Most of the pollinating is done. I have pumpkins pollinated on 7 of the 8 plants. The kids have pumpkins on all three of their plants. Too early to tell if they will all take so I will continue to pollinate any main vine flowers. As I have done in the past I have not pollinated any secondary vine flowers. I kill them as soon as I am able. I don't want to have to make the decision about keeping a secondary vine pumpkin, because they are too hard to kill if they are growing decently. They just can't keep up the growth in the long run.
Blake has the first squash ever grown in my patch. It is green and is ahead of all of my pumpkins.
Started up the main sprinklers yesterday and gave the patch a good soaking. Still need to do some fine tuning of the sprinklers but the system should work well.
One of my 482's is looking like it will be green. It is the one plant I haven't set fruit on yet but all the females are looking very green. Not too surpising as three generations back is an 895 Hester selfed.
Cut the two biggest pumpkins off in my patch today. One was on the 961 and it cracked on its own. Hope this doesn't mean tough things to come in the patch ahead. The other was a fruit on the 898 that was way too early and way too close to the stump that I allowed to open pollinate.
Finally pollinated a pumpkin on my last plant today. My biggest pumpkin (which is pretty dang small) looks like it will have to be culled. The shoulders are not fully developed and I don't think it has what it takes to become a big one. I'll try to get a picture later.
Blake's plants are doing well. We put sand under his squash and his pumpkin today. It's time to start measuring daily. Circumfrence on his pumpkin is 56".
Too much to do and too little time. This has been the story of my summer. Hence no photos for a while, sorry. Spent the last couple of days trying to the sprinkler system pressurized so that I could run it off timers instead of manually doing it. That lets me turn them for brief intervals during the day to help cool things off a bit. It was 99 degrees here today. That's the hottest its been since I got my weather station installed 3 years ago. Minimal damage to the leaves with the sprinklers on. Also been getting the shade structure erected so the pumpkins don't get burned as well a mill fabric or sand under the pumpkins.
Here is a rundown of the plants
895 Hester Blake's plant 117 pounds (these measurments are from the 19th
641 Christensen also Blake's plant 148 pounds
482 Christensen South 65 pounds
1048 Companion 53 pounds
898 Knauss 40 pounds this is one pathetic plant, virtually all new growth of vines has stopped between 2-300 square feet. Amazing the pumpkin is growing as well as it is
670 Daigle 35 pounds
846 Jutras 35 pounds
604 Jutras and 482 Christensen Not sure I have pumpkins set on either of these. They were late getting going and now the heat is causing aborts.
Sorry, a whole month and no pictures! Unfortunatley its becasue things in the patch are not going very well. Not there there have been bad things just not good things. Growth is slow. I should be getting 20+ pounds per day and it is not happening. 10 pounds is about it. I don't think it is the weather I suspect that it is the soil. My pH was way high and I'm wondering if this is causing problems. I'm tempted to take another soil sample as well as a tissue analysis and see if the problem can be uncovered.
898 is basically dead. There has been no new vine growth in at least two weeks it is just sitting there. The pumpkin is growing a little but it definately is in the butt ugly class. No hopes for this one. Not even going to shade it.
482 north and 604 still do not have a pumpkin set. I've let the plants go and whatever open pollinates will make decorations for the pumpkin party.
961 Daletas 110#,
1048 Companion 173#, This is a very nice shaped blocky pumpkin
482 South 185#, This pumpkin is turning into a very ugly shape
670 Daigle, 112#, Nice and round just not growing fast enough. I should be able to see these things grow at this point
846 Jutras, 89#, Another nicely shaped pumpkin just not growing.
Blake' plants
895 Hester is pretty squash just growing slow. currently at 197 #
641 Christensen is the biggest in the patch but is really slowing down 210#
Still too early to tell anything about color except the 895 which a nice green and the 898 which will be an ugly white color. The rest are all yellow but could turn orange. Will just have to wait and see.