Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 125 Entries. Monday, June 23 View Page first pollenation of the year this morning, pollenated my 410 est 2013 (904 stelts x 1059 v/m) x my daughters 345.5 hd winner 2013(1059v/m x 904 stelts) at 13 feet out on main vine. nice 5 lobe female polled with 3 males from 345.5.plants are really growing now and should be pollenating several in next 2 weeks, hopefully i will have some pics to post soon.   Sunday, July 20 View Page went and visited cancersurvivors patch today, this is first thing i saw, now thats a stump,lol   Sunday, July 20 View Page and here is danny with a very impressive 1789 wallace kin, hope he dont mind the pic,lol   Sunday, July 20 View Page this is the reverse cross of my howard dill winner from last year, so its a 904 stelts x 1059 v/m cross. i have high hopes for this one, nice shape and should be orange, only 8 days after pollenation   Sunday, July 20 View Page took this pic in the dark almost, its an 8 dap set on my 1623 wallace.   Tuesday, July 22 View Page went out to the patch this afternoon and look what the kids and i saw!!! a beautiful rainbow that formed after a rain shower.i thought this was very cool to see, and pretty neat to get a pic with both kids.   Tuesday, July 22 View Page finally, i have a kin at 10 dap.this is the 1623 wallace fruit at 18 feet on the main.measurements dont mean much this early but i took em anyway just for curiosity, they were, 47 circumference, 35 side to side, and 35 end to end for a total ott of 117.best day 10 numbers ever for me, hope she continues to grow like that.   Tuesday, July 22 View Page overhead view of 1623 kin, very symmetrical pumpkin so far.forgot to give cross on the fruit, it is 1623 wallace x 2009 wallace.   Tuesday, July 22 View Page nice long stem on 1623 kin, sure makes positioning a little easier.   Sunday, July 27 View Page tj getting down and dirty with the weeding on his 2009 plant, he's perfect size for this and he loves it,lol. and may i add that its a huge help to dad.   Sunday, July 27 View Page marina is a huge help also, i really enjoy working with the kids like this, its good , clean(well maybe not so much) family time fun that will always be remembered, just ask my wife who has to wash the clothes,lol   Sunday, July 27 View Page ok, i asked some questions a few times about the idea of growing a kin on its blossum end like vince zunino did his 377(princess peach). i got a few ideas on the set up and then modified it a bit to suit what i had to work with. so, here is a 377 zunino kin that i'm gonna "attempt" to grow on its blossum just like its momma was grown.mr. zunino, or mr. gansert, if you have any advice on the positioning or anything else, please email me at zepfan1967@gmail.com all advice will be greatly appreciated.   Sunday, July 27 View Page this is my blossum ring . the idea is to create a void where the blossum nub is and make it so it does not rest on the ground(for fear of rot),i used a extra large pool noodle cut to about 5 inches long. i also cut a few holes in it to allow air to get flow through as long as it can.   Sunday, July 27 View Page and here is the end result.i cut about 2 nodes loose on each side of the fruit to allow me to raise the vine enough to get it set up.i will be adding a lot of sand around the ring as it grows and eventually will actually support the kin with the sand.the white "board" that its on is frp(fiberglass reinforced panel), aka, shower surround board. my thinking is that the white will reflect sunlight back up and help color in the bottom some, we'll see about that in a couple months.anyway, i hope this explains the process and i'll post updates on it as the fruit grows.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 1623 wallace, 18 dap, looking nice   Wednesday, July 30 View Page top view of 1623 fruit.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page tj and his 2009 fruit at 9 dap.nice shape and a very shiney pumpkin.i think he likes it just a little bit.   Thursday, July 31 View Page day 10 numbers for tj's 2009 fruit are 49 cc, 35 ee, and 33 ss, for a total ott of 117, which is the exact same as my 1623 wallace was at day 10.hope it grows like the 1623 has since day 10.   Sunday, August 3 View Page forgot to post day 20 numbers on the 1623 wallace, numbers were, 90 cc, 61 ee, and 60 ss, for a total ott of 211 inches.fruit was at day 20 on friday, august 1st.   Monday, August 4 View Page heading across emerald isle bridge onto the island for a couple days of vacation.   Monday, August 4 View Page and this is what we saw all weekend long, dark clouds and plenty of rain and lightning   Monday, August 4 View Page this is a pic from the highest point of the emerald isle bridge, it is one of the top 10 most photographed places on the east coast, its really breathtaking to see the myriad of tiny islands that you can see from here, thousands of them.   Monday, August 4 View Page if you look right beside the piling in pic, you can see a rather large stingray that was "beached" from the oceana fishing pier, right in front of a good crowd of interested onlookers , my kids thought this was very cool   Monday, August 4 View Page as you can see, the weather was keeping almost all fishermen off the pier, may have had something to do with those rather sharp lightning bolts that were cracking all around.   Monday, August 4 View Page even with pretty nasty storms all weekend, its hard to beat this view, something about the waves and sounds of the ocean that makes it so special to see , i really enjoy being here. gonna have to grow a pumpkin here one of these years,lol   Monday, August 4 View Page at least the kids got an hour or so break in the storms and managed to get some beach time in, i think they enjoyed it.   Sunday, August 10 View Page this is tj with his 2009 wallace fruit. the pumpkin is 20 days old today. numbers were 94 cc, 62 ss, 63 ee, for a 219 ott. best by 7 inches ever for us at day 20.   Sunday, August 10 View Page here is a pic of my "project" pumpkin this year,lol.it is a 377 zunino fruit growing on its blossum end , just like its mom was.if it holds and keeps growing, it should be a looker, the nice orange is starting to come in around the stem and entire pumpkin is darkening up nicely.have not measured it but i would geuss around 125 poundsor a bit more maybe, and growing decent, hope to get it somewhere around 300 or better but only on about 125 sq. ft.of vines, all sides, lost main at about 5 feet and used what sides were left.pretty cool to look at growing this way though.   Sunday, August 10 View Page here is a pic of the "super" moon i took this evening right at dark. i'm using a cheapo camera and it shows ,lol, but kids liked seeing it, said it looked huge.   Monday, August 11 View Page 1623 wallace day 30 numbers are 112 cc, 73 ss, 75 ee, for a total ott of 260 inches.   Sunday, September 7 View Page wanted to say thanks to danny, jack , and matt for a very nice sunday morning mini patch tour.had a great time , saw some nice kins, threw around some ideas, and hopefully we all came away a little bit better prepared for next season.next year, we need to make a spy/patch tour up to the western part of the state and see them mountain kins sam, susie,brad, and others.good luck to all, hope everyones kins hold , and look forward to seeing everyone at elkin on the 27th, should be a great show and sam, better get them scales ready, i think they may have some heavy lifting to do here soon.should be some very nice kins and melons there this year.   Thursday, October 2 View Page you know you are in trouble when going to a weigh off and you come up on this   Thursday, October 2 View Page here is the new n.c. state record being unloaded at elkin prior to weigh off. i'm sure that danny's truck was glad to get it off for a little while.   Thursday, October 2 View Page here are a couple very nice melons , one of which was the winner at elkin, both were grown by mr. h.c. williams   Thursday, October 2 View Page an awesome lineup of pumpkins at the elkin weigh off, congrats to all the growers who entered a fruit.   Thursday, October 2 View Page nice lineup of melons also   Thursday, October 2 View Page and some guy from sparta n.c. showed up with a very nice looking kin off the 2032 mathison. congrats sam   Thursday, October 2 View Page jerry rose and his son made the trip down to elkin to join the fun. great seeing them down.   Thursday, October 2 View Page and the winner is........... 1404 pounds, new n.c. record, grown by danny vester hard to believe, but danny is a first year grower, well done mr. vester   Thursday, October 2 View Page tj was first in line to ask for seeds,lol   Thursday, October 2 View Page this is one of those special moments that i was fortunate to see in person. this is adam's(pumpkin engineer)son gavin, tj and gavin finished 1-2 in the junior class, then after the weighing was complete, they shook hands and congratulated each other, how cool is that?   Thursday, October 2 View Page pretty proud dad here, tj and marina both took home hardware for their junior division entries.first and third place respectively.   Thursday, October 2 View Page we had tj's school class over to see the pumpkins, i would strongly advise any grower to take a little time and have some school classes come and visit your patch, its an unreal pleasure to watch these kids faces each year and see how much something as simple as a pumpkin can bring such huge smiles to their faces.   Thursday, October 2 View Page i asked a huge favor of our new state record holder, and he so graciously obliged by bringing the 1404 over while tj's class was here. thanks again danny, i owe ya one buddy.of course tj had to get in on the act as you can see,lol. the teachers and kids all were simply amazed when he pulled in the driveway with his beast, as it was a complete surprise to them.   Thursday, October 2 View Page my mom even came to see danny's pumpkin, even though she says she came to see mine,lol.cant blame her though, dont get to see that every day .   Sunday, October 5 View Page happy fall everyone   Sunday, October 5 View Page we started our annual fall display this weekend, managed to get all the kins and the melon in place, got the straw all placed, some mums positioned, and a little corn thrown in. we will add more corn stalks, mums, and maybe even some cotton to add to the finished look in the next few days.hope you enjoy the pics, we love doing the display every year, and with us getting bigger kins each year , the display looks even better, just gotta have that one nice orange one in for color though.   Sunday, October 5 View Page tj posing   Sunday, October 5 View Page and this is marina with her state fair entry   Sunday, October 5 View Page heck, i even have a melon entry for the fair , not big, but first ever melon for me.   Tuesday, October 7 View Page well, a week from today is the first ever gpc weigh off at the n.c. state fair, this is my biggest pumpkin, wanted to save it for the fair, but found this while inspecting the kins today, blossum end is starting to rot, not into cavity yet, but likely wont be long till it is.i have bleached it, dried it, sulphured it, and now have a fan on it 24/7, pretty much all i can do is hope now, but i have my doubts.   Tuesday, October 7 View Page this is the 1623 wallace fruit, its the one with the rotting blossum, would easily be my pb if makes scale.taping just shy of 700 pounds.cross is 1623 wallace x 2009 wallace.   Tuesday, October 7 View Page so, this may be our only gpc entry for pumpkins if 1623 goes down, which seems very likely.its my own seed from last years patch. cross is 904 stelts x 1059 v/m, it is my daughters entry and an outside shot at the first ever howard dill at state fair.i said all season i wanted that first state fair hd award badly, this kin is pretty, good color, decent shape and somewhere close to 500 pounds,not as pretty as last years hd winner at elkin, but still has decent shot depending on what other growers bring.   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is my daughter, marina's, state fair entry.it was grown off my own seed (904 stelts x 1059 v/m).i really like what i saw from this plant and kin, i think the next generation will be awesome for color and shape, we will let you know in about 12 months.   Thursday, October 16 View Page unfortunately, tj's kin went down from this split just 2 days before the fair. he wanted to take it to the fair for display as he won the jr. didvision at elkin earlier and was not eligible for state fair weigh off. i tried to save it but just wont in the cards.he's been growing long enough now to understand that they dont last forever, he was sad, but knows as long as it made the scale he succeeded.   Thursday, October 16 View Page and here we are, first ever gpc weigh off at the n.c. state fair.we worked hard to put this together and the day has come, so lets see what went on   Thursday, October 16 View Page tj hitched a ride with the forklift operator to unload some kins, i'd say he enjoyed this.   Thursday, October 16 View Page not to be outdone, marina got in on the action too.   Thursday, October 16 View Page these guys and all the staff from the fair all worked their butts off to help us make this event happen.from all the growers, a huge thank you guys, no way we could have done this without you. my hat is off to all of you, many, many thanks.   Thursday, October 16 View Page this is mrs. april blazich, a true feather in the hat for the n.c. stae fair and a true pleasure to work with.this amazing lady has been taking excellent care of all the veggie entries at the fair for many years andfor those that dont know, thats a monumental task.i cant imagine leaving my kins or melons in better hands than with mrs. april and her amazing staff.again, many thanks from all the growers.   Thursday, October 16 View Page i wanted to get a pic of mrs. april's boss, mrs. denise walker, but did not manage toget one, sorry.mrs. walker went to bat for us with the fair management, and made it possible to have this great event at the fair.i hope she enjoyed the weigh off and look forward to bigger and better shows in the coming years.thank you denise from all the growers.   Thursday, October 16 View Page now, lets see some kins and melons   Thursday, October 16 View Page the holding room filling up fast, we had a great turnout of fruits for the weigh off   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is tj looking at the melon lineup   Thursday, October 16 View Page i think tj likes this one   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is my first ever melon entry. it only weighed in at 80.5 pounds but was lucky enough to get a tenth place finish.i hope to better that next year by a lot.   Thursday, October 16 View Page but with growers such as this coming every year, competing is not gonna be easy at all.thats the world record holder, the n.c. state record holder, and this years winner from elkin talking with matt craps, geez , talk about stiff competition.   Thursday, October 16 View Page this is our emcee for the event(and a very good one i might add)robert burchette thanking susie zeurner for all her hard work organizing this inaugural event.susie, fantastic job, and many thanks from all the growers, you worked your butt off putting this together, hope we made you proud.   Thursday, October 16 View Page here robert is congratulating danny vester for his phenomenal year and new n.c. state record, which danny so kindly brought to the fair to anchor the giant veggie display.thanks danny for allowing your record kin to be shown at one of the best state fairs in the nation.just a note...... danny's kin was weighed in at elkin and was for display only at the fair.   Thursday, October 16 View Page matt craps accepting the ribbon for biggest squash entry, congrats matt   Thursday, October 16 View Page marina and myself awaiting the weight on her kin, pretty pumpkin for a pretty girl.   Thursday, October 16 View Page marina's kin on the scale.it weighed in at 480 pounds and almost got a ribbon, she finished 11th and was a contender for the hd award but fell a little short. we will be back to get that hd award, i just wanted this years winner to know that ,lol   Thursday, October 16 View Page mr. todd dawson being interviewed as his melon hits the scale.todd is our state record holder for melons and a great guy. todd will be carving a pumpkin at the fair this year, he's never carved one before but you should see how talented he is with his amazing ice sculptures so i think he will do just fine,thanks for agreeing to do this todd, knock their socks off bro.   Thursday, October 16 View Page this is my biggest kin ever hitting the scale.even though i feel sure i left several hundred pounds in the patch this year, i managed to keep her growing long enough to get a new pb.with the deluges of rain we had this year, i was happy to get what i did from this kin.its a 1623 wallace seed that i crossed tj's 2009 into, should be a great cross.fruit really only grew for maybe 40 days at best and still got seventh place and my first ever gpc ribbon. weight was 689 pounds.   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is robert with a pumpkin legend here in n.c. , mr. wallace simmons.he is a past state record holder, multiple times i think.was nice to have him join us for the first fair weigh off.thanks wallace   Thursday, October 16 View Page mr. john wayne brooks getting his turn, mr. brooks finished second overall. congrats john wayne.   Thursday, October 16 View Page this is chris kents melon making the scales. chris won the melon competition with 258 pounds. congrats chris and thank you for making the trip down, hope it becomes an annual trip for you.   Thursday, October 16 View Page i'd like to take the time to commend chris kent for being in my opinion, a true ambassador for our hobby. he is always very approachable, certainly full of knowledge and handles himself the way a true champion should, kudos chris.   Thursday, October 16 View Page this backs up my comments on the last post.thanks chris.i had asked chris to allow me to get a pic with him and my kids, as you can see, he obliged.   Thursday, October 16 View Page and heres this guy again, he just keeps on coming with nice kins.danny won the howard dill award at the fair this year, and a third place finish also.he said this was a perfect ending to a perfect season.congrats again danny on a great season, but i want that hd award next year, and marina said she's coming after it with me,lol.seriously, hats off to you danny, what a year buddy, congrats.   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is the winner of the first ever gpc weigh off at the n.c. state fair for pumpkins.steven wright,aka west of the blue ridge on bp.com. came down from virginia to claim the title. congrats on the win steven, well done. hope to see you back next year.   Thursday, October 16 View Page our two winners, steven wright and chris kent, well done guys.   Thursday, October 16 View Page group shot of all the growers,thanks to all of you for entering.we all put on a great show and i am very proud of all of us.you know , its a pleasure to be involved with a group that works together and has no hidden agendas or dominating personalities, and we all want to help each other do better each year.thats what it will take to keep advancing and become even more competitive with the other states and countries in the future.   Thursday, October 16 View Page after the state fair weigh off in raleigh, danny vester, dr. jack bacheler, and myself jumped in danny's truck and headed north, through va. and west va., and across the ohio river, where were we going you ask?   Thursday, October 16 View Page heres a clue   Thursday, October 16 View Page as if we had not seen enough pumpkins in the last few days, we headed up to circleville ohio to the pumpkin show.what a great show to see   Thursday, October 16 View Page i thought frank mudd must be here after seeing these, but neither one answered to the name clyde.   Thursday, October 16 View Page pumpkin pie anyone?   Thursday, October 16 View Page and look who we found hiding behind a pumpkin, teresa and cecil weston, countryboy and buckeyeblondie on bp.i have talked many times with these folks and was glad to finally be able to meet them.   Thursday, October 16 View Page we also got to meet several other growers from bp chat including paul huffman, dwight slone, tony vanderpooland another grower i have talked with many times over the past several years, mrs. judy barenie.so glad to have finally met all of you.   Thursday, October 16 View Page go team weston, thats one big impressive kin you two. congrats on a great season.1714 pounds and circleville record for a few minutes.   Thursday, October 16 View Page jonathon weston had a beautiful pumpkin also, went over a thousand pounds for him also.here it is on the scale. nice job jonathon. very nice young man also.   Thursday, October 16 View Page here is dr. bob liggett's entry, what a massive pumpkin.this is the largest pumpkin this ol' boy has ever laid eyes on, very impressive to say the least. and i must say meeting "doc" was a true pleasure. one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.congrats doc   Thursday, October 16 View Page doc's kin hitting the scale. it taped 1813 pounds and weighed 1964 pounds, wow, simply amazing.you should have heard the crowd react when weight was shown.   Thursday, October 16 View Page thanks to all the growers at circleville for putting on such an awesome show, well done .   Thursday, October 16 View Page and back across the ohio river and across west va., and va. , and back home to north carolina, long ride but well worth it.thanks to danny and jack also for the good times we had, and jack, sweet dreams,lol, inside joke,haha.   Thursday, October 16 View Page i also want to thank brad holder, jesse adkins, sam lovelace, wallace simmons and his son , matt craps, jack bacheler, todd dawson and everyone that helped work the state fair weigh off .awesome job guys   Friday, October 17 View Page went to the state fair today to talk with the fair goers from the pumpkin display and this ferris wheel of balloons was in the lobby of the same bldg. the kin display is in, really large and turns also, over 7000 balloons on this, incredible.all done by one really gifted lady   Friday, October 17 View Page she also made this pumpkin plant from balloons, very nice work, kins were all airbags though,lol   Friday, October 17 View Page the fair made danny a very nice state record sign for his 1404, the anchor of the n.c. growers exhibit.   Saturday, October 18 View Page the pumpkin exhibit is said to be the number 1 visited exhibit at the fair, dont think anyone could argue that after seeing the mobs of people at it, stayed like this all day long, sometimes way more than this   Saturday, October 18 View Page dr. jack bacheler talking with the fair goers.its nice to have a grower in the booth to answer questions about the giant kins and melons from the crowd.jack, danny and myself talked with several hundred people and answered many questions today.   Saturday, October 18 View Page display looks great, the crowd loved it, nice job mrs. april and staff.   Saturday, October 18 View Page this ones for you g. told ya i was gonna find out for ya.these are very large sweet potatoes grown here in n.c.   Saturday, October 18 View Page some pretty cool carvings in the horticulture /flower area.   Saturday, October 18 View Page this is brad, he is one of the great folks that look after all the many fruit and veggie entries , including the kins and melons, the balloon lady hooke him up with his very own pumpkin hat, being the guy he is, he wore it all day too.we could not have these exhibits if not for these people, many thanks to them.   Saturday, October 18 View Page this is mr. h.c. williams blue ribbon entry for biggest n.c. grown melon. very impressive melon.   Saturday, October 18 View Page this is the n.c. growers giant kin display. with the 1404 state record being placed so pics could be taken in front of it, it made fair goers really flock to this spot, thousands of pics were taken here today, along with many oohs and ahhs, and even one oh shi7 was heard ,lol   Sunday, November 2 View Page tj and marina riding the helicopter at state fair   Sunday, November 2 View Page the kids posing in front of the balloon lady's exhibit, look at the detail this artist uses in her amazing creations, really cool to see in person.   Sunday, November 2 View Page tj used his people skills to get to sit inside a real race car.   Sunday, November 2 View Page here he is getting last minute instructions from his crew chief and lil' sister marina.   Sunday, November 2 View Page and he takes the checkered flag   Sunday, November 2 View Page marina at the local tv stations "corn desk".lot of ears of corn were used to build this, pretty neat.   Sunday, November 2 View Page marina is going on her first ferris wheel ride with tj and myself.tj and i have made this an annual tradition, he has ridden the ferris wheel every year since he was 3 except one.we both really enjoy this every year and love the views from the top, glad marina decided to try it this year, she loved it also.   Sunday, November 2 View Page love this view of the fairgrounds from atop the ferris wheel   Sunday, November 2 View Page you can see the skyline of downtown raleigh from the top, what a beautiful day it was also, carolina blue skies as we like to say here   Sunday, November 2 View Page the crowds were huge at the fair this day, beautiful fall weather, last saturday of the fair, which also means pumpkin season is almost over   Sunday, November 2 View Page so when i stopped by the pumpkin display, guess what danny was doing there?   Sunday, November 2 View Page this is a scoville unit scale listing the heat units for each pepper   Sunday, November 2 View Page these pumpkins are at the opposite end of the scale from what we grow, very neat little pumpkins.   Sunday, November 2 View Page some really neat pumpkins all decorated by kids from across north carolina.   Sunday, November 2 View Page the kin carved by state record watermelon grower and ice sculptor todd dawson, nice job todd.   Sunday, November 2 View Page i think danny bribed the balloon lady, penelope, into taking a pic with him, by promising her seeds,lol   Sunday, November 2 View Page ok, last night of the fair, pumpkin exhibit has closed for this year, and danny, his son ethan, and myself enjoyed the final fireworks show at the fair, nice way to end the season.