Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

A week ago (read that post by clicking here ) I discussed the ridiculous wind that has occurred this spring and early summer.  Since that post we've had another two high wind events of 60 MPH plus!  But, I didn't see much damage, thankfully.  Also in that last post I discussed how far behind the growing is/was compared to last year.  My original goal was to get the first pollination completed on the 1st of July.  If I got a fruit set by July 15, I would have felt fortunate.  Last year the state fair second place pumpkin was pollinated on July 8. We left on a trip to Colorado on  June 29th and returned yesterday, the 3rd.  I knew there was a female on the main vine of the 1733 plant but thought I had a least a week before it opened. The main vine it was on had/has issues as the tip shriveled up from the hot wind!  Regardless, it looks like the pumpkin pollinated while we were gone, probably on the 2nd!  Two issues  though. 1) I d...

This spring and now early summer have been brutal on growing giant pumpkins!  Top that off and I've been sickly for over 2 weeks which started with a brown spider bite (which is going to leave a nasty scar on my shin) concluding with being ill with constant neck pain and constant headache and fever (systematic secondary infection) for about 10 days.   I finally got back in the garden this evening - and it's not pretty out there! Since May 1, there have been 25 days that had wind 40 MPH or higher!  That is crazy!  Some of those days had heavy rain while others had scorching heat!  There have been 10 days of more than 50 MPH wind and 5 days of 65 MPH gusts!  The weather and general lack of care from me have left the pumpkins in not-so-good of shape.  I also had an infestation of squash bugs on one plant! The 1733 is doing the best, as far as color and such although I already lost the tip of one of  the secondary vines.  Here is that pl...

This weather so far this spring has been brutal on EVERYTHING!  We had one of the driest fall/winter/spring periods on record! We started with one of the top coldest Aprils on record. Then we had a record warmest May at Dodge City (and it obliterated the previous record).  Hot and windy days, high humidity at times, thunderstorms with a lot of wind!  The previous post I did on the 29th (you can read it by clicking here ) I was scrambling to build some protection from the elements (hail at that time and now a hot wind).  It did help, thankfully! This past Wednesday night we had a high wind event from a collapsing thunderstorm during the night with 70-75 MPH winds here at the Hacienda but even higher winds southwest of here!  I had to leave in the dark yesterday morning so wasn't sure what I would find when I came home.  The only damage we had was a downed poplar tree and a pool full of debris (took about 1 1/2 hours to clean that up).  But the pumpkin...

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 pla...

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....