Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 36 Entries. Tuesday, April 7 View Page Today marks the beginning of my 2015 season. Garden is clear of snow so a better start than in seasons past. The ground is still frozen now but thawing fast, I should be able to prep the patch next weekend. Tuesday, April 7 View Page the plan is to grow two plants this year. Going with all orange. The 1048 always produces nice looking pumpkins so I'm hoping to grow 2-3 off it for halloween carvers. Tuesday, April 7 View Page Seeds are filed and at a nice comfortable temp. Sunday, April 12 View Page No action on the first three seeds so starting some emergency backups. Sunday, May 3 View Page After a fairly slow germination process I transferred the little plants outside to their hoop houses today. On the left is the 829 Christensen and the right is the 1399 Christensen. Sunday, May 3 View Page Hoop House number 2 will have Nicoles plant in it. On the right is the 1048 Engel and on the left is the 814 Radach. The 1374 Engel I planted did not germinate. I really want the 1048 to be the better of these two plants since it's pumpkins always seem to be nicely shaped and bright orange. Sunday, May 3 View Page The garden after planting. Thursday, May 7 View Page Well I wonder if I'll have plants left after some pretty nasty weather yesterday and lows of -5 last night... I noticed the weight of the snow made a tear in the roof of one of the hoop houses the other in still intact. I'll wait until the snow thaws to check inside to see if I have to have an emergency plan B. Tuesday, May 19 View Page The 1048 Engel has a double vine. Unless things change this plant will probably end up being pulled. Sunday, May 31 View Page 829 Christensen on the left and 1399 on the right. I think I'll be going with the 829 this year and cutting off the 1399. Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1048 Engel on the left - double vine problems seems to have fixed itself. It'll be the keeper. I've found someone to take the 814 Radach on the right so hopefully they'll be able to get a good pumpkin off it. Wednesday, June 3 View Page 829 as of today - really starting to grow. A couple good secondaries starting to shoot out as well. Probably less than a week before the hoop house comes off. Wednesday, June 3 View Page 1048 as of today - all looks good after the double vine issue. Growth is a little slower on this plant. Friday, June 12 View Page 829 is looking good - a little ahead of last year. Automated watering still not set up - maybe this weekend. Friday, June 12 View Page 1048 is looking healthy but lacks secondaries. Hoping it starts to take off. Thursday, June 18 View Page I made a really dumb mistake. In bending my main to get an S turn in it I broke it. They say to do this in the heat of the day but on a wet 15 degree day that wasn't an option. It was remarkably brittle as I didn't apply much pressure. This is a pretty major setback. I've retrained a secondary as a new main but will probably have to go with a set off a secondary this year. Thursday, June 25 View Page View of the 829 - plant is doing well. I should have a female opening in the next couple days on a secondary. Unfortunately I'm going away for a week and will miss that one. Thursday, June 25 View Page view of the 1048. Really slow growth - I remember why I don't grow pumpkins on this end of the garden now. It gets almost no sunlight due to a tree growing over it. This plant should have a female opening in the next couple days as well which I will miss. Sunday, June 28 View Page Camping trip to the badlands (dinosaur provincial park) - the reason I'm missing the first two pollinations. Saturday, July 4 View Page Nice 6 lobe flower on the 829 pollinated on this day with males from the 1048. It's gotta end up orange... Tuesday, July 14 View Page 10 DAP - 24" circumference - July 4 pollination. I'm committed to this one at this stage. It's too late to change direction, although I have a nice set on my retrained main in a really good spot but a week behind. This one isn't in a great location as it's kind of hanging off the edge of the garden wall - I'll have to build some support. Nice shape. Wednesday, July 15 View Page Garden view this morning. 829 on the left, 1048 on the right. The 829 is a great plant, aggressive and no issues. The 1048 has been a challenge. Starting with the double vine and slow growth. There have been seeds in the flowers of all the females so far. I have a set but it's growing kind of deformed. Hoping to still get a good set soon. Tuesday, July 21 View Page Pumpkin is growing at a PB pace right now. Day 17 and 49" circumference. Surprising since it's off a secondary. The one thing that bothers me though is that one of my primary goals was to grow something orange. Check out the mother and father - how can I end up with another yellow pumpkin... I guess there's still time for color to come in but this one seems pretty light to ever get to the deep orange shade I was shooting for. Sunday, August 9 View Page After a 10 day vacation my pumpkin has put on some weight. It's now at an estimated 307 lbs. It put on about 180lbs over the last 10 days. With good weather in the forecast I'm hoping those gains continue and possibly increase. Orange color is starting to come in as well. Monday, August 24 View Page Late August now and the orange I was looking for is starting to come in. Hoping it darkens up still. Shape is not quite ideal yet but may be an HD contender once it fills out. Currently approaching 500lbs. Unless we get a month of really good weather and the frost holds off I'm not likely to get a PB this year. Plant is still very healthy - I'm hoping my strategy of letting a bunch of tertiaries grow so there are lots of new leaves pays off with steady late season growth. Tuesday, September 1 View Page Well it's the first of September - the time of year where frost will hit soon and overnight lows and daytime highs will start to slow growth to an absolute crawl. I had to take the cover off today to do a bit of a rebuild as it was pressing into the pumpkin so got my first good view of the stem end in quite a while. A good looking pumpkin - getting better color almost every day. Hoping it'll be an HD contender. Now taping just over 500lbs (285ott). Tuesday, September 1 View Page I did have a bit of a panic attack when I took a look at the stem. There is a pretty good split in it - doing a little probing it does not go into the pumpkin so I'm definitely relieved... It seems to take after the momma which also had a big split in the stem. Friday, September 18 View Page Yesterday morning was the first hard frost of the year. Most of the leaves are showing damage so I think the growth will stop Still two weeks to the weigh off. I'll be leaving it in the garden and protecting from freezing. On top of the frost I noticed that a vole was starting to take a liking to my pumpkin. There are a few chew marks on it. I set a couple traps yesterday and got what I hope is the culprit today. Will be leaving the traps out just in case. Friday, September 18 View Page Good color - hope it gets even more vibrant orange in the next two weeks. Friday, September 25 View Page The plant is all but dead now. Strange end to the growing season in Edmonton - usually ends with a big killer frost in mid September. This year we've had a whole bunch of mild frosts that just slowly killed the plant off - kind of a taper rather than a sudden end. Smoky Lake next weekend - target is top 10 and perhaps some consideration for an HD award. Hopefully nothing bad happens loading and transporting. Monday, September 28 View Page Something new for me this year, it seems I have rodents in my yard that have a real taste for pumpkin (one vole and one mouse will not be eating any more...). I cannot leave the sleeping bag cover on for any length of time - overnight on frosty nights only then off during the day. Otherwise the buggers move in and have a feast. Glad this didn't happen early in the season where there would be ugly scars although it could affect the pumpkin lasting until halloween. Not growing any more so it won't affect growth. Friday, October 2 View Page pumpkin is loaded and ready for smoky lake tomorrow. OTT is 294 for 560 lbs. The rodent damage was way more than I expected. Everything seems pretty firm so I think it's okay but I have to wonder how much I lost because of the damn mice.... Saturday, October 3 View Page The 829 Christensen crossed with 1048 Engel is now the 469 Reckhard 2015. 10th place overall was great but 16% light is little disappointing - lots of room for improvement for next year. As always the folks in Smoky Lake put on a great event. Saturday, October 31 View Page Pumpkin all carved and ready for Halloween. Lots of comments, the one that I thought was funniest was 'how come you only have half a pumpkin' when they saw the flat backside... Saturday, November 7 View Page Garden is now put to bed for the winter. Tilled in a couple yards of well composted manure. Moved the pumpkin back to where it came from - frozen solid now. Next year will be one plant only, need to change watering to stump area as it was too dry compared to the rest of the plant. I may be giving long gourds a shot next year, I'll have to forego sunflowers if I do that. Thursday, December 24 View Page Last photo of the year. Pumpkins been frozen since early November. It'll be flat by the time the snow melts in the spring.