaf & opened up the beak to show the light through. We also added a red light to make it stand out. Amazing thing is most people who seen it, guessed it was an Owl. LOL.

Thanks. We really enjoy displaying them. We do get a lot of people stopping by for pictures. We even have some telling us how much they look forward to seeing our pumpkins each year. Some even want to give us some money for allowing them to stop & take the pictures. LOL.

We spent 4 days carving pumpkins & collecting seeds. We'll display it for a week after Halloween or until they start to rot.

What a wonderful display!

Here were the pumpkins lit up for Halloween. We had a record amount of kids this year. The grand total was 3. LOL. We went many years without a single kid stopping in even though we live on a major Hwy. Lots of adults stopped by every year for pictures though.

Here is a parsnip that we grew this year. We sent it with Chris to the Royal Winter Fair & are hoping that it will be @ 10#. Could it be a new Canadian Record? Stay tuned.

Hey Ryan

They look really impressive when they are standing up like that. We use our small Kabota tractor, with a bucket & slide the bucket under the edge of the pallet. I lift the edge of the pallet & move forward, slowly tilting the pumpkin upright. As the pumpkin is tilting forward, I adjust the bucket so that the pallet is in between the pumpkin & the tractor's bucket to better support the pumpkin. Jane & a friend also stand on both sides & help guide it up. Once upright, we use styrofoam pieces to help support the base. They are very solid standing up that way & had no issues with the high winds we had the other day. It took all the power the poor little Kabota had to get them up. It's only rated to lift 700#, so it struggled pushing up the 2 - 1500#+ pumpkins.

I'm currently carving them & will be done this afternoon. I'll post a picture of them later.

Phil & Jane

PS. I wonder how many other growers carve their giant pumpkins?

Looks really nice. How do you stand those monsters up?

Here is our pumpkins lined up & ready to carve. They are from right to left:

1. 1803 Hoelke - 1514#

2. 130#+ watermelon fron the 315 edwards

3. 1937 Urena - 1278#

4. 1511 Haist Sq - 917#

5. 2145 Mcmullen - 1515.4#

I'll have pictures of our carved pumpkins & other veggies later this week.

Thanks Ryan. We really enjoyed growing it. It never really got over 28# per day, but it was still growing when we picked it. We crossed it with our 2145 Mcmullen, so it should have some huge potential for growing big & heavy. I'm sure there will be a few more heavy 1803's out there. Thanks for donating the seeds to the GVGO. We look forward to seeing you & the family in Wellington.

Nice weight with the 1803 Phil. it looks so much like the pollinator which was my 1625 Gantner (1800.5), that i figured it had to be heavy like the Gantner. 11% on this years strict chart must have been about 15% on last years chart. Nice fruit.

Our 1803 Hoelke ended up 4th at Port Elgin at 1514#, 11% heavy over the new chart. The 1511 Haist squash went to chart & weighed in at 917# & won 3 place. The Dawson watermelon weighed 137# & came in second. We had a tomato & it weighed in at 4.52# to place second. Our carrot was 6.7#, good for 3rd & our parship weighed in at 6# & placed 3rd in the Other Veggie class.

We have been going to Port Elgin for about 20 years & this was the 1st year we seen the cars. Some very impressive rides out there. Looking forward to seeing more of them next year.

Over all a great day, great weather & the Port Elgin crew did an outstanding job throughout the event. Thanks to all the volunteers for a job well done.

This one wouldn't last until Sat either. Too bad as it could have won at Port Elgin. Grown from the same plant that grew our 5.06#er that was weighed earlier. Combined weight of the 2 maters from the 1 tomato plant is 10.42#.

This one couldn't wait until Port Elgin. Listed on the early tomato for GPC.

This watermelon is barely growing now. Weeds have taken over. Still hoping it'll make it to 150#, but it's not really looking good. Lets hope for heavy, over the chart.

1511 Haist is still plugging along. Only 5# per day. Pretty disappointed with the results, but we will get it to a scale.

1803 Hoelke This one has really slowed down. Only 5# per day now. I'm running low on water, so I'm watering less.

1937 Urena Perfectly round. This one looks like it'll go heavy. Too bad it didn't get bigger.

2145 Mcmullen This is our largest pumpkin. Not by much though. The cold temps we had a week ago really slowed them down to a crawl. Doesn't look like this warmer weather is going to help either.

I agree Ryan. It would have been tough for them, with the low turnout & the amount they paid out in prize money. It's good thing that Brian has the store & other attractions to help out.

I'm not sure if I want to put up a greenhouse, but with a risk of frost tonight, I will have to figure out some way to keep the plants frost free. Will use either remay or go out at 4 am & water the plants down.

We have 3 pumpkins, so if they all survive, we might be able to go to Wellington. The moose hunt is a week later, so that will free us up for the 1st time in many years. Maybe we'll see you there. Good luck .

No idea to be honest. I haven't really thought about it. This pumpkin that never got out of the 20 pounds a day hasn't made me think of weighoffs.

It's tough to lose Pembroke, the only close one to us up here. Can't really blame them, as I can't see how any weighoffs can even break even financially. The numbers don't add up, and it was the same 7-10 growers showing up every year.

I'll have to play it by ear and see what works for our schedule. I need about 1200 more pounds for 2k so I may build a greenhouse around the plant and take it to the Royal Winter Fair if it can grow to 140 days.

Woodbridge or Wellington would be my guess if I had to make one now.

Thanks Ryan. We worked extra hard to make sure the stem & blossom end were level. We've lost too many pumpkins to splits in the last 3 years because of the shape. Hopefully all our pumpkins will make it to a weigh off.

Now that Pembroke has cancelled it's weigh off, where are you taking your pumpkin?

Our biggest watermelon. Currently putting on 2.8# per day. Hope to break the 150# mark by Port Elgin.

Our 1511 Haist sq. It was aVLate pollenation & is currently @ 650#. The cold nights have slowed growth. We have had 3 nights that were 6 degrees or less. Hopefully we don't see an early frost. SOME COLD TEMPS ARE HEADING OUR WAY BY WEEEKS END. good luck.

Nice and level stem/blossom line on all the fruit. Looks like you've done it a few times before.

1803 Hoelke is slowing down. Looking good & Heavy. It's the 2nd biggest in the patch for now.

1937 Urena. It is a very smooth pumpkin that is just @ 1000#. Hoping it goes heavy for us.

2145 Mcmullen. Doing @ 18# per day, the past 6 days. Need good weather & good growth rates in Sept if we want to compete with the big boys.

Here is our 1st tomato of the year. It weighs 4#12.4oz. We still have a few others that are only golf ball size. We also have 2 other tomatoes that will be ready soon. Just starting to turn. Hoping to reach our goal of a 5#+ tomato. Stay tuned.

Well it's been a few days since we posted any pictures. So here we go. This is our 1803 Hoelke. It's currently growing over 30# per day. Starting to look pretty beefy.

This is the 1511 Haist Squash. Late pollination, but starting to take off. This one will be a big wheel shaped squash. He has been scarred up a bit from the hail & leaves. Some animal caused the bigger makes when it was @ day 10.

Here is our 2145 Mcmullen. This one is growing over 30# per day as well. Both the 2145 & the 1803 have the exact same OTT, & have stayed the same OTT for the past 3 days. The 1803 is 6 days older than the 2145. The 1803 was only growing 25# per day the previous 7 days, but turned on the gas this past 3 days averaging 33# per day. Hopefully we can keep up these numbers for the next 3 weeks. :o)

Here is our back-up plant, the 1937 Urena. It's 8 days behind the Hoelke pumpkin, but is really starting to take off. It just started to break past the 30# per day average.

The 230 Dawson watermelon broke past 50# now & is growing 3# per day. Disease is trying to take hold of the plant due to the sprinklers splashing dirt on the leaves. We stopped watering the entire plant & have only watered the base the past week. Disease has seemed to have stopped progressing down the vine.

This is our 315 Edwards. It was a late starter. We had trouble getting a good straight fruit on it, but this one was the best so far. It's too late to start another one & hope it reaches over 150#.

This tomato is off our 4.63 Hunt. The fruit goes around in a complete circle. This one has some real good potential to go over 5#.

This one is on the 4.17 Weston. It's @ 21" in Cir. It has grown a little head on the side of it.

Here is a nice megabloom growing on the 4.60 Lyons. The picture make it look like 2 maters, but looking at it at the proper angle & you'll see it's all one tomato. It's growing from a short thick stem coming right off the main stock.

It's hard to see, but here is another one that will hopefully all take. There is at least 4 blossoms together, maybe 5. It was hard to get a decent picture of it.

Our giant carrots are doing okay, but another one went to flower. Hopefully that will be the last one to do that. Rutabagas are doing okay as well.

As far as our regular garden goes, we've been eating fresh potatoes for the past 2 weeks. I'm surprised at how big they are already. Our eating carrots are awesome, as is our beans & peas. The blueberries are turning fast. We are getting a large bowl full every day now. Our garlic has been harvested now as well. I'll till that part of the garden up later this week.

We'll post an update next week. Good luck to all our fellow GVGOers.

2145 Mcmullen. Starting to take off. Looks a lot like Chris Lyon's 2145.

1937 Urena... It's 2 days younger than our 2145 Mcmullen.

1803 Hoelke.. It's the largest in the patch. Took our 1st measurement last Friday, so we'll know how much they are growing when we take our next measurements this Friday. They look good though.

1511 haist Squash. It has a few battle scars from the leaves. It is just starting to take off. Was a late pollination.

Our biggest watermelon is starting to take off. It has a lot of growing to do to reach 200#+.

Rutabagas are starting to beef up now. Needs to grow a lot if it hopes to give the WR a run.

Tomato has grown some in the past 6 days. Hoping this will grow a real monster. Time will tell, as it's only 14 -15 days old.

Our cabbages are done. They went to head real early. 1 of them split already & the other 2 are getting close to splitting. I must have mixed up my cabbage seeds when planting. They'll be great additions to the compost pile.... :o(

Calling for more rain. Man, it just doesn't stop. We still haven't had to water yet, except to add nutrients to the soil. If we don't get any/little rain this weekend, then we'll likely have to start watering them on Monday or Tuesday.

1511 Haist Squash was 21" on day 10. Hopefully it doesn't abort. We'll set it up on the mill fabric tomorrow. We have a back-up on the 1st secondary vine & another one on the main just 3' past the 1st squash. Will give it another 10 days before we start culling the others off.

Jane has now terminated all plants except for the squash. It has 3 secondary vines that need to grow another 3' to fill in the patch. Then it's off with their heads. It's just weeding & feeding now. Hopefully we can get a pumpkin for Port Elgin this fall.

We pulled our 1st hill of spuds today & wow, it looks like we'll have a great crop this year. BBQ steak & taters tonight. YUM, YUM!!!!

Will have pumpkin pictures early next week.......Good Luck everyone.

July 19th, 2017

Nice Mega-bloom on the 4.17 Weston. Found out it is a delicious variety.

This one is on the 4.63 Hunt.

2145 Mcmullen is starting to take off.

this is the 1937 Urena. Our back-up plant is starting to go. Everything except 6' of main is before the fruit. All vines are terminated on it now.

1803 Hoelke - looking a bit like a block. This was our earliest pollination

1511 Haist squash. Will measure tonight as it is day 10 for it.

Well, another big rain went through last night. We got 2.25" of rain. I guess we won't need to water again for a few days. More rain for later in the weekend & next week. Plants are doing okay, but disease issues are a real concern. Will do a foliar tonight & start my weekly batch of compost tea. Hopefully it'll be a bit dryer on Sat to apply the compost tea.

Will have pictures hopefully on the weekend.

Good luck everyone.

Phil & Jane

4.17 Weston 1st megabloom of the season. Funny thing as this plant only produced 1 flower where there should have been a cluster. Anyone know if this is a different variety than Del or BZ?

230 Dawson 1st melon of the season. Hope it takes.

2145 McMullen Pollinated June 24th. Will measure at day 20. Starting to take off now that it's drying out. The leaves are still a light green.

1937 Urena Pollinated on June 26th. Growing as well as can be expected. Will measure on day 20.

All our pumpkin plants are @ 600+ sq ft. We have them set up that 99% of the plant is before the pumpkin & only @ a short 6' main is growing out past the pumpkins. We'll terminate most secondary vines by next weekend. The main vines will be allowed to grow out a little bit more before we terminate them.

1803 Hoelke is starting to pick up steam. Was a slow starter, so hopefully it'll have a strong finish.

1511 Haist squash. 1st squash we've grown in a few years. This one is our 1st pollination @ 16' out. Pollinated July 9th.

Inside the greenhouse you can see the 2 watermelon & 6 tomato plants. The drums up at the top are to make our compost teas.

Last shot is a picture of the new composting bin we built a couple weeks ago. Each side is 8' wide & 8' deep. The sides are @ 5'. Hired a guy to dig the post holes for us. The gaps in the boards are covered in wire mesh to help keep the compost from falling out & let air in. This will help us compost more maple leaves & other stuff over the course of the year.

Rain finally stopped. Plants are looking a bit yellow from all the rain. We'll let them dry out for a few days before we start watering again. We need to apply a good ground fungicide & work up the soil more, as the dirt has a bit of a foul odor to it in places where the soil is still very wet & hasn't been worked up since spring.

Will have pictures before the weekend.

Cheers,

Jane & Phil

Rain, rain, rain. That is all it's done for the past few days. Garden is drenched. I'm sure some nasty diseases are likely lurking in our patch. Hopefully the rain will quite long enough to spray some fungicide on them.

Plants are suffering a bit. The leaves have a pale look to them from too much rain. We could use a run of dry weather for the next week. Hopefully Mother Nature is listening.

Will try to get some pictures up this weekend.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!

Cheers,

Jane & Phil

Pollinated our last pumpkin today. It's the 2nd one on the 1803 Hoelke @ 17'. I pollinated it with our 2145 McMullen. It's a nice looking pumpkin with a long stem. It's a back-up to the one we pollinated earlier, but who knows. It's stlll only June 27th. Lots of time to grow it big on it. We'll see at day 10 if it's worth keeping or not.

Our squash is way behind. I could pollinate one in about 6 days @ 9', but will see if there is something a little later to help get the plant a bit bigger. It's way behind the pumpkins, as it didn't have heating cables under it.

Seen another cuke beetle this morning, so I will likely try to spray tonight after the threat of rain passes. I need to do a foliar feed with micros, a fungicide & Lithovit anyway, so I'll include it as well.

Our watermelon plants are now @ 7-8' long, with 2' secondary vines. We'll let the plant grow a bit more before we pollinate one. Hoping to do that in early July, but we'll see if the plant is sending out any potential females by then.

Tomato plants are just starting to show tiny flowers on them. Most plants seem to have a mega bloom on them, so that looks promising for 2017. We'll know more in a couple weeks, once they are pollinated & growing. We're hoping for a good year. The cooler weather could help keep them from ripening early. Last year's heat had our maters ripen earlier than we thought they should.

Good luck to our fellow GVGOers.

Jane & Phil

GVGO

3 lucky males had their way with Miss Urena this morning. Pollinated our 1937 Urena this morning, with the 2145 McMullen. Nice 5 lober at 14-15' out. This will hopefully be the one. Will have pictures in a couple days.

I also pollinated Chris Lyons 1585 Werner this morning. It was crossed with his 2145 McMullen. It was a 6 lober. Should also be a promising pumpkin.

We have only seen 5 cuke beetles so far this season & this over a 5 day period. Haven't sprayed yet, as there doesn't seem to be a problem. Hopefully all the little bastards drowned in all the rain we're getting. We'll spray later this week, just in case. We have to spray a fungicide on anyway.

Will start a batch of compost tea today. Hopefully it dries out enough to water it in. Crazy weather has water levels here at all-time highs. Our garden well water level is only 2' below the ground level. Usually at this time it should be closer to 7-8' below the ground level. Don't think there will be a water issue in 2017. What a change from the drought of 2016.

Good luck everyone.......Jane & Phil

I'm back. i tried to get pictures the other day, but I had computer issues & deleted them all by mistake. Anyway here we go.

We just got a bad storm with lots of hail & high winds.

The plants did get lots of holes in the leaves, but they managed to survive better than I thought.

Here is the 2145 McMullen. We pollinated one at 9', but won't take it if possible. Jane pollinated one on it yesterday at 14'. It will likely be the one we go with. It's protected by the black screens. Will have pictures of the pumpkins in a couple days. Side vines are now being terminated once they reach the edge of the patch.

Here is the 1937 Urena. I'll pollinate the one on it tomorrow at 14'. We are now terminating side vines on it, as well.

The 1803 Hoelke is doing well. The pumpkin you see is at 12-13' out. Another one will be out in 2 days at 16'. We are terminating side vines on this one as well.

Here is one of our Kohlrabi. Never grew them before, so we're not sure how the measure, for the date. We'll see later this fall at a weigh off near you.

Water in the regular garden. Beans & potatoes are a little wet.

Last picture is of our rutabaga. They seem to be doing well.

We haven't had to water the garden yet this season & the ground hasn't really dried out. Will be using a fungicide on them to help with the wet conditions. We have been feeding them compost tea once a week, with kelp, essential plus, micros. Will have pictures of the watermelon plants soon.

The 1st pumpkin of the season opened on the 2145 Mcmullen this morning. It was @ 9.5'. I pollinated it with our 1803 Hoelke just in for kicks. Never had one pollinated this early. Our 1679 was only 9' out, so who knows. There is another one on the tip that will be @ 7 days from opening. That will put it @ 13-14' out. Right @ the sweet spot, so Ron Wallace says & that is likely the one we'll go with.

We'll give the plants a light foliar feed tonight & then stop all fertilizing until after the pumpkins are set.

Will try to get pictures of the plants soon.

June 11/17 Just in case some people are wondering where we are located. Our home is 1.5 hours NE of Toronto, Canada, outside the small village of Cameron, Ontario.

Wow, the temps sure have jumped. What a change from what we've gotten use to. I'm sure the plants will respond well if it doesn't burn the leaves. I hope to get the watering system set up asap this week.

Yesterday, Jane buried vines on the pumpkins. The plants are looking as good as can be expected. Last night we gave them some Compost tea, mixed with myco, Essential Plus, kelp, micro nutrients & fish & watered it in good. We'll give the plants their 1st & only foliar spray before pollination time on Wed night. I will take another soil sample & a tissue sample today & send it in to A&L Labs tomorrow.

Planted 12 giant tomato plants outside this morning before it gets too hot. We used a mixture of regular compost, leaf compost, worm compost & mushroom compost & added @ 6 shovels of it to each planting site. Also added a time-released tomato fertilizer, with calcium to each plot. Each plant got a nice drink of compost tea.

Here are the giant cabbages, rutabagas, carrots & kohlrabi. Watermelons are in the greenhouse, but are only @ 2' long.

Here are 2 of our plants. All plants have out grown their hoop houses. The one on the right is the 1937 Urena (2145 Mcmullen x 2230 Wallace) & was a back-up plant & was started 4 days later then the rest. The one on the left is the 1803 Hoelke (1463 Hoelke x 1625 Gantner). It is the biggest plant at 9' & secondary vines @ 4'. Will get updated pictures without the plastic next week.

The cool weather has slowed growth considerably. We need a week of really nice weather. Mid 20's would do, with no wind. Anyway we decided to try to do a diary on the new website, so keep an eye out for our latest postings. We'll take some pictures when it stops raining.

All three pumpkins are @ 7+/- ft long, with 2' secondary vines. All seemed to be aggressive growers, but slowed down with this latest cold front. Our goal is for a June 20th pollination @ 14' out, but if this continues, it likely won't get to grow that long before the 1st pollination.

Finally got the patch tilled down, so we'll take a soil sample & maybe a tissue sample to see where we're at as far as the soil goes. This is by far the latest we've ever been to get the soil tilled down.

Thats good news phil...forecasters were calling for 5 degrees here too but i dont think we got that low...all the best!