Hi Folks, my son Ben is growing a pumpkin this year on a 150 sq. ft. patch. It's been a few years since pumpkins saw this ground so some sod busting was the first order of business. Thanks to Fred Hain for setting Ben up with a couple backup plants!
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Day 4 July 2
Day 1, June 29
150 Sq. Ft. Patch almost full July 10
Peas and zucchinis are awesome this year
Day 12 on July 10, 2020.
Day 12, Managing stem stress on July 10
Here is our 3rd female, this one is on a secondary after our main vine was chewed off by a squirrel (Photo taken June 21)
Giant tomatoes are pretty small but growing (June 21)
This photo was taken on Monday June 16. The day before we had our 2nd female emerge on the plant about 10-11 feet out and Ben said this was far enough. Let's go for it. The next day a dam squirrel had our main vine for breakfast. You can our our little pumpkin laying in the dirt. What now!
We thought about pulling the plant but decided not to. I recalled a conversation with John Butler a few years ago and if I remember correctly he said mix up a bit of cayenne pepper and spread it on the new growth. When the little critters get a taste of it they will never return. Let's see what happens.
This is the closest new growth to the end of the main. Our plan is to try and keep the new growth from getting eaten and start another female soon.
My giant tomatoes are now big enough to go in the garden. We planted them on June 6. In the photo below we have 8 plants winning a spot on the dance floor. In the front row from left to right we have 5.23 Lyons, 4.92 Sproule, 4.47 Sproule and another 5.23 Lyons. In the back row we have a 3.68 Watson, 3.51 DeMars, and 2 more 4.92 Sproule. The 5.23 Lyons was the first to germinate with the Sproule seeds a very close 2nd. They were the best of my bunch as far as size at planting time. Lets see what happens!
1404 Lyons Plant about 6-7 feet long June 5, 2020
First female June 5, 2020
This female will be pinched off and we'll wait for another one further out. (June 5, 2020)
May 24 the cold frame comes down and the chicken wire and shade cloth go up.
I used the plastic from the cold frame to make a wind break
Took time out on Saturday May 23 to go fishing. We got 8 beauties at Port Glasgow in 38 feet of water.
Ben liking our progress so far.
This photo was taken on Saturday May 16, 6 days after I started my tomato seeds. The 5.23 Lyons wins the start out of the gate with the first to emerge.
This is a photo of my tomatoes on May 20. I had 17 out of 24 seeds germinate. The top 3 aggressive seeds in my batch are the 5.23 Lyons, 4.92 Sproule and the 4.47 Sproule. I'll give my 3.68 Watson 2013 seed 4th place just because I want to mention it :-)
After a couple days of enriched CO2 and some warmer weather today our 1404 Lyons plant is really starting to go. She has laid down and is starting to run. Tomorrow night if it is warm I'll start adjusting her path towards the other end of the patch a bit better. Just want to let her get a bit longer before trying to tweak anything.
I used some grass clippings and horse manure to do a bit of CO2 enrichment in the hoop house today. The CO2 levels went from 437 to 2880 ppm in 3 hours.
Can anyone shed light on what I am seeing on this leaf? It is present on a couple of the older leaves but the newer ones look ok.
Now that I'm on lucky Team 13 I figured I better get some tomatoes going!
After cold snowy night, morning of May 9 the the 1404 Lyons plant seems OK. Keeping fingers crossed it warms up soon!
Ben & I finished garden prep and setup the cold frame today. It was such a nice day we decided to set out the plants in the garden. Unfortunately we snapped the main vine on the 1523 Hain plant. Ben was supporting the plant as I lifted the pail over it and I guess he was hanging on a bit too tight. We looked at each other immediately and I could see some tears welling up in Ben's eyes so I was quick to say this stuff happens all the time. That's why we have backups. I think he thought I was going to freak out but I know the chances of getting a pumpkin to the scale are somewhere around 40-50%. We still have one plant successfully transplanted and one was going to be culled anyway....I guess our decision just got much easier. We're now pinning our hopes on the 1404 Lyons, the last time I grew a Lyons seed in this spot I had a PB so we are still in the game. Ben learned a good lesson today about growing, there is always adversity in this hobby. If it isn't the weather or disease or a split. Maybe a coon, squirrels or mice or maybe a piece of lumber landing in the wrong spot ends your season, the list goes on.....it not over yet so keep calm and pumpkin on :-)