Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 48 Entries. Thursday, June 2 View Page 2145 McMullen is vining out nicely. Wednesday, June 15 View Page 2145 McMullen on pollination day! Wednesday, June 15 View Page 5 lobe female open for business on 2145 McMullen. Wednesday, June 15 View Page 2145 McMullen X 1692 McMullen at 15'. She's tied up under a cooler and got a bag of ice to keep things cool. This is the biggest, most aggressive plant I've had at this stage. Drip tape just got installed too. My first time with drip tape and I'm liking it so far. Wednesday, June 15 View Page Also pollinated a 1392 Carlson/Petersen (1625 Gantner x 2009 Wallace) with 2 males from the 2145 McMullen (1756 Howell/Jolivette x 1625 Gantner). Its only about 10 feet out and the plant isn't really big enough and its probably too early for the south to try and keep a pumpkin going for 100 or worse 120 days so this one will likely get the ax but if I end up keeping it, this will help me remember the cross and date. Thursday, June 16 View Page So we started making our own humic acid at work and to test out its performance we set up a hydroponic bucket system to grow cherokee purple tomatoes. (looks like a commercial for Lowes...I know) We are running 2 controls with fertilizer only, and all the buckets get the same concentration of fertilizer and all get successively higher concentrations of our humic acid from right to left. Originally, we were going to grow all giant tomatoes this way but we started a bit too late to start from seed. Maybe we will do that as soon as we harvest these guys. At any rate thanks Tim and Bry for hooking me up with seeds. Wednesday, June 22 View Page 1392 C&P x 1692 McMullen on the main this morning and 1392 x self on the 5th or 6th secondary on the right side looking from the stump Thursday, June 23 View Page And after one week we are already seeing some pretty dramatic results with increased root mass and larger plants! As you can see in the images, the humic is being used on the left and no humic on the right. No myco is being used in these tests. We didn't want to add another variable to the mix. Thursday, June 23 View Page 1392 C&P and 1692 McMullen at the work patch. Got three set on the 1392 but going to cull the oldest one because its too close to the stump but It looks like we've got a good pollination in the "goldilocks zone" . Still waiting on the 1692 to throw a female on the main. Got one on a side vine but its like the second side vine....not ideal. But we've still got time to let this plant get bigger to get a set for late season. Thursday, June 23 View Page HC hooked me up with some excellent watermelon plants he had started, the 251 Kent and the 302 Kent. Since we had been setting up the hydroponics at work, I decided to grow these watermelons hydroponically. So here's my set up and we'll see if I can do better with hydro than I've done with dirt. If you knew my melon results in dirt...you'd laugh..a lot. Thursday, June 23 View Page Here's my first set on the 251 Kent. The plant is arguably not big enough but its getting all its nutrients from the stump anyway so lets give it a ride. Tuesday, June 28 View Page 2145 x self pol on side vine today. 2145 x 1692 didn't take. Wednesday, July 6 View Page 251 Kent 18 dap Wednesday, July 6 View Page 1392 X open 10ish dap Wednesday, July 13 View Page Culled the 2145 on the sidevine. That stem split would have been major trouble moving forward. I have two others that are right behind this one. One on the main with a long stem and the other on a side. Both look like they are hooked up but we will make a decision a bit later as we are running out of options. Thursday, July 14 View Page 1692 X open 10ish dap I love the long barrel shape. All of the young ones on this plant have the same shape. Definitely gonna cut the main if this one is the keeper. Thursday, July 14 View Page Looking at that last pic and thinking it must be 8 dap. Looks too small for 10 but who cares? It's the weight at the end that matters. Thursday, July 14 View Page Here's the 1392 at 18 dap. Looks good for a young one but ours always slow down in the south when the northern boys just keep chugging along. Thursday, July 14 View Page 1392 at 18 dap is 183 OTT. Monday, July 18 View Page Correction that's 1692. Not the 1392 Thursday, July 21 View Page 1692. 15 dap. 113 ott. Thursday, July 21 View Page Thursday, July 21 View Page 1392 25 dap and we are over 300 lb. Thursday, July 21 View Page Top view on 1392 Tuesday, July 26 View Page 1692 20 dap 165.5 OTT I'm liking the shape of this one Tuesday, July 26 View Page 1392 30 dap over 400 lbs but only averaging 20-23 per day. Don't know if this one is going to kick into gear and get going. Thursday, July 28 View Page Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress. Looks like a microburst really did a number on the foliage of this plant. The plant next to it has almost no damage. Go figure. Pumpkin is around 460 lbs. we'll see if the plant can recover enough to put up some respectable weight by seasons end. Thursday, July 28 View Page In other news the 2145 that I had the cull on a few weeks back... I should have just kept it... Because every legitimate option left on the main or secondary aborted. So this plant is in. Do it yourself territory and let's see if anything on a tert could put on a lil weight. So I was a little surprised when I found twins on a tert this morning Anybody ever grown twins back to back? Sunday, July 31 View Page 1392 dap35. 285 OTT doin 20 lb/day. I'll take that for the wind damage that this plant took. It never kicked into high gear but maybe she'll just keep chugging along at this rate for long enough. Thursday, August 4 View Page One of the twins didn't make it :( really wanted to grow them back to back Thursday, August 4 View Page Won't be around for day 40 so dap 39 579lb only doing 17 a day but had a few super overcast wet days. Hoping we dry out and get some sun so growth pops back up before diseases set in. Thursday, August 11 View Page 1392 46 dap 671 lb Monday, August 15 View Page 1392 on dap 50 320 ott for a little over 700 doing 11lb per day. 40ish days left so would need it to go heavy to hit 1000 but she looks like she might be right purdy by the time weighoffs roll around. Monday, August 15 View Page Lost my sons pumpkin tonight. It was off the 771 Marshall and at a little over 300 lbs would have been a personal best for him. Monday, August 22 View Page 1392. Dap 57. 328 OTT only doing 6 lb per day now but even that's got her skin cracking. Tuesday, August 30 View Page Here's a side view of the 1392. Orange on top and getting green on the sides. She's a touch over 800 lbs but barely moving. Tuesday, September 6 View Page This is what the end of the season looks like for the 1392. Thursday, September 22 View Page Bleh! When the pumpkin goes down and you are far to busy to do anything with it and then you go out of the country for a week....the stench is real people! Saturday, September 24 View Page Pic from previous Saturday, September 24 View Page The 1692 McMullen is now the 636 Craps DMG. That's right folks, a smaller than pinky sized hole managed to go through 8 inches of wall to the cavity. It was found and judged a DMG. Here's the silver lining. She went 26% heavy and was only taping at 473 lbs. Its a real heartbreaker to get DQ'ed at the scales and I would have finished 3rd. Which means the NC growers had a brutal year losing pumpkins left and right. Final cross was (1692 McMullen x (self&1392 Carlson Petersen)) Saturday, September 24 View Page Correction!!!!!!!!! The 636 Craps DMG is 34.7% Heavy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! This makes me care so much less that it went DMG. Sunday, September 25 View Page Here's the postmortem on the 636 Craps DMG. Thick walls everywhere small cavity. I did get some seeds. A lot weren't filled out but I think there will be enough once they are dry. Sunday, September 25 View Page 8 inches at the blossom and you can see how I got DQ'ed. Sunday, September 25 View Page 7 inches on the bottom Sunday, September 25 View Page 10 Inches on top Sunday, September 25 View Page 11 inches at the stem. Sunday, September 25 View Page Cavity is 13 inches tall Sunday, September 25 View Page And 12 inches deep. It was essentially one cubic foot