It's Been Too Long

It was pointed out today to me that it has been some time since my last post on my pumpkin blog. I apologize for that. Since the end of November my family has been on 5 trips, my website design business has been very busy plus I had heart surgery recently so things have been a little busy. The heart is doing great now and I'm already ready to start a new pumpkin season.

I got some pumpkin seeds from Pete Mohr today that I plan on growing this next season. Pete's 1306 seed (1161 Rodonis x 1288 Wallace) I think has a lot of potential. The 1161 is a long grower with an extensive root system and those are traits I want to breed into my pumpkins. The 1288 tends to go heavy and that is another trait I want to breed into my plants. The other seed I will be growing in 2011 will be the 1204 Scherber (1421 Stelts x 1725 Harp). Joe's 1421 was a beast of a plant last year. Probably the best looking plant I've ever seen in Colorado. Even after the pumpkin the vines were 2 inches thick. The 1421 and the 1725 tend to be long growers and the 1725 has tended to go heavy so I'm thinking this could be a great cross too. Neither seed is proven but with the genetics in these plants I expect good things this next season.

I plan on getting some compost and tilling it into the patch the end of March if the weather will allow. I'm also going to try something new, adding some turbinado sugar to the soil as I do so. Turbinado sugar is a less processed cane sugar that still has some of the molasses in it. The idea behind it is to get more microbial activity in the soil by adding it to the soil. Soil microbes need carbon to live and sugar is an excellent source of carbon. In theory, adding the sugar to the soil should increase microbial activity and get the soil going good in the spring.

I haven't heard back from The Marriage Ref yet as to when our show will air. I'll let everyone know when I know more.