Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 118 Entries. Tuesday, April 14 View Page Started April 1st. Got 10 plants growing now... Will plant the Pumpkins tomorrow.   Tuesday, April 14 View Page Actually this is a more current picture of my Mater's. Nice warm day, so they went out and played in the yard.   Wednesday, April 15 View Page 3 weeks ago, my patch looked like this. Localized heating be the green house helped warm up my planting area's   Sunday, April 19 View Page My Maters are steadily growing. Thank goodness for the greenhouses.   Sunday, April 19 View Page Not much happining in the patch other than lots of amendments are in the soil, and 4 big planting holes. Winter Rye and Hairy Vetch are starting to take off   Sunday, April 19 View Page 10 chosen Pumpkin seeds were planted on April 16th. Not much to see. I think the 2096 Meier is cracking through the soil though.   Friday, April 24 View Page Rise and shine. My pumpkins are starting to sprout.   Friday, April 24 View Page Maters are growing good under the lights. 23 days old   Friday, April 24 View Page 37 degrees F outside. They'll be indoors today. Stems are starting to thicken up   Sunday, April 26 View Page Heating cables are in the soil. Now things are starting to get serious, except for my silly hat.   Friday, May 1 View Page The 8.41McCoy, 5.51 Mega Marv, 4.32Connolly, and 3.21Marley Giant Maters are really starting to Grow. Will need to transfer outside soon   Friday, May 1 View Page Another angle of the Maters   Saturday, May 2 View Page My 1874.5 Mathison is starting to take off. Finally some warm weather   Saturday, May 2 View Page The 2323 Meier is taking off too.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Like uncle pappy always told me, you got to let the plants vent on the hot days...or was that flatuate. I wasn't sure what advice Pap gave me.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Once I get the cover up, I'll put my Giant tomato's out. What a pain this was. I had to weld or bolt every joint, to make it strong enough for the summer winds.   Tuesday, May 5 View Page The maters have hit real dirt outside. 3.12 Marley, 8.41 McCoy, 4.32 Connolly, 5.51 Meisner   Tuesday, May 5 View Page Wind break fences are up   Friday, May 8 View Page This year my heavily pruned, 4 ft tall, Giant Tomato plants will be grown indoors...if this structure holds up.   Friday, May 8 View Page Finally got my tiller fixed, and turned under a cover crop of Hairy Vetch and Winter Rye, just before everything went to bloom. Wow that was close...   Friday, May 8 View Page The 2323 Meier, is growing nicely. Added some blood meal, to green it up a bit. Pumpkin Pro, Azos and Root Shield are in the soil too. Propped up the Green house for ventilation, since its going up to 80F today.   Thursday, May 14 View Page My 2323 Meier is getting ready to run. The plant is starting to tilt the wrong way. I'll have to adjust this when it warmer later today.   Thursday, May 14 View Page Got a mild frost last night, in a few spots. Everything under green houses. Here comes the sun to warm things up.   Thursday, May 14 View Page When I'm not pumpkin growing I'm taking about the Revolutionary war to anyone that's willing to listen.   Thursday, May 14 View Page A lot of groupies, and an undertaker in the audience, were following me around the cemetery today.   Thursday, May 14 View Page So here is a new picture.... and.....My good friends on the Spy tour will never ever find my new top secret patch. That's the 1870 Lieber and its got a little catching up to do to get as big as my plants in the main patch.   Monday, May 18 View Page My Pumpkin Tree's are growing great. I'm going to need to ease them down to the ground so they can run   Monday, May 18 View Page Tomato's are growing nicely. Keeping them at 85F in the green house with a few fans for air movement   Monday, May 18 View Page Pumpkin Tree's are growing great. lol. Need to lay them down soon!   Wednesday, May 20 View Page Caught my first woodchuck. We went for a long drive. She was mad as hell. Check out the eyes.   Saturday, May 23 View Page Caught another one today. I don't even need to bait the traps. They just walk in.   Saturday, May 23 View Page 4 of my 6 plants have settled onto the ground and the main vines are off and running. This is the 2323 Meier   Saturday, May 23 View Page 3 of these 5 plants are the 8.41McCoy. Thanks for the 3 seeds Dan. They seem to be thriving on the Brew.   Sunday, May 24 View Page I received 5 Cucurbita Maxima seeds from a 400 pound squash, grown in Ecuador and Peru. These are the original wild species of our AG's that were probably also grown by William Warnock in 1900. I'm going to try and cross it with an 1870 (2009x2009). Apparently these South American cucurbita maxima fruit are super dense with no hollow core (or seed cavity). Old meets New. I'm trying to produce a super heavy Pumpkin, by reintroducing these genetics.   Sunday, May 24 View Page The 1870 Leiber in my new patch is starting to take off.   Wednesday, May 27 View Page Pollinated a few Big Blooms on the Marley plant and one of the 8.41 MacCoy plants today. They seem to really like it in the green house, and now that they got a nip of Brewski, I bet they'll grow like crazy.   Thursday, May 28 View Page Here is the 2096 Meier. The idea Mr Beauchamin has is cool. (Check his diary) putting a "tie down stretch band" on the ends of the vines weighes them down just enough to keep them from growing straight up, then falling and cracking.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page We got drenched the last couple days (finally). 3 inches of rain. And I collected 300 gallons of rain water. It only takes a 1/2 inch of rain to fill these tanks from roof run off, so I could have filled this tank 4 more times, if I had more tanks.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page There is a pumpkin about 9 ft out on the 1874.5 Mathison. I'll probably cull this one and wait for another, farther out on the main   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Here is the 2323. I noticed that the Heating cables didn't make a difference. All 4 of my plants are the same size, with 9 ft main vines, and I only used heating cables on 2 plants.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page The tomato's did good in the tunnel, even with heavy rain outside and temps in the 40's the last couple days. Lots of big blooms. Hope some of them took.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page The Tunnel. Here grows my 5 Giant Tomato plants. I hope this idea works out. I've never grown indoors before. Will need to use fungicides more inside the tunnel.   Tuesday, June 9 View Page The Maters are about 3 ft tall. Gave them a dose of Fish and Seaweed, and another nip of WOW Brew   Tuesday, June 9 View Page All the pumpkins are out about 11 ft, and luckily there's at least one a pumpkin on each main. May cull the first one since they are only 9-10 ft out   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Lots of flowers. Hopefully I get lots of pollinations   Saturday, June 13 View Page The 8.41 MacCoy has some nice mega bloom maters starting to appear.   Saturday, June 13 View Page Just about ready to top these plants off. They're growing hog wild. Can't wait to see the energy transfer to the Maters when I cut the top off the plants at 4 ft tall.   Saturday, June 13 View Page The 1874 Mathison is ready. Come on baby open up....I got people to see and places to be. Pollinated her with the 2323 Meier about 15 minutes after this picture was taken.   Saturday, June 13 View Page My 400+ Cucurbita Maxima plant from Ecuador is going to be a pollinator. Thanks NYBG for giving me this seed. Its just starting to run and take off......   Sunday, June 14 View Page Nice and sunny today, so I retracted the dome and let the Maters play outside today.   Thursday, June 18 View Page June 18th. All's quiet in the Pumpkin-Mater Patch   Friday, June 19 View Page Set out the pheromone traps last night. Caught two SVB's this morning   Friday, June 19 View Page Started topping off the Tomato plants at 4 ft. If you look close you can see some of the tops cut off.   Monday, June 22 View Page Lots of dew this morning ...Time to dig out my bottles of Daconil and Eagle-20   Monday, June 22 View Page Some good blooms were pollinated on the 8.41. They re growing very fast now   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Hit by a super cell a few minutes ago. Just my luck as always. All my plants were ripped out of the soil, bamboo stakes roots and all, most of the vines were cracked. I'm feeling kind of low.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page Spent the night re-burying vines and roots and cutting off broken leaves. Plants are recovering. Turnd all the vines 90 degrees at the chosen pumpkin. Luckily none of the mains broke at the turn.   Saturday, June 27 View Page The damaged vines were propped up and reburied from that micro burst. I got all the secondary's lined up and ready to feed the 1870 Lieber.   Sunday, June 28 View Page Got some Maters to grow on the 8.41. Here is one next to a quarter, dusted with Captan to prevent blackspot rot. Gonna need some nylons soon, to hold it up   Monday, June 29 View Page First time my plants have seen full sun in a while. The leaves were starting to go yellow and look narly. They'll green up now.   Monday, June 29 View Page 2323 Meier to the left is growing at a fast pace now.   Monday, June 29 View Page Discovered some gummy stem blight on the leaves. sprayed with Eagle-20 and Daconil. Visited Norm Gansert and Armand Michaud's patch this weekend. Thanks for the tour. Nancy and I had a nice time.   Monday, June 29 View Page Never knew it would be so hard to keep the Maters topped off. They just keep growing, and keep cutting   Monday, June 29 View Page Just discovered a Mega Bloom of the ages on the Marley Plant. Its on the 2nd level truss. If it pollinates I may cut off the Mater I was going to keep on the 1st level truss.   Friday, July 3 View Page The1870x2323 10 dap is settling in and starting to grow.   Friday, July 3 View Page I'm following Ron's advice and letting the secondaries grow extra long and out of the garden for a couple weeks to buffer the moisture uptake, after all the rain we had recently. Then I'll trim them back.   Friday, July 3 View Page My Ecuadorian Cucurita Maxima is long and lanky and starting to flower. Its about to be cross pollinated with its long lost AG cousin after 114 years. I plan on crossing it tomorrow with an 1870 Lieber   Sunday, July 5 View Page Finally got a flower in the South American AG. Will cross it with the 1870   Sunday, July 5 View Page Old meets new. The Ecuadorian Cucurbita Maxima genetics are formally crossed with its long lost 1870 (Lieber 2014) Atlantic Giant cousin. Both are the same species, so it should work. Now I need to wait and see if the cross takes.   Sunday, July 5 View Page Pollination complete 1870 Lieber14 x 400+ Ecuadorian Cucurbita Maxima. Maybe William Warnock is watching. His seeds probably have come from the same species when he broke the 400 pound barrier, 114 years ago.   Monday, July 6 View Page Today I sprayed Anthesis solution on one of the 3.12 Marley Megablooms   Monday, July 6 View Page The Maters are just starting to grow. on a constant diet of WOW wonder brew. I'm starting to cover the maters with Aluminum foil to keep them shaded. Now I need to see if my wife will part with some of her nylons so I can make a sling for the big ones to support the weight.   Friday, July 10 View Page Lost my 2096 Meier to disease. 3 pumpkins still growing in the background. Planted a crop of Pacific Gold from Mighty mustard in area where the 2096 was.   Friday, July 10 View Page This is the 2323 x 2323. 15 ft out in the main. Nice long pumpkin.   Friday, July 10 View Page The 1870 x 400 Ecuadorian pumpkin was pollinated 5 days ago. Its a late bloomer. We shall see. This is more of an experiment than anything. I hope it takes off soon.   Monday, July 13 View Page Looks like my 1870 x 2323 is developing an inny.   Monday, July 13 View Page I think my Mater in the 8.41 is developing a 3rd ear. getting heavy. Luckily my nylons are holding up.   Monday, July 13 View Page Tomato row is starting to get crowded   Monday, July 13 View Page 1874.5 Mathison x 2323 Meier, Has good shape. 20DAP.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page My anthesis Mater growing on the 3.12 Marley Plant is starting to establish its shape   Saturday, July 18 View Page The 1870 x 400 Equadorian cross, 13dap. secondary vines are starting to fill in the patch   Saturday, July 18 View Page I see you!   Sunday, July 19 View Page The 2323 x 2323 is a long pear shaped pumpkin. 26dap   Sunday, July 19 View Page The 1874.5 Mathison x 2323 Meier, is ballooning up. Looks like it will be a tall one. This my fastest growing pumpkin. I think its roots have worked there way into my compost pile which is off to the side of the garden. This could be a good or bad thing. Time will tell.   Sunday, July 19 View Page The 3.21 Marley Tomato is just starting to shift into rapid growth.   Wednesday, July 22 View Page I went on a surprise inspection to the Wallaces. Then Pap rolls in with his new bike. Very cool   Wednesday, July 22 View Page Then I come home and Mike Fleming rolls in with his 1800cc M109R Suzuki, for a sup[rise inspection of my patch. I'm liking these bikes   Wednesday, July 22 View Page Reminds me of my racing day's I'd ride every night preparing for a MX race on Saturday   Wednesday, July 22 View Page Here I loosened up the soil in my patch   Wednesday, July 22 View Page Competing with my bud's on a Saturday.   Wednesday, July 22 View Page I think this Tomato on one of my 8.41 plants is starting to turn color. If so I'll weigh it soon   Friday, July 24 View Page I weighed one of my Maters from the 8.41. It weighed 3.55 lbs   Saturday, July 25 View Page My 1874 Mathison x 2323 cross has a nice shape to it. I start measuring on August 1st. I think its just entering the Rapid Growth phase.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The 2323 x 2323 Meier, is gonna be long and low. Its got a big head over the blossom end. Looks like Moby Dick.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The 1870 Lieber x 400 Equadorian cross is very tall and looks like its going to be orange. Captan dust is a precautionary move.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page The 1874 Mathison x 2323 is taping 126 cc, 82 fb x 81 ss =289 =541 pounds. Nice round shape. Need to start pushing it. Looking at a 1500 pounder at this rate.   Thursday, July 30 View Page My 4.32 is producing the only Giant Tomato's I can find that are seamless. It came from the 5.51 MegaMarv. Scott Marley told me about this last year, so I tried the seed, and he was right. If interested in growing seeds from it let me know   Thursday, July 30 View Page Top view. The 1870x400 cross is solid and round   Thursday, July 30 View Page The stump on my 2323 x 2323 is getting way too big. But the pumpkin is huge too for this time of the year   Thursday, July 30 View Page My Mighty Mustard cover crop is really starting to grow now.   Sunday, August 2 View Page My 2323x2323 Cucumber is about 6 ft long, and growing fast. Never had one like this. If it makes it, maybe I'll enter it into the Long Gourd contest   Sunday, August 2 View Page Some more of the 8.41 offspring are starting to ripen. The WOW Brew was their main diet.   Sunday, August 2 View Page I slit open the 2323 as preventative maintenance. Its healing up and still putting on 40 per day. I'll never have a foamer on this plant   Monday, August 3 View Page Picked a Mater from one of my 8.41 plants today. Now I need to get it to the scale.   Monday, August 3 View Page This one is from my 4.32 Connolly. Every Mater from this seed looks like a Roma. Scott Marley calls it the worlds larger Roma Tomato. Might be onto something. I'll save a bunch of seeds just in case...   Tuesday, August 4 View Page Got a bunch of email requests for the Giant Roma, so I harvest the seeds. It only weighed 2.81 lbs. But there are apparently some Roma enthusiasts out there in Mater World. Feel free to email if you want some. pumpconn@msn.com   Wednesday, August 5 View Page Had a great time on the Connecticut tour. We saw some big one, and everyone stay on the walking board for a up close look at some Giant Pumpkins.   Wednesday, August 5 View Page On the CT patch tour we found a pumpkin with severe vine stress, so it had to be moved. Moved it 3 times. Bart Toftness couldn't watch the 3rd move. But all was good. no cracked vine and stress was relieved.   Saturday, August 8 View Page My Narley Marley is growing fast   Saturday, August 8 View Page Weighed another mater from the 8.41. Only 3.3 pounds. Oh well at least I grew it and got it to the scale   Saturday, August 8 View Page Mowing the mustard today. Then I gotta till it under, to get the mustard gas during decomposition, and kill the pathogens in my soil.   Saturday, August 8 View Page The 1874 Mathison x 2323 offspring is still chugging along. Measurements next week.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Tilled in the mustard   Thursday, August 13 View Page Looks like my Marley Mater is ready to harvest   Friday, August 14 View Page Got my 3.21 Marley Mater to the scales and it weighed 3.15 lbs. That makes 5 Giant Maters that I got to the scales. Far better percentage that my Giant Pumpkins   Sunday, August 16 View Page Hi Russ: Thanks for the tour. We had a great time. I think New England is in for a big surprise at the weigh-offs.   Thursday, September 3 View Page Loaded up and off to Woodstock, CT weigh-off. 1874 Mathison x 2323 Meier   Sunday, September 6 View Page I'm battling a family of woodchucks in my field pumpkin patch. They are eating everything in site. I might need to bring out my "Green Lantern" persuader, since they won't go in the havaheart traps.