Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 129 Entries. Monday, January 1 View Page We hope that everyone has a fun and successful 2024 growing season.   Thursday, February 22 View Page Seed selection is done and we hope to add another plaque to the wall again some day. In an effort to accommodate that dream, we are going with what should be, some awesome big and orange producers. Thanks to Glenn H and Ned S for the great seeds, I hope to do them proud.   Wednesday, March 20 View Page Happy first day of Spring everyone. For me, by far the best seed starting medium on the market is Premier Pro Mix HP with Mycorrhizae. We also use bales and bales of it in planter boxes, hanging baskets and general use in the garden. We will also use it this year along with super compost and fish compost in our vine burying mix.   Thursday, March 21 View Page Larger hoophouses will be used for starting the plants this year, certainly an upgrade from our home made hooptie houses that were quickly outgrown by the plants. This one is 10x7x7 and will be taken off when the plant outgrows it. Soil heating cables and overnight heater and fan to be installed next.   Thursday, March 21 View Page This hoop will likely get the 839 Sandercock and be grown downhill towards the centre boards. We will install the bigger 20x10x7 new hoophouse in the lower half of the pumpkin patch and it will start 2 plants back to back. Each plant has its own quadrant of 875 square feet and we will grow 3 competition plants plus 2 prizewinner plants will share one growing spot.   Friday, March 22 View Page 4 out of 4 seeds have broken the ground and are reaching for the lights.   Tuesday, March 26 View Page I’ll try and limit my posting with seedlings, the 1842 Hoornstra ripped off its second cot leaf so I’ve started another one. The other 3 seedlings look great.   Wednesday, March 27 View Page Vineman was asking about heat mat and soil temperature so I checked it out myself on our seedlings. At 6 inches down, the moist-ish potting mix is at 90 degrees. That’s a little warm for my comfort so I’m going to put something in between them to knock down the temperature slightly.   Wednesday, April 3 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra was planted today in the greenhouse into prewarmed and amended planting spot. The seedlings have all been under lights for 12 days and are all ready to be planted. The larger greenhouse will be installed tomorrow along with soil heating cables and heater for overnight. Back to back plants will be in the second greenhouse and I’ll have a couple backup plants just in case they are needed.   Thursday, April 4 View Page We put the other hoophouse in place and will install the soil heating cables, heater and fan. The 2212 Chan, 1842 Hoornstra and 929 Sandercock are still doing great under lights but I have only room for 2 more plants. Dilemma.   Sunday, April 7 View Page In front on the left is 2212 Chan and next to it is the 1842 Hoornstra, they are going head to head for that spot. By itself in the back and going the other way is the 839 Sandercock. These plants didn’t get planted until today, so they were 16 days under lights. I’ve got the temperature controls figured out in the new hoophouses, nice and cozy warm in there 24/7.   Sunday, April 7 View Page Digging in some final amendments and fluffing up the soil before I add a few walking boards in the right spots. Nice to be planted early, I hope the Saanich Fair considers adding GPC status to that longstanding giant pumpkin contest in Victoria on Vancouver Island.   Thursday, April 11 View Page I needed to replace our old indoor/outdoor thermometers and found this little beauty on Amazon for $40 Canadian. It comes with 3 outdoor units and shows temperature and humidity numbers and is perfect for my needs, #1 is outdoor temp, #2 is greenhouse one, #3 is second greenhouse and bottom display is indoor unit. Comes with high and low temperature alarms, and also has minimum/maximum daily temperature records so you can dial in your heating and cooling.   Sunday, April 14 View Page It’s been 1 week in the ground. 839 Sandercock in the back got a few more bamboo stakes added after this photo as it starts laying down. 2212 Chan on the left in front is also on its way to running and the 1842 Hoornstra on the right is doing better also after a slow start. I’ll have to eliminate one of them soon. Fortunately for me, the other greenhouse has the 1995.5 Hoornstra which is leader of the pack, best plant to this date.   Sunday, April 14 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is also growing well and I’m happy the heater keeps inside above 50 degrees on the colder nights. The goal was never below 60 degrees overnight, but it’s been clear and cold here and has been a chilly 35-40 in the mornings with frost delays at the golf course.   Thursday, April 18 View Page 10am here with outside (#1) getting warmer, full sun today. Inside greenhouses (#2&3) nice and toasty warm, just opened the doors and you can see by the display that the temperatures are coming down. Neat toy, I like it.   Thursday, April 25 View Page 2212 Chan in the front and 839 Sandercock in the back with the Exhale CO2 bag hanging between them. I’ve ordered a CO2 monitor but I cheaped out and didn’t get the wireless model. I’ll post the numbers here for both hoophouses since they are different sizes. It will be a great experiment, since I can easily get CO2 numbers inside with and without the Exhale bags present. I love numbers, there will likely be a spreadsheet and colour bar graph of some kind for the results.   Sunday, April 28 View Page Here is our Australian Cattle Dog (aka Blue Heeler) on duty at the Arbutus Ridge Golf Club. She is making sure the fairways, greens and ponds are clear of the pesky flocks of Canadian geese. Many areas have problem geese (golf courses, parks, lakes, farmers crops) and Tova has been specially trained to only clear the Canadian Geese and not anything else.   Sunday, April 28 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra needed the kickstand leaf (2nd true leaf) trimmed off so that the vine could lay down safely, and now I see that the first true leaf is looking old and will likely get the chop as soon as more leaves are on the scene. Some mild chlorosis from some chilly nights and cold surrounding soil outside the heated soil cable area. Things are warming up now, soil biology should be working but I still might add some Ureamate and Masterblend to a watering and a foliar feeding to give it a mild boost.   Monday, May 6 View Page 2212 Chan is stretching out, we need to cultivate the patch and toss in some amendments that the Langley estimator said we need. The usual cast of characters, we need gypsum, calcium nitrate, sulphate of potash along with some boron, manganese and magnesium. We are getting some of the magnesium and potassium by also using KMag, 0-0-22.   Monday, May 6 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is also running and doing well. I can tell that the soil is ready, weeds are coming up like crazy, I really dislike chickweeed.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page 839 Sandercock is the first to reach the end of the hoophouse. Super lucky since the weather has warmed up and we are likely past any threat of frost now but it is still chilly overnight. We have a fantastic 2 week weather forecast, I’m betting Haney Boy will be taking off his hoophouses as well pretty soon and letting things go.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page My new toy came today, and the experiments have started. 580 ppm CO2 outdoors in the middle of the patch.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page Inside the big hoophouse, under the CO2 bag between the 2 plants it reads 1003 ppm CO2. That is with the door fully open and a fan running.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page I closed up the smaller 10x7x7 hoophouse and put the CO2 sensor in there for a few hours and as you can see it settled to 607 ppm. I then installed the CO2 exhale bag and left the hoophouse closed.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page Then after 2 hours of having the Exhale CO2 bag inside the enclosed hoophouse, the ppm rose to over double and stayed at between 1100-1200ppm. So I guess in conclusion, yes the CO2 bags work and I’m glad I tried a new product.   Thursday, May 9 View Page This morning the CO2 is at 1300-1400 ppm at ground level….   Thursday, May 9 View Page …but in the peak of the roof at the 7 foot level, we have a much higher concentration and it peaked at 1950 ppm. The fan on low remedied that issue and seemed to spread it out a little better. Richmond Dave gave me another great idea to remove the C02 bag in the evening when shutting the doors and closing the ventilation. So, I’m gonna take one more reading this evening as suggested by Dave and then remove the bag for overnight and recheck the numbers along the way. I think I can predict the outcome from the numbers I’ve already reported here, but will be nice to know for sure. Special thanks to Ken for always fixing my sideways photos!!   Saturday, May 11 View Page In the longer hoophouse is the 2212 Chan in the front and 839 Sandercock in the back. The far end was rolled up and 839 plant sneaked out first but the 2212 will be out of the door by the end of the day. I think we might use our smaller hoophouses to extend each growing tip by another 5 feet   Saturday, May 11 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is doing well and not long until it will outgrows the hoophouse. Again, luckily our weather is above average for this time of the year and sunny sky’s are in the forecast over the next couple weeks. We are growing no till this year and working the entire patch and veggie garden by hand. Second round of amendments, go on next and the soil is turned in and over with broadfork, pitchfork, shovel and rake. My golf game always improves at this time of the year because my body is so sore from the patch that I swing easy and hit the centre of the club face on a more consistent basis…crazy I know!!   Sunday, May 12 View Page The 839 Sandercock with the first female at about 8 feet got pinched off shortly after this photo and there was one yesterday on the 2212 Chan also at 8 feet that got nipped off.   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Moving day, the 1995.5 Hoornstra was almost out of its hoophouse anyways. Looking good and I’ve got plenty of bamboo stakes and some silt fencing to go up to protect the young plant from our inevitable coastal winds that arrive in late May and early June. Until the plants are more securely rooted, we battle with the wind and will be ahead of the game.   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Hoophouse got moved to the prizewinner’s spot for this year. We will grow 2 plants in the upper part of the patch, veggie garden below getting planted and is prepped and ready for the season.   Tuesday, May 14 View Page And the skin was removed from this hoophouse so that the 2212 Chan (on the right) and the 839 Sandercock (on the left) can stretch out and assume ownership of the 2 growing spots in the lower patch. We are turning over the soil in 1/8 sections at a time and ammending the soil as we go. The amendments are carefully weighed and portioned into buckets for spreading and incorporating by hand. Yeah, it takes longer but Andrea and I are team growers and 4 hands makes light work of most jobs in the pumpkin patch and gardens.   Thursday, May 16 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra. I’ve got some silt fencing on order for delivery tomorrow for use as windbreaks, but of course our coastal winds have started now. We quickly grabbed the snow fencing we had and secured it to our deer fencing at strategic spots where the winds whip in and circle about. Suffered only 1 leaf break and a few leaf bends but I’ll get over it. Slowly pitch forking and broadforking the ammended soil in front and on the sides of each plant.   Thursday, May 16 View Page 839 Sandercock in front and 2212 Chan in the rear. I’ve got my usual stockpile of compost, potting soil, mycorrhizae, kelp meal, alfalfa meal and a dash of slow release 14-14-14 that we mix into buckets, thoroughly soak with water and use for covering/burying vines. I’m going with a “wetter is better” approach to secondary rooting along the main and all along the secondaries.   Monday, May 20 View Page We don’t usually name our pumpkins or plants (but sometimes we do) and this year Andrea kept asking which was which plant, so we came up with the easiest way possible. We also know that pumpkin fruit names are usually feminine, but for ease of our aging brains we came up with this. 839 Sandercock is Ned, 2212 Chan is Dave and 1995.5 Hoornstra is Glenn. So Ned is in the foreground with Dave in the back. We got some silt fencing and set it up, the winds will subside at about the same time that the plants are all rooted in. Pitchforking and broadforking ahead of the plants is working great however it’s time for me to have my own rototiller.   Thursday, May 23 View Page I should have left the hoophouse on for a few days longer for Glenn (1995.5 Hoornstra) because the weather changed to cold and wet for several days and the growth really slowed down. We’d like this plant to be our last pollinated anyways because it’s in the biggest spot in the patch at 30’ X 40’ and because it’s in a spot behind the other 2 plants and not accessible until after the other 2 are out.   Thursday, May 23 View Page Ned in the front and Dave in the back. I’m fighting my compulsion to add additional nitrogen (everything is so green) and trusting that my soil’s available nutrient tank is full. I will however cave in and start on my bug and disease prevention program rotation. Vine burying is every second day but weeding, pitchforking and broadforking is happening daily ahead of the vines.   Sunday, May 26 View Page 2212 Chan aka Dave is growing OK despite the cold, cloudy, windy weather we have right now. Over the years growing in this strange coastal climate, I’ve noticed that when we get a cooler session of weather 7-10 days long when the plants are at this stage of growth, that the secondaries will be outgrowing the main vine, which allows me to space out the secondaries as I wish. As soon as the main vine gets back into gear, I’ll be terminating the first few secondaries anyways which will then send a message to the main vine to hurry up.   Friday, May 31 View Page 2212 Chan plant is looking good and getting wider. We have a weather shift finally, with warm and sunny on its way. Started these seeds on March 17, so it’s been 75 days from seed soak to today. I can see why some of the initial growth is looking old and tattered. First females on the main vines have shown up on all the plants so pollination could be around mid June if all goes correctly.   Sunday, June 2 View Page Dave on the 2212 Chan at about 15’ on the main and 18 secondaries. I took off the secondary at the flower on this plant and will likely terminate the main vine after the chosen pumpkin on this plant.   Sunday, June 2 View Page This is Ned on the 839 Sandercock and I’ve left the secondary and will keep the main vine going on this plant, if there is room post pollination. Also at about 15’ on the main vine with 19 good secondaries behind it.   Sunday, June 2 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra has not shown any female flowers yet along the main vine, but the plant is just getting back into gear after a cold weather period. We spread all our final amendments and are clearing out the chickweed as the plant grows which also working the amendments deeper into the soil for when they will be needed.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Dave on the 2212 Chan will be ready a few days from now.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant might be ready for tomorrow.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Looks like Glenn from the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant will be the pollen donor for the other 2 plants.   Monday, June 10 View Page 839 Sandercock (Ned) is the first to be pollinated this year and luckily the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant (Glenn) was nice enough to provide some eager males with pollen to do the deed. Being a proper gentleman, Glenn brought an appropriate bottle of chilled white wine to share with his new patch buddy once the union was secured.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page 2212 Chan (Dave) pollinated this morning with pollen from patchmate 839 Sandercock.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra has one that should be ready in 8-10 days. The plant is rapidly expanding, we installed our watering systems today and hooked up the tanks and pumps.   Sunday, June 16 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra plant enjoyed the warmer weather while it lasted. Richmond Dave said earlier in his diary about our unpredictable Juneuary weather and is back. Cool, rainy coastal weather is back, but only temporarily. With some luck, all 3 plants will have June pollinations which is a first for us in 20 years of growing. Next thing for our patch is even larger hoophouses, plans are already in the make.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page 2212 Chan plant is a low riding, compact leaf kinda plant that is very easy to grow and manoeuvre. 839 Sandercock plant in the rear is a much taller, bigger leafed plant that has also been easy to groom and maintain.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page 839 Sandercock is growing fast and the first few secondaries on each side will get trimmed soon as they reach the 15 foot mark.   Thursday, June 20 View Page Day 10 for Ned (839 Sandercock X 1995.5 Hoornstra). There is another baby to pollinate another 4 feet down the main vine that comes along with another 4 secondaries. I’m going to pollinate it and decide later which is the keeper. 1995.5 Hoornstra will likely want to pollinate its first at about 16’ on the main, at the same time as Ned & Dave get their second pollinations done in another 5 or 6 days. Plants are ripping along now, weather has shifted back to sunny, moderate temperatures and not so frigid overnight.   Thursday, June 20 View Page Big difference in just a few days, 1995.5 Hoornstra is gobbling up the ground as fast as I can clear it.   Sunday, June 23 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra (Glenn) just prior to pollination with a ready and eager 839 Sandercock plant. 22 secondaries before this pollination and it appears to be at about 16’ on the main vine. Plants look great, weather is better also so all systems appear to be a go.   Sunday, June 23 View Page Second pollination on the 839 Sandercock with giant flowers from the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant. We will make the final cut down to one pumpkin per plant in the next 7-10 days.   Tuesday, June 25 View Page Golf umbrellas in our patch mean only one thing, fish on! 1995.5 Hoornstra X 839 Sandercock looks to be set so we’ve begun the bending and swinging of the vine to one side. This plant we will try and keep the main vine going and some secondaries afterwards to fill in some space but the other 2 plants will have their main vines terminated after the pumpkins since they are both large enough plants already.   Wednesday, June 26 View Page All in on Ned, 839 Sandercock X 1995.5 Hoornstra. Has 21 secondary vines that will fill its allotted space quickly. A piece of plywood and mill fabric will be placed under the pumpkin and a shade/sprinkler/ rain cover will be installed likely tomorrow.   Thursday, June 27 View Page 839 Sandercock is ready for its shade structure, lots of vine burying happening today.   Thursday, June 27 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra got a second pollination today, but if the first one looks to be set in a week from now, I'll make the chop down to one fruit.   Thursday, June 27 View Page 2212 Chan also got a second pollination today at the end of the line despite the fact that the first one looks to be set. I’ll do the same watch and wait for about another week until this plant will also get culled down to one pumpkin.   Sunday, June 30 View Page Ned (839 X 1995.5) isn’t setting or breaking any records other than this is our first ever day 20 fruit while it’s still June. Dave on the 2212 Chan plant will be day 20 tomorrow and I fear Dave is a little camera shy right now since he’s smaller than his patchmate already.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page Ned in the foreground got some plywood and mill fabric underneath and I’ll put a small layer of fine sand on top of that to help the pumpkin slide as it grows. Hooptie weather structure is in place and will get a roof sometime soon while Dave in the distance only rates a golf umbrella at this point. Ned has finally ramped it up and done 5” in circumference for the last 2 days while Dave is stuck in low gear and only doing 2.5” a day in circumference for the past few days. We expect that to all change as the weather is great right now and only looking better in the next few weeks.   Friday, July 5 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra has been culled down to one pumpkin. We will install the all weather cover in the next while to keep the pumpkin dry and shaded. Long term weather forecast is very good, even the overnight temperatures are on the rise.   Sunday, July 7 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra plant is filling in fast. I rake a small trench in the native soil ahead of vine burying and then I make a mixture of black peat, compost and Promix HP with Mychorrhizae and get it all soaking wet and apply it to all rooting spots and then cover back up with the native soil from pre trenching ahead of the vines. This also lets me work on the patch in specific spots that need some work and some organic matter rather than just the native sand and silt loam.   Monday, July 8 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra X 839 Sandercock on day 15, very round so far. Got some plywood and a few small pieces of mill fabric under the pumpkin. Will put up shade/water protection hooptie hut in a few days.   Tuesday, July 9 View Page 839 Sandercock is enjoying the warmer weather and has finally decided to start growing. Started off pretty round, not so much anymore.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page Day 30 for Ned (839 Sandercock X 1995.5 Hoornstra) and this year we have our usual day 20 numbers on day 30 instead. We had an unusually chilly few weeks just a couple days after I had to release the plants from their heated greenhouses because they had outgrown them. We think it’s safe to say that this pumpkin will be a nice orange!!   Friday, July 12 View Page Shade/water hooptie hut installed and covered over the 839 Sandercock and the frame was installed in the upper portion of the patch for the 1995.5 Hoornstra pumpkin.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Glen (1995.5 Hoornstra X 839 Sandercock) at 20 days. Very round and symmetrical at this early stage, a bit of a looker already.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page Day 24 for Glen on the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant and packed on 29 lbs in the past 24 hours. Plant is still filling in nicely and lots of space left and an eager sprinkler from the tank/pump system we use for watering and feeding when the plant reaches that dry part.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Then this is the left side of Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant, still filling in and growing nicely while the other side has decided to terminate itself. The right side of this plant has 4 normal full sized secondaries, then 4 dwarfy wierd looking secondaries, then another 3 secondaries that are continuing to grow out normal and fill in.   Friday, July 19 View Page 839 Sandercock is not setting any records for daily or weekly gains but still packing on several inches per day and will be 40 days old tomorrow. Interestingly, the pumpkin on our 1995.5 Hoornstra plant is the same OTT today as the 839 that is pictured here but is only at day 26.   Saturday, July 20 View Page Day 26 for the 1995.5 Hoornstra, I’ve modified my watering schedule and either doing 2 or 3 equal waterings each day when I can. We are down to only 2 pumpkins now since the 2212 Chan aborted and we ripped it out. We are clearing that part of the patch, will get a soil test done and see where we are in that quadrant of the garden. Also, the prizewinners were planted late this year, and only 1 seed germinated out of 2, so I’m going with a larger plant and 2 pumpkins.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page 839 Sandercock (Ned) is a slow and steady grower so far, is Dap 43 today and has been doing 13-15 lbs a day for the past 2 weeks. Perfect beer keg shape so far on this fruit and is the likely our Elysian Brewery Weighoff entry for us this year if we get some pumpkins to the finish line.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page Glen, on the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant is Dap 30 today and comes in at 239 OTT, just short of 300 lbs. Yeah, of course I gotta move my hooptie cover a little bit and get it wrapped but so far we’ve had no rain and I swap out the white sheet if it gets wet from watering, so there’s been no rush. Plants are still growing but also showing the signs of slowing down moderately. The Hoornstra plant still has the main vine growing and 7 secondaries, once all the secondaries are terminated we can let the main go as far as it wants. The Sandercock plant has the main vine terminated at the fruit but still has multiple secondaries on each side that are growing (albeit slowly) and will eventually fill its allotted space. It could be a sink/source issue on the Sandercock plant that is holding it back, but the plant was smallish at pollination and stalled shortly after and was in suspended animation for several weeks when our weather turned off in Juneuary.   Friday, July 26 View Page I moved a walking board to do some weeding, and found a nice surprise of roots everywhere they could possibly be. Good sign.   Friday, July 26 View Page So I weeded carefully and then top dressed the roots with the vine burying mix.   Friday, July 26 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is doing well, both pumpkins are now over 100” in circumference.   Sunday, July 28 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is at Dap 35 today. We’ve got extended good weather going on here and all around the Pacific Northwest, there are going to be some great Weighoffs this year.   Tuesday, July 30 View Page Day 50 for Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant, gained 110 lbs from day 40 to 50. I’ve taken another soil sample from the lower patch where Ned and the Chan plant shared space. Once I get that and see where we are, I might solarize the open areas in the patch because of a chickweed and purslane invasion in parts of the patch.   Tuesday, July 30 View Page We had a day of rain finally, so the roof got put over the 1995.5 pumpkin. It’s starting to lump and bulge pretty good now and we will get a proper OTT measurement in a few days on day 40.   Friday, August 2 View Page Day 40 for Glen on the 1995.5 Hoornstra plant. No fantastic or surprising daily gains but steady growth and consistency which I kinda like. OTT is 291” which is a little below average over the years in this patch at day 40. Day 30 to day 40 weight gain was 277 lbs or 27.7 lbs per day average. Plant is super healthy with perhaps too many secondaries (9 of them) still growing and filling in space after a really cool and wet June. I’ll start terminating the secondaries one at a time and let the main continue to grow.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Ned is a bit of a looker, fan favourite in our backyard. I’ve never had a plant that started to terminate its own secondaries do a turnaround and start growing again. I’m very surprised that this plant has done that magical transformation. Don’t know what I did or did not do to cause this problem that eventually turned itself around. It’s been plugging along at gaining 11 lbs a day for the past 20 days, another 30 or more days at 11 lbs a day will be just fine with us.   Tuesday, August 6 View Page In the better late than never category, the prizewinner plant is bursting with growth and has a pumpkin set on the main vine.   Friday, August 9 View Page Day 60 for Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant. Gained 129 lbs in the past 10 days for an average of 12.9 lbs per day which is an increase from the previous 10 day average. The plant is in great shape and not fully terminated yet so I’m hoping to get this pumpkin to grow for another 6 weeks or longer.   Sunday, August 11 View Page Day 50 and the 1995.5 Hoornstra pumpkin is starting to bulge out pretty good and the beginnings of a beanbag bum-over have also started. Steadily growing and is now 321” OTT and estimate around 762 lbs. A modest gain of 189 lbs in 10 days so around 19 lbs per day.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page Need help with identification of this caterpillar. From time to time we get cabbage loopers and alphalfa loopers in the pumpkin patch, but this year we have a new invader. While inspecting leaves that have been chewed, I found this little bugger. Closest identification is from the Virginian tiger moth or Virginia ermine moth, also sometimes called yellow wooly bear. Any help identifying this would be great…thanks.   Thursday, August 15 View Page 839 Sandercock plant is still growing secondaries and filling in on both sides. I should have tried a little harder and earlier on the chickweed and it got away on me with this plant.   Thursday, August 15 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra plant decided to terminate its own secondaries and then completely shut down growth on the main vine as well. You can see how small some of the leaves are on the ends on both sides of the pumpkin. Growing well at 331” OTT or 833 lbs on day 53.   Monday, August 19 View Page We’ve been growing since 2003, and maybe once or twice while living in the hills of North Vancouver we had a little bit of hail, maybe in September or October and never in August. Well that changed yesterday, here is a leaf from the older growth which suffered more damage.   Monday, August 19 View Page Hail damage not as severe on the newer growth, quite a relief because it was an intense hail storm that lasted about 10 minutes and caused a great deal of local runoff and drainage issues. Cool and cloudy and rainy for the next few days, after another stretch of incredible weather over the past few weeks. Mother Nature can’t decide what to do, it’s been quite a roller coaster weather year here. Also, Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant is day 70 today and managed to grow another 89 lbs in the past 10 days.   Tuesday, August 20 View Page We’ve had continued wet, cold, stormy and unusual August weather. Must have been windy last night too since the blanket for the 1995.5 pumpkin was blown off. It will be day 60 for this pumpkin in a few days and we will wrap a measuring tape around it and see how it’s done over the past 10 days.   Tuesday, August 20 View Page 1995.5 might even get the quilt or a sleeping bag put on it a lot sooner than usual.   Tuesday, August 20 View Page 1995.5 pumpkin is still supple and shiney, the plant is starting to show its age along the main vine. We planted almost a month early this year, good thing or we would be way behind previous years.   Thursday, August 22 View Page 839 Sandercock (Ned) in the foreground and 1995.5 Hoornstra (Glen) in the back. 1995.5 is day 60 today and is at 340” OTT or 900 lbs estimate for a gain of 138 lbs in the past 10 days. I have certain expectations from previous years for growth and weight gains in late August till the end of September, but all bets and expectations of anything normal have long since been forgotten with the strange weather and growing year we’ve had this year.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Day 75 for the nice orange pumpkin on the 839 Sandercock and day 62 on the getting more orange every day 1995.5 Hoornstra pumpkin at the top. Weather appears to be improving for the next 14 days and if there is no threat of rain, I’ll likely remove the roof covers on the hooptie houses and let the sun heat up the pumpkins again. It’s been so cool and wet here, the core temperature of everything has fallen, so time to warm things up. After collecting some heat during the day, we will cover them again with quilts to hold in some heat during our cool evenings. I’ve been looking at somehow glenngineering the existing infrastructure of my deer fencing posts and using wiggle wire and additional posts to fully enclose an area at least large enough for 1 full size plant for next year.   Thursday, August 29 View Page Day 80 for Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant. I was pleasantly surprised that this pumpkin has continued to grow, albeit slow. It put on 10” OTT from day 70-80 so averaged about 6 lbs a day.   Thursday, August 29 View Page Vineman (top 10 diary in this house) recently posted a photo of the leaves on his Cole Hocker pumpkin plant that left me thinking WOW!! I just wanted to post a photo of our 839 Sandercock plant that despite the chickweed, is also a nice green plant still and looking pretty good, can’t say that about the 1995.5 plant, it’s starting to show its age and is getting pretty spent and done. On a side note, this year once again we have our biggest pumpkin on our smallest and weakest plant at the moment and our smaller pumpkin on our superior and bigger plant. This has happened to us many times, so not really that surprised. What I’m hoping for is that the 839 healthy plant will keep chugging along at 6-8 lbs a day for the next 30 days.   Thursday, September 5 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is getting more orange and the only thing that still seems to be growing is the stem. I’m hoping that means it’s still gaining weight on the inside because it tapes under 1K and I’ll need it to go heavy to keep the 1000 lb plus streak going.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Day 90 for the 839 Sandercock pumpkin and it continues to grow slowly. This fruit gained 48 lbs in the past 10 days, so pretty consistent at 5 lbs a day for at least the past 20 days.   Sunday, September 15 View Page Day 97 for Ned on the 839 Sandercock plant..it has only put on 1 inch circumference this week so I think it’s almost done. Harvest day coming soon as we usually lift the pumpkins into the truck a few days before Weighoff. This fruit will be day 117 when it goes to Krause Berry Farm and Estate Winery for Weighoff.   Sunday, September 15 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra is a little younger than the other pumpkin in the patch but the plant is about 80% dead and on the flipside the 839 Sandercock plant is still 80% alive. We’ve been growing since 2004 and it’s never the same year to year with weather, bugs, disease and luck, and this year has been no different. Almost zero pests (aphids, whiteflies, various moth larvae) but we’ve had fungal issues since very early in the growing, when the weather went sideways in June.   Saturday, September 21 View Page Next photo of this 1995.5 Hoornstra pumpkin will be on lifting and loading day that is coming up soon. The pumpkin will be on display for a few days prior to Weighoff, I’m trying to organize a guess the weight contest.   Monday, September 23 View Page Andrea took this photo of me and at first, I didn’t like it. Then, as I looked better at it, I realized it is such a great example of our pumpkin community coming together and it reminded me of the following. I thank the late Craig Sandvik (islandorange) for giving me his lifting ring when he stopped growing. I thank the late Steve Handy for making me the tripod head/leg holder and I thank Ron Barker for not only introducing me to Steve, but actually picking up the lifting ring and bringing it with him to Vancouver Island from Washington State when he was attending an Island Weighoff. Then a great tip from Eric Gerry (pumpkinpal) who had a great diary entry that showed the water pipe insulation he suggested using on the lifting straps to protect the pumpkin during lifting, thanks Eric.   Monday, September 23 View Page And I’m super thankful to my buddy Mark. He showed up after golf, just to make sure pumpkin loading was as successful as it can be. We are obviously sharing a laugh as we prepare to lower the pumpkin down into the truck.   Monday, September 23 View Page It’s a tight squeeze between the gate for Barney (yup, we call the truck Barney) and out the patch we go. Oh my, look at that chickweed cover crop.   Monday, September 23 View Page Out the gate and down the grass, this gets easier every year.   Tuesday, September 24 View Page Tova is pretty uninterested in the pumpkins but she loves everything about the truck. Strap this 1995.5 Hoornstra X 839 Sandercock down and away we go…   Wednesday, September 25 View Page 1995.5 Hoornstra has been hoisted and loaded early, rain is forecast and it would have been much harder to get it out from the top of the patch with wet soil. We put down a plywood road in the patch and it makes things so much easier. Next stop, Weighoff.   Friday, September 27 View Page Look out Elysian Brewery, we might be dropping in. Yup, we made it and ended up 6th place and 904.5 lbs.   Sunday, September 29 View Page Move the tripod into place and get the 839 Sandercock fruit ready to lift and make the trip to Vancouver for the Krause Berry Farm Weighoff.   Sunday, September 29 View Page Plywood road is absolutely necessary in our patch.   Sunday, September 29 View Page And Tova is usually banned from the pumpkin patch and vegetable garden, but we let her rip around during pumpkin lifting days and then I’ll let her rip around again in the cover crop in the spring, just before we till it under along with the other inevitable ammending we do each year.   Wednesday, October 2 View Page We rototilled and spread 50 lbs of fall rye seed in advance of some pretty nice weather in store for us over the next while. Andrea is raking out some footprints and tire ruts and we will then top dress with a bit more rye seed before watering it all in and hoping for great germination. When we get our cover crop planted in time (late September or very early October) it almost always results in a fantastic crop. We were late tilling and planting last year and it frosted early ruining germination. We hope to avoid that this year. We will load up our last pumpkin tomorrow, remove the plywood road and rake the area smooth and apply more rye seed. Then, we will say goodnight to the pumpkin patch until it all starts over again in early spring.   Thursday, October 3 View Page Rented the Honda FR800 this year and am pretty happy about the outcome. It does the best job when going up hill, and of course that is also the most labour intensive but hitting hardpack going downhill was not an enjoyable experience. Worked great, but I’m sore now.   Thursday, October 3 View Page Soil is really nice and loamy and deep. The last time I did a mason jar test we had 45% sand with 45% silt and 10% organic matter (no clay). We have been adding copious quantities of peat moss and black peat over the past several years and I really like the tilth of the soil now. I’ll get a sample sent off and consult my soil gurus and get things balanced properly.   Thursday, October 3 View Page The 839 Sandercock X 1995.5 Hoornstra has been safely loaded onto Barney and ready for the journey to Vancouver for the Krause Berry Farm Weighoff. I will very much miss the Carpinito Brothers Weighoff this weekend, but unfortunately the pumpkin planned for that did not make it to the finish line. We love supporting our local Weighoff and am proud to have this incredible specimen to enter. Final OTT is 133-86-86 or 305” total.   Saturday, October 5 View Page Part of the pumpkin lineup at Krause Berry Farm Giant Pumpkin Weighoff. We had all 4 GPC jacket worthy growers show up. Jake van Kooten, Dave Chan, Trevor Halliday and Scott Carley were all there, what a fun day.   Saturday, October 5 View Page Thanks Ned Sandercock for allowing me to grow your 839 Sandercock. Now the 724 Dixon (839 Sandercock X 1995.5 Hoornstra) this pumpkin came in at 11% Heavy.   Saturday, October 5 View Page There were a few really nice orange pumpkins, and the judges had a tough decision but our 724 Dixon was chosen the recipient of the very prestigious Howard Dill Award for Best Looking Pumpkin. Thanks for sending us the first Atlantic Giant seeds we ever grew Mr. Dill, you got me hooked on growing orange and I still appreciate it all these years later. Im thrilled and proud to have your award on my wall.   Thursday, October 10 View Page It’s been 8 days since we spread winter rye seeds for our cover crop. Sprouting started about 4-5 days after sowing with the teltail red colour of the blades starting out. Going back on our diaries, we’ve always had a good growing year following a decent and successful cover crop and the key for us is a timely planting.   Sunday, October 13 View Page I promise I won’t obsess too much about the cover crop this year, but none the less here is day 11 for the rye seed we spread!! We have a few more dahlias to harvest and that spot will be put to rest for the winter also. Planting spots are planned out for the pumpkins as the vegetable garden moves to the top right quadrant for next year where we grew the eventual 904.5 Dixon that ended up as a beer keg for Elysian Brewery and the beer festival in Seattle. We like to heavily ammend the vegetable garden area each year with peat moss, compost, fish compost, manure and perlite so that next year, when it is a pumpkin growing area, we know that the soil should be primed and ready to grow.   Sunday, October 27 View Page Cover crop is looking great! One small bare spot where the vegetable garden was just cleared out will get some seed to fill it all in with green.   Sunday, October 27 View Page Final destination for the 724 Dixon is at our friend’s house where a big neighborhood Halloween extravaganza is held every year.   Tuesday, October 29 View Page Tova isn’t very camera shy, here she is with the pumpkin we carved today.   Tuesday, October 29 View Page Waiting for the trick or treating, I’ll get our friends to send me a photo of it with the lantern lit up inside.   Thursday, October 31 View Page Happy Halloween everyone!! We are always happy when our pumpkins are able to fulfill their final destiny as jack-o’-lanterns or at least a display pumpkin. This year we had our 904.5 Dixon end up as a beer keg the for Elysian Brewery Pumpkin Beer Festival in Seattle and the 724 Dixon ends up here at our good friends house for a massive Halloween extravaganza. We have a good time with our Grower Diary, I hope a bunch of you enjoy it enough to vote for us in the Grower Diary Contest.