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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 80 Entries.
Saturday, January 1 View Page
Happy new year!
 
Saturday, January 1 View Page
Ground anchors are set for shade cloth suspension. I'll let them cure a couple days before putting any tension on them
 
Monday, January 3 View Page
Put a bit of tension on
 
Monday, January 3 View Page
^
 
Friday, January 7 View Page
Shoveling out chicken manure bedding. I'll use this to feed the worms. I have a bin of blue worms, eu nightcrawlers, and 3 pounds of red wigglers on the way. Hoping to grow the population as much as possible so I can produce castings in bulk
 
Friday, January 7 View Page
New bedding in, awaiting decomposition
 
Sunday, January 9 View Page
Cover crop is coming up on this half of the patch. Gotta spray the weeds on the other side and start working on the soil. I didn't intend to use that half of the patch this year, primarily because my dad said he might need some of the space for a horse arena. Tape measure doesn't lie, I have about 15 feet clearance from the edge of my patch. However I assumed he was right and scraped some of the top soil over to the other side. Most of it is still intact though, so I'll just be adding all my compost to this side of the patch, and perhaps plant a spring cover crop there as well. I plan to till it in as the plant grows so that I have living roots in the soil for as long as possible.
 
Tuesday, January 11 View Page
Fed the worms coarsely blended apple, with a bit of citrus and brussels sprout. Mixed with some mouldy coffee grounds I rediscovered behind the coffee machine, must have been at least a month old. Didn't even smell like coffee, just earthy. I spread the rest of the coffee grounds on top. Found quite a few cocoons, so hopefully the population will be growing. I've got EU Nightcrawlers on the left, blue worms on the right. I'm keeping them inside for a bit longer til it warms up a bit. I've got 3 pounds of red wigglers on the way and a 40 gallon bin all prepped for them. Hopefully I'll have a sizeable population before summer so I can have a continuous supply of castings for tea.
 
Wednesday, January 12 View Page
My dad got me this nice lil safe for christmas
 
Wednesday, January 12 View Page
I wonder what's so value to warrant putting it under lock and key...pad
 
Thursday, January 13 View Page
Got the red wigglers yesterday. Put them out in my shed. I was worried it would get too cold for them to thrive, but it seems like they'll do just fine out here. Thermometer read just north of 60f
 
Monday, January 17 View Page
Compost is almost ready, it's nice and crumbly aside from some leaves that clumped together. They'll break down in the soil. This is the final turn, I turned it over onto the patch, it'll be pretty easy to spread. I'll just push it forward. I've got an older pile about half the size of this one that's been sitting a couple months, I'll be using both piles on this 2000 square foot half of the patch. I don't think I'll be adding any more to the other half, I already added a bit in early fall and the organic matter is about 7. This side needs it much more. I'll probably plant a spring cover crop on this portion of the patch as well. I have a winter rye mix, as well as some sorghum sudan grass coming in the mail. I might try the sudan grass, it's supposed to grow extremely fast, suppress weeds, and kill nematodes, in addition to being great for the soil ecosystem. It requires warmer weather, and i measured 51 degrees soil temperature today so I might go with it
 
Thursday, January 20 View Page
Started spreading some of the older compost over this part of the patch, weed killer worked pretty well. I'll get the rest spread in about a week or two and get a cover crop planted.
 
Saturday, January 22 View Page
Spread compost a bit earlier than intended, we've got rain coming in 10 days. I rototilled it in a bit but it's still mostly on the surface. I had quite a bit more than I expected, I'd say there was a solid 4-6 inches that I added. I might move a bit of it to other locations. Lots of twigs and clumps of leaves that were added a month ago that didn't break apart, but I don't mind those. Gonna use lots of water and cover crops to help it break down. Hopefully organic matter isn't too high come April. Then again this area really needed it, and I'm pretty happy with how it's looking
 
Wednesday, February 16 View Page
Cover crop is growing well. I had hoped to get a nice tall cover crop growing on the other half but I don't think I'll have the time. I'll be planting it this weekend, but that only gives me about a month or two for it to grow. Better than nothing.
 
Sunday, February 20 View Page
Getting things ready to plant cover crop
 
Monday, February 21 View Page
Spread some iron, 3lb borax, ammonium sulfate to help break down the carbon in the soil fast. Soil is tamped down a bit, which will make sowing cover crop tomorrow easier and more uniform. I'll probably pick up some gypsum too since my calcium is low
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
Put down 500 lbs of pumpkin crack. Found a dealer a mile down the road from me, they've got all the good stuff. Saving the other 500lb for the other side when I till in the cover crop in a month. FBI don't raid me, it's a joke. Or test my soil Napkin math says this is enough to get me up about 1000 ppm calcium. I want about 2000ppm, but I'll just start with this and see what the soil test says next month
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
Raked in
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
10lb manganese sulfate monohydrate, 5lb zinc sulfate monohydrate. Again not enough to get me where I want, but at least enough to correct deficiency. My soil has no manganese in it, so at the very least I shouldn't be deficient on my next test.
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
Spread 50lb winter rye and white clover. A bit heavy, but I'm bad at spreading and I'm only growing it a month or two, and I like it thick with lots of biomass. Lightly raked it and watering now. Also for documentation purposes, I added 45lb ironite and 40lb ammonium sulfate to this 3000sf area yesterday.
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
Nice rake. Also a nice tennis ball catcher. I used to play tennis and I swear this is exactly how the ball cleaners worked. I don't know how many tennis balls and dog toys I've found. It works its way into the compost pile from our green waste.
 
Tuesday, February 22 View Page
Just add water to your COVER CROP™ and it'll be up in no time! At least, that's the hope. We'll see in 2 weeks. In the meantime, I gotta go back to school.
 
Friday, February 25 View Page
Lol it's true. We had record lows of *drum roll* 27 degrees and freeze warnings
 
Thursday, March 3 View Page
My mom sent me this picture. Looks like it's starting to sprout. She's been watering thoroughly, thanks Mom! She'll never see this. Oh well. I'll be visiting this weekend so I'll get to see for myself how it's doing.
 
Friday, March 4 View Page
Winter rye coming up
 
Friday, March 4 View Page
Cover crop on the other side is doing well. I'd let it grow longer, but I've gotta put down gypsum now because my calcium is very low. Gonna cut it down tomorrow and get to work.
 
Saturday, March 5 View Page
Tilled in cover crop on... For future reference I'll just call this side of the patch A and the other side B, since I've treated them so differently and I'll be taking separate soil samples for each side.
 
Saturday, March 5 View Page
500lb pumpkin crack on patch A. Aren't ya proud of me Chris? I showed restraint and only used 500 pounds! That or it's all I had, and the store is closed on the weekends. Guess we'll never know... Calcium ppm is 1300 before addition base saturation 58%, this should be enough to bring me up to 2500ppm. I added some more magnesium sulfate 2 months ago before I planted the cover crop, so that probably drove the base saturation even lower. Hoping this will get me close to 65 percent.
 
Saturday, March 5 View Page
Spread
 
Sunday, March 6 View Page
Finished for now. Back to school again
 
Sunday, March 6 View Page
10 flats, peppers, tomatoes, basil and oregano Each flat will produce about 100-200 plants As well as about 20 strawberries in the pots in the background
 
Tuesday, March 8 View Page
Starting tomatoes
 
Tuesday, March 8 View Page
Into the oven at 375.... I mean, with just the light on. I put saran wrap over the top to keep in moisture, and foil on the top rack to prevent a greenhouse effect
 
Saturday, March 12 View Page
I didn't cook them in the oven! Uhh, I mean, I knew that! I wasn't worried that I had fried them!
 
Saturday, March 12 View Page
Under the grow light, 6.14 brown. Covered with saran with a couple holes poked in
 
Sunday, March 13 View Page
Quite a few of the tomatoes have sprouted, got them under the grow light. The three squash are pretty stout and broad. I believe I got the seeds from a big max pumpkin I found locally, nice bright red pumpkin. Not sure on that though. The cots are surprisingly big, about as big as AG cots, even though the seed was less than half the size. They really swelled up after giving them fertilizer. The LED grow light is very bright and is doing a great job keeping them stocky, though a couple of the tomatoes got leggy in the oven.
 
Monday, March 14 View Page
Garden Layout for this year. Hopefully it's easy to view. The aspect ratio probably isn't ideal
 
Saturday, March 19 View Page
Electrician family friend Zach tapped into this service at the corner of my garden and got me some power. This pole is 3 phase 70 amps for one of our wells, but we removed the old pump and are going to put in a new one sometime soon. In the meantime, he gave me 100 amps across 4 breakers and 8 outlets, which is more than I'll need. I'll easily be able to run 2 1500 watt heaters and several grow lights. Might even up it to 4 heaters.
 
Monday, March 21 View Page
Decided to till in the winter rye and start getting things ready for planting. The rye was growing alright but it was growing a bit weird in places. Gonna submit a soil test next week to see what's going on. I'm currently on spring break. I might be able to get 2/3 classes online next quarter, which will make it much easier to take care of the babies. We'll see how things go.
 
Sunday, March 27 View Page
Spreading a lil over 1 yard of peat moss per 10x20 greenhouse site to fluff up the soil. My ph is 6.9, but I won't be too chuffed if this brings me down to 6.5 at the planting site. I'll put up greenhouses next weekend to heat the soil. Might expedite the process with heaters if I feel like it, but I think the sun is all I'm going to need.
 
Sunday, March 27 View Page
Tilled in and watering. The water should help homogenize the soil, including the ph, and will help the peat moss start to break down.
 
Friday, April 1 View Page
Lineup. I'm playing with the idea of starting the 2702, but I only have so much space
 
Friday, April 1 View Page
AAAHHH SOMEONE TURNED ON THE OVEN WITH THE SEEDS INSIDE Ahhh what a way to end the season
 
Monday, April 4 View Page
Did I say April fools? Visited home again this weekend, moved raised beds out of the way and started putting up wind fence. It was too windy to put up the wind barrier. Ironic
 
Monday, April 4 View Page
Picture
 
Thursday, April 7 View Page
So far so good. This is the batch started April 1. Some of the seeds didn't germinate, I was a bit over zealous with the water in the paper towels. I started a second batch April 5 and cracked open the seed coats on the ungerminated first batch April 6, drying them out since they were water logged. Only two of them ended up rotting, the rest appear to be growing roots. Hopefully there are no adverse affects. Second batch of seeds is germinating fine, I made sure to wring almost all the water out of the paper towels this time.
 
Thursday, April 14 View Page
Finally got the cheap greenhouses from our Amazon overlords up, it's good to be caught up. I ended up burning a few leaves under the grow lights, learning something new I guess. I was only at about 2/3 the intensity of sunlight, which is weird. Got some backups started and they're doing well.
 
Friday, April 15 View Page
Getting everything ready to get transplanted tomorrow. Oh and I learned the hard way after getting home from school and 5 hours of commuting that it wasn't the light turning my leaves to a crisp, it was the heat. So now I have some burnt, leggy plants. Oh well, I know what not to do next time.
 
Sunday, April 17 View Page
Tomatoes and a slightly crispy 2195 for the 150 comp planted.
 
Tuesday, April 19 View Page
Seedlings started 4/12, 1 week old today. You can see a couple of the burnt ones to the side. I have my heater on a timer now so it only comes on from dusk to dawn, and I'm venting my shed because it gets hotter in here than I expected. I'm pretty happy with how these ones are turning out, they're nice and stocky sitting under the grow lights at about 500ppfd brightness, which is about half the brightness of daylight. I'll probably get these planted tomorrow, the earlier the better.
 
Monday, April 25 View Page
1661 Gross (1928x2145) looking pretty good. Got a nice strong main on it, lets hope that continues. I have a backup 1661 planted beside it, it's also looking very good, though it is younger, on its second true leaf
 
Monday, April 25 View Page
2030 Kisamore
 
Monday, April 25 View Page
350 est Beattie (2009 wallace x self) 2014. I grew it for seeds after the main pumpkin collapsed on itself (the nutrients in the soil were pretty poor, almost no calcium) like the 1661, it has also produced strong seedlings for me, though they are intended as back ups.
 
Tuesday, April 26 View Page
2195 Theil 150sf. Between this and the 2030 I'm hoping for something heavy.
 
Sunday, May 1 View Page
The grossling, 1661 Gross
 
Sunday, May 1 View Page
2356 Mendi. Not my favorite plant, entirely my fault. It was a bit ahead of the others, so I ended up repotting it. The transplant was less that ideal. I would say it toppled into the hole, as opposed to a more graceful landing as I tried to extricate it from the grow bag. I have backups, we'll see what happens.
 
Sunday, May 1 View Page
2030 Kisamore. Probably my favorite, close tie with the 1661. Best secondary development so far.
 
Sunday, May 1 View Page
Final spot. Kinda crowded with 4 plants, but I had backups and I wasn't sure how good they'd be. Gotta make some decisions.
 
Wednesday, May 4 View Page
2030 Kisamore looking good on the B side of the patch. The soil here contains more woody material, so I've been needing to push more nitrogen to these plants. Which leads me to...
 
Wednesday, May 4 View Page
A side. I meant to cut back on N here, but as you can see we're a bit high at the moment. Bloated dark green leaves. Growth has been good, but I think after flushing out with plain water it'll explode.
 
Sunday, May 8 View Page
Dealing with a couple problems, one of the big ones being that we have a bit of a cold stretch (for us anyway), so I don't want to remove the greenhouses till the 13th. Meanwhile I'm training the vines every which way so they don't run out of space in the greenhouse. Then there's the fact it's going to be 99 a couple days after that, it keeps going up according to the forcast. Originally it was 92, then 96, now 99. Might have to bring out the shade.
 
Sunday, May 8 View Page
2030 Kisamore continuing to lead. I pulled the backup today, kept some roots at the base and potted it so I can get some crosses.
 
Sunday, May 8 View Page
30mph winds close to sweeping my greenhouses away. I've been shoveling dirt onto the plastic every time it tries to blow away. The structure is close to collapse. Plants getting battered and sprayed with dry dusty soil. I'm done. I've got a midterm for school tomorrow I should be focusing on. If the greenhouses aren't there tomorrow, I won't care. I guess we do choose our own torment, seeing the things you love destroyed is the most painful thing you can endure, and it leaves you empty inside.
 
Saturday, May 14 View Page
They survived, more or less. Here's the 2030 Kissy boi back to back with my 350 UOW. Finally extricated them from the greenhouse, they were getting too big.Got a female at about 10 feet on the 2030. A bit early for pollinations, hopefully I can get one at 15-20 feet around June 1. Nitrogen is a bit low again, and I don't have my irrigation tank set up yet, so I spread some calcium nitrate and watered it in.
 
Friday, May 20 View Page
Plants getting battered around by high winds, despite the wind fences I put up. I'm having so much fun. Gotta put up more wind fences
 
Sunday, June 5 View Page
Whas that ova der
 
Sunday, June 5 View Page
Looks like a 2030 kisamore x 2201 wallace dap 13
 
Monday, June 6 View Page
Think someone mentioned big plants in their diary. Well this is two plants back to back. 350 up front crossed with 1661 Gross on June 1, 6 dap
 
Friday, July 22 View Page
Things haven't gone great. I was going to pull this last plant so I could begin prepping for next year, but I think I'll give it a try. Maybe if I'm lucky I can get it to 1000lbs. This picture is from yesterday but this morning it measured 79.5 circ, 150lbs on 24 DAP. Doing low 20s a day now, hopefully it starts ramping up soon. Gotta clean up the other 3 spots and get prepping for next year. Thanks Sankalp for the encouragement
 
Sunday, October 30 View Page
2022 didn't go too well, we had very strong winds and I was unable to keep up with all the problems, ultimately giving up on having a competition sized fruit. I'll be overcompensating for this problem by building a very tall wind fence, which I will also be suspending shade cloth from. Currently I'm finishing up soil prep, I dug the soil 2 feet deep into the subsoil with the tractor and added over 100 yards of compost to 4000sf, which sounds like a lot, but the sandy soil just seems to eat it right up, and the subsoil contains no organic matter. I concentrated the compost more into the subsoil because it's easy enough to amend the top 6 inches later. Hopefully this will reduce leaching of nutrients and allow roots to grow deeper. Before I couldn't even get my 14 inch broadfork 2/3 into the ground.
 
Sunday, October 30 View Page
A friend got me this ring from the scrap heap. It's covered in rust (I've started removing some of it) but it'll be perfect for a lifting ring, should handle a 4000lb pumpkin no problem. I'm not sure what it is, it kinda looks like a rim but I'm prettt sure it's not. The steel is only about 1/4" thick but the curves and the depth make it extremely rigid. I have some 3/8" bar steel I'll use to make a frame on the interior.
 
Monday, October 31 View Page
Here was my patch in late september, I removed about 1.5 feet of soil. The subsoil is basically just sand.
 
Monday, October 31 View Page
Maybe this time
 
Monday, October 31 View Page
Almost done filling back in
 
Saturday, November 5 View Page
Got these 15 gallon barrels on craigslist for $5 each. I'll see if the ag supplier down the road will bother to fill them up for me. They usually work on the magnitude of ibc totes of fertilizer. Should be pretty cheap though.
 
Wednesday, November 23 View Page
Put together a little hot water bath incubator by jb welding a heating element to the side if a ice chest. Works pretty well once the water has heated up and reached a homogenous temperature. The hot water rises to the top. Putting the temp probe close to the element also prevents the heating elememt from pumping too much heat into the water before it normalizes.
 
Wednesday, November 23 View Page
Picture
 
Friday, November 25 View Page
Filled up with warm water, temp probe just below the water line near the heating element.
 
Friday, November 25 View Page
Temperature is pretty stable between 92 and 93.5. 50 seeds in baggies floating on the water for germination test
 

 

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