if #2 sets, it will be sad to cull #1 after all that babying.
898 1st female, 3 days after pollination.
Dills Atlantic Giant Pumpkins Part 3
820* Lovelace Plant
plant runs 6 feet further to the right.
820 unpollinated female grew a lot in the past 24 hours. Will know this evening if she will open tomorrow.
275 VanHook plant, now 8ft 2in long.
820* Lovelace, X self with 4 males, 9 ft out. 4 segments/lobes + some deformity. Looks like another lobe in front of and on top of one of the 4 lobes??????????
Another deformity in the next pic.
looks like a narrow/skinny abnormal lobe pointing downward and has a yellow head like a regular lobe would have. Not a true lobe. Not a good female.
820* female, I will keep it for now just in case I don't get another chance for another one.
898 Holland, 2nd female, 1 day after pollination , is smaller than an egg. Smaller than #1 was on 1 DAP.
898 Holland , 1st female, 4 days after pollination, double the size of tennis ball.
Used a string to measure circumference (CC) then laid string on measuring tape.
12 inch CC. Has a long belly button.
problems-------
the 898 main vine has a crack located One leaf node past the 2nd pollinated female. Wait and see situation. It could mend itself. Or it could continue to break off the main at that location. The problem brings up a lot of refiguring----thoughts---decisions------etc.......... I wish I could repair it. Put the darn thing in a splint! haha.
Right now the Main vine is 20 feet long.
Can't you just cover it with soil?
1081 Leonzi
S-S: 80
F-B: 77
C: 126
OTT: 283
Total est weight = 459.9 Lbs
Weight gain = 18.6 lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 240.1 Lbs
1112 Holland
S-S: 59
F-B: 60
C: 87
OTT: 206
Total est weight = 185.4 Lbs
Weight gain = 5 lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 514.6 Lbs
Well I have saved the plant, I have watered it enough so that is it responding and growing again.
That good to hear. How many days do ya have left to go to try and beat the record weight. You gettign any of them storms that suppose d ot be headign through Ok?
Tulsa State Fair is 1st week of Oct and official weight-off is Oct 3rd in Missouri. so I will be busy that week.
I will start building a Punkin Toter soon.
I cannot bury that cracked vine. It is next to a female and no vines get buried 3 feet on each side of the pumpkins cause the vine raises up as the pumpkin grows. I was goin to cut off the main vine anyway a few feet past the female that I keep. That crack just keeps me from pollinating anymore females past that crack.
I terminated ( cut the tip off) the main vine at 20 ft yesterday. It might grow another foot or so as the vine finishes growing out its last leaves. I removed all the secondaries past that crack on the main vine.
It is complicated to explain why, where, and how in words. I trailed the last 6 feet of the main vine up a t-post. It might look silly, but interesting. Even though that last 6 feet of main vine is not goin to do the pumpkins much good, trailing it up the post put less stress on the crack. It even closed the crack up some.
Ok, all I have to say is WOW and I have never heard so much about pumpkins in my LIFE. I dont understand it all, but I see it is a serious committment to try to get a big one and you have to know a ton! What is all the deal with the ice and the fan?? VERY intriguing to someone who doesn't know about this stuff.
I wish you all well in your endevours! I can't wait to see the pics!
Good Luck,
Hillary
The females don't like to pollinate when they are hot, you get a lot of aborts.
1081 Leonzi
S-S: 80
F-B: 78
C: 127
OTT: 285
Total est weight = 469.4 Lbs---New Personnel Best WOOHOO
Weight gain = 9.5 Lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 230.6 Lbs
1112 Holland
S-S: 60
F-B: 60
C: 88
OTT: 208
Total est weight = 190.5 Lbs
Weight gain = 5.1 Lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 509.5 Lbs
This message was edited Jul 19, 2009 4:31 PM
Sweet!! It's starting to get some color, too! How big around are the vines to grow something that large?
The stump is as big as a Pepsi can, but the main is only about 1" in dia.
I don't want it to color to soon, I still need another 60 days out of it.
When they do the competion thing, do they break it down into cultivar groups or just all the pumkins treate d the same and most weight wins.
Good going Armig... Hope it keeps goign strong for ya. : )
You'd think with a pumpkin that large and a stem that big around, the vine would be larger than 1" in diameter! Amazing! This is a fun thread to watch!
I'm guessing the hat is to help shade the pumpkin (she says tongue-in-cheek!!!)
Congrats Pat on personal best! Very happy for you.
Keep Growing!
Pollinated another giant green squash this morning. It has a pretty set of lobes.
820*, 1st female on 1st primary vine, 5 lobes, X self pollinated, used 5 males, 7:30 am , temp at time of pollination was 64degrees. Female 12 ft out. Female small, blossom small.
The 820* is my worst plant, growing in the worst soil. (very sandy) Cant water it enough. Will be hard to get a big one on this plant.
1st female on 2nd primary vine. 2 days after pollination. (female with deformed lobes)
Refreshing the history on the 275 VanHook
275 VanHook was grown by John Van Hook from Kentucky.
It was grown for genetics and not size.
The mother seed came from 1443 pound Palmer, and it was pollinated with males from the 1407 pound Wolf .
I hope I can get one to set on my plant. It will be hot by the time I am able to pollinate but will once again use shade, ice, and fans.
The 275 plant had 3 females showing at 7ft, 8ft, and 9ft. I pinched off the females at the 7ft, and 8ft. Waiting on the 9ft which should end up close to the 10ft mark.
It will be a very oblong female.
898 Holland. 1st female, 6 days after pollination , 15 1/2 inches circumference.
(sadly, will be culled as soon as I think # 2 is gonna stick around)
I wanted my keeper to be a certain size by day 10. #1 will most likely be the size that I want by day 10 (24"cc). #2 will not reach the goal as long as #1 is getting all the energy cause its first in line. #2 will always be smaller as long as #1 is on the vine.
To Do, To Do, and when to do it. As soon as #1 is cut from the vine, #2 will grow faster.
#2 is 3 days after pollination and 9 1/4 inch cc. (circumference)
Next year I am going to grow Pumpkins in the garden and veggies in the patch. The patch is 1250 sft and the patch is 1000 sft. I should be able to squeeze 4 plants in there very easily. That will give 312 sft per plant.
I will eliminate some veggies from my garden.
I need more plants so when one goes down I have some extras.
I am looking at crosses for next year, I have many good seeds and will decide later what to do.
Heck I may just grow 6 plants next year, I can buy my veggies from the store. LOL
Yep, they have proof that you can grow giants in 300-400 sq ft.
There is goin to be another book out on giant pumpkins in August.
Book IV.
I did it. I made a decision to keep one of the pumpkins on 898 plant. It was not the one that I thought I would keep several days ago.
Too late-------i already cut one from the vine.
You would not believe all the different opinions from other giant growers on which one of those I should keep.
The keeper.
7 days old. 18" cc
Is the chair there to mark the spot and to provide shade? This is just fascinating to me!
The 898 Plant is finally taking up some space.
The left side
the chair is for shade until i make a permanent shade structure.
Making shade structure tomorrow
Putting down the Pink fabric under female this evening. We have a big bad storm coming. It rained long and hard this afternoon.
The right side of plant (wee one hiding in that corner)
I love this plant.
the giant green squash are not goin to grow as fast as the pumpkin will.
the squash patch and plant are not up to par. Will take what ever I can get out there.
I culled the green squash that had a deformed lobe. It had already showed problems on the blossom end. But there is another further on the vine that will be ready to pollinate Thursday.
Pollinated this on yesterday---the perfect 5 lober------grow greeny grow
the 275 Plant looks kinda naked lately cause I removed some very tall broken leaves around the stump. Removed some short secondaries from the stump that were not growing. They were just sitting there. Mutants !
The 275 main vine is 11ft + long today.
There are no weeds!
Since my Pumpkins have slowed down I have decided to measure once a week.
Also since I am limited on space, I plan to swap the garden spots next year.
No potatoes, No squash, No cucumbers, No peas, and I may eliminate a few other things.
I plan to devote the garden for pumpkins giving me a place to grow 4 plants. I have 3 in 1000 sft and it is way to tight, by giving up the main garden I can have 1250 sft of growing space.
I will grow my veggies in the patch instead.
UPDATE: I say to heck with the veggies next year and grow 6 pumpkins!!!
I can always buy my veggies from the store.