Back In The Game

Don't count me out just yet! My second plant, the one along the back fence that didn't produce any female pumpkin flowers all season, decided very late in the game to finally put out. So for the past three weeks I have been babying the he'll out of this pumpkin. This means: extra water, weekly potassium rich foliar feedings, weekly anti powdery mildew spraying and finally, my patented extra solar exposure with a mirror method.

The diameter measurement is currently 29" and growing. Chris has a few up at and above 40" so I still have a long way to go this late in the game. I'm at least banking on not coming in last place.

Grow!

Dia de Los Muertos

A sad day. The pumpkin I had all my hopes and dreams riding on, it had to go. Adios.

Gangbusters

The hot and sunny stretch of a week here has been great for growing. Here are two photos taken today of where I am at, looks about as big (or just a little smaller) as my pumpkin last year. The weather is turning to cooler and less sun, curious to see that correlation in the growing data.

Extra Boost of Sun

After about 5:30 in the afternoon, our fence and honeysuckle to the west tends to block direct sunlight to the plant. So in trying to eek out any available solar radiation, the past couple of days I've set up this high tech Directional Solar Capturing Array! Hey, every little bit helps, right??

Exponential Growth

I know it's been a long time since my last entry but I have the excuse of having been off on an island for the past three weeks. So a lot has happened in that time, namely I now have a growing pumpkin that's charging forward!

The competition is also heating up too, both Chris and mom are adding daily circumference measurements to my shared, online spreadsheet. It's fun to track and visualize the progress each of us are making, and important to remember that everyone is still really early on and anything can still happen.

Here's a photo of my pumpkin, the plant is taking over the backyard. The wine bottle scale reference is a little misleading, it's actually the airplane wine bottle size, I thought it would be funny to use that. Regardless, the pumpkin is adding about 2" or more a day in circumference.

Fourth of July

While not the biggest plant, it's looking good. Vine and tendril
growth good. I see some flower buds. Definitely behind where I thought
it would be this time of year, though the competition is in the same
boat.

Chris' Contender

I'm checking in on Chris' rabbit this weekend while he is out of town,
the perfect excuse to spy on his pumpkin. It's actually looking really
good. Leaf size is great. Stalk is thick. Even has a little pumpkin on
there. The competition is going to be fierce.

My plant tomorrow, I promise.

My East Coast Competition

I'm just back to portland from my east coast recon mission where I had
quite a lot of time to check out my mom's pumpkin, and also receive a
lot of friendly trash talk.

Yes, she did plant her's three weeks after mine AND it's already
bigger than my plant. I blame the lack of Portland summer weather.
I'll post a photo of my pumpkin today but for now here are two photos
of my mom's taken a few days apart, the image with her was taken
yesterday.

Hoptastic!

We have more hops vines than I know how to handle. I'm trying to train
them in every direction: up the garage and over to the back fence.
Along the garage. Over to the pergola. They love twisting straight up
a string, but any time I have the vines going horizontal, I have to
manually twist the vine around the string every couple of days.

Starting to Vine

The weather is warmer now and the pumpkin is starting to lay over and
vine. All great news!

Cold Weather Slow Down

I have not had much to report on the pumpkin lately, we've had over 3" of rain this May, accompanied by temperatures in the 50s and lots of clouds. The plant is growing, just not very fast at this point. Here's a photo from today. You can see the first leaves (the more rounded ones) are getting eaten, but the true leaves are looking pretty good. That's all for now.

Baby Sitting

Last week Chris traveled out if town for four days and in his absense
needed a place to keep his newly planted seeds warm and moist. In a
spirit definitely NOT of competition, I offered to house the seeds. I
supposed I could have taken the opportunity to pull some practical
jokes or sabotage, but rather I knew that this summer during our
travels I'll need to call in the favor for his help.

Here's Chris picking up the seedlings, pretty good germination rate in
our basement. Of course, heaven forbid his pumpkins are bigger, it's
all from the TLC the seeds received at my house.

In the ground

The pumpkins have been planted! Out of the five seeds I started, I
have planted three and given away one. The biggest plant, assuming the
dominant role, has been relegated to the best plot. While not a big
location to grow in, it definitely gets the best sunlight I can offer,
something that was lacking last year. To supplement this pumpkin, I
planted two others, one in the back corner where I grew the 35
pounder, and then the third behind the outdoor fireplace, a solar
disadvantaged location.

The fourth plant I mentioned has been given away to a good home. We
have been volunteering as farm crew helpers for the past month with
Oregon Tilth, a local organization the regulates and certifies organic
standards. The have a huge public demonstration garden that, I
thought, was just begging for a giant pumpkin to draw public interest
and fun. Today I handed over the start, I hope it does well, it's
definitely in good hands and GOOD soil.

Hardening off

The weather the past few days in Portland has been great. Perfect for warmth and sun exposure for the seedlings, getting them ready to plant. I'm thinking within the next couple of days there will be a plant in the ground. Very exciting, but also a new phase of variables to worry about, namely wind damage, cold exposure and soil moisture. I have the pumpkin bed hooked into the drip system, which I'm hoping will be adequate for the rapid growth. I also have thin white garden fabric cover that will help keep the plant protected from wind and cold.


Looks like Chris just planted some of his mystery seeds this weekend, so he's about 2 week behind me at this point. That could be the difference that pays off in the end.


Here's a black and white photo Chris sent me of, apparently, the shipping labels for the pumpkin seeds he bought online. Looks like this is the "Prizewinner F1" seed and from a search online, these are the pertinent details on this seed:


Pumpkin Prizewinner F1

120 Days. This hybrid fits between our Howden Biggie and Atlantic Giant in size, and it requires more than one person to get it out of the field. It can grow from 75-150 lbs., depending on the care you give it. With a fairly uniform shape for a big pumpkin and a consistent, bright reddish-orange color, Prizewinner is an excellent contest pumpkin. Its typical pumpkin shape with shallow ribs makes it a good fit for roadside displays, too. 10 seeds/pkt.

So, it seems that's what I'm up against!

Also, here's an article from the Wall Street Journal that Chris sent me about giant pumpkin growing in Napa Valley. It talks a lot about the popularity of giant pumpkins and the trading and buying of good genetic seed.

http://bit.ly/d9XmkV

In the next few days, I'll go into a little more detail about the seeds I started and where I got them.

1.5 Weeks

Seedling growth is going very well, and it's clear which plant is the
strongest of the bunch. Here's a photo, with a quarter for scale, of
the biggest plant. Today, the seedlings are getting some natural
sunlight from the dining room table in the sun room.

Competition is heating up too. Chris "The Composter" Arends has
refused my generous offers for some of my seeds, stating "I have good
sources." i guess he does not know where I got my seeds.

Old School

Playing around with a new iPhone app that takes photos that look old.
Lots of fun. This photo is a day old, so imagine these plants, but
bigger! I'll be using this photo app a lot this summer, and I'll be
sure to break out the stereo photos too.

Sprouted!

We spent the weekend in walla walla Washington visiting friends and
wine tasting, so the planted seeds were unattended. I was eager to get
back home to see if any seed developments had happened. Well, I'd say
yes, there has been some progress!!

As you can see from the photo, 5 out of 5 seeds germinated, though it
seems that some are looking stronger than others. At this point is
important to keep the water and light going to get these little
sprouts growing fast.

Seed Starting

Today kicks officially kicks off the 2010 season. I'm trying two
different seed starting methods with these seeds: the first method is
to completely chip away the seed covering and then soak the sees for
24 hours. The second method takes a seed and gently file (or
sandpaper) the edges of the covering. This helps the moisture seep
into the seed and also assists the first leaves from breaking free of
the seed coating.

Three of five are in the dirt, warmed to a toasty 80 degrees! Good luck.

Better Late Than Never

Well, I should have posted this about 6 months ago, but better late than never. Here's the photo from the championship weighoff day! I won with my 34 pound pumpkin, Chris "The Composter" came in a VERY close second at 32.5 and Nick "Nitrogen Fixer" Nichols pulled up the rear with an 11 pound pumpkin.

And with that, it's already time to start thinking and planning and doing for the Second Annual Monster Pumpkin Weighoff 2010. Good luck fellas! See you in October.