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.