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.

Monster Pumpkin Memorabilia

We're less than week away from the Monster Pumpkin weigh off, so it's a good time to pick up some future collectors items! Chris has uploaded the poster image to CafePress.com and there you can order t-shirts and mugs and magnets and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Check it out here:

http://www.cafepress.com/PumpkinContest

Monster Pumpkin Weigh Off

The time of reckoning is near!