Jeff's Great Pumpkin Challenge

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...

 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 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...

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....

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...

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....