Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 6 Entries. Friday, August 30 View Page 14 DAP First year growing. Dealing with "extreme drought conditions" in this area as well as excessive heat of 90-100 degrees for the past week. Most of my plant is covered and the pumpkin is covered by a sheet during the day. I hope I'm doing this right! This weather is brutal.   Saturday, August 31 View Page I’ve noticed this discoloration of the stem of some leaves. I first noticed it on my first two plants that I lost to cucumber beetles. I thought it was part of the disease. Switching from Sevin to Bayer took care of my beetle problem. This plant seems much happier than the two I lost. It’s still growing, flowering, and looks good (aside from a little damage from extreme heat which is now past us). So maybe this is something that just happens? I’m just hoping I can get this pumpkin to 150lbs for my county fair in October.   Monday, September 2 View Page 31 inches around 17 DAP. It was 26 inches 14 DAP. On average it’s growing 1.75 inches each day. I don’t know if that is a good sign or bad sign. The heatwave is officially over so we’re facing more ideal temps for the next 10 days.   Sunday, September 8 View Page 23 DAP and 36 inches The weather has been hard to keep up with as it was almost 100 degrees a week ago and last night we almost had a frost. We're still in a drought so I'm trying to keep it watered but I worry about over watering because I have clay soil. It seems like the growth has slowed down just a bit so I put some general fertilizer in the soil to hopefully give it a boost. So as of now I'm doing the best I can at this point and dreaming about next year.   Tuesday, September 10 View Page I think my stem is looking good. 25 DAP Still in the drought but she’s still growing. I’m watering every other day with a sprinkler to get a deep water.   Saturday, September 14 View Page I think she’s toast. I don’t know what happened. I noticed she was getting soft down there and then it started turning white. This pumpkin plant was a Hail Mary. I lost my first two plants to cucumber beetles. It was a long shot. I’m looking forward to tilling up the patch and preparing for next year.