Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 7 Entries. Sunday, July 26 View Page (Main Vine) It seemed fine yesterday and then today this, it was partially buried, this is after i removed all the dirt from around it.   Sunday, July 26 View Page After i removed all the bad stuff... it was all rotten inside, its even worse then it looks, i might attempt to graft a secondary onto the main vine just for fun   Thursday, August 6 View Page I was going to make a nice patch for my first year but wasn't able to, I decided to grow a couple in my yard anyway just to learn and experiment with, I just dug up some holes and mixed in good dirt and fertilizer, I live in Arkansas, the smaller plant in the front is an 848 fay, seed when in ground end of June, The bigger plant in the back is an 1842 Connolly, that one went in the ground beginning of June, that plant has the issues with the main vine, other then that they seem fairly healthy, I purposely haven't used any pesticides just to see what happens, I have killed a dozen squash bugs by hand and a few cucumber beetles, nothing major, hopefully I get lucky and have no issues. I had my first pumpkin pollinated and growing the other day, it was about the size of a fist and my dog decided it looked tasty and he ate it, lol, I will have to do something to prevent that but normally hes good for protecting the plants so nothing else touches them, anyway I'm not upset, I'll just have to pollinate another one , i'm not expecting anything big anyway, just using it to learn and for fun.   Friday, September 11 View Page The plants got a lot bigger, its hard to tell just how much it spread in this picture but it covers a large area, its 2 plants, one was started much later (848 Fay) it probably only takes up 1/4th of the area but it actually has the best chance of a successful pumpkin so far, I am battling powdery mildew and its getting really bad, using a homemade concoction to treat it but not sure how much longer the plants will survive, hopefully i'll get at least one mature pumpkin out of it, I doubt it will get very big but anything is better then nothing, Either way, Its been fun and at the end of the day this was all just an experiment and to learn so I can know what I'm doing when I actually get a proper patch set up.   Friday, September 11 View Page This is on the (848 fay) vine, Its the biggest pumpkin i have so far, I would have had bigger pumpkins already but my dog kept destroying all the others, he normally doesn't mess with anything if i tell him no but I guess he couldn't resist eating them, he destroyed maybe 5 other pumpkins, I finally started covering them up and hes doesn't touch them now, I'm not sure how old this pumpkin is, it was only the size of a fist maybe 8 days ago, today I just noticed a split in the stem, you can see it in the picture, hopefully it will be fine, the plant is taking a lot of damage from the powdery mildew so I'm not sure what will happen or how much longer It will keep growing but its exciting seeing just how fast they grow even in such bad conditions.   Monday, September 28 View Page I think its around day 30 for the pumpkin in front (848 fay), and a little less for the pumpkin in back (1842 Connolly), these were plan C pumpkins, I think they are both on tertiary vines, unfortunately its all I'm left with because my dog chewed up the others but I learned as long as I put a sheet over them he doesn't bother them, Anyway the plants are in really rough shape and weather hasn't been good, as well as a bunch of other issues that are really stunting the growth, But I'm glad I at least have something and hopefully they will grow a little more in the next few weeks and I can have something nice to set on the porch. Its funny the colors are opposite of what I would have thought, the 1842 Connolly comes from big and ugly genetics (2469 daletas x 2528 Geddes) but its looking kind of orange and nice, maybe that will change but so far it seems like a nice looking pumpkin.   Tuesday, September 29 View Page I grew lots of different kinds of peppers this year, here are some of my Carolina Reapers just starting to ripen, I knew they would be hot but I didn't expect the very chemical taste they have, only crazy people would eat these, anyhow they are very fun to grow.