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 ...

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 ...

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 hybr...

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...

Well, it's off to a rough giant pumpkin season - AGAIN!  I started seeds that have very high potential on April 14.  You can read about the genetics of those sees in that posting by clicking  here .  Of the 3 seeds of the 1257, only 2 germinated.  Both of the 250's germinated.  BUT, all the plants appear to be deformed in some way (they don't look healthy at all).  I've never had this happen! Regardless, I planted one 250 and one 1257 last evening.  Bad timing.  COLD May weather is expected for the next 5 days.  Lows will be in the 30s (maybe even some frost).  Next Monday the high may not get above 50! For now both plants are covered.  We'll see how this goes. With the cold start and with the plants looking very unhealthy, I'm not encouraged nor am I expecting a successful season.  I may end up planting a full regiment of field pumpkins instead.  Geez.

Even with very cold (not quite record cold) weather for mid-April, I've started seedlings for this years go at a monster Atlantic Giant pumpkin.  Last season was a disaster (click here for a discussion about the 2019 season) with many challenges. During the winter I sent in a soil sample to the lab in Idaho that does a Atlantic Giant specific soil test.  The results came back and I was able to add the suggested nutrients. If weather is favorable and I can control insects, I'm hoping that this season will end up producing a biggie, since I have seeds with great potential. I purchased seeds again from Ron Wallace (Two-time world record holder and three-time world pumpkin champion). The two selections have tremendous potential, genetically. Pumpkin Plant number 1 - I started two seeds from a Wallace 1257.5 pound pumpkin that was grown by Ron Wallace in 2018. That particular pumpkin grown came in third place at the 2018 Woodstock Fair.  The genetics of this 1257.5 se...

It was one thing after another this year.  The two plants had the main stem split lengthwise on each plant, essentially ending the likelihood of a having a giant.  With giant pumpkins, they require DAILY care!  After the May splitting, cool and wet weather preventing fast growth, and lack of daily care, I basically gave in to the season.   It's a shame as I had pretty good genetics with one of the seeds - in fact excellent genetics that could have potentially resulted in a REALLY big one. Alas, the season ended early.  However, there was one pumpkin that did pollinate and grew "on it's own".  I taped it at around 200 pounds but give some deformation (result of not taking care of it), it most likely weighed at 190 pounds.  Here was that pumpkin this Sunday afternoon..... I think I might try and get this seed again if it's available from the grower and try again this next growing season.