Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

What a challenging growing season for the giant pumpkins!  I already know what I will do different next year to try and hopefully be more successful. Yesterday (the 6th) I harvested the pumpkins off of the Wallace 1257 and the Lancaster 1713.  For those that have been following along, the Lancaster 1713 was planted on a whim late in the season and I was not expecting much out of that one at all.  As it turns out, it was my biggest pumpkin. The 1713 wasn't even planted until late May and in an area that had not been cultivated, other than growing daffodils and tulips. And, as I found out yesterday, the vine was split in half right at the stem of the pumpkin!  This limited the intake of water into the pumpkin so no doubt restricted the weight gain. Here is a closeup of that split... The final tally on this pumpkin was 595 pounds!  I would wager that without the stem split it could have been closer to 800 pounds.  Next season I believe I will grow a plant off of the seed from this one

Yesterday (Sept 16) I taped the two bigger pumpkins.  To my amazement, they are still putting on weight!  I've never had Atlantic Giants growing in mid September and especially after and record setting cold that occurred a couple of weeks ago.  This year I was able to keep ahead of the insects and disease by applying more Sevin, a little Tempo, and AGRONIS products as a foliar spray to the plants.  They are now starting to show a lot of wear though, primarily to the cold that occurred, I think.  Regardless.... The 1257 taped out at 477 pounds and was a DAP69 (days after pollination) and the 1713 taped out at 518 pounds and was DAP63.   The 1257 The 1713 I need to find a place that I can get these weighed in a few weeks.  I'll have to check the local CO-OP and see if their scales can measure to the nearest pound.   There is a "new and improved" estimating chart that if I used it the pumpkins would be 518 and 563 pounds.  My state fair pumpkin in 2017 was 542.5 so I wou

 Well I already have ideas for next season to better my chances of getting that half ton pumpkin.  But for this challenging season, at least the pumpkins are still growing.  This morning the 1257 taped out at around 439 pounds (DAP55) and is putting on about 7 pounds per day (weekly average).  Part of the reason that it is still gaining weight is that plant is still healthy.  In fact, I've never had Atlantic Giant pumpkin plants look this good in early September.  The image below shows the 1257 on the left and the 1713 on the right. I guess even though the 1713 is not as heavy (estimated from the over-the-top measuring method) as the 1257, it is also 6 days younger and is on a plant that was planted on a whim late in the season (May 31) and in a new area that had never had anything done to the soil.  Here was that pumpkin this morning sitting at about 416 pounds at DAP 49. If there isn't an early freeze, then I still might get one of them to top out at around 600 pounds.

 The giant pumpkin growth continues, but at a relatively slow rate.  The first pumpkin to start growing this season, the 1257 Wallace, was taped at about 394 pounds this morning.  This would be DAP48 (48 days after pollination).  The pumpkin is maturing so I'm not really expecting a whole lot more weight gain as it's gaining only 4-5 pounds a day.  I suppose that by frost it "might" be around 500 pounds.  The 1713 Lancaster is gaining a faster rate, but it's also younger as this morning it was at DAP42.  It taped this morning at around 377 pounds.  The current weight gain is around 10 lbs/day.  You might recall the hail damage that occurred a couple of weeks ago.  If you missed the previous post, you can read it  here  that I mentioned that the two rednecked patches seemed to have worked!  the "wounds" healed over.   I never really expected much from this pumpkin as I started the plant on a whim and very late in the season.  It didn't even get put in

 The plants have held tight with the insect damage - at least the damage does not appear to be getting worse.  The 1257 pumpkin and the 1713 pumpkin are gaining wait but in reality the daily gain is pathetic compared to what should be occurring.   This morning the 1257 pumpkin taped at 355 pounds at DAP41.   BTW, I had to move the t-post that can be seen in the upper left hand corner of the image. The pumpkin is encroaching on it (within an inch). The 1713 pumpkin taped at 310 pounds at DAP35  (heavier than the 1257 at DAP35). If you read the previous post a week ago (you can read that by clicking  here ), I discussed the two hail impacts that broke through the skin and causing "leaking".  I rednecked it by attaching pieces of latex band with glue, not knowing if it would help or hurt the issue.  Well, it looks like it worked!  The two hail impact spots are noted by the arrows on the image above.  Both spots "healed".  BTW, here is a side-by-side comparison - a week

The Good...we're still getting periodic rains and the Giants have made "some" progress.   The Bad...the plants are starting to show disease and some insect damage which will limit weight gain.   The UGLY...a thunderstorm two days ago on the 10th had hail ranging from dime to a few golf ball sized.  There was a fair amount of quarter sized hail.  As luck would have it, the pumpkin on the 1713 Lancaster plant sustained 2 impacts that broke the skin.  Plus, the plants themselves took hits damaging leaves and vines. It's a bummer since the 1713 Lancaster pumpkin had started to pick up on the daily weight gain.  Last week that pumpkin taped out at around 144 pounds.  This morning at DAP 28 it taped out at 240 pounds and was ahead of the pace of the state fair pumpkin from 2017. The two impacts from the hail were deep enough that the "wounds" started to ooze.  So I rednecked it and glued pieces of elastic/rubber banding over the damaged spots.  I have absolutely n

In the last posting (click  here  if you missed it),  I mentioned that the soil could have become compacted from too much rain.  It was a very wet last 3 weeks of July (SW KS standards).  I'm firmly believing that compacted soil has occurred, impacting the growth the pumpkins.  The weight gain on the giants has been less than stellar.   This morning the pumpkin on the 1257 plant was taped at 215 pounds - last week it was ~119 lbs.  The daily weight gain appears to have slowed the past few days to only 10 pounds a day.  That is pathetic as the DAP27 (days after pollination) should be well in excess of 25 lbs!  Here was that pumpkin this morning..... The weight gain of the pumpkin on the 1713 plant is averaging a bit more, but still not what it should be doing at DAP 21.  This morning it was taped at 144 pounds - last week it was ~59 lbs. On the 250 plant, I did cull the six lobed pumpkin as it was not gaining any size at all - so it likely did not get a good pollination.  Th

I have the giants (and field pumpkins, okra, tomatoes, etc.) on a drip system that runs every morning so I keep a consistent water profile.  However, this month (after the 6th) has been very wet.  Another 1.58" fell Sunday evening/night.  The soil is saturated.  Now I fear that this water logged soil is now compacted (it has a fair amount of clay) and is "choking" the massive root system of the giant pumpkins.  It's also been overcast the past few days. A week ago in that post (read it by clicking  here ), the pumpkin on the 1257 plant was ~ 39 pounds at DAP13.  With the rapid and exponentially increasing weight gain, I thought there was a chance that the pumpkin would be as high as 160 pounds as of this morning (DAP20).  But, it looks like it has slowed down on growth (hopefully temporary).   This morning the estimated weight was 119 pounds.  That is now behind the weight of the state fair 542.5 pound pumpkin from 3 years ago.  Here is the picture of the 1257 pump

Well, first off it's been a crazy week in July across the area.  Copious amounts of rain has fallen (but with high winds) across the area.  At my location,  I measured 4.25 inches during this past week (for SW KS in July that is a lot) but with 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches within the county!  This rain has mitigated hot temperatures and as a result the giants have responded - as well as the field pumpkins and WEEDS!  I'm pretty pumped at this point as a couple pumpkins have REALLY accelerated in growth! The 250 Wallace plant is "out-of-control" in growth!  Look at the plant this morning and compare to just 8 days ago! Click here to see what it looked like on the 14th. The very first pumpkin to get pollinated on the 5th was open pollinated (by bees) and had been slow growing.  It appears to be done so I'm removing it.  It actually lost weight during the past few days.  Here it was this morning... It was around 16 pounds.  Bye-bye pumpkin! Yesterday I pollin

The struggle continues with the giants this year but progress had been made since the last post on the 29th.  Each plant now has a potential female pumpkin as described below... This morning here was the 250 plant and it has made a lot of growth since the 29th.. The first pumpkin on this plant was one pollinated by bees and it occurred as I was not home on that morning of the 5th.  Thus, I don't know what the pollinator host plant was, although it's likely it was carried by bees from its own male flowers (250 x 250).  That is not preferred (not knowing as genetics are in question).  Here was that pumpkin this morning sitting at an estimated 1.8 pounds on DAP8 (8 days after pollination)... A weight of 1.8 pounds at DAP8 is not good (pathetic I would say).  I will likely terminate this pumpkin.  A second pumpkin (but on a secondary vine) was pollinated this morning (by me) from pollen from the 1713.5 Lancaster plant.  If this one takes and grows faster, I will

June weather - it's been crazy!  Dodge City will end up being the 5th or 6th windiest June on record.  There have been some extreme wind events (19 days with 40 MPH and higher gusts) with the storm on the 21st producing the strongest (70-75 MPH here at the hacienda).  On top of that has been just one wet period with the remainder being exceedingly dry.  The giant pumpkins have suffered ill effects.  But despite Ma Nature throwing just about everything at my attempt to grow a giant, the plants have made progress.  If you go to the the post I did on the 18th (you can read it by clicking  here ) I have a comparison from the 1st through the 18th.  Since the 18th further good growth has take place.  But - gosh there ALWAYS seems to be a "but".... About 5 days ago I fed them a concoction from Agronis, a company that produces various agriculture supplements.  I obviously used too much, well I'm guessing.  A few days later and the main vine on the 250 and the main vine an

What a brutal June so far!  The average wind speed here in Dodge City for the month of June through the 17th was 18.7 MPH - the second windiest month of record!  Along with the wind, the daily high temperature has been from 95-100 every day!  This has taken a toll on the giant pumpkin growing.  This is on top of the ridiculous start to spring with record cold in parts of May.  See the posting from  June 1st (you can see that by clicking  here ) for more on that.  But, there may be a slight ray of hope! First, the two early pumpkins planted on May 7 (just as the really cold was returning), have made progress despite the terrible June growing weather.  The growth has been steady, but SLOW!   Yesterday morning (June 17), here was the plant started from the 250 pound Wallace seed... The 1257.5 Wallace plant has a REALLY funky stem with weird branching.  Instead of round, the stem (even the spits) are flat.  I've never seen that.  The splits are not really secondary branches eit

May weather has not been favorable for the giant pumpkin plants.  Also, considering that when I put them in the ground the plants did not appear to be healthy, I'm not surprised by the ho-hum growth.  I'm not sure if the unhealthiness was because of inferior seeds or there was some other issue.  They are growing, but at a relative slow growth.  For June 1st, they should be really taking off.  Hopefully, in a few days maybe things will change but this week will be hot and windy. Stupid SW KS weather! Because of the unknown issues, I decided to start 3 more seeds on May 23.  I started a seed from my old 542.5 pounder; a seed from the 1068 (that seed produced my 542.5 pounder in 2017); and a seed from a 1713.5 pound pumpkin.  All three looked really healthy!  The 1713.5 plant appeared to be the most vigorous of the 3 (barely), so I planted it yesterday evening (the 31st) in a "new" part of the garden.  This area had previously been the hybrid iris, tulip, and daffod

Geez this miserable pumpkin growing weather!  In the previous post (read it by clicking  here ), I mentioned the rough start to the season and how the two potential pumpkin plants were not looking healthy.  I put them in the ground on the 7th but as mentioned in the previous post, just in time or COLD May weather.  And it was miserably cold!   Almost this entire month some days were really chilly and overnight lows have been below average.  Thus, the soil temperature has been below normal.  The plants were covered by two large pots for about 5 days.  Even today the plants are growing only very slowly.  Here is the 250.... And the 1257.... There were two other plants that germinated but they look even worse!  I don't know what the issue is.  I went ahead and started 3 more pumpkins of different genetics, just in case.  If they take off and I replaced these two above, the planting would be REALLY late for giants!  We'll see.  Those pumpkins won't germinate for another