Growing slow

The last week and a half has been a clump of fairly crappy days. Spots of warm weather but nothing consistent. I named the large pumpkin Diane since my last post. I've been hitting the pumpkin pretty heavy with compost tea and kelp. Lots of showers the past few days so there's more than enough H20. I pollenated another female flower and it's grown to about the size of a large grapefruit. It could catch a growth spurt and whip out a ridiculous number-however it's pretty late in the year to start praying for size. Size is made in the early part of a warm year; Im at the tail end of a cold year.

41.5

After a good blast of hot weather this last week the pumpkin measures 118 inches = 41.5 pounds. We've upped the water each also and I'm still brewing compost tea and giving them tea x2 each week and spraying the leaves with kelp extract and Alaska Fish Fertilizer. The warmer weather and a good dose of water has this plant jumping out of the ground. I love for it to stay warm. It seems like we're getting a lot of sucker vines - all those little pumpkins have to be picked off because they rob pumpkin big of nutriments. It's a good start after a pretty crappy spring of cool weather=reminder heat coils next year.

Growing fruit

We got some fruit growing on these vines, despite the cool weather of June and early August.The 866 Biss has a great punkn on it - I'm happy with it's growth- you just never know, it could all end tomorrow. Big time growers would scoff at my plant.I'll be watering alot over the next week as the temp will be in the 90's. We should be seeing some real growth. I have tree plants at my house; my kids have two small plants and I have three plants at a friends house a busy schedule no less! Whew!

Water

These Mutha's need water and lots of it!. When they're really packin' it on at mid season they can gain more than 30 lbs in a day and most of it's water. The cleaner and more pure the water the better off you are er- well the pumpkin is better off. They grow fast on those days but you can't actually see them grow. I'm giving my plants a ton of organics right now to develop the root system to enable the uptake of nutriments-tea, kelp, fish fertilizer and shreaded pages from the novel "Myst". This week with the good weather I've been burying a lot of vines.

Growing the Vine

The vine on The 866 Biss is out 12 feet from the stump, maybe a shade more. I pulled the 1136 Sherwood the other day because I needed the room in the patch. Compost tea has been my friend and I think aided the growth during a very chilly month of June. The 845 Larue has just jumped out of the grond the last week adding 3.5 ft to its vine length-very impressive!

Heat

It's been 90+ the last couple of days. I buried the vines on the 890 Biss and put Myco on the lateral vines. I 've been feeding a mixture of Seaweed Extract and Alaska Fish Fert spraying it foliarly with a 2 gallon weed sprayer. It is amazing how the plants respond to the spray treatments. After application (at the days beginning or end) the leaves take on such a deep green color and they stand up and look quite healthy.The 845 Larue is making up for lost time - it's rocking across the patch making almost a foot in the last day- BUT REMEMBER it's not the size of the vine it's the weight of the Pumpkin. And, that's all that matter's ! Go big or go home! Get large or get on the Barge!

It's alive !

Looking at the 866 Biss the vine is out about 5 feet. There's a female flower near the vine tip. Ideally, you really want the fruit to be out there at least 10 feet from the stump.I've been watering with my compost tea about a gallon/day on all four plants. The plants truly need warm days and so far the western washington weather has been Cool & Cloudy. However the last 4 days have all been over 70 so the plants have begun to crawl across the patch. Now if the night would stay warmer we'd be in business.

Father's Day

Father's Day I took a little time off from the patch. My son, brother, a few good friends,their sons & I went on a overnight camping trip with our Jeeps. It was great fun-I have good friends and they have great kids. Coming home I found a new friend in the patch - a gargoyle to ward off all the evil bugs and disease which affect pumpkins. We still need some sun. I watered with a compost tea I brewed over the last few days, not many weeds in the patch yet.This last batch of tea didn't froth up so I've eased-up on adding steer manure and am sticking with worm castings, compost & molasses. My corn seems to love the tea - it has really perked up. Coming up we'll look at some additional growing tips - for now we'll pray for sun.

Warmth

What we need are some warm days. SUN, SOL, RA you know what I mean. Pumpkins love three things water, sun and Fertilizer. They need the sun for the whole photosynthesis thing and to grow huge.We feed lots of Nitrogen early in the year and promote root growth-"Ya gotta have a big root complex to feed a big pumpkin" These giant orbs can grow at unfreakinbelievable rates- last year a member claimed 57 lbs in one day, which could be stretching it a bit howerver 30 pound daily rates are quite common. Promotion of a big root complex is also driven by the tilth of the soil.Think loose tilth. I cover my better plants with a small portable greenhouse made of visqueen and wood framing.They stay warmer and live a humid enviroment which translates in to big growth numbers.

The Vine

I've always felt there are two season's to growing an Atlantic Giant- first you grow the vine then you grow the fruit after pollinating. The plant or vine are a finicky and sometimes brittle plant that grow fast, are tempermental and love water, warmth and lots of food.The plant in this image is a 866 BISS. It sits in my 5'x 5' mini greenhouse and it looks like all is going well on this day.The image was taken a couple days ago; today the plant is 1/3 again as big-they can really grow quite quickly. I wasn't too thrilled with my last batch of compost tea. I may need to redine the exact measurements of the ingredients-worm castings, compost, manure & molasses.

Finally-a day of good, warm weather. I've planted my brother's line up in 1 gallon pots- he'd better get up here from Orgon City and get them soon.He's had issue the last couple of weeks;last week he had his nose fixed then he got a sinus infection. We'll get the starts to him and he'll be a great grower. He restores IH Scouts which we don't hold against him-they're cute little vehicles.

This Year's Line-up

This year's line-up was cast when my brother decided he wanted to grow AG's as well so he acquired some seeds upon joining his local club (PGVG) near Oregon City where he lives. I was late to rejoin my club (PNWGPG)and missed the seed giveaway and auction- but Erin H. (a club officer)arranged for another member to send me some seeds. Thanks to both of them!
So I planted on May 23 4 plants(689 Renninger;1136 Sherwood;866 Biss and 845 Larue)and then I added a 797 Dixon. Well see how we do with the changes I made to the patch this year. Last fall I added 1 yard of super potent bio-mixed soil to my small urban plot. This plot only measures 18 X 18 feet; so there are some challenges and big decisions to make as the plants grow and space is taken up.
There are a few things one should know about Atlantic Giants:
1)They're a finicky and fragile plant.
2)They can grow at incredible rates if the conditions are right.
3)Size is the only thing which matters in the long run.
4)My joy is growing the vine-then growing the fruit.
5)We feed the plants odd things like fish,kelp and water with compost tea which we brew ourselves. Ah-h-h the art of brewing a good tea is a learned skill set.
The image above is the 866 Biss which I think it's going to be "The one". We'll see...

History

I'd grown field pumpkins off and on over the years in various garden spots & spaces. Not knowing much about pumpkins I grew a few big'uns. In the spring of '09 I decided to grow a couple of Atlantic Giant plants and see where it would take me. I was a little late in getting started however I bought some Howard Dill seeds and germinated them. I had those plants up and doing well when I got on BigPumpkins.com in the chat room and they told me I'd maybe get just a 250lbs pumpkin. One of the other "Chatters" said she'd send me some seeds and I'd do better with those. Another told me to go out to my patch and pull up the store bought Dills seeds and throw them away- glad I didn't because My plant was very healthy and doing well. The seeds soon arrived from my "chat room" friend and I emailed her for some advice-that's how I met Erin H. Her advice was a huge help. I ended up growing 3 plants but really didn't possess the knowledge to put the pounds on a real lunker. I didn't really bury the vines but rather dug up my yard as the vine moved across the grass. The summer of 2009 proved terrific for growing pumpkins - nice hot weather ! I fed my plants with fish and kelp sprays, dusted the roots with Mycorrahiaze all said and done I had two pumpkins at 100 lbs and my large one from the storebought seeds came in at 235.7 lbs -huge for me.

Getting started with a couple of Thank you's

This Blog wouldn't have been created with out inspiration from R. Becker and technical assistance from my new freind D. Standiford. Blogging will begin in interest tonight.