Saturday, June 2, 2018

Craziest Growing Day Ever (except for the massive hail storm my second season)

So I went with my son on Friday night to a father and son's camp out with a large group from church.  The campout was only about 2 miles from my house, which was great, because the forecasted low was for 37 that night and I was nervous for the pumpkin plants (I knew my Big Agnes sleeping bag would keep me okay).   At about 4:30am I woke up and it was cold out.  Checked my patch temperature app and and it was 35 degrees.  That meant I had two whole hours until sunrise and only had two degrees to give until the plants froze.  So I drove home and poured warm water on the plants as there wasn't much else I could do.  In the end, it got down to 34 degrees.   Camp ground had a good covering of frost on it, but only 3 leaves on one plant showed any frost damage.  Phew.  My friend whom I gave seeds that lives just two blocks away said he lost his plants.

Right now it is 91 degrees.  Welcome to Rocky Mountain growing.

1974 McConkie
This afternoon I took the hoop houses off the plants.  This was not an easy task.  The 1974 was maybe four feet our of the hoop house and had side vines coming out of holes I cut in the sides on each side of the hoop house.  I've never kept the plants in the hoop houses this long.  It paid up with the high winds we had two days ago and then the cold nights last night.  Big thanks to the family for helping take off the hoops.  They did it with the precision of a surgeon.  It as a little scary, but not snapped vines.  Warm temps and making the plants slightly dehydrated I think helped.

Weather hasn't been horrible this spring, but not great.  But the plants look good.  I started a week later this year, but it appears the 1974 is ahead of my plants from last year.   It is probably the most aggressive plant I've ever grown.  Really beautiful plant.

2145 McMullen
Today I gave the plants some 3-12-12 to help blossoms come on along with some silica.  I'm hoping a female shows up on the main in the next three days on both plants.  This afternoon I gave the plants some b-vitamins, yucca and actinovate.  Also buried the vines with mycos and azos.

I should probably call my plants McPumpkins this year because of the seed names.

I've got to get into the 2145 patch early next week and till the rest of the cover crop in.





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