Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 70 Entries. Wednesday, April 3 View Page Me and Harper did the first pumpkin patch work of the Spring tonight! We put new screws in the wiggle wire rails and got the rope tight to help support the plastic. We can push a shovel down about 4 inches and then hit frost. We’ll try to get the plastic up next week as long as the extended forecast doesn’t have any snow storms in it. The seeds will be started on April 20th, starting to get close!   Monday, April 8 View Page We’re making progress, we got the greenhouse plastic up tonight. It was perfectly calm for once, it should really help warm the frozen tundra up haha! The girls should be able to find lots of worms shortly! Getting closer to starting, our goal is to get the Minnesota state record this year! We had in 2020 and some nice guy broke it 3 days later!   Thursday, April 11 View Page We got the shade cloth up in the greenhouse tonight, we use 30% black every year. The girls were busy looking for worms tonight, the soil still cold with the frost about a foot down. Warming up slowly! We’ll get fans up next and try get the amendments down next week so we can till.   Monday, April 15 View Page I got the greenhouse tilled tonight, it was raining so I’ll till the outside patch on Thursday. I put down kelp meal, alfalfa pellets, elemental sulfur, and Ridomil before tilling. I only till once a year so it’s nice to have done. Next will be to get the soil cables in and the drip tape set out.   Thursday, April 18 View Page We were busy cleaning out our drip line main headers and valves tonight! If you’ve never cleaned out your headers or valves I’d definitely recommend it. I always get new drip line each year, but always overlooked cleaning the header and valves. Having a good pumpkin supervisor is the key to growing big pumpkins haha!   Friday, April 19 View Page We started the growing season tonight! Me, Blake, and Harper planted the seed that produced the world record last year, and the seed from the world record pumpkin last year! Andy and Travis were very nice in getting us seeds! We’ll start our 2501 seed tomorrow and the 2560 that grew our 2501 last year, along with a few backups!   Saturday, April 20 View Page We planted the rest of the seeds this morning. 3 of our 2501s, a 2560, our 2131, and a 2237 Klema/Solberg. The 2131 and 2237 will be back ups. Everything is planted now! It’s always fun to play with dirt in the kitchen on a Saturday morning and make a mess haha!   Sunday, April 21 View Page We got the amendments down for the outside patch today, and the hoop houses up with the soil cables in them. Also got most of the wind fence posts up. There’s always so much to do in the Spring, so it’s nice to getting closer to being done.   Wednesday, April 24 View Page All 8 seeds germinated within 4.5 days! As long as they all grow normal the main plants will be the 2749 Gienger, 2560 Gienger, 2501 Bernstrom, and the 2365 Wolf. They’ll go outside on Saturday!   Friday, April 26 View Page All four of the seeds are in the ground, last year they were put in the ground on April 26th as well. Here’s the 2365 Wolf   Friday, April 26 View Page 2501 Bernstrom   Friday, April 26 View Page 2749 Gienger   Friday, April 26 View Page 2560 Gienger   Sunday, May 5 View Page The 4 pumpkin plants are starting to do better each day now as they’re getting acclimated to being outside. They were planted outside last Friday, so they’re about 13 days old from when they germinated. The constant cloudy and rainy weather hasn’t helped, but we’re still on pace with last years plants or a little ahead. The sunny weather should help green them up, and get them growing faster. Here’s the 2365 Wolf, the leaves are starting to get better each day.   Sunday, May 5 View Page 2501 Bernstrom, it’s starting to green up from the extra sun and warmth.   Sunday, May 5 View Page 2749 Gienger, the biggest plant so far and starting to green up too.   Sunday, May 5 View Page 2560 Gienger. This one’s starting to figure life out like the other ones too!   Sunday, May 19 View Page The 2365 Wolf. The pumpkin plants are right on pace or a little ahead, which is really good considering our cool, cloudy, and rainy weather we’ve been having! The secondaries are starting to grow as well so that’s a good sign! Today was the first time using the drip tape, I watered about 6 feet on each side of the plants, I’ll slowly start opening more valves up for watering.   Sunday, May 19 View Page 2501 Bernstrom   Sunday, May 19 View Page 2749 Gienger   Sunday, May 19 View Page 2560 Gienger   Wednesday, June 5 View Page 2501 Bernstrom. The plants are still doing good considering the cool rainy weather we’ve been having. I applied 3ozs of Ridomil June 2nd and then 12 ozs of TKO the next day. Hopefully have a June 15-25 pollination for the plants, they should be on schedule. That’s the range I try shoot for each year.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page 2365 Wolf.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page 2749 Gienger. It’s doing surprisingly really good outside considering we’ve got around 7 inches of rain the last month with cool weather. I have really good drainage in the patch so that’s not an issue just the cool soil and temperatures.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page You know your soils pretty good when there’s worms everywhere! Harper loves playing in the patch and finding all the worms haha!   Wednesday, June 12 View Page The 2365 in front and 2501 in the back. Both plants are looking great! Pollination on both will be at 17 feet on Saturday to Monday. The 2365 will have 15 secondaries behind it. I’d like more but the pumpkin will be at an ideal location with good temperatures coming. The 2501 will have 19 secondaries behind it.   Saturday, June 15 View Page Briar got up early to help me with the pumpkin pollination this morning. The first one of the year, hopefully it’s a good one, the 2365 Wolf x 2501 Bernstrom. The pumpkins will be on 6’ x 6’ treated plywood platforms this year! Let the fun begin!   Sunday, June 16 View Page Harper was my little helper this morning pollinating our 2501 Bernstrom pumpkin! We pollinated it with the 2749 Gienger. So we’ll have the largest size pumpkin ever pollinated by the world record weight pumpkin, hopefully a great all Minnesota cross! 2501 Bernstrom x 2749 Gienger.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page It’s officially shrinking kids season!   Saturday, July 13 View Page The girls are starting to shrink fast! Wormy did 41 pounds yesterday, and the others are ramping up too! The plants are looking healthy and we’re almost done burying vines! Wormy! 28 days old, 2365 x 2501   Saturday, July 13 View Page Clark! 27 days old, 2501 x 2749   Saturday, July 13 View Page Ant Man! 19 days old, 2560 x 2749   Saturday, July 13 View Page Jasmine! 22 days old, 2749 x 2501   Saturday, July 13 View Page The 1800 square feet greenhouse is almost filled up, just a couple days of vine burying left. I leave the ends opened all day and night, also keep the fans running on high 24 hours a day for good airflow.   Sunday, July 28 View Page It was another good week for the pumpkins, the girls were excited to finally be able to sit on them! They’re averaging around 40 pounds a day now, a little less than last year but they’re doing good! The plants are all healthy so hopefully they have a long growth curve! Next Saturday the Manitoba Giant Pumpkin Growers are coming here for their patch tour, so that’s very exciting! I think I’ve only ever had two growers stop here in 12 years. Wormy! 43 days old, 2365 Wolf x 2501 Bernstrom. 815 pounds   Sunday, July 28 View Page Clark! 2501 Bernstrom x 2749 Gienger. 42 days old, 710 pounds.   Sunday, July 28 View Page Jasmine! 37 days old. 2749 Gienger x 2501 Bernstrom, 515 pounds   Sunday, July 28 View Page Ant Man! 34 days old, 2560 Gienger x 2749 Gienger. 410 pounds.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Wormy! 2365 x 2501, 50 dap, 1063 pounds, 36 pound 7 day average. It was another good week of shrinking the girls! The pumpkins averaged from 35 to 45 pounds a day! The pumpkins have been watching the Olympics this year and are more interested in the marathon instead of the 100M haha! Yesterday I hosted the Manitoba Giant Pumpkin Growers here for a patch tour, there were 15 growers here. The Roland Manitoba Pumpkin Fair was were it all started for me so being able to host the growers was lots of fun!   Sunday, August 4 View Page Clark! 2501 x 2749, 49 dap, 951 pounds, 36 pound 7 day average. Seems like a steady consistent grower with a healthy plant.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Jasmine! 2749 x 2501, 44 dap, 830 pounds, 45 pound 7 day average. This pumpkin seems like it’s on a mission to be the biggest in the patch!   Sunday, August 4 View Page Ant Man! 2560 x 2749, 41 dap, 655 pounds, 34 pound 7 day average. This pumpkin just keeps plugging along!   Sunday, August 11 View Page Another week of shrinking the girls, it’s turning into quite the race for which girls pumpkin will be the biggest! All 4 pumpkins are still growing with healthy plants. The weight gains slowed to 28-31 pounds a day with 6 of the last 7 days having nights in the 40s, and cool days. The next couple weeks forecast looks a lot better so hopefully that helps them! Wormy! 2365 x 2501. 57 dap, 1260 pounds   Sunday, August 11 View Page Clark! 2501 x 2749, 56 dap. 1161 pounds.   Sunday, August 11 View Page Jasmine, 2749 x 2501, 51 dap. 1050 pounds.   Sunday, August 11 View Page Ant Man. 2560 x 2749, 48 dap. 800 pounds   Sunday, August 18 View Page It was another good consistent week for the pumpkins, they all put on a little over 200 pounds for the week averaging around 30 pounds a day! Which is really good for the pumpkins age, the extended forecast looks really good. We’re trying something different this year, getting long consistent gains versus huge gains haha! Been doing this for a long time and each year is different! Hopefully the girls will be smaller again next week! Wormy! 2365 x 2501. 64 days old, 1480 pounds.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Clark! 2501 x 2749. 63 days old, 1365 pounds. I gave the plants Topguard today for powdery mildew. The plants still don’t have any but with the warm extended forecast I want to continue to be proactive.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Jasmine! 2749 x 2501. 58 days old, 1275 pounds. This one started getting a little stem crack the other day so we did a little surgery and it’s looking good still. Excited to hopefully get this pumpkin to a scale!   Sunday, August 18 View Page Any Man! 2560 x 2749, 55 days old, 966 pounds. This pumpkin looks good, but the spring was jet a little tough on the plant so it’s not very big.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Another week down and the pumpkins continue to shrink the girls! The pumpkins liked the warmer weather, they averaged 23-26.5 pounds a day for the week. Hopefully they can keep gaining good with their healthy plants even as the pumpkins get older. Clark! 2501 x 2749. 70 days old. 1535 pounds, 24 pounds a day average.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Jasmine! 2749 x 2501. 65 days old, 1454 pounds, 25.5 pounds a day average.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Wormy! 2365 x 2501. 71 days old, 1660 pounds, 26.5 pounds a day average.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Ant Man! 2560 x 2749. 62 days old, 1127 pounds, 23 pounds a day average.   Friday, August 30 View Page Harper’s Wormy is starting to turn into a Nightcrawler haha, it’s 6 feet wide!   Saturday, August 31 View Page Briar’s Clark is trying to finish the next month out strong to get Rookie of the Year haha!   Sunday, September 1 View Page Blake’s Jasmine is starting to turn into quite the Disney Princess! All the pumpkins did between 17.5-20 pounds a day the last 7 days, looks like later in the week we’ll have some cool nights.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Another good week of shrinking the girls for the pumpkins despite the cool nights! They all averaged around 15 pounds a day for the last week, which is great for this time of the year. 3 weeks till the first weighoff, and the extended weather looks great so hopefully we can keep them healthy! Clark! 2501 x 2749, 84 days old.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Jasmine! 2749 x 2501, 79days old.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Wormy! 2365 x 2501, 85 days old.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Ant Man! 2560 x 2749, 76 days old.   Sunday, September 15 View Page The girls and the pumpkins are sure liking the nice weather we’ve been having! They all averaged 12.5 to 14.5 pounds a day for the last week. We’re getting closer to the weighoffs so this is the stressful part of the season! Hopefully we have another good week of shrinking the girls! Clark! 2501 x 2749, 91 days old   Sunday, September 15 View Page Wormy! 2365 x 2501, 92 days old   Sunday, September 15 View Page Jasmine! 2749 x 2501, 86 days old   Sunday, September 15 View Page Ant Man! 2560 x 2749, 83 days old   Sunday, September 29 View Page Harper’s Wormy weighed 2080 pounds, and got 5th place at the River Prairie Ginormous Pumpkin Festival in Altoona Wisconsin! Next weekend is the Roland Pumpkin Fair, hopefully we can weigh another good one!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Blake’s pumpkin Jasmine won at the Roland Pumpkin Fair today with 2004 pounds! The Roland Pumpkin Fair is where it all started for me, Dad always wanted me to bring a big pumpkin up to Roland so today we did! Being able to have Briar, Blake, and Harper with to celebrate was extra special, and having Chris with was great too! We’ll see if we can finish the year out good in Stillwater next Saturday!   Sunday, October 13 View Page Briar’s Clark got 3rd place at Stillwater Harvest Fest weighing in at 2070.5 pounds! It’s always so fun to see all the growers, and being able to have lots of family there! Our goal this year was to get each pumpkin over 2000 pounds and we did! Wormy 2080, Clark 2070.5, and Jasmine 2004 pounds for a combined weight of 6154.5 pounds! We’re excited to see lots of growers at the GPC Bigshow at Lambeau Field in March!   Monday, October 14 View Page Since the girls argue with each other sometimes I figured it’d be best if they each got their own 2000 pound pumpkin this year haha! Wormy- 2365 Wolf x 2501 Bernstrom- 2080 pounds Clark- 2501 Bernstrom x 2749 Gienger- 2070.5 pounds Jasmine- 2749 Gienger x 2501 Bernstrom 2004 pounds   Wednesday, October 30 View Page Our 12th year growing and the 2024 pumpkin season is officially over! We got the manure spread and all 3300 square feet in the patch turned over by hand with the broad fork so it’s ready for next year! The worms can rest for a few months now haha! We’ll be ready in the Spring to try grow bigger pumpkins next year!