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Big Kahuna 25 - 2020 Grower Diary Point your RSS aggregator here to subscribe to this Grower Diary.

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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 19 Entries.
Monday, June 22 View Page
Planted two, 2XL Landry 19 from last years seeds in - non tilled - non previously planted locations with very little amendments.
 
Thursday, July 16 View Page
LanTerra Update: Spotted and swatted at two vine borers today this is the second red encounter this week... quickly covered up all fresh vine sections... Recent change to cooler temperatures boosted PM pressure > so have stepped up my spray program. Recieved a Powdery Mildew call this week from an outdoor happy hay grower in Windsor for help. Back in the day a spray 3% hydrgen peroxide at up to 2oz per gallon might be the solution mix. Boosting this kill ratio is possible to end transmission. Some suggest tomatoes can do fine with from 6 to as high as 12oz per gallon.
 
Sunday, July 19 View Page
LanTerra Update: First entry Field Pumpkins. Pollinated 156 Wursten 19, this morning 6:30am. 78*F light winds Humidity 84%. 1 - Male 114 Landry 18 x 10f’ on main vine. 3 Lobes, Little symmetry of lobes... installed red shade cloth above fruit and vine location. Installed elect fan with air stream directed at fruit location. Heavy and very robust Thunderstorms are marching across lower Michigan expected before noon at LanTerra
 
Monday, July 20 View Page
Weather update, Had to spray relief on the plants yesterday morning it was just to darn hot and steamy in the morning. Missed all of the tornados and hail but recieved a great dose of Thunder and Lightening with accompanying downpours. Relief is a John Vincent supplied product believe its like Bio Forge from Stoller industries.... Its a stress preventer that slows transpiration and stomata opening in high heat.
 
Tuesday, July 21 View Page
LanTerra update: Weather moderates in terrific fashion for the first FP - 56 Wursten 19. This is a heavy x slightly heavy cross pollination so would like it to be to be successful. This morning drenched Ca, Mg with Aminos and kelp... Note refusing to be a moron this year is working well so far. The key is cool weather to prolong growth. looking at a new product available from Homegrown Hydro in Ontario. HYSHIELD's just appeared in my in box from Maximum Yield. Hyshield's active ingredient is chitosan. For those that might remember this in the GVGO's unobtanium from circ 2009, Suposed to help activate the plant’s natural defense mechanisms, protecting against any potential diseases, pests, and pathogens. OK gotta get this stuff....
 
Sunday, July 26 View Page
LanTerra Update: Field Pumpkins. Pollinated 114 Landry 18 x 156 Wursten 19, this morning 6:00am. 72*F calm. 89% Humidity. 2 - Male 156 Wursten x 16f’ on main vine. 3 Lobes, no symmetry of lobes, mishappened... installed red shade cloth above fruit and vine location. Heat & hummidity warning today up to 94*f. brings potential & high probability of abort.
 
Sunday, July 26 View Page
Weather update, Sprayed Relief on all Maters and FP's plants this morning. Thinned out canopyies on all plants to reduce demand. Really making an honest effort to follow some of the details listed in the Jessica Savage, vine growth paper of 2016... So hacking off old and new leaves without regret this year... it recently spurred my to write an article. Check it out at GVGO.ca... "The Savage Secret of Pumpkins"...
 
Sunday, July 26 View Page
THE Savage Secret of Pumpkins By, Russ Landry June 26th, 2020. The two Way River called the phloem in pumpkin plants transports the sugary carbon loaded products of photosynthesis and its nutrients from leaves to the sinks. Fruits and roots grow in size as a result of this transportation and storage. Cells of the phloem are pin cushioned together and joined to each other similar to layers of screens stuck together. Like neighbors these cells pass along the river of nutrients up or down the vine. We’ve studied this before in Sink Source Relationship 101. The outcome was bigger roots grow bigger fruits. Later this became the calcium highway. Truth is for year’s pumpkin growers have long speculated on the exact nature of growing larger giant pumpkins. "The making of giant pumpkins: how selective breeding changed the phloem of Cucurbita maxima from source to sink" HTTPS://ELIFESCIENCES.ORG/ARTICLES/15341 continued at gvgo.ca
 
Sunday, July 26 View Page
92* feels like 96... Hunter irrigation timer getting a good workout today... Setup red plastic shade cover over parts of the 156 Wursten & 114 Landry this morning. Have 50% of the canopy shaded on each plant. No flaging noticed today...
 
Sunday, July 26 View Page
RED, Sun Shade protection appears to be working... Reed infrared thermometer reports as listed below... Temperature of shaded leaves 86 to 88*f. - Non shaded leaves are just about ambient of 91 to 93*. Surface of non-shaded adjacent ground temperatures are extremely high in excess off 100. Moist and watered areas along the burried vine sections are much lower from 78 to 85. Have today so far ran 10 - 1 minute broad patch irrigation cycles with more to come.
 
Tuesday, July 28 View Page
LanTerra Update: Field Pumpkins. Pollinated 156 Wursten 19, this morning 7:30am. 68*F light winds Humidity 77%. 1 - Male, Self x 16f’ on main vine. 3 Lobes, some symmetry of lobes... installed red shade cloth above fruit and vine location.
 
Tuesday, July 28 View Page
Weather Update: High today of 85* is pretty good, however low humidity today will challenge all four FP plants. Misting will resume today. Re-adjusted the Red shade protection as winds play havoc with the light plastic. Yesterday reached 90* but with much higher humidity. Leaf cooling was not a concern due to lots of storm cloud cover. Continuing with less is more strategy. Good heafty rainfall yesterday charges the soil better than anyhing I can add. So no need of any moron additives today...
 
Tuesday, July 28 View Page
Spray and Drench Update: time for some Phosphite, Potassium, Mag drenches. Each plant gets 1.5 to 2 gallons with kelp and Humic Acid. No sign of PM... Have now Sprayed PM prevention measures 3X recently.
 
Thursday, July 30 View Page
LanTerra Update: Field Pumpkins. Pollinated 114 Landry 18 x 156 Wursten 19, this morning 7:00am. 64*F calm. 95% Humidity. 1 - Male 156 Wursten x 19f’ on main vine. 3 Lobes, GOOD symmetry of lobes.
 
Thursday, July 30 View Page
Spray Update - Applied broadleaf spray of kinetin to all plants, fruits and flowers. Added in Ca, AA Glycine & Mixed with a wetting agent and Sprayed liberally. Challenge for recent Field pumpkins at LanTerra has been day time heat and holding off on flashing and maturity. The best I've acheived is 27 DAP... So Hope is that boosting kelp and kinetin slows senesense... Kinetin also listed as a cell division agent... Moron alert.... too late > YUP I sprayed each fruit with the conctrated formula... I cant resist.... LOL....
 
Saturday, August 15 View Page
Pollinated on Aug. 15, 20 > 2XL Landry 19 x Sib. Female at 22ft main vine. 2XL-19 was a never scale bound pumpkin that reached about 75 pounds and was left to rot in the patch.. In mid June months and months after its seeds were still scattered on the patch surface. I picked up a few and soaked them in humic acid, kelp and water. They germinated as backups. I planted two of them on June 22nd.
 
Tuesday, August 25 View Page
DAY 10 for > 2XL Landry 19 x SIB. Yikes 37" CC... Nor sure but that might be close to a personnal AGP record for me at ten days. But this is an FP... Hard to fathom how this could be. How to know this seed would be so vigorus. Might it be a splitter?
 
Thursday, August 27 View Page
Powdery Mildew Update. Hot and humid this week again for the third time Ive sprayed Relief this morning at 6am. Thanks to John Vincent for finding this terrific product years and years ago during his Squash world record years. Yes pm arrives as first signs appear. Traditionally this is much later for LanTerra though. Usually pressure here starts in early July... Watch Marks vidoes early in July prompted me to get moving this year so thanks Marc. keep it a secret LOL. Heavy rain today so sprayed three times through out the day on all plants that had PM on them with 4 ounces per gallon of 3% hydrgen peroxide.
 
Friday, August 28 View Page
DAY 13 for > 2XL Landry FP 19 x SIB. 49" CC this morning at 7am. Was 45" last night at 7pm. So grew 4" in 12 hours. WTF. Measrured OTT on day 12 of 45cc 27ee 23ss = 95" This is so much fun being on split watch.... Though a one week Vacation to see the kids is looming.
 

 

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