July 2007
July 1st,
    Another month marches on. Had a giant setback in June but two plants are still going strong. By the end of the month I will have an idea of where this season is going. I have pumpkins set on three of the plants (1101, 670, 857). Hopefully will have pumpkins on the remaining two (500, 857) by the end of the week.
Back to 2007 Index
July 8th,
   Finally some pictures. This is the same view as last time (June 16th). As you can see the plants are doing well. The 857 Christensen is in the foreground, 670 Daigle center and 1101 Northrup in the background. I have not measured but the edge of the patch should be about 21 and the 857 is that far out (in addition there is a 3 foot s-curve in the vine. I have pumkins pollinated (a little too early to tell if they are all set) on all main vines and all back vines. Below are pictures of the three biggest pumpkins. I have not measured them to see exactly how they are doing. The baskets seem to be working this year. I have only had one pumpkin get injured by whatever it is that raids the patch. I ran out of baskets so it is my own fault. I need to buy a couple more before I lose any more pumpkins.
    Been a great weather week nice and warm with lows in the 50's (that's still too cold for night time temps but its as good as it gets in Idaho). We actually hit 100 degrees on Friday. Thats the warmest its been since I've had my weather station (5 years).
   The bottom picture is the damage caused by whatever critter is running around. The baskets seem to work even if there is not a tight seal on the ground. Its as if the basket scares them away.
                  1101 Northrup                                                                   670 Daigle                                                                       857 Christensen
July 14th,
    July is just work. There is too much work to be done and too little time to do it. As one person put it that emailed me telling me how the seeds have been doing "endless hours". I've been spending several hours in the patch every day and still feel like I am barely keeping up. I was able to prune, weed, and bury the vines of every plant this week. Now the first plant needs it again and it will be at least monday before I will get it done and I will be behind.
    The weather has been fantastic. Highs have been 88-95, lows have been 50-60 for the past 10 days. I do not recall a 10 day stretch with such warm night temps. The pumpkins are loving it. The vines are growing. The pumpkins are growing as well. It appears that I have sets on all mains and all back main vines. I have yet to start culling out the ones that will not make the grade but I suspect that will happen by the end of the week. I have 4 pumpkins that are big enough that I have started putting sand under them. None are growing at a breakneck speed but because of the early pollinations they are ahead of last years.
    I will try  to get pics up in the next couple of days.
July 18th,
    I've had more time this week and have got 5 of the 6 plants pruned, trained, and weeded again. Put sand under the rest of the pumpkins today. Still have yet to make the final cut on several plants but it is getting more obvious. As of last night, the 1101 had a circumfrence of 77 inches (129#) and the 670 had a circumfrence of 73.5 inches (119#). My wife's pumpkin is the next biggest (48#) but I do not like the shape of it. I think it will lead to a season of problems. She will probably be best to go with the next pumpkin on the main vine which is about basketball size. That is roughly the size of all the other pumpkins in the patch. The 670 is beginning to show its future color (nice and orange).
July 20th,
    Finally got some pics. The first one is the same view of the patch. As you can see the plants are beginning to fill in. The main vines on all of these plants have met the edge and have been turned to one side or another. The mains are about 24' before reach the edge.
    My wife's 857 is in the foreground with the two pumpkin below on it. The first one is obviously larger but it appears to have developed an early dill ring. The question is to cull it and let the second pumpkin grow or to let it go and take the gamble with the split. I tell her it's here choice but I would probably favor culling #1.
857 #1 pumpkin
857 #2 Pumpkin
Pictured here are the biggest and best in the patch. At the left is the pumpkin on the 670 Daigle. It tapes in at 163# today. Very nice shape and already getting some good color. Pictured below and to the left is the pumpkin on the 1101. Not quite as nice a shape and two days older then the pumpkin on the 670. It is estimated at 166#. It to is beginning to show promise of color. Below and to the right is the pumpkin on the 869.5 Calai. It is coming along, too early to tell what the future holds. I have pumpkins set on
the main vines and back main vines
of all the plants. I have culled down
to only one pumpkin on each vine at
this point. Now comes the decisions
do I cull down to one per plant or
leave it at one per vine. I will let them
all grow for another 10 days or so
before culling any more pumpkins.
Interestingly the pumpkins on the
back main vine on both my 857 and
500 Northrup are bigger then the
main vine pumpkins. Which to cull??
Blake does have a softball size squash
that is growing amongst the weeds. I
doubt much will happen with it.
   I will probably be putting up the
shade structures tomorrow. So there will be no more good pictures. I tried the white sheet thing but with my overhead watering to keep the plants from burning in the heat it keeps the sheet too wet and will likely lead to mold/rot.
July 25th,
     The growth spurt has begun. The two pumpkins on the 670 and 1101 have averaged 27#/day over the past 4 days. As of last night they taped in at about 275#. This morning I took the knife to the pumpkins on the back main vines of both of those plants. So those plants now only have one pumpkin. Hope this growth spurt lasts for a while. The temps have been awesome. The lows have been over 60 degrees 3 times this past week.
       We ended up cutting the #1 pumpkin on Karie's plant. I just didn't think it would hold together. I still have two pumpkins on the 500 and my 857. The problem is that the pumpkins on the back main vines are bigger and better shape then the main vine pumpkins. To cull and which ones are the questions.  The pumpkin on the 869 is actually the third biggest in the patch taping in at 99#. The rest are in the 70# range.
July 26th
      Still got 25# over the past two days on the 1101 but the 670 dropped back with the rest of the pack at 13-16#/day. A big thunderstorm just rolled through here and dropped .46" of rain. No hail!! Thats the best news.