Pumpkin Growth

This morning I did the first over the top measurement on the Grandpa Dee pumpkin (1974 McConkie).   Doing an eyeball measurement, I knew that pumpkin wasn't exactly where I want it to be.   The tape confirmed. 

Here is the hope.  A couple of weeks ago I looked at pictures of my plants from last year and compared.  Both plants this year are in better shape at this point of the season than last season.   I think the soil is a little better than last year too.   It was interesting looking at how similar my 2145 plant is to the 1685 plant from last year.  Growth rate, leaf shape and everything else are about the same.  The same is true of the 1974 plant to the 747 plant.  Growth rates, leaves, etc are ball park similar.  Doing a comparison of pumpkin measurement of the 747 to the 1974 and the 1974 is a bit ahead.  I guess in some ways that shouldn't surprise me.  I had forgotten, but growth in the first four weeks of last year was also slow.  I'm going to guess the 2145 (Uncle Sam) is going to be ahead of the 1685 plant as well at day 28.  The 1685 was a very slow grower early.  

Here is the key.  Both the 747 and 1685 plants were slowed up by environmental factors last year.  I think the weather has maybe been a touch worse this year, but not by much.  What worked out okay for the plants last year is that they never put on a lot of pounds per day, but they grew long.  They both kept growing past 100 days and were still growing when they were picked.  If these plants can do the same I'll do okay.  Not great, but better than last season. 

Yesterday I gave the plants a fair amount of nitrogen.  With the soils being warm from hot days the biological activity has been high for weeks now.  That means nitrogen is available, but may start running low.  So I gave the plants some granular 6-2-0 and 24-0-0 on all plants.

Today I did a foliar application of TKO as well.