Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

In my quest for the 1000 pound pumpkin, it would appear that I've made great strides this season based on the health and size of the plants and the fact that I had a pollinated pumpkin much earlier than previous seasons.   July 8th is the earliest date I've ever had a baby pumpkin that was left to grow.  This season I pollinated one on June 17th on the 1990 Marintzer plant.  However, that particular pumpkin had been growing at a much slower rate that even the 595 pounder I grew last year.  BTW, that one had a really good chance of reaching 1000 pounds had it not been for a split stem, that I was not aware of until the end of the season.  Anyway, this current growing pumpkin has really started to put on weight this past few days.  As of this afternoon (4th) it was taped at an approximate weight of 72 pounds. What is encouraging to me is that it's on a main vine and the plant itself is extremely vigorous and healthy.  Barring any setbacks, I think i...

In the previous post I did on the 17th (you can read it by clicking  here ) I had just pollinated a female that morning on the 1990 Marintzer plant.  The earliest I had ever had a pollinated pumpkin was July 8th.  As of this morning the plant was looking VERY good and the pumpkin had made progress, although not as far a long as a few previous pumpkins.  Today would be DAP7 (7 days after pollination) and was about 1.7 pounds.  Unfortunately, there is still a chance the pumpkin could abort on its own.   I did have a backup female that I pollinated 3 days later and it is growing nicely too.  The make-or-break decision will come early next week on whether I keep the DAP7 or the DAP4.  If it's going to make it, then it should be around 15 pounds on Monday. Here was the DAP7 pumpkin as of this morning.... As I mentioned, the plant is very impressive for the 24th of June. The other pumpkin plant in this plot is the 595 Hutton and that plant is the o...

The first post of the 2021 giant pumpkin growing season can be read  here  if your interested. I've grown or attempted to grow Atlantic Giant Pumpkins for a number of years but started to get more serious and dedicated to the process in 2016 after I learned that seeds of GIANT pumpkins could fetch a pretty good price and after Donovan Mader of Garden City grew a Kansas State Fair record pumpkin in 2015 weighing in a 1034 pounds.  That following year (2016) my attempt was 243 pounds (previous pumpkins were less than 100 pounds).  I figured out a few things and in 2017 I grew a pumpkin that weighed 542.5 pounds and that one took 2nd in the Kansas State Fair (Mader's was around 725 pounds that year).  Then in 2018 I struggled with the upkeep but managed a 497 pounder but then in 2019 I basically gave up early after I neglected the patch for a few weeks (I was busy with life). Last year was a pretty good season considering there were many issues early on. ...

 Last season, despite a lot of issues, I still managed to grow a personal best 595 pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin.  I also had one go 505 pounds (it also had issues).  Late last fall I broke out a new plot and in the original plot I added ~14 tons of sand and planted a winter cover crop.  I have yet to add sand to the new plot so I'm sure that will make a difference.  The winter cover crop (mostly crop or field rye) was consumed consistently by rabbits throughout the winter. Also during the winter I was able to purchase several pumpkin seeds with tremendous genetics but they came with a price. Through an on-line auction I was able to obtain a seed from the 1,990 pound state record Kansas grown pumpkin from last year!  Jacob Marintzer is the grower.  He was selling the seeds for $60 a seed but I was able to get it for $45 through bidding in an on-line auction.  That particular pumpkin was grown under a green house and I don't ever expect to have that...

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 ...

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 fai...

 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...