Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

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