486 Pounds Put on the Pumpkin in August

486 pounds of new growth during the month of August. Not a bad month. That is almost as many pounds in one month as I was conservatively hoping for all season. Of course you always wish for more, but I can't complain. Right now I am 16 inches away from reaching my late season goal with 26 days remaining.

The seed that I am growing this pumpkin on came from the famous Howard Dill. No genetic information was given other than the parent pumpkin was 300-500 pounds. Right now the pumpkin is somewhere between 550-600 pounds, so I feel like I did something right this year. I wish I had grown on a higher genetic seed for all of the work I have done this year, but come the weigh-off I feel like I will be in a pretty good place all considering.

My good neighbor behind me Chris let me know a couple of weeks ago that he is going to allow me to grow pumpkins on his big property. I'm really grateful to him for it. I've been growing this year's pumpkin on my dad's old garden spot which has laid fallow for the last two years. They are going to be landscaping the garden area so the spot wasn't going to be available for me next year. My parents have been a fantastic help all throughout this growing season. I'm sure I have stressed them out more than once through it all.

In the next month I am planning on starting the soil prep for my new patch. If anyone has any hot tips on where to get manure, maple leaves or compost near Arvada please let me know. The spot I will be growing on will need a lot of help to get it to world class levels. I am very determined to get to 1,000 pounds next year.