Wow! 1,325 Pounds: What a Suprise

On Friday, when we cut the pumpkin from the vine we have an annual tradition that started with my very first giant pumpkin of throwing a pumpkin party.  Everyone is invited and brings a favorite pumpkin/fall treat.  I'm told it is a lot of fun, but never have time to socialize as much as I like as I'm taking care of pumpkin stuff (aka bad host).  A big thanks to mom, dad, Tammy and Lisa for all of the big help they are with the party.  They were a tremendous help.

I'm often asked how you move a pumpkin this big.  Thanks to Justin, photographer for National Geographic, that story is told in pictures.  The fork lift I got this year was bigger than ones we've used in the past, which made things a little problematic for getting it into position, but everything worked in the end.

Thanksgiving Point always has a great weigh-off and so many people come together to make it happen.  This year they had about six lifting rings and two forklifts which really made things move along, because they could pre-stage the pumpkins to keep thing moving to the scale.  Great job UGPG!  It is a lot of work to put together an event like that.

I knew of four good sized pumpkins in Utah going into the weigh-off and I had figured 3rd place was reasonable, but you never know what surprise pumpkins could show up.  One pumpkin grower said he was going to go to the Hee Haw weigh-off, so to three seemed possible.  I knew my pumpkin in terms of inches was the smallest of the four.

At the weigh-off I gave my pumpkin (aka Uncle Sam) a few thumps and it seemed more solid than a remembered in the past.  I asked Matt McConkie to thump it and he thought it possibly sounded heavy too.   But I've been fooled by this in the past.  Going into the weigh-off I didn't really consider the chance of the pumpkin going heavy, meaning it weighed more than then the estimated weight from measurements.  Pumpkins in Utah don't typically go heavy, but my first season here both pumpkins went heavy.  My OTT measurements said something around 1,275 pounds.   I had been telling everyone 1,230 because it seemed reasonable and I hopefully thought it would weigh about that much, which would be bigger than my previous personal best of 1,220 pounds.

Of the big ones, Joey's pumpkin went first and unfortunately that pumpkin went light at 1,200 pounds.  He did a great job with that plant and got about as much out of 400sq feet as a grower could get.

Next was my pumpkin:

1,325 was a complete surprise and with that I got 2nd place. The pumpkin ended up 8% heavy on the official measurement.  So I present the 1325 Johnson (2005 Haist x 2255 Zaychowski)

But fortunately, I wasn't the best pumpkin grower in the family.   My son Bode outdid me with a 1st place finish in the children's division.  He really worked hard this year and didn't nearly reach the results he deserved this season.  About five weeks ago his pumpkin stopped growing after only about 35 days of growth.  We were fortunate to be able to get his pumpkin to the scale.  And he topped them all at 299 pounds.  I think if a deer hadn't taken a couple of bites out of his pumpkin we would have gotten to 300.  I look forward to see what he can grow next year.

2019 Pumpkin Season in Review

One week from today is the weigh-off.   At this point I'm excited for it to come to an end.  Lots of 30 degree nights over the last two weeks and another week of 30 degree lows and that is a battle I'll be happy to have over.  I haven't checked in a few days, but the pumpkin is still growing as well as one could expect this late in the season.  If the trend line stays consistent there is a very good chance for having a personal best pumpkin, which is very satisfying.  The scale will tell the truth however.

I thought before the pumpkin hits the scale and the emotion that comes with that, it would be a good ideas to review the 2019 pumpkin season.  If the pumpkin goes heavy, sentiment will be a little different than if it goes very light.  Either way I should be pleased with this season.

My early season plans was to complete the setup of stuff within he greenhouse in March/April so come May, when the plant was put into the greenhouse, everything would be ready and I could hit the ground running.  That didn't happen.  Bad weather, health issues and work made things challenging.  It wasn't until June 19th that I finally got all of the greenhouse stuff hooked up and running.  On June 20th I pollinated.   If I did anything right, I got all of the required stuff done when it needed to be done this season, but I was never head of it for the first couple of months and a lot of the little things didn't get done.

The spring weather was probably a tie for the worst growing weather I've ever had.   The interesting thing is that the other year that ties was the year I grow my biggest pumpkin to date.  Mays weather was terrible.  Maybe not as bad as the year I grew the 1220, but nearly as bad.   June's weather wasn't a lot better.  Was probably 1 1/2 to 2 weeks behind in vine growth by the end of June.  Even had frost on June 23rd.  I spent a lot of time the early part of the year just trying to keep the plants warm rather than trying to grow big.  I'd guess I lost 150 pounds on the pumpkin this year due to the weather.

In May, my dear mother-in-law passed away so spent some time in Canada.  Christine loved the pumpkins.  Wish we could have one year got her to a weigh-off.   She would always ask how the pumpkins where doing and loved to tell me about a big pumpkin her father once grow when she was a child.  Good neighbors helped take care of things when I was away.

The 2005 plant wasn't remarkable in the early season.  Vine growth was as fast as the 2255 which was outdoors in the cold and I sometimes mourned that I didn't grow the 2255 in the greenhouse.  The 2005 didn't much like the heat and easily flagged in the sun and the color wasn't great early on.  The 2255 by July had frost damage and bad wind damage.  Pumpkins on both plants were pollinated on the same day, but the 2255 pumpkin never really got going.  Weather damage, cold temps and then later disease took it down early.

By the end of July I was really disappointed with the 2005 plant.  It was gorgeous looking, but growth was slow on the pumpkin.  The root system on the plant was second to none.  Roots everywhere.  I hadn't seen roots like that since the plant that grew my 1220.  I had that plant vines perfectly maintained with everything nicely buried.  Leaves had great color.  Even the old leaves on the plant looked pristine.  But the pumpkin just was not growing well and I could not figure out why.

I did it later than I should have, but I sent in for a tissue test.  Honestly, I thought the season was a loss which was particularly disappointing because I spent so much time setting up the greenhouse and I didn't feel like I was getting a return on that investment.  But I figured the tissue test could at least give me info I could use the next season and that was the main reason I did it.  I'm really glad I did. 

My tissue test totally surprised me. I had been diligently doing EC testing and my numbers always came back really low.  It didn't seem to matter how much fertilizer I put down, but the numbers would only move a little.  I even bought another EC tester to make sure the first one was working.  They were the same.

EC testing tells you the amount of "salts" in the soil via an electric current.  Fertilizers are salts, so it can give you an idea of how much fertilizer is in the soil.  It doesn't tell you how much of each NPK, but just total.  In my spring soil test it showed low nitrogen and high potassium and phosphorous.  My soil is sandy, so it can leach nitrogen easily.  Potassium and phosphorous don't leach much.  So when my numbers were low, I assumed nitrogen was the missing element.  So I was putting down a fair amount of nitrogen with just a little potassium and phosphorous.  I wasn't seeing overly big, dark leaves or crazy vine growth, so that seemed to confirm my strategy.  Just prior to the tissue test I was considering adding even more nitrogen.  When I got my tissue test back I had to put the brakes on everything.

The tissue test showed very, very high nitrogen levels and moderately low potassium and phosphorous levels.  I called the soil scientist about the test results and asked why the numbers had changed so much since spring (note: what is in the soil and in the tissue of the plant isn't always the same thing).   On the potassium and phosphorous part he said, "The plant is just using it up."  So basically the pumpkin was ringing the dinner bell. 

The nitrogen part I didn't have to ask him about.  I knew where that had all come front.  The interesting thing about that point between where I sent in the tissue test and I was waiting for results to come back the plant completely changed.  It went from an average growing plant with neat and tidy vines to a jungle.  Mineralization had kicked in and vines started growing from everywhere, leaves started getting really tall and big and the plant became something of a mess.   That literally happened overnight.

On that same phone call I had mentioned an issue to the soil scientist about my fertilizer injector not working so I hadn't really used it to that point of the season.  When I mentioned what was happening he said, "try turning the water volume up."  I had forgotten that on the valve I had turned the water volume down and as soon as I turned it up just a little the injector started sucking up the fertilizer again.  I love the injector and look forward to using it for an entire season next year.  Makes it easy to evenly spread fertilizer throughout the patch.

On July 27th the pumpkin was only about 375 pounds and not growing very well.  About the same time as the tissue test.  From August 5th to the 12th I was away on vacation, but had started the adjustment on the potassium and phosphorous.  On August 13th I measured and the pumpkin had doubled in weight and it continued on that path through the end of August.

The first week of September the weather was unseasonably warm and the pumpkin continued to crank along.  The last two weeks have been very cool and about a week ago weight gains have been more consistent with what you would expect for a pumpkin over 90 days old and in fall weather. 

Next year I should have all of the pieces in place and hitting the ground running.  I think with a descent seed, better spring weather and everything working on May 1st that next season could be an improvement.  But like this year, pumpkin growing typically is never what you expect it to be.

How to Take Care of Rot on Pumpkin Plant

Anytime of the year, but particularly late in the season, you have to watch out for rot on the pumpkin plant.  I'm not in a humid environment, but even still, rot is a problem and it can sneak up on you.  The stump, stem and pumpkin in particular are vulnerable with the amount of water we pour onto these plants. 

This morning I was a little ways from the pumpkin on the stem side and decided I should scan that side because it isn't easy to see and it isn't very accessible with all the leaves around it.  I noticed there were some minor cracks that were forming on the stem, that didn't really concern me, but the color was a little concerning.  So I went around to the other side and leaned over the pumpkin to check it out. 

I found there was a little rot forming around those cracks.   So I wiped the mushy rotted stuff away (it wasn't very deep) and then took a fair amount of sulfur powder and rubbed it into the affected areas and all around it.  After I got done with that, I decided to pour a 10% solution of bleach with a touch of sulfur powder in it and all over the stem area.  There are some places under the stem that there wasn't enough space to get my fingers into that I wanted to make sure got hit because I couldn't be sure what was going on under there.  Now I need to keep that area dry.  Typically when you catch this stuff early and use a little bleach and sulfur powder it will knockthe problem right out.   I lost a pumpkin once because there was a spot of rot under the stem that I couldn't see and by the time I found it I was too late.  Best to check often to be safe.

And Down the Stretch they Come!

I feel like it is the final leg of the Kentucky Derby.  Just three and half weeks until I'll be cutting the pumpkin off the vine for the Thanksgiving Point weigh-off.  Did some measurements today for the first time in 6 days (it was a brutal week this last week) and the pumpkin is still growing nicely.  Nights have been cool, but it has been abnormally warm for this time of year with each day this last week in the 90s and some high 90s.  My good wife doesn't appreciate it, but it is good for pumpkin growing.

Friday and Saturday was Swiss Days in Midway and we've been booth managers at the famous taco booth for the last three years.  It takes a village to build a taco.  Literally.   At peak hours, we'll have about 60 volunteers making Navajo tacos and we need each and every one of them to get it done.  It is hot and dirty work with 14 hour days for the two days and about 40 hours of work over the week.  I'm glad to be back to pumpkin growing.  

My main focus over the last week has been killing off the spider mite population, taking out old/dead leaves and keeping up with the potassium and phosphorous demands of the pumpkin. All of that seems to be going fairly well.   Pumpkin is still putting on about 17.5 pounds a day right now, which in my book, for the beginning of September, is pretty good.  Looks like we stay in the high 80s and low 90s until about Sunday and then we start seeing some more seasonal type forecasts with low 80s after that.   With the greenhouse, if there is sun, I can get it warn enough in most any outdoor temperature eventually.  It is the night temps that I need to stay up for the next few weeks.

I'll kind of let the vines go over the next two weeks to get some new, healthy leaves for photosynthesis.  Fortunately this plant has no problems growing leaves and vines right now, so replacing the old stuff to keep the plant fresh, isn't an issue. 

Today, I'll be putting down some Actinotate and Biotamax on the soil to help keep any soil born diseases at bay.  To this point I've seen very minimal powdery mildew, which has been a pleasant surprise.  That tells me my misting hasn't been too much and my rotation of Actinovate, TKO and Daconil have worked well.  I was very concerned going into this season of how to best manage that stuff in a greenhouse enviroment, because it is all kind of new to me and I knew in a greenhouse that there would be more disease pressure than growing outdoors.

Very pleased with where things are at right now.  Not going to hit the lofty goal I had coming into the season, but for where I was at around the end of July, I can't complain.  I was way behind at the beginning of August, so it is a pleasant surprise to still be where I appear to be at right now.