Disney & The 1789 Wallace is Really Taking Off

We interrupt this pumpkin growing season for a little family fun vacation.  I was in Disneyland the last three days on a special media trip for the grand opening for Disney's new Cars Land.  Disney pulled out all of the stops for the trip, even shutting down the California Adventures park just for the media on Thursday.  After one of the rides I heard the words that every Disney visitor wants to hear at the end of a ride.  "Sir, would you like to stay on and go again?"

The new Radiator Springs Speed Racer ride is completely amazing!  I went on it three times. 

Radiator Springs Raceway Ride

A big thanks to Joe Scherber for watching my plants while I was out of town.  He must have done a good job because both of the plants look great.  I was only gone for three days but the 1789 Wallace plant really took off while I was gone.  The side vines are finally getting their grow on and the main is still going fast as ever.  A female showed up at about 11 feet while I was gone.  It is green so it looks like this pumpkin is going to be white.

I gave the plants some fish & seaweed along with a a little NutraCal today.

The complete Radiator Springs Speed Racer ride on Video is below.  The ride opened for the public today.

Lots of Water and Some fish, Seaweed & Compost Tea for The Pumpkin Plants

Early this morning I gave my pumpkin plants some compost tea, fish & seaweed with about 3/4 cup of organic Big Bloom.  That should make the plants happy for a couple of days.  I'm going to increase the watering on the plants this week.  I noticed that the patch seemed a little drier than I could prefer when I was tilling the patch.  I didn't use the sprinklers on the plants at all yesterday because I knew I would be tilling but I expected it to be a little more moist deeper down then it was.  It has been very dry in Colorado this year.

No females have shown up so far on the 1789 plant yet.  Tom says that the 1725 Harp (the mother of the 1789) tends to not throw a lot of females and they can be difficult to get the pollinations to take.  He should know.  He grew thirty 1725 Harp plants last year.  The main on this plant is growing really fast right now and in the next 2 weeks or so it is going to run out of space so I'm hoping a female shows up in the next 3-4 days.

Latest pictures from the patch are below.  The 1789 is about 10 feet long now.  The 1451 is about 8 1/2 feet long:

1789 Wallace

1451 Scherber

Tilling, Again!

I tilled more of the patch today.  Growth of the main vine on the 1789 plant has been super fast the last three days so I'm trying to stay ahead of it.  I got done what I needed to today but about a third of the patch still needs to be tilled.  That will be completed next week and the Dan Micro sprinkler system will go in at that time.

A few days ago the first female flower showed up on the 1451 plant.  Very round pumpkin, like a bowling ball.  No females have showed up on the 1789.  I hope one shows up in the next four days.

Tom Beachy in the Pumpkin Patch

Giant pumpkin grower Tom Beachy of Indiana and his wife Megan stopped by the pumpkin patch today. Tom is a long time grower well known for the number of plants he grows (something close to 500 this year). He makes my passion look like a weekend warrior's hobby. Tom was in town for a wedding and decided to do a little patch tour. It was great to spend some time with both he and his wife and talk pumpkins. The TLC TV channel contacted me this last week and wanted me to be on a show they are doing but I've decided to turn them down. Two days is a lot of time away from my website design business and although it would be a lot of fun I have too much going on right now to do it. Maybe next time.

The Good & the Bad of Visiting Another Grower's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday I visited two giant pumpkin growers' patches.  It is always fun to sit around and talk pumpkins with other growers and see what they have going.  The Wiz is even kind enough to offer food and beverage for the visit which is really nice.  The downside of visiting other patches is the pumpkin envy that can ensue.  Don't get me wrong, I am satisfied with where my plants are at right now but when you see another grower's plants (and/or pumpkin) and they are nearly twice as big as yours then it can do you some good and some bad.  The good is that you can see what the growers are doing and start incorporating it into your own pumpkin growing program.  The bad is that it can get you off your own program, make you over fertilize and make you less patient.  Slow and steady wins the race in giant pumpkin growing.  It is easy to pour on the nitrogen to get a big plant, but that doesn't always translate into a big pumpkin.

What I pulled away from yesterday's patch visits is that when your main is growing nicely but the side vines aren't doing much then it is time to put a little blood meal down (which I gave the plants a touch more of today).  That hail netting in Colorado is a must.  And that you should never be on the pointy end of a gun when the grower can tell which is the trigger and which is the safety.

In addition to the blood meal I also gave the plants and the patch some compost tea with a descent amount of humic acid in it.  The plants got some of the compost tea but most of it was put down around the patch so that I cam make sure there is a bunch of good biology on the outer edges of the root zone.  I want to make sure those roots are growing as much as they can right now before I start growing pumpkins.

CalCarb, Magnesium & Batten Down the Hatches!

This afternoon I gave the plants some foliar CalCarb and magnesium.  The next couple of days are supposed to be warm and the CalCarb should help with that a little.  I also added a few extra clips to the hail netting today.  Lots of talk of bad storms this afternoon and evening so I want to be ready.

1451 Scherber & 1789 Wallace Pumpkin Plant Pictures

These are the latest pictures from the pumpkin patch.  The plants are a little wind whipped from yesterday but doing okay.  The color is very good for both plants and they are still growing well.  Lost the main on the 1451 plant in a hoop house accident so I am now training a side vine as the new main vine.  These pictures don't show it, but the 1789 has really big leaves.  Did a little tilling in the patch yesterday.  Hope to get the rest tilled this week.

1451 Scherber

1789 Wallace

The Pumpkin Patch Under the Hail Netting

Windy, Windy and Some More Wind

Note to self:  when checking the weather report to see if you should remove the hoop houses make sure to also check the wind report.  Strong winds here in Denver today and the plants are looking a little wind whipped as a result.  I have silt fences around the plants to protect them but they can only do so much. 

I gave the plants some calcium and fish and seaweed today.  I'll be giving the plants some foliar calcium on a weekly basis from this point forward.

Doh!

Lost the end of the main vine on the 1451 today.  When moving the hoop house off the plant it must have got snagged and the the vine cracked.  A real bummer but not the end of the world.  I'm just going to take a side vine and turn it into the main vine and in two weeks you won't even know that it happened.  The bummer however is that I've had this happen before and I know what happens.  The first side vines will start becoming the sink and they will take off and the new main vine will be kind of slow to grow over the next week which will delay my pollination a little.

Hoop Houses Come off Today

Both of the pumpkin plants have overgrown their hoop houses this weekend and so they will be removed today.  When you remove the hoop houses you want to make sure the vines are buried and staked down (I use bamboo stakes) so that winds don't rip your plants apart.  This week Denver is going to be having above normal temperatures all week so yesterday I programmed my mister timer so I can keep the plants happy.  The leaves on the plants will be misted a minimum of once every 30 minutes from 10:30am to 5:00pm and a little more frequently from 1:00 to 4:00.  This is the best that my timer can do and it is adequate for days below 95 degrees.  Above that temperature it isn't quite enough so this year I'm going to try watering during the hottest part of the day to keep the plants cooler on really hot days and I suppose we will see a lot of those this summer.

I gave the plants some compost tea this morning made with 3/4 of a cup of earthworm castings from my bins, an old leaf, alfalfa pellets, big bloom fertilizer, tablespoon of molasses, tablespoon of humic acid and a teaspoon of liquid seaweed.

Hail Netting is Up and We Are Ready to GROW

Yesterday my father-in-law and myself put up the hail netting over the patch.  The 1451 plant is now about 4 inches from the end of the hoop house so it will be coming off tomorrow or Monday.  The 1789 has kind of hit a new growth phase.  The leaves have gotten real big on that plant and it will be coming out of the hoop house on Monday or Tuesday. 

Today I got my rototiller fixed so next week I'll be tilling up the rest of the patch.  I've got my Dan Micro sprinkler heads in the mail this week so I'll be installing that sprinkler system next week.  There is a great writeup that Thad Starr did on the Dan Micro sprinkler system on his website that I helped him build a few years ago.  With the Dan Micros sprinklers I should get much better coverage under the leaf canopy. 

This afternoon I put down some compost, grass clippings, humic acid, blood meal and Bio-Sol fertilizer in the new areas of the pumpkin patch.  That soil is nearly completely virgin soil so it doesn't have a lot of nutrients but that extra 60 square feet should hopefully add some better growth to the pumpkin late in the season.

Yesterday my wife, father-in-law and myself put in a gate to the pumpkin patch.  Juliann Moore, if you area reading, I hope you are happy now.

Foliar Feeding Pumpkin Plants this Evening

I gave both pumpkin plants some Neptune's fish & seaweed this evening.  Using a pump sprayer I sprayed the leaves of the plants and also the ground around the plants.  In total it was probably almost a tablespoon of fertilizer per plant.

Down to One Pumpkin Plant in Each Hoop House Now

I took out the 335 Scherber and the second 1451 Scherber pumpkin plants this morning so we are down to one plant in each hoop house now.  My keeper 1451 plant is growing very quickly and will be to the end of the hoop house by probably the end of the week.  I think this is the fast growing plant that I've ever had.  The 1789 is a little slower in growth but is looking healthier these days and seems to have kicked it into gear.  The following are pictures of each plant:

1451 Scherber

1789 Wallace

 Gave the plants some more compost tea today.

Fast Pumpkin Plant Growth, Compost Tea & Seaweed

This evening I gave the pumpkin plants some aerated compost tea that has been brewing for two days along with about two tablespoons of seaweed and molasses.  Seaweed contains a complex matrix of natural plant growth stimulants, including gibberellins, auxins, betraines and cytokinins. These are the factors that influence cell elongation, differentiation, and cell division. It is also rich in naturally chelated minerals and trace elements, carbohydrates, vitamins, and amino acids.  Aerated compost tea is teeming with billions of beneficial microorganisms that can be applied directly to the leaf surface of a plant as a foliar spray or used as a soil drench to improve root systems.  I did both this evening.


The 1451 Scherber has been growing very quickly this last week.  At it's present rate it will be growing out of the hoop house by the later part of this week.  It is a good problem to have and the aggressiveness of it's mom is one of the reasons that I choose to grow this seed but it does present some minor problems.  Spring in Colorado tends to be windy and the hoop house nicely protects the plant right now so the plant getting out of the hoop house early does open it up to some potential problems.  The other problem is that I'm going to be putting in a Dan Micro sprinkler system very soon but the plant is about a week ahead of me so I'm going to have to kick it into high gear to get the watering system completed.

Swamping the Pumpkin Plants with Beneficial Bacteria & Fungi

Since I started growing giant pumpkins I've been using compost tea and beneficial bacteria like myco to help build the root system and build the soil.  Three years ago I started using beneficial bacteria in my fertilizer program as well to help protect the plants and build the soil food web.  Even five years ago there wasn't a lot of beneficial bacteria products on the market and what was available was kind of expensive.  Now for just a few bucks you can treat the entire pumpkin patch and your lawn.

Today I drenched a 10 square foot area around my pumpkin plants with half a stick of Supreme Growers Soil Blast.  Supreme Growers, a Colorado company, is a sponsor of the RMGVG and we got some samples of their products at the spring meeting.  Soil blast contains 7 billion beneficial bacteria, probiotics, fungi and biostimulants in a 7 gram stick that has 4-0-8 organic fertilizer.  Along with the Soil Blast I put in two tablespoons of Azos and a half tablespoon on Actinovate.  I first drenched the plants with just the Actinovate because I wanted it on the leaves and then drenched with the Azos and Soil Blast mixture.  The hope and the expectation is that these products will overwhelm the soil with good bacteria and fungi so that the bad bacteria and fungi can't get out of control.  I also expect it to help protect the plants, fix nitrogen in the soil that will feed the plants and build the soil food web.  All of that should mean bigger pumpkins come September.

A Little Calcium, Turbinado Sugar & Blood Meal for the Pumpkin Patch

This morning I put down 4lbs of turbinado sugar, 25oz of Soil Logic calcium and about two pounds of blood meal over my 950 square feet of pumpkin patch.  Last year I put down the turbinado sugar in the spring after talking to a gentleman whom I gave some pumpkin seeds to that claimed he had a great looking lawn because he put down sugar on his lawn in the spring.  I had been using molasses in my compost tea for years and the idea of sugar in the pumpkin patch made some sense to me.  I found a number of online discussions for and against adding sugar but the kicker was after reading an article by John Taberna at Western Laboratories, whom I have a lot of respect for, that talked about how adding sugar to the soil can help make calcium more available to the plants.  I've known for a long time how sugar can get the soil biology going so after reading that article I decided to give it a try.

I used tubinado sugar rather than refined regular table sugar because it has more complex sugars in it and my theory is that would be better liked by the soil biology.  I was pleased to hear that world record holder Jim Bryson put maple syrup down on his patch almost all season and his 1,818 pounds of results speak for themselves.

My soil tests this spring came back showing my calcium was at a good place but getting a little more in the patch doesn't hurt so I.m trying a new substance.  Liquid Gypsum by Soil Logic is a calcium substance that you spray to put down.   It is 25% calcium chloride which isn't my favorite form of calcium but I thought I would give it a try because putting down a ton of gypsum to get just a little calcium doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.  I sprayed down the calcium after adding the sugar and blood meal.  My patch needed a little more nitrogen and nitrogen uptake is increased in plants when calcium chloride is added so putting all of these down at the same time made sense to me.

Calcium is maybe one of the least appreciated minerals in the soil.  Fertilizer companies always talk about NPK but in fact calcium is the king of the nutrients.

The 1451 Scherber plant's main vine laid down on the ground today.  This is the earliest that I've had a plant get a vine down and I started my seeds a couple of days later than I traditionally have in the past. Hopefully this plant can grow pumpkins like it's mama and it's papa. 

Latest Pictures from the Pumpkin Patch

Pictured below are my 4 pumpkin plants.  The first plant is the 1451 Scherber.  The vine on this plants should be lying down by the end of the week.  I'm planning on keeping this plant and taking the other plant out.  The next picture is the 1789 Wallace.  I also plan on keeping this plant.  Other than the light green leaf color I also like this plant.  On the bottom row are my backup plants.  The first is the 335 Scherber andnext is the other 1451.  The other 1451 is actually my fastest grower of all of the plants but it is a bit of wuss in the sun and it is going to be a pain to get it's vine to lay down so I'll be going with the other plant.  The plants are maybe 4 or 5 days ahead of last years plants in growth so I'm happy about that.

Feeding Time for the Pumpkin Plants

This evening I gave my pumpkin plants their first fertilizer of the season.  I mixed one tablespoon of Fox Forms Organic Big Bloom with a pinch of blood meal and humic acid in about two gallons of water to help the plants growth a little.  Pretty much a spoon feeding at this point.  In another week I'll start feeding the plants a little higher doses and more regularly.  At this point I want the plants to focus on growing more roots than salad.  If you give the plants to much nitrogen early it will put most of its energy into growing vines but the root system will be under developed and you need that root system to grow a giant pumpkin.

A Little CalCarb Before the Heat

This evening I gave a little CalCarb to my pumpkin plants. Tomorrow it is going to be about 94 degrees in Denver and the CalCarb should help with the heat. To this point in the season I haven't given the plants any fertilizers. Basically just some compost tea and a fair amount of water. A well prepared soil should have everything in it that the plant needs at this point. Tomorrow I may give the plants a light foliar fertilizer and a small touch of blood meal to help get the plants going a little.

Update from the Pumpkin Patch

This is kind of the boring time of the year.  When you first put your pumpkin plants in the ground they tend to grow kind of slow and there isn't a whole lot to talk about other than a new leaf or two appearing.  While the plants transition from the pot to their home in the soil it sometimes takes them a little while to wire in and get going.  About the first week of June is when they tend to take off again. All of my plants are vining now but the vines aren't on the ground yet.  I'm guessing that at about this time next week we may have the vines down.

Joe Scherber was good enough to come by and take a look at my plants late this morning.  Three of the seeds I'm growing came from him so I wanted his input to see what genetic characteristics are showing on each plant.  That information will help me as I make my decision in the next week or two as to which plants I want to go with.  As I've mentioned before I have two plants in each hoop house.  Unless something happens it looks like I'm going to go with the non-droopy 1451 Scherber in the one hoop house and the 1789 Wallace in the other hoop house.  That 1789 plant has really started to impress me.  Nothing seems to bother it and it is the fast grower of the four plants.

My kids put their 924 Johnson plant into it's hoop house today.  Personally I think it might be the best looking plant of all of our plants.  They always do a great job with their pumpkin plants.