Giant Pumpkins Atlantic Giant

Yes most growers haven't set fruit yet. The target date for pollination is July 4th, but most growers are in the NE Zone 5, I am in Zone 7 so my dates are at least 2 weeks earlier.

1081 Leonzi

S-S: 38
F-B: 38
C: 54
OTT: 130
Total est weight = 53.2 Lbs
Weight gain = 15.3 lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 646.8 Lbs

1112 Holland

S-S: 27
F-B: 29
C: 42
OTT: 98
Total est weight = 25.8 Lbs
Weight gain = 13.6
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 674.2 Lbs


Notice the same brick. :)

This is a 50 lb gain in 6 days!!!

In case you're wondering how I est the weight on these. You take 3 measurements, the S-S is taken with the tape measure touching the ground in the middle of the fruit over the top and back down to the ground. You try to use the same spot every time, and try to use the thickest part. The F-B is the same thing from the stem to the blossom end. and the C is circumference taken parallel to the ground. The OTT is the sum of the 3 measurements. I then go to a special Spreadsheet and enter the numbers. Their is also a chart you can use, but the Spreadsheet I have found to be more accurate. Plus the Spreadsheet has graphs to keep track of daily and weekly gain, weather, ferts, and other items.

They look wonderful Amigatec. Especially the one thats 34 pounds on day 5. Great job. Cha-Ching

Sadly, the one I had growing right now aborted. The plant looks poorly too. Everyday I loose a few leaves. They just wilt and die. And its randomly. Some vines look healthy and some don't. I am clueless.
The 936 clone was doin fine. YOu could see its roots. Nice and healthy white.
I fertilized it with liquid bloom and root booster and then a half gallon of fish and seaweed. Along with the 898. The only difference in the fertilizer was----I put a pinch of Bio-Gro Endo Plus in with the fish emulsion on the 936 clone. The next day the 936 clone was completely wilted and roots were dead. the 898 still healthy.
The instructions for the Bio-Gro Endo Plus says to apply at least 2 weeks before chemical fertilizers. Wondering if this was my mistake. (combination of bio and chemical). The same thing applies to the regular 936 plant that the pumpkin aborted on. I feed the plant liquid fertilizer every 3 to 4 days . IT was doin fine and great until I put that mixture of shredded leaves, straw, rabbit manure, and Bio-Gro on the vines to help cover the exposed roots. The next day the fruit stopped growing. Clueless.
I don't know what to do. I don't even know if the 936 will ever set a fruit. The main vine has started looking poorly. AT this point= its enough to make you scream.

The 275 Van Hook has germinated. It gets transplanted today. It will be a late season pollinator for Halloween PUmpkin. The 275 is suppose to be a more heat tolerant breed(genetics).
The 820* Lovelace is doing good and the 898 is doing good. No babies for 2 more weeks. 2 weeks will never get here. And when it does get here, it will take miracle to get those to pollinate in this heat. Haven't decided on air conditioner or bottles of ice and a fan.

I am still having fun, just disappointed with the 936.

Happy Gardening

Conclusion: I am convinced that the Bio-gro endo plus and Liquid Fertilizers have caused problems with the plant, and the death of the 936 clone.
I removed the shredded mulch that had the bio-grow mixed into it from the vines that look poorly and the roots that use to be there are not there any more.
There were a few vines that did not have bio-grow in the mulch . Those vines are healthy but sadly not very many vines got plain shredded mulch. I don't know what I should do. I can remove all the mulch and see what happens. I did notice that some of the mulched vines are starting to put out new roots. It has been 11 days since I mulched the vines and maybe what ever caused the shock is leaching out. I have not been fertilizing the plant---only plain water hoping to leach away the problem but it may be too late. The damage is already done. One of the healthy vines is one of the first secondaries on the plant. And---I did not mulch the main trunk with the bio-gro either. I am assuming that the trunk is barely keepin the plant alive. What do I do? Cut off all the accidental abused vines and start over with the One Secondary vine that is healthy?
I really need some opinions and advise.

This is a photo of the Healthy Secondary that is about 1 foot from the Main trunk.
The yellow vine next to it is another secondary that got mulched with bio-gro.

Live and Learn! This is not how I wanted to live and learn.

The healthy vine even has nice male blooms.

This message was edited Jun 22, 2009 11:43 AM

and those nice green healthy secondaries that I mulched with leaves and bio-gro that I took a photo of 8 days ago on June 14 are now yellowing and wilting .
so depressing.

The 820* Lovelace (giant green squash) , the one the dog stepped on and broke the main, is slowly but surely growing nicely. It has 3 secondaries-----and I have chosen the one that will be the main.

This is not my year for growing giant pumpkins -----but I will still give it my all.

This is the 898 Holland. It is growing straight up. Up Up and Away. This can be a problem. Especially when the wind is blowing. One good gust and it will snap.
I have to find something to support the vine from snapping until it lays down. It's about 1 foot straight up . Beautiful plant .

the Bio-Gro Endo Plus/ Endomycorrhizal Fungi is a good thing if you use it correctly.

this is the 898 Holland from a distance under its 30% shade cloth.
It has not had any mycorrhizal fungi.




This message was edited Jun 22, 2009 12:37 PM

Oh wow Cricket. So much work. Sure hope ya don't los e them.

Have no ide a how to grow them or really the best method to go. On;y thig I cna think of is to take all the products you used, get the nutrient and micronutiets if any value s and lay it all out. It maybe that the combo of the two is lockign up the nutrients of somethign else. One of the nutrients maybe in so much excess that it has shut dow evrythign els e and that can cause yellowign and death. Just a thought.

Hope ya can save them. Hope ya make us all giant pumkin pies. : )

Sorry to hear you lost the plant. How disappointing! Maybe you could call the company that manufactures the product and ask for their advice.

Not all Mycro products are the same. The one I am using comes from. http://www.extremepumpkinstore.com/ccp0-prodshow/Symbios.html This is the one all the big growers use. I used it in the planting hole and on all the secondaries when I buried them. I also used Root Shield in the planting hole. I have added a chorine filter to the hose as well.

I have used very few chemicals on the patch, almost everything has been organic. I also add about 40 gallons of Compost Tea every 3 or 4 days. I did add about a half bag of Sevin Granules, a 1/2 bag of Gypsum, and a 1/2 bag of Preen Weed Preventer at the beginning of the season.

Have you had a soil test done?

I have 3 plants and just one is doing really well. It hit 83 lbs today. Gain of 16.2 lbs.

Eoot shield is good stuff. So is their plant shield,, but you got it goign on with yoru pumlon, so I sure wouldn't mess with it.

Whata weight gain. How much water are you havingto give these guys?

I water for one hour each day, with overhead whizzerheads. And I run the misters from 1 to 4 each day, 15 sec on 5 min off.

I did put some Bio-Gro Endo Plus in the pot that I started the 275 in. I am only goin to feed it fish emulsion , seaweed and some manure tea for the next two weeks.
I put it in the plot where the 936 clone was but I shoveled the top soil away from the hole and replaced the soil with something that had no liquid fertilizers added. That same plot has bio-gro spreaded 3 feet out from where the 936 clone was at. The bio-gro instructions say Not to use chemical fertilizer for 2 weeks after adding the bio-gro and I will follow the instructions. (lesson learned the hard way)

I used a 3 inch cup to start the 275 in. I filed the edges of the seed and soaked it for only 6 hours. I put a sprinkle of Bio-Gro in the cup of pro-mix. Placed the pot in a dark warm area. I saw roots at the bottom of the pot by day 3, seed was up by day 4 and i removed the seed cover , I transplanted on day 6 (June 22) and the pot was full of roots. It was a very healthy seed. (message to self== don't kill it! )

Time to go hunting manure in the horse pasture to make my tea.

Happy Gardening.

My 1081 Loenzi hit 102.1 today.

Oh wow, amigatec! I am totally impressed. You obviously know what you are doing!

Do you all have to grow these on some sory of special platforms to be able to move later?

Shhesh.. that pumpkin weighs almost as much as I do.

Look Back on June 20. Amigatec explains how to estimate the weight.


This is the last healthy vine on the 936 Holland.. not too shabby.
I have to let it curve back and come back up through the same path that the main vine originally took.......... Hoping it lives.

I know this aint much to view, but its a baby and all babies are cute.
And i am hoping this one gives me a giant pumpkin for the state fair.

275 VanHook , 8 days after sow date.

Cute baby.

the 898 wants to go west and I want it to go east. But the vine is so thick and tall that I am afraid to make it go where I want it too. It might break. The styrofoam was suppose to make it go in the direction that I wanted it to but I am about to remove it and think of something else since it wants to go the other way. I will let it go where ever as long as it doesn't break.

distant view of 898

OK I read post of 6/20 and am still confused about the conversion factor or formula used to convert OTT to total est. weight.

The ratios between (OTT: 130 and total est weight = 53.2) and (OTT: 98 and total est weight = 25.8) are not the same. So what is the formula for calculating the estimated weight?

I have a book here that has a chart in it. The chart list inches Over-The-Top Method and the chart already has written down what the weight should be using OTT measurements.
OTT (over the top ) measurements include the following:
Measure circumference which should be your widest width all the way around the pumpkin ( stem to blossom end back to stem)
Measure Side to Side (SS) starting at the ground on one side and ending on the ground on the other side.
Measure Front to Back ( start on the ground at the stem end and ending on the ground at the blossom end.
Add all 3 totals.
Then we refer to our OTT Estimated Weight Chart

91 inches total would be 21.3 pounds
93" = 21.9 lbs
96" =25.8 lbs
101" =27.9 lbs
130 " =54 lbs

I don't know how they came up with their estimates on the chart. But somebody made it real easy for us.

This message was edited Jun 24, 2009 4:03 PM

The formula in the shreadsheet is:
=IF(((0.0000203*E16*E16*E16)-(0.000638*E16*E16)+(0.206021*E16)-7.380555) < 0,0,((0.0000203*E16*E16*E16)-(0.000638*E16*E16)+(0.206021*E16)-7.380555))

Where E16 is the OTT measurement.

Amigatecs pumpkin is gaining weight like the world records do. Might be the next world record. Keep up those 25+ weight gains per day for at least 10 days. Should get a thousand pounder+


The wind has been blowing. The pumpkin vine wants to go west, the wind is blowing it east.(where i want it to go)
I braced it to go east.
It is supported at the bottom to prevent a break, and supported at the top to make it go east.
The vine grew kinda flat there in the middle but has started growing normal again.

Well I didn't turn the water back on last night so the growth rate is down tonight darnit!!!

117 lbs gain of only 15.8 lbs.

I hear they can drink a lot. I am always afraid to water too much. Might rot the roots or something. It might take me a few years to figure it all out....soil, water, food, etc.....

I added manure to my patches last night and today and tilled it all in.
It was not a lot of manure. Only 30 five gallon buckets divided between 4 plants.

Jaw dropping with thinking of amount of manure that is for just 4 plants.

I added 4 truck loads to a 1000 sqft patch I had it 2" thick.


Did you use fresh or composted? The fresh manure will have a lot of weeds in it, and will have a good amount of bad microbes in it as well. I quit using fresh a few years ago.

Definitely should always use only composted manure in gardening during the growing season.

1081 Leonzi

S-S: 54
F-B: 53
C: 78
OTT: 185
Total est weight = 137.4 Lbs
Weight gain = 19.5 lbs
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 562.6 Lbs

1112 Holland

S-S: 40
F-B: 42
C: 62
OTT: 143
Total est weight = 68.4 Lbs
Weight gain = 6.1
Target Weight: 700 Lbs
Weight to go: 631.6 Lbs

not composted manure, some aged, some fresh.
And it was placed on 3 plants not 4.
My best plant has 8 buckets of manure tilled in the soil. In a 12 X 30 ft area.
Can you do something about bad microbes?
Bad microbes doesnt sound good. Youre making me nervous now.
I can't win for loosing.

the 936 is completely dead now. No plant left. I been asking more experieced growers about the biogrow endo and chemical fertilizer. They assure me that the biogrow endo plus will not kill the plant and you cannot use too much other than too much is just goin to cost you unnecessary expense. Their ideas are that I must of used too much nitrogen and burned the roots up, or i have a soil born disease.
If it is soil born disease, the 820* lovelace wont make it either. But so far so good, it is healthy and in the same patch but has received less fertilizers. Wait and see
You would think that if it was a soil born disease that the 820 would be dying too.

this is the 820* as of today.

The 898 holland is 24 inches "tall" now. But I am slowly getting it to lay down.
So scary.

The 898 seems to be growing 4 inches taller each day. I don't think i can keep up with it as far as training it to lay down.

pictures say a thousand words.

The bad microbes could bring soil diseases with it. I quit using the fresh stuff because of this I didn't want to spread anything from the patch to the veggie garden. Composting will kill just about anything in the manure.