Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 52 Entries. Saturday, March 6 View Page Steve geddes inspired this years line up ;) I'm only going to grow 1 of each but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a couple extras.   Saturday, April 24 View Page Seeds saw soil on thursday. 1450 Fifolt 19, 1542 Urena 19, and a 1885 Barron 18 as a backup.   Sunday, May 2 View Page Took a while but the seeds are finally up. Left to right 1542 urena, 1450 fifolt, 1885 barron.   Wednesday, May 5 View Page Plants are growing nicely   Saturday, May 15 View Page I lost all 3 of my plants. The backup kicked the bucket yesterday and the other 2 went today. I'm still not 100% sure what exactly happened but I believe it has something to do with the starter mix that I used to germinate them. All 3 plants stopped growing a few days after germinating and gradually lost their green color over the course of a week before shrivelling up. You'd think they'd been hit by roundup if you didn't know otherwise. Bummer   Sunday, June 6 View Page I restarted a 1885 barron and 1542 urena on may 17th to replace the ones I lost. They sprouted on the 23rd. It was very warm here the past week and they're growing nicely. I decided not to restart the 1450 fifolt to replace the one I lost. I only have 1 seed left and I want to use it next year when I can start it earlier instead of in the middle of may.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page I will likely still be able to pollinate both plants before July 10th despite the late start. They're the fast growing plants I've ever had. The weather has really been helping. I've been using mycorrhizae for the first time as well and I think it's working good.   Tuesday, June 22 View Page I hope my plants like hot weather lol   Thursday, June 24 View Page The forecast has got even hotter   Friday, July 2 View Page I pollinated a symmetrical 5 lober on the 1885 barron with the 1542 urena this morning. It's only 8 feet out but the main vine tip got cooked and it's the only pumpkin before that. I also lost the main vine tip on the 1542 and a pumpkin I pollinated a couple days ago doesn't look like it took. It was literally 114f out that day so it was probably futile. Secondary it is.   Friday, July 30 View Page The air quality has been exceptionally poor here in Kelowna all week due to wildfire smoke. I have not been measuring my pumpkins so I don't know how much it is slowing their growth but I'm certain it is at least somewhat because of the reduced sunlight. The sun is a dark red color and you can comfortably stare at it all day without doing any harm to your eyes. The 1885 Barron will be day 30 tomorrow and the 1542 urena day 20. I culled a larger pumpkin from the 1542 yesterday because it was poorly shaped. It had 3 very pronounced lobes and unusually deep ribs for a young pumpkin. It would've split. The 1885 was damaged by a mouse when it was tennis ball sized but I decided to keep it anyways. It healed nicely although the scar will be huge by the time it's done growing, which is a shame because it's a nice orange and round pumpkin. It adds personality I guess.   Tuesday, August 3 View Page 1885 Barron day 33.   Tuesday, August 3 View Page 1542 Urena day 23. This one is open pollinated and on a secondary.   Tuesday, August 17 View Page The smoke from the wildfires continues to be bad and the lack of sunlight has hurt the pumpkins growth. Ash fell for several days last week and I'm still trying to wash it off the plants. They were completely covered in a layer of it and it sticks to the leaves like glue when you put water on it. The 1885 Barron is on day 47 and is about 800 lbs. Its scar looks like a meteorite crater. It grew fine with the rest of the fruit up until day 30 but after that it slowed while the pumpkin continued to grow, leaving a deep indentation. I kind of expected this to happen though and I think it will be ok as long as I'm careful not to push it too much. The 1542 Urena is on day 37 and is about 600 lbs. It's already larger than what I expected it would be at the end of the season. Maybe I shouldn't have doubted growing on a secondary vine so much. I hope that some heavy hitters grew this seed this year, it has been more vigorous than any plant I've grown before. It's a shame I made so many grower errors but I still have another seed left so I can try it again next year.   Thursday, August 19 View Page I found a bad area of rot last night on the 1885's main just a few nodes before the fruit. A leaf stalk had rotted and it spread to the vine. I cleaned it out and put a fan on it, it looks mostly dried today. About 1/3 of the main is gone though. I only found it by chance after my hand touched something mooshy while I was putting a new sheet on the pumpkin. If I found it a day or two later it would've been the end of the road for it as there's no plant after that node, only pumpkin. I'll have to keep a better eye on the vines.   Thursday, August 19 View Page I will post pictures of the pumpkins and plants tomorrow. The 1885 will be day 50 and the 1542 day 40.   Friday, August 20 View Page 1885 Barron day 50. The scar makes me nervous but it seems ok for now.   Friday, August 20 View Page 1542 Urena day 40.   Friday, August 20 View Page Here's the blossom of the 1542. It also makes me a little nervous but it also seems ok for now.   Sunday, September 5 View Page The 1885 Barron has made it to day 66 and is taping over 1000 lbs. I'm fighting some vine rot on this plant but otherwise things look alright. It's still growing decently and the scar isn't getting worse.   Sunday, September 5 View Page Re-uploading the last pic so it isn't sideways.   Sunday, September 5 View Page Here's the 1542 Urena on day 56. It's growing really good. It has been warmer at night than usual for this time of year and it seems to be helping to keep its gains steady.   Friday, September 10 View Page I had to remove about 1/4th of the 1885's plant because of vine and leaf stalk rot. I did a sweep of the whole plant and checked every leaf stalk the other day. There was so much rot that you'd think that the plant had a specific named disease but I think that it's just regular plain old bacteria that thrived because of several mistakes that I made which I'll detail below. -I gave the plants way too much nitrogen which caused bumpy, structurally weak, and excessively tall leaf stalks. -The nitrogen also caused excessive tertiary growth which I found difficult to remove because I didn't put enough walking boards in the patch and didn't want to trample through the plant to reach them. -I didn't realize that some parts of the patch that the 1885 is growing in holds water much better than the other half that the 1542 is in and ended up over saturating the soil. The patch is slightly sloped and right beside a swampy area which I think affected it somehow. So what I think happened is the tertiary vines climbed on top of the preexisting canopy and crushed some of the weak leaf stalks which then laid below the canopy on overly wet soil and humid air and then rotted which then spread to the vines. I removed all of the rot and unwanted tertiary growth, and put fans on vines that I think can be saved. I think the plant will pull through. I checked the 1542's whole plant as well but only found a couple of rotten leaf stalks that hadn't yet spread to the vines. Otherwise it was healthy.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's the 1885 Barron 81 days after its July 1st pollination. It made it through a week of cold and rainy weather without anymore major vine rot problems. The forecast shows warm spring-like weather until at least the end of the month so hopefully it can add on a few more pounds.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's a side view of the 1885.   Monday, September 20 View Page Stem side on the 1885.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's a close up view of the 1885's scar.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's the 1885's main. Got the fans going on it. I did a proper measurement to see how far the pumpkin is from the stump and it's only 6 feet 11 inches.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's the 1542 Urena 71 days after its July 10th pollination. I think this pumpkin will go heavy, it's shaped like a cube and thumps very solidly.   Monday, September 20 View Page Here's the blossom of the 1542 which is in the process of swallowing itself.   Monday, September 20 View Page Side view of the 1542.   Monday, September 20 View Page Stem side on the 1542.   Sunday, October 3 View Page Here's the 1542 Urena on day 84. 335 OTT 863 lbs est. Its plant is still very healthy and it's still growing ok even though the weather has really cooled down. I'm going to grow this seed again next year in a larger growing space. It was a very vigorous plant but I made too many mistakes this year to really do it justice.   Sunday, October 3 View Page Here's the blossom end of the 1542. It has almost completely folded over itself.   Sunday, October 3 View Page There was another outbreak of vine rot on the 1885 and I'm down to only 2 secondaries on it now. I (unintentionally) grew the plant in a flag pattern and used tertiary vines growing off of the first secondary to fill in about 30% of the patch in the area behind the stump, and that vine remains intact. So I think there is still enough plant to keep the pumpkin from losing weight. It hasn't grown much since early September though. The weigh off is next Saturday.   Sunday, October 3 View Page Here's one of the areas of rot on the 1885's main. It's dry but I'm keeping a fan on it just in case because it made it inside the vine.   Sunday, October 3 View Page Another area of rot on the main just below the stem. It's also dry but I lost about half of the vine.   Sunday, October 3 View Page One last pic of another rot spot on the main. This one has been giving me trouble for months but it seems dry now.   Sunday, October 3 View Page Here's the 1885 Barron itself. In an earlier entry I said it was taping over 1000 lbs but I've now realized that is incorrect, my apologies. I was measuring the circumference wrong. Its actually measurement is 347 OTT 955 lbs est. Hopefully it will go a little heavy and hit 1000.   Saturday, October 9 View Page The first frost of the season came on friday morning, the last day of the season. Good timing!   Saturday, October 9 View Page Here's the 1542 in the air. 335 OTT, 863 lbs est. I didn't really get any growth out of it in October, too cold I think.   Saturday, October 9 View Page Here they are at the weigh off in Armstrong. The 1885 is on the trailer, it's 347 OTT 955 lbs est. The 1542 is on the truck.   Saturday, October 9 View Page The 1542 weighed in at 866 lbs. I thought it would go heavy but it went right to chart. 866 Abbate 2021 (1542 Urena x open) 0% heavy. Pollinated July 10th on a secondary.   Saturday, October 9 View Page The 1885 weighed in at 948 lbs. It too went right to chart! I won 1st place and $500.   Saturday, October 9 View Page 948 Abbate 2021 (1885 Barron x 1542 Urena) 0% heavy. Pollinated July 1st, 7ft out on the main. Getting close to that 1000 lber, but not quite! Next year!   Monday, November 1 View Page Chilly, sunny halloween afternoon. Pumpkin carving time!   Monday, November 1 View Page Here's the 866.   Monday, November 1 View Page Here's a cross section of the 948's scar. I was stunned when I saw how close it got to the cavity. Just a single centimeter away at the deepest point. Cheated death.   Monday, November 1 View Page Collected the seeds from the 948. Average seed count.   Monday, November 1 View Page Here's the 948 carved.   Monday, November 1 View Page Here's the 866 carved lol It was open pollinated, kept 1 seed as something to reminisce on. Discarded the rest.   Wednesday, December 15 View Page I'm working on a line-up for next year, I would like to grow 4 plants. I bought a lot of seeds at auction last winter and I'm grateful to have some nice ones to choose from. The 1953 and 1686 will see dirt for sure, and I think the 1542 deserves another try. Haven't decided what the 4th seed or the backups will be.