Pumpkin Roots

I worked on the hail netting structure today and boy am I sore tonight. I'm almost done and I will be happy when I am. I had to move one of the hoop houses a foot in order to get a pole in and on one side of the hoop house I had a bag of sand on the edge of the hoop house in order to keep it from flying away in our Denver spring wind storms. To my suprise, when I move the bag, I saw pumpkin roots under it about 2 1/2 feet from the edge of the closest leaves. Atlantic Giant pumpkin plants continue to amaze me. In particular this 1161 plant has been amazing. The root structure looks equally as good as the leaves. If I don't kill this plant and if I can get a pumpkin to set on it we will be growing big in a month. Those are awfully big IFs however.

Two of Three Happy Pumpkin Plants

Both of my plants seem super happy. Green leaves, good growth and nice vigor right now. Finally a week of sun and warmer weather have kicked the plants into high gear. Couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Both of the plants got their grow on about the same time that the better weather came in so things couldn't be much better. The kids plant however has been struggling for the past two weeks. It is growing but the leaves have been drooping a lot this week and the color is a touch yellow these days. The kids have been doing a good job of watering and misting it in the heat but something is a bit off with this plant. Two weeks ago it was the best plant of the three and now it has fallen behind.

I gave the plants some compost tea today with an extra boost of alfalfa pellets in the tea. Alfalfa has triacontanol in it which is a naturally occuring plant hormone that acts as a growth promoter. Triacontanol increases yield by improving photosyntheseis and cell division.

1161 Main Vine Finally Lays Down

The main for the 1161 Rodonis plant finally laid down today. The main is about 2.5 feet long but it had been hanging about an inch off the ground for days. Now things are going to really get fun. Lots of new side vine growth this week on both plants so the vines will start running like crazy over the next 6 weeks.

Vine burying is a lot of work but that is what I will be doing for the next 6 weeks. This isn't my favorite time of the season. It is fun watching the vines grow a foot a day but it can be time consuming hard work getting all of the vines buried so roots will come out of the leaf nodes but it is vitally important in growing a big pumpkin.

The 1161's main vine is a nice looking one. Might even turn out to be one of those big, beefy thick vines that I've seen on some plants. My 755 plant had relatively thin vines in 2008.

Gave the plants some compost tea today.

My hoop houses are looking pretty beat up these days. Small holes are starting to appear and the poles are all leaving opposite of the wind. Three 50+ mph wind storms and a snow storm can be brutal on a hoop house. Good thing I'll probably only need the hoop house two more weeks at the most.

Secret Formula for Record Breaking Pumpkins: Part 2

A little over a week ago I talked about a secret project I have going to grow bigger giant pumpkins. I promised a full disclosure of what I did in my tests along with results so this post is going to reveal all.

As everyone knows carbon dioxide (CO2) contributes to plant growth as part of the miracle of nature known as photosynthesis. This enables plants to combine carbon dioxide and water with the aid of light energy to form sugar. Some of these sugars are converted into complex compounds that increase dry solid plant substances for continued growth to final maturity. However, when the supply of carbon dioxide is cut off, or reduced, the complex plant cell structure cannot utilize the sun's energy fully and growth or development is slowed down.

A Colorado State University study with carnations and other flowers in controlled CO2 atmospheres ranging from 200 to 550 ppm found that the higher the CO2 concentrations the higher the rate of formation of dry plant matter and total flower yield.

In my tests what I did is take a regular pop bottle, drill a hole in the cap and glued a bendable straw into the whole to create my CO2 chamber. I then took warm water, dry yeast and sugar and put it into the pop bottle.

CO2 is produced by yeast fermenting sugar into alcohol. Slowly the pressure will rise within the pop bottle as more and more C02 is produced so the hole in the cap and the straw produces a conduit for the CO2 gas to escape. The straw is placed over the pumpkin leaves so as the CO2 gas comes out it falls down to the leaves (CO2 is heavier than air) so additional photosynthesis can take place. Please note: the bottle will explode if you don't put a hole in the cap and don't fill the bottle more than half way full of water.

I should note that my pumpkin plants are in enclosed hoop houses so there is no wind and the CO2 is somewhat trapped within the enclosure. Otherwise most of the CO2 would probably just be carried away.

Will added CO2 by itself create a state record pumpkin? No. But what I can report is that it appeared to have an effect on plant growth. I have two pumpkin plants in each of my hoop houses. Over one plant I put the CO2 generator straw so when the CO2 came out it would fall down across the leaves. Over the 2nd plant I put nothing. Each plant that got the CO2 outgrew the plant that didn't get the CO2. It might have just been a coincidence, but in the case of one hoop house the CO2 plant was behind the none CO2 plant at the begininning of the week and in the course of one week it passed it. Again there are a lot of factors when it comes to plant growth but based on my trials there doesn't seem to be a reason to not give your plants CO2 this way.

Nitrogen Time and Hail Netting Poles

Yesterday I gave the pumpkin plants nitrogen for the first time this season along with a little compost tea. Thad Starr taught me to hold off on the nitrogen so the young plants will focus on rooting early on rather than vining. Fast growing vines and big leaves are fun to see early in the season but this is a pumpkin contest and not a salad contest. A large root system will power the pumpkins as the season goes on.

The first picture to the right is the 1161. Second picture is the 1236. Both plants have good color and seem to be happy. The 1161 is growing a bit faster. The 1236 likes to grow towards the sky. It's been that way ever since it came out of the ground. It has a lot of double leaves coming out of each node. I'm hoping that is a sign of vigor rather than a sign that it is going to double vine. We will have to wait and see. Both plants I estimate are about 12 days ahead of where my plants were at with the same number of growing days last year so I am right on target for pollinating at 10-14' out on the main vine the last week of June which is my goal.

I spent a good part of my Saturday digging holes and cementing in poles for my hail netting. I wanted to have all of the poles in by now but busy schedules and the time that it takes hasn't allowed me to do that yet. I need to have it all done by June however so I'll have to pick it up a notch. Right now 7 of the 15 poles are in. Back and fingers are sore however from the work.

Sometimes people ask me why I do a pumpkin blog. One reason is to share ideas about pumpkin growing that I come up with, but the main reason is that it is a kind of a grower diary for me. It gives me a place where I can compare the growth of my plants from previous years and a place to look up when I last added amendments to the plants. My wife says other things about the blog. You can read them here on her popular mommy blog.

Monday is P-day

Probably on Monday I will be going down to one plant in each hoop house. That is always a sad thing because you always hate to see a good plant go down. If anyone is interested in a 1528 Starr or 1316 Harp pumpkin plant please let me know. Without question my two best plants are the 1161 Rodonis and 1236 Harp right now.

The plan is to put up the posts for the hail netting this Saturday and after I know the poles haven't fallen on any of the plants then I will probably dig up the plants that didn't make the cut and go with the finalists.

This evening I put a product called CO2 (nanoized calcium) on my kids pumpkin plant. Tomorrow I'll put some on my plants. Some giant pumpkins were grown last year using CO2 and although I'm not 100% sure it has a big impact on pumpkin size I thought I would give it a try.

I also gave all of the pumpkin plants a healthy amount of compost tea today. I believe this is the third time I have watered the plants with compost tea. Until the plants get too large I will water the plants with compost tea every other watering. Compost tea is an excellent way to build soil biology with healthy bacteria and fungus.

The 1161 Rodonis is about three inches from having the main vine line down on the ground. So far it is looking to be a very nice plant. The 1236 is still mostly pointing right up in the air. The kids plant is needing a little help from daddy because the main was planted pointing the wrong way because daddy planted it the wrong direction so we are slowing moving the main over the top using bamboo sticks to get it pointed the right way.

The 1236 Harp Pumpkin Seed

The picture to the right is the 1236 Harp. It has an interesting cross being 998 Pukos x 1385 Jutrus. The pollinator for this plant was the 1385 Jutrus that grew the world record 1,725 pound pumpkin. The pollinator for the 1385 Jutrus was the 998 Pukos that grew the 1,689 pound world record. The pollinator for the 998 Pukos was the 1446 Eaton that grew the 1,446 pound world record. Are you beginning to see a pattern? I'm just hoping for a nice, big giant. This plant so far has been completely resilient to sun, clouds, hot or cold. It almost always looks the same. It hasn't been a super fast grower but it hasn't been slow. Christy said that the first month her world record pumpkin grew it was a relatively slow grower. She hoped it would get to 1,100 pounds by the end of the season. Apparently it found another gear to get to 1,725 pounds. I'm hoping this plant carries those genes.

Comparison to Last Year's Pumpkin Plants

Pumpkin plants seem to be relatively happy this year. The picture below is a comparision of this years 1161 Rodonis (top plant) compared to the 1350 Starr from last year (bottom plant) at the same number of growing days. We are off to a fairly good start.

Plants Survived the Storm & Growing Well

Checked on the plants this morning and they all seemed happy. Hoop house was a nice 89 degrees at 10:00 this morning. The secret formula seemed to have some effect on the plants so it will be interesting to see how the plants do under better weather conditions.

All of the plants are vining now. The picture to the right is the kids' 1129 Orleck. It is a beautiful plant, with nice green color, a good start for the vine and good size. The kids are going to shatter their personal best this year for sure.

Secret Formula for Record Breaking Giant Pumpkins

I'm trying something new this year to grow bigger pumpkins. Before I've talked about that there are no real secrets in growing giant pumpkins. Most of the best ideas out there are known by most of the growers. The best growers in the world don't have a secret sauce that grows giants, they mostly have 5-10 little things that they do better or slighly differently than most other growers to add 10 pounds here and twenty pounds there to a pumpkin in the course of a season.

The thing I'm trying isn't exactly new. I've seen youtube videos were people were doing something similar for other applications, but I haven't seen it done this way with giant pumpkins before. I did one test this Spring on a plant that I'm not going to grow and it didn't kill the plant so I think nothing but good should come of it. If I don't literally blow up the pumpkin plant then I expect nothing but good. To the right is a picture of the secret project to give you a little hint with the secret blacked out. On May 24th I'll give the whole story with results.

Any guesses on what this is?

Pumpkin Plant Update & Colorado Growing

The pumpkin plants are doing well even though our Colorado weather is not so great. The picture to the right was taken this morning. More snow in the forecast for tonight and then we should be back into the 60s again. I have a thermostatically controlled space heater in one hoop house and I have 150 watts of light bulbs in the other hoop house so the plants should be fine.

So far the 1161 Rodonis is my best plant. The 1528 Starr slowed down about a week before planting it outside and it has never recovered. The 1316 Harp and 1236 Harp are about the same but in different ways. The 1316 Harp doesn't seem to like the heat at all and gets droopy leaves when it gets hot. It also looks like it is going to double vine. The 1236 Harp is about the same size as the 1316 but has lighter color. I'm guessing that in the next 1.5 weeks I'll be to the point that I'm going to have to decide which plant to keep.

The best looking plant so far of all of the plants isn't my plant. The kids 1129 Orleck is the best plant to this point. Nice green leaves, good vigor and maybe the biggest in size of all of the plants. The kids are going to grow big and heavy this year. I'm second guessing if I should have kept the Orleck for myself. It will be a good pollinator.

I Hate Wind

To the wind a pumpkin plant looks just like a kite. It catches the big Atlantic Giant pumpkin leaves, lifts the vine off the ground and then twirls it in the air until it snaps the vine. Today we are having some nice 40-70mph gusts of wind. Some of the gusts have been strong enough to move the hoop houses 8 inches even with large boulders anchoring it down. And the wind tore the staples out of the plastic on one side of one hoop house. To make things worse it is a sunny day so the hoop houses are heating up fast and it is fine balance between opening the hoop houses up so the plants stay around 85 degrees and creating a wind tunnel that is wiping the pumpkin plants around. I hate wind.

The Pumpkins are in the Ground, Finally!

About a week late, but the pumpkins are finally in the ground. The roots didn't seem to be bound up from being in the pots so we should be okay. Now we just have to survive nights that are still hovering around freezing and making sure that the hoop houses get opened up early enough that the plants don't cook. This time of the pumpkin season isn't my favorite. For the next two weeks the plants tend do just sit there and plants are very tender so I tend to worry (but as Joe Schreber once said it, "that is what we do.").

I'm relatively happy with where the plants are at. Wish they were a touch bigger, but the color is really good (exept the 1528 is a little light in color) and they seem relatively happy.

In one hoop house I've put a space heater with a thermostat to keep the plants warm at night and in the other hoop house I've got two light bulbs and a 5 gallon jug of hot water to keep the plants warm.

The picture inside the hoop house is the 1528 Starr and the 1161 Rodonis. In the other hoop house is the 1316 Harp and the 1236 Harp. So far the 1316 Harp is the best looking plant of all of the plants. On Saturday the plan is to plant the 1129 Orleck and the 1048 Scherber.

I've put barb wire around the hoop houses to keep Biz from poking around and stealing all my secrets. lol

Hoop Houses in Place & Ready to Grow

I finally completed the construction of my hoop houses yesterday and put them into place just in time to beat the storm. 80 degrees yesterday and snowing this moring. Welcome to the Mile High City!

My last hoop houses were destroyed so I made new ones that were slightly larger. I'm getting very anxious to get my pumpkin plants into the ground but the weather here in Denver is going to be around freezing at night for the next few days so I'm holding off for now. I'm concerned about the plants roots getting bound so I will probably put them in the hoop houses on Saturday with some heat sources to get them going.

Pumpkin Plant Update

I'm getting very anxious to get my pumpkin plants in the ground. The plants have gotten large enough now that it is getting difficult to get them under the grow lights. This morning we woke up to snow on the ground in Denver and the large range forecast is for temperatures around freezing this coming weekend. I'm debating putting them in the ground on Wednesday. I can keep the plants warm enough that they should survive but I'm struggling with whether it would be better to keep them in their puts a few more days or get them going in the ground. I re potted the plants on Saturday but I don't think I can go much beyond this coming Saturday before I run the risk of getting the roots bound up.

Below are pictures of all of the plants except for the 1528 Starr. Click on the picture for a larger view. The first one is of all of the plants. It is interesting to see how similar the last two plants and the first two plants are. The first plant is the 1236 Harp. The second plant is the 1161 Rodonis. Although they are separated by three generations, genetically they are pretty much the same with 1068 and 998/1231 in them. Other than the 1236 has the crinkled leaves those two plants are almost identical in size and shape. The next two plants are the 1129 Orleck and the 1316 Harp. Both of these plants have 985 in them so I would guess that is where the larger leaves are coming from. The 1528 is equally doing well but the wind started to come up when I was taking these pictures so it didn't make it outside. All of my plants are ahead of my plants from last year at the same number of days but they are a touch behind where I think they should be. I'm not sure my grow lights have enough wattage and the weather outside has been cold, overcast and windy so they haven't gotten much direct sunlight yet. The color on all of the plants look good however so they aren't doing to bad. Leave a comment below to tell me which one's you think I should grow...

Pumpkin Plants at 4-6 Days Old

I started soaking my seeds last Monday and Wednesday and now the pumpkin plants are 4-6 days old since the germinating process began. To the right is a picture of all of the plants except for the 1019. 1316 and 1129 are the biggest so far, but the 1528 is on par with those two even though it is two days younger. 1161 is a bit small and the 1236 has those funny crinkled leaves. The weather here in Denver is beautiful so I decided to let them all do a little sunbathing today. Click the picture for a larger view.

Kids Excited to See Their Pumpkin Plant Pop Through the Soil

This morning the 1316, 1236 and 1129 plants popped through the soil. Four and a half days after they were sanded and soaked. Mid-day today the 1019 showed up. The 1161 and 1528 were started 1.5 days later so I suspect we will see them tomorrow afternoon.

Which One Will Grow the Big One?

Okay, seed germination is now done. I have a 1161 Rodonis, 1236 Harp, 1528 Starr, 1129 Orleck, 1019 Grande and 1316 Harp now germinated. The 1385 was the only seed that didn't pop. When I saw that the 1385 wasn't going to go I started an 1161 and 1528 on the 14th. I have three spots to grow on so I will put two plants into every spot and let the best plant win. These decisions are always tough because after just a few weeks of growing it is impossible to tell which one is going to grow a giant, so you have to rely on you research in the off season and your intuition and after that it is just pure luck (and I don't even believe in luck).

The Patch is Tilled and We Are Almost Ready to Roll

I tilled my amendments into the pumpkin patch today. Add 17 pounds of gypsum, 35 pounds of alfalfa meal, 2 pounds of magnesium sulfate, 20 pounds of PAM, winter rye grass, two bags of peralite, 1 bag of vermiculite, 2 pounds of epsom salts and about 3 1/2 yards of very old composted cow manure. I really like the tilth of the soil and where things have come from 1.5 years ago when I started the patch. For some reason my potassium shot up in my last soil test but for the most part, after the amendments I have added, we should be in good shape this season.

Next steps will be to finish off the new hoop houses I started two weeks ago, add the hail netting structure and put in two new sprinkler heads.

755 Johnson Pumpkin Seed. Big Orange Genetics!

The seed I grew my rookie season came from Howard Dill, the grower and former world record holder that developed the genetic lines that most growers grow today. The seed came from a non-descript "300-500 pound pumpkin" bin. My thinking at the time was that any pumpkin over the 141 pounder I had grown the year before would be better than seeds I could get locally and I wasn't sure how I would move a pumpkin over 500 pounds. Later I wished I had gone for a little "better" seed.

Today I found out the genetic background of the 755 Johnson seed. I met Danny Dill, Howard's son, when I was in Niagara and he told me he would be able to track down it's parentage. The pumpkin itself didn't have an offical weight so it is simply a 500+ Dill, but the cross in that seed was:

589 Dill '05 x 730 Dill '06

The 589 is 670 Daigle x 846 Calai

The 730 is 1016 Daletas x 810 Dill

Every grandparent in the 755 Johnson has the prettiest orange pumpkins that you could find. It is only missing the 500 Northrup and in my book it would have all of the best orange genetics available in Atlantic Giants. The 755 Johnson took second place for the Howard Dill Award in 2008.