Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Friday, February 27 View Page Welcome to my 2126 Pumpkin diary! My name is Russ Pugh. I'm an old guy who lives in Eugene, Oregon. This is my 25th year growing big pumpkins and my personal best is 2301 pounds. This year I have a need to grow one over 2400 pounds. I also feel like I need to have a year where I get three good ones to the scale, maybe for a total of 6500+ pounds. That would feel good! Sunday, March 1 View Page Over the winter I added about 30 cubic yards of used potting soil that I got from my buddy, Sam's, cannabis grow. It is mainly peat moss and perlite. I also added about 21 yards of pumice. My goal was to get more "texture" in my soil so I would have more air space. Sunday, March 1 View Page I also added 30 bags of composted chicken manure. When I had my soil tested I really didn't need to add too much compared to other years. My soil pH had dropped considerably (from 7.0 to 6.2) most likely because of all of the peat that I added. I used calcytic lime to boost up the pH hopefully to 6.7. I am re-testing to make sure it is back to where I want it to be. Sunday, March 1 View Page I always like to sneak into the kitchen and use my wife's cooking gadgets to mix up my micro nutrients. Of course she came home when I was right in the middle of whisking together borax and manganese sulfate. She harassed me about the mess I was making in "her kitchen." I was glad to hear that she still considers it "her kitchen" which to me means I don't have to cook! Sunday, March 1 View Page I mix the micronutrients with sand so there is enough volume of the concoction to be able to spread it somewhat evenly in the patch. Sunday, March 1 View Page One of the things I added was a 40 pound bag of blood meal. My dog always goes nuts when I am adding blood meal. I always get a kick from reading the blood meal bag. Sunday, March 1 View Page This is my soil test report. Besides increasing my Manganese and Boron, all I really needed to dial in was my pH. This year I plan to re-test periodically to make sure my nutrient levels and their ratios stay good throughout the season. In-season testing will be a new thing for me this year! Monday, March 2 View Page I just did the "final till" in my greenhouse! I finished up adding amendments on Friday and then I ripped the soil with my middle buster plow before tilling. It looks fantastic & is loose at least 15 inches everywhere. Monday, March 2 View Page This is my Zoom group I started three years ago. We normally meet on Wednesday nights during the winter. We have a nice mix of experienced growers and some really sharp young growers. We are kind of like a bunch of Jedi Masters who are training padawans. Lately it seems like the young guys have been teaching the old guys! Just yesterday Peter Holst Olsen, who is a third year grower, spoke to our group. Listening to Peter made me realize how un-scientific most of our methods are. People like Peter are going to shake things up in our community very soon! Monday, March 2 View Page In past couple weeks I have been working a lot on a presentation I will be giving at the GPC International Growers Conference next weekend in Salt Lake City & the following weekend at the California Grower's Spring Meeting. I like to put together presentations in the winter because it gets me thinking about important things!