Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 37 Entries. Saturday, February 3 View Page I have been growing these things called giant pumpkins with my family for 7 years now (got 1000 lbs. in the first year), and just about every year I say I am going to take a year off… but it never happens. Here is the patch covered in a mulch of last year’s vines. On the left is the new asparagus bed where we grew the 1183 Hochstetler DMG last year.   Wednesday, March 6 View Page I started a couple field pumpkins in the winter just for fun. The butternut won 1st place at a local show last year and is still intact.   Saturday, March 23 View Page In my main patch I have a bit of a cover crop going with some broad beans and the odd rye plant.   Tuesday, March 26 View Page Here, the field pumpkin plant has gotten bigger and the butternut has gotten smaller. The latter was delicious.   Saturday, March 30 View Page My kids have new respect for my carpentry skills after they saw my new hoop house.   Sunday, March 31 View Page Here is the finished article. The whole thing is made from reclaimed materials including the skin which I pulled out of a dumpster/skip.   Tuesday, April 2 View Page Seed starting day for my early batch. I am really excited to be growing the Cinderella-AG hybrid: 162 Toboyek. Thanks to Jim Ford for the seeds and to Pete Caspers and Ian Paton for relaying them to me.   Tuesday, April 9 View Page Here are my AG's for the year; an all-star line up in my opinion. Clockwise: 2037 Crews, 2020 Paton (1885 x 2907), 2319 Stoeckl, and 2045 Daho. Many thanks to these 4 amazing growers from 4 different countries.   Monday, April 29 View Page All plants are in the ground and doing well despite fairly wet and cloudy days. Here are the seedlings before they got planted out. Only the 2037 Crews looks a bit deformed.   Friday, May 10 View Page All plants are doing well. The 162 Toboyek is maybe a little less vigorous than the the pure bred AG's but that is to be expected.   Thursday, May 16 View Page All hoops are off (our last frost was a month or more ago). Most plants are down and running.   Monday, May 20 View Page Here a 1403 Leach and 1716 Leach do battle. They are the reverse cross of each other (1490 x 951 Leach) with epic seeds like the 1501, 2183 Mendi, 2261 Schmit, and 1938 Sperry in their ancestry. I plan to cross some 1885 and/or 2365 into this line.   Monday, June 24 View Page I haven't done very well at keeping up my diary. I've got a few pollinations done including both of my 162 Toboyeks.   Monday, July 1 View Page 2319 Stoeckl x 2045 Daho; that is a selfed 2365 Wolf crossed with a selfed 1885 Werner. Got to grow this seed next year.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page I just got back from 2 weeks in the states (worst possible time to be gone) and had a few surprises in the patch. A few fruit had aborted and one had exploded! I think it rained a lot here while I was gone.   Wednesday, July 17 View Page Thankfully, I had another one set on the 2319 Stoeckl and it is looking fine.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Probably my best one so far is one of my 162 Toboyek's.   Thursday, July 18 View Page I have 2 162 Toboyek plants. One was pollinated with the 632 Hochstetler (my daughters 150 sq. ft. pumpkin which was 1120 Wolf x 2045 Daho) . This one was pollinated with seeds from a cross I made last year with big and orange potential. The image shows pumpkins grown from both parents of the seed.   Thursday, July 25 View Page Here is the 162 Toboyek, pollinated with the 632 Hochstetler. I have a set on the 632 and will post a picture of the fruit when it is a bit more mature.   Friday, July 26 View Page My second nicest shaped pumpkin is probably the 2037 Crews. This one was very slow to start. It grew a flat/ribbon main vine but the secondaries are all normal so I set one on a secondary. Pollinated with the 2045 Daho (1885 x self).   Sunday, August 4 View Page The 162 Toboyek is starting to get nice and orange. It has passed up it's momma's weight (which isn't saying much), but it was never going to be about size with this one.   Monday, August 19 View Page Patch has filled up nicely. The orange pumpkin in the foreground is the 2045 Daho. The one in the middle under a white sheet is the 144 Crews field pumpkin, currently estimating 165 pounds. Unfortunately it has started to turn orange already so I'm not sure how much more it will gain.   Sunday, August 25 View Page The 162 Toboyek continues to pick up color.   Wednesday, September 4 View Page I lost my 2020 Paton and my 2045 Daho and I had to cut the 151 Young field pumpkin off the vine, but otherwise, things are fine. Here is a fruit off my daughter's 528 "Beauty" from last year (747 Hochstetler x 1977 Rea).   Sunday, September 8 View Page This was going to be my 1 big field pumpkin this year but a deluge of rain proved too much for it. Should have cut it off... oh, well.   Saturday, September 14 View Page All the fun you can have with pumpkins.   Sunday, September 15 View Page Here is the 151 Young field pumpkin, clocking in at just 3 lbs. under its mother's weight. We had to harvest it as the stem was getting too soft.   Monday, September 16 View Page This one we hollowed out the middle and served pumpkin soup out of it for about 100 people.   Thursday, September 26 View Page Don't worry, the soup was only partially AG. The majority was from our bountiful harvest of Queensland Blue pumpkins/squash. Delicious!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Saturday was an amazing day, even if we didn't witness a new pumpkin world record (there was a new celeriac world record though).   Saturday, October 5 View Page My daughter was especially pleased to win the Howard Dill Award for the 162 Toboyek she grew (now the 205.9 Hochstetler 2024).   Saturday, October 5 View Page Just demonstrating how big this fruit is.   Saturday, October 5 View Page The ladies couldn't quite reach around it!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Other highlights of the day included a new PB field pumpkin for Daniel and Alan Young (third biggest ever in the UK).   Saturday, October 5 View Page A new official PB field pumpkin for me off the 144 Crews (it went a bit light). Thanks for the seeds Don!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Here is the 162 Toboyek, aka "Jimmy Jr." in all his glory. Thanks to Jim Ford, Pete Caspers and the Patons for all helping to relay this seed to us!   Sunday, October 6 View Page Here is Jimmy Jr. in his final resting place in front of the local garden center.