| July 2006 (second page) |
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| July 17th, Sad day at our house. Pepper our family pet, hiking companion, hunting dog, literally mans (and childs) best friend died this morning. He was not feeling well yesterday and I was going to take him to the vet this morning. On the way to check the pumpkins this morning I was not greeted by his wagging tail as I walked past his kennel and was afraid of the worst. We buried him besides the pumpkin patch. |
| July 18, I cut off the biggest pumpkin on the 1101 today. The shape was just aweful. It was elongated, it was already showing dill lines, and the skin was not smooth. So I culled it in favor of the second pumpkin on the main vine. I'm slowly culling down to 1 pumpkin per vine. 1 clear cut leader is set on about half of the vines at this point. July 22, Cautiously optomistic describes my feelings toward the pumpkin patch right now. Ouch would be the other feeling that I have towards the patch, as I have blisters on my hands from spending 5 hours out in the 97 degree heat today (hottest day of the year). I was behind on all plants on vine postioning, burying and pruning. I got 5 of 6 plants taken care of plus helped my son out on his two. Still have the 1233 and my daughters to help out. Measured my biggest pumpkin today, it's on the 1225 Jutras. It has a circumfrence of 65" on day 20!!!! Never had a pumpkin this big, this early in its growth cycle. My second biggest pumpkin is one the 670 Daigle it measured 58" (yesterday) on day 18. It could be bigger then the one on the 1225 I will measure tomorrow. The keeper on the 1101 measured in at 55" on day 19. Three very good pumpkins but it is still a long way to the end of September. I have pumpkins on the back main vines on the 1101 and 670. I will have to decide whether to keep these or let them grow. By cutting them off I am putting all the eggs in one basket, but if you don't try you will never know. I'll give it untill I leave to Alaska in 10 days. A lot of it depends on how they are growing. The 1225 is a control of sorts. It had the double vine that was terminated so the replacement vine was late setting a fruit, which I cut off today as something had put a deep hole in the top of it. Went to CAL tonight and got more rat/mole/whatever poison. The last stuff that I put out was dragged out of the patch and has disappeared. The 1233 is just plain behind and is not getting a lot of attention at this point. Still hoping for bright orange I used it as a pollinator on several of the back main pollinations. The long gourds are doing great. They have reached the top of the 10' trellis and are starting to lay down on top of it. Several blossoms have opened near the top of the trellis. They say gourds do all of their growing in the about 25 days. I should be in pretting good shape for getting a nice gourd or two. One for the fair and some for my weighoff. Hopefully they can mature in time to provide viable seeds. Last years seeds were not viable. Interestingly aborts have been non-existent this year. Blake had one pollination abort but I have no idea how early he got out of bed the pollinate it. I'm not complaining. I wish I could take credit for the difference but I have no idea what I may have done different. At this point I am done pollinating and am actively removing all male buds as I prune the vines. PS. Going to look at a new pup on monday. July 23, Measured everything this am. Pumpkins are doing well. The two largest pumpkins are at 68" but the one on the 670 is a day younger at 20 days. the 1225 fruit is 21 days. Also looking at the 1233 fruit and I may need to get the plant cleaned up. It measures 41.5 inches on day 14. The 1101 fruit is at 65" on day 22 but it is showing signs of ribbing already. Not a good sign. Added incentive to get out to the pumpkin patch (not that I need much) is that the raspberries are getting ripe. Shade structures must go up this week. I will try to get pictures before then becasue once they go up it is very difficult to get a decent photo. The weather has been hot but all the plants seems to be surviving it quite well. The 670 tolerates the heat the worst of all the plants. I have the overhead sprinklers coming on 4 times a day during the heat and running for 7 minutes. Seems to help the heat significantly. It does make for a rather wet patch but the plants are liking it. |
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| July 26 These pics were taken last night. The pumpkins continue to do very well. In 2002 I had bigger pumpkins on this date but they were all pollinated 7-8 days earlier. The pumpkin (picture to the left) on the 670 main vine measures 81" circ. 184OTT @ 23 days. This is the best pumpkin in the patch ever in my patch for that matter. The pumpkin on the 670 back main is also above the Ailts-Landry bench marks at 17 days. The pumpkin on the 1225 shown below is 80" circ, 180 OTT @ 24 days. Beginning to look a little odd shaped. The shade structures went up just after these pictures where taken. It will now be difficult to get pics for the rest of the season. |
| Above is Brock sitting on the 1101 pumpkin. It measures in at 76.5" circ, 172.5 OTT @ 24 days since pollination. The pumpkin is not nearly as orange as it looks in the picture, its just the lighting. To the left is looking down the patch the 981 is in the forground, the back main vine of the 670 with its pumpkin (which is also doing wel) is in the middle, and the 1101 is in the background. The 1233 is doing okay but I did a rookie mistake on it. Sunday I repositioned the vine and the pumpkin. I thought everything had gone well but the following morning when I examined the pumpkin it had begun to tear away from the vine. I guess that it is less then 10% but I suspect it will hurt the fruit. |
| July 30, Still need to get a couple of shade structures up over the pumpkins. Trying to decide what to do with the three pumpkins set on back main vines. The one on the 670 is doing great and will probably be keeping it. The 1233 wasn't pollinated untill 7/15 so I am tempted to push the main vine pumpkin by cutting it off. The 1101 is behind both by dates and by rate of growth compared to the main vine pumpkin so I am temtped to cut it to push the main vine pumpkin. This all needs to be done by Thursday as I am leaving for 10 days. Things are going well enough that it worries me to leave but staying home is not an option. The 1225 averaged 22 pounds/day over the last 4 days, the 1101 main vine, 670 main vine and 981 all averaged 17 pounds/day. Here is a rundown of the patch Plant Position on Plant Pollination Date OTT Estimated Weight 670 Daigle Main vine 7/3 213.5 205 670 Daigle Back main vine 7/9 171 111 1101 Northrup Main vine 7/2 205 183 1101 Northrup Back main vine 7/7 167 104 1223 Reiss Main vine 7/9 173 114 1233 Reiss Back main vine 7/15 110 35 1225 Jutras Main vine 7/2 217.5 216 981 Zunino Main vine 7/3 200.5 172 331 Christensen Main vine 7/4 177.5 123 Blake's pumpkin, from his squash last year 848 MacKenzie Main vine 7/17 75.5 13 Blake's Squash and it is a pretty green 504 Christensen Main vine 7/5 174 116 Brandi's pumpkin plant |