Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

As expected, the weather was HOT and windy (almost a blow torch for May) with temperatures 95 to 98 this past few days.  The wind was blowing 25-40 MPH.  This took a toll on the pumpkins.  The two on the east side are not as protected and they took the brunt of the weather, while the other on the west side didn't do too bad.  Here are the two east side plants.... The 1522 plant.... The 1861 plant.... Late this evening I'm quickly building some tent type protection, from possible hail, high wind and heavy rain but also for any more hot and windy days for this next week.  Once the plants start vigorous vine growth and with more vigorous root growth, the affects of the hot wind should be less.

The other two pumpkins were planted this evening.  I planted the 1861 pumpkin and also chose the healthiest between two of the 1522's and two of the 1442's and that ended up being one of the 1522 plants.  I also built a small wind break for the tender plants as the wind will blow pretty good the next couple of days.  Not helping matters will be afternoon temperatures in the 90s - again SW Kansas has harsh growing weather for Atlantic Giant Pumpkins. Here are the 1522 (closest to the camera) and the 1861 plants. The 1733 plant is on the west side of the garden.   So I started the process this year about 10 days later than last year.  I'm hoping everything catches up though given the added nutrients to the soil and with the different techniques I'm going to try this growing season.  I need, or would like to get, all the pumpkins pollinated no-later-than July 1. The earlier posts are  here and  here .

It's been three weeks since I started the pumpkins (click  here for that post).   They ALL germinated within about 5-6 days.  I already have transplanted them into larger containers and they are steadily growing and starting to take off. This evening I picked out the healthiest of the 1,733 (I have two plants) and got it in the garden.  I took some precautions with rabbit netting around the plant, some Sevin dust around the base, and anchored the biggest leaf to the ground to prevent wind damage right off the bat.  I used some of the Agrinos  product and some of the product from Wallace WOW to help the plant get going fast.  I'm betting it will be vining by the end of this weekend, if not sooner.  One issue will be the expected 90-95 degree temperatures later in the week.  Stupid weather!  So, that would be winter in April and summer in May. UGH. Tomorrow I will get the 1,861 in the ground but then will have to chose just one plant out of two 1,442's and two 1,522&#

The pumpkin growing has started! The goal this year? It's lofty!  Last season the biggest pumpkin was 542.5 pounds which earned 2nd place at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, KS. The goal last year was for a 500 pounder so I met that goal.  This growing season I'm shooting to have my name etched in the Kansas record book. So, that will have to be at least 1,035 pounds (unless some one has one bigger this year, of course) .  Unfortunately I'm already about 10 days behind schedule. We'll see... The seven seeds that I started will definitely have the potential.  Below is the start as of May 1... The seeds I started all have the potential to go big!  I did a little research during the winter and came across a couple of sources.  The first was from Ron Wallace - who has had a world record pumpkin at one time.  I ordered two seeds from him that came from a 1,733 pound pumpkin grown in 2017.  They were the most expensive that I purchased.  The 1,733 parents wer