Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 101 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page The peppers are still doing pretty well, although its past time to cut them back.   Thursday, January 1 View Page Here's today's harvest. Fatali, Habanero, Cayenne, Tabasco, Thai Dragon, Black Mamba, Red Caribbean, Ghost and Scorpion all had fruit to pick today. Fun to be still picking peppers in January!   Friday, January 2 View Page Happy New Year to all! Its pretty rare when it snows in Orange County, California but it did on December 31!   Friday, January 2 View Page Please note that as of this very moment I have more diary entries than Bubba. God knows this isn't going to last long. LOL   Friday, January 2 View Page Kodiak Mustard growing as a cover crop. Its growing very slowly but that has a lot to do with the lack of sunlight. Right now the patch isn't getting more than 4-5 hours of direct sunlight per day. You can see the streak of sunlight and also the portions of the patch that get very little sunlight are barely growing at all. Now that the winter solstice is passed, the sun angle will slowly improve and the mustard should grow better.   Friday, January 2 View Page Here's my new Honda Tiller, FC600. This tiller is the perfect size for my patch. It was a Christmas Present from my wife. Used, but runs like a top!   Friday, January 2 View Page Here's another view of the patch. I really want to chop down that tree but Mrs. D put her foot down on that. At least it puts a nice layer of leaves in the patch this time of year.   Friday, January 2 View Page They are sort of pathetic but I still have tomatoes on the vine and its January. These were actually volunteers that came up in the patch. I throw the rotten and rat-eaten tomatoes in the worm bin all year so when its time to put worm castings in the patch, I get a lot of tomato plant weeds! These late late tomatoes don't taste great. They don't get enough sun to ripen properly.   Saturday, January 3 View Page My daughter Lauren made me this digital artwork for Christmas. If you've seen the "Rise of the Giants" documentary you might recognize it!!   Saturday, January 3 View Page Fresh Peppers from the yard getting ready for the dehydrator. There's about 9 varieties in this batch - habenero, red carribean, fresno, scorpion, ghost, thai, cayenne, tabasco, fatali and a couple purple bell peppers.   Saturday, January 3 View Page This batch is all done. Takes about 16-20 hours at 145 degrees depending on the thickness of the peppers. I could shorten the process by cutting them all in half but the fumes are tough. Although the house smells amazing while the dehydrator is running!   Saturday, January 3 View Page One of the fun things we do with the fresh peppers is infuse our own tequila. This bottle just started. After taking about a shot of tequila out, I slice a couple habeneros, one fatali, one or two fresnos and drop them in. It takes about a week for it to get nice and hot. After it gets to the heat level we like, we take the peppers out so it doesn't get funky.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Packaged up pepper seeds today for those requesting them. There are some fun (and crazy hot) varieties in these. Only for the brave! Also, I sent each of you a little baggie of what we call "Pepper Pepper". These are dehydrated and ground peppers from my garden. Actually the batch I shared is grown from 3 gardens in 2 states and at least 19 varieties of peppers. Sprinkle this stuff on eggs, pasta, put it in a pot of chili, whatever floats your boat. Its a great way to use all the really extreme varieties. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES, NOSE OR PRIVATE PARTS after handling this. I can tell you from experience it is a very BAD IDEA!   Sunday, January 4 View Page I decided to make some hot chili oil tonight. Step 1 - take some dried chilis - whatever kind you have/ like. Use 10-12 small peppers for a half cup of oil. I used 10 medium size fatali peppers and 2 scorpion chilis. While wearing GLOVES, break them up into flakes. Take out the stems. The recipe I have said to take out the seeds but I left them in, basically because its a PITA to take them out.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Step 2 - put them in a Mason Jar or some other heat resistant container.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Step 3 - cook some oil in a sauce pan. You can use Olive Oil (I did) or some peanut or Canola Oil. Whatever. Heat the oil up on a medium fire until it starts to smoke. Take it off the stove and let it sit for a minute or two until it hits 225-235 degrees.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Step 4 - pour the hot oil over the chili flakes. You can see in this picture that I added a fresh clove of garlic to the jar before pouring the oil in. Why? Because garlic is good stuff that's why. And its good for you too. The oil will cause the pepper flakes and whatever else you are infusing into the oil to sizzle and pop. Heck, its frying the dad-gum stuff, that's why. Let it sizzle away. It will go about 5 minutes or more.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Step 5 - after the oil cools, strain off the pepper flakes and other good stuff that is in there. I am going to leave mine sit overnight to complete the infusion process. That way it gets mondo hot! Use this anyplace you would use oil in cooking or baking. I think it would make awesome cornbread. That is where I am going to try it first. My wife will like it if I make her some popcorn with it. I think. Or dipping eggrolls in it, or using it in salad dressing, or whatever. Have fun!   Monday, January 5 View Page Here's a pic of the last stage of making chili oil. I took a piece of cheesecloth and laid it loosely over the top of a mason jar. Then a good idea hit me: rather than trying to awkwardly hold it in place, I screwed the ring back on. It held the cloth in place nicely while I poured the oil in. None of the pepper flakes got through at all. Next stop is the refrigerator and it will save here for a couple months. Note: You can do this with any dried spice from the garden. Don't use fresh spices as bacteria will form in the oil. Heating the oil brings out the flavor and also prevents any bacteria growth. Chili Heads unite! LOL   Friday, January 9 View Page Friday night with the Mrs, a habenero margarita, and team pumpkin auction!   Sunday, January 11 View Page I like these grinders from Trader Joes. Once the salt or pepper or whatever is gone, I strip the labels off and re-use them for dried peppers.   Sunday, January 11 View Page I filled this one with dried ghost, fatali and scorpion chilis that were infused with a local craft brew "Big Mother" from Mother Earth Brewery in Vista.   Sunday, January 11 View Page Started my pepper plants for 2015 today. This years lineup will include mystery blue, poplano, jalapeno, white ghost, peach habanero, serrano, purple cayenne, red fatali and and lemon drop. I will add these to a few carry-over plants from this year. Still growing Fresno, cayenne, red ghost, yellow fatali, habanero, black mamba and scorpion. The rest have all come out now. Started a few tomatoes for early crops also. Black Cherry (these are like candy), artic rose and hanky red. The latter two came from Ellie in this years seed exchange. Fun stuff on a rainy So-Cal day!   Monday, January 12 View Page Excited for my first trip to the annual Elk Grove meeting in March. Packaged 60 packs of pepper seeds for the table. Should be a hoot!   Thursday, January 15 View Page WOW what a great mail day at my house! Three bubbles with 6 awesome seeds! Thanks Jim Fredricks, Don Barron and Paul Schweigert! Christmas in January!!! Is it time to plant yet? :D   Friday, January 23 View Page First of the pepper seeds germed today- 12 days after planting.   Friday, January 23 View Page I heard of another great use for chili peppers today. We were watching Jeopardy and this dude was in the Peace Corps working in an african village. There job was to "elephant proof" the fields. They used chili pepper oil mixed with motor oil and spayed it around the perimeter. Apparently the elephants won't cross the line! Maybe some of you with deer or other varmint problems should give this a shot.   Sunday, February 15 View Page This will be my first year at attempting to grow a giant tomato. I got some nice seeds in the seed exchange and planted the 5.75 Porkchop for the first go. But today, I was out in the garden tending to some volunteer tomatoes that I transplanted out of the patch into large pots. Not really sure what variety they are, but I grew beefsteaks near the area. But I looked down and found that there was a pretty awesome megabloom on one of the plants!! This will be a great way to test/ practice techniques on.   Friday, April 3 View Page The tomato plants are in early season form. Made some neat signs out of popsicle sticks and tongue depressers.   Friday, April 3 View Page More signs waiting for the plants to get into their final resting place. Got some great seeds in the winter seed exchange here on bp.com and then got hooked up by Susan with some more great varieties!   Friday, April 3 View Page OK Socalgrower, here's the beginning of my first real attempt at a giant tomato. I've got a couple plants with fruit on them already, but they are volunteers and don't hold much promise.   Friday, April 3 View Page This small flowerbed only gets sun in the first half of the day. I have some Russian kale, cilanto, basil, parsley and mint in here.   Friday, April 3 View Page Here's a pic of the nursery - peppers include Poblano, Jalapeno, Blue Mystery, Lemon Drop, Purple Cayenne, Purple Serrano, Serrano and Red Hot. These will likely end up in next years seed exchange with any kind of reasonable yield.   Saturday, April 4 View Page A couple cherry varieties in this small bed. These are also on the shady side of the house and only get morning to mid- day sun. Its worked pretty well in the past however as some of the full sun plants whither in the summer heat (up to 105 degrees at times).   Saturday, April 4 View Page I also grow some of the tomatoes in pots. They have done very well in past season. I use fresh mix in them every season which I am sure helps. The watering pattern is different though; the sun does bake these pots and the soil can get dry quickly.   Saturday, April 4 View Page The mustard cover crop 3 weeks ago. Its been cut, chopped and tilled in and the patch has a layer of clear plastic on it. Not only are the gasses fumigating the soil, but its been pretty hot here and the plastic raising the heat will kill the grubs off. That's a win-win eh?   Saturday, April 4 View Page These are the two volunteers that I dug out of the flowerbed behind them and put into pots. They are growing well and fruiting nicely. I've been doing some pruning and culling on the one on the right to try for that first giant tomato experiment. The one megabloom I found was pollinated but its growing very slowly.   Tuesday, April 7 View Page When you live in California and it might rain you do this:   Wednesday, April 8 View Page Crap. Barely a trace of rain last night.   Sunday, April 26 View Page At the home patch, I added 3 lbs bloodmeal 25 lbs kelp meal 25 lbs alfalfa meal 2 lbs humic acid 60 lbs gypsum equivalent Then, a strange phenomenon happened. RAIN! Not much but it was enough to water in the amendments some.   Sunday, April 26 View Page This is the big patch that Tom (Firewood), Mike and I are teaming up on at Firewoods place. We will start 12 plants here. It's 20,000 square feet! Tom dug the nutrient pits this week and added his special mixture of biosolids, homemade compost and other good stuff. We spread Alfalfa Meal and Gypsum today. The fence work is nearly complete. Tom disked the patch and we are getting closer to being ready. I will start seeds about May 12th. All the kins we will plant here are HD Award winners or have HD winners in their family tree. We are growing Orange, Orange and more Orange. A handful of these have 2009 Wallace Genetics so there's BIG potential here too. The water source for these plants is reclaimed so its not an issue of wasting potable water.   Sunday, April 26 View Page 2015 Pepper Garden is all in - 18 varieties planted! Not much space but I make full use of what we've got. A few of these plants are carryovers from last year. The rest were planted from seed in January.   Sunday, April 26 View Page This is tomato alley - we have 14 varieties growing this year; 15 plants total. Thanks Susan for sharing seeds and to Phil Wellington for putting together a great exchange over the winter. It was SO fun. The purple spudaree is off to a great start. Chocolate Amazon seems to flag everyday, regardless of the temp. Funny plant.   Wednesday, May 13 View Page This is the lineup at the BIG patch - Tom (Firewood), Mike and I are combining to grow 12 plants on a 20,000 sf patch. Yes, this is nuts. We are focusing on Orange, Orange and more Orange. Thanks to all the growers who were kind enough to send seeds. The genetics in this patch are nothing short of awesome. And don't be fooled, there's BIG pumpkin potential in here, but the seed selection primarily focused on Howard Dill Award potential with the idea that we will have some amazing crosses.   Thursday, May 14 View Page At the home patch, I am growing the 2011 980 Fredericks. Jim was kind enough to offer me some of the last of these seeds. It is the progeny of the 1544 Revier by 1610 Leiber. This seed historically throws great orange, has a nice round shape and is usually easy to grow. I will back this up with the 1103 Young. The best news is, my awesome wife had that big 'ole pepper tree cut down that was in the middle of my patch so I will have more morning and mid-day sun than ever! before.   Thursday, May 21 View Page 21 of the seeds have germed now. The 1208 Kibler was the first up. The older seeds are clearly lagging: 777 Young (1x), 993 (1x) and the 980 Fredericks (3x) haven't broken the soil yet. Patience....   Friday, May 22 View Page Of the 33 seeds started, 27 are up now. The 777 Young joined the party and one of the 980 Frederick seeds. The one holdout is the 993 Vincent McGill. Still holding out hope this one will germinate. Really want this one as a pollinator in our big patch this year!   Saturday, May 23 View Page Time to mix up some potting mix for transplanting into the 1 gallon containers.   Saturday, May 23 View Page Something new this year is starting with clean pots. Don't want any diseases introduced by old dirt from who knows where. I washed all the pots in a light bleach solution and then rinsed them in fresh water prior to transplanting.   Saturday, May 23 View Page Transplanting complete. Watered them in with rainwater (rare in CA!) with rootshield and a very light mix of Microtech 4-0-0.   Sunday, May 24 View Page Today's project was to build some wind screens for the 13 plants. Easy project but a big undertaking. 3/4 inch pvc frame with shade cloth zip tied to the sides. Planning to reconfigure these for covering the kins later on. It took 460 feet of pipe to make 13 of these.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page Prepped the planting site today at the home patch. 5 bags of Ocean Forest Potting Mix, 1 bag of Ancient Forest, 1/2 cup of WOW Pumpkin Power, 1/2 Cup of WOW Soil and Plant Booster, 2 lbs of crab shell (across the whole patch), 50 lbs of chicken poop (whole patch), 2.5 lbs manganese (whole patch) as indicated by my soil test.   Thursday, June 4 View Page Home patch update: 1139 Langiness plants (980 Fredericks x 1048 Engel) are looking great. This picture is one week after transplant. Very pleased so far. Having very mild weather right now; mid-70's and high 50's at night. Its been overcast in the mornings. I will cull one of these two in a week or so after I am certain that its not going to double vine on me. New drip irrigation system should be here today. I've also ordered an EZ Flo injector too. Now to figure out how to get it all set up and working!   Monday, June 8 View Page One of my tomato plants must have a disease. In a matter of days it went from healthy to this. Anyone recognize this? Shoot me an email.   Monday, June 8 View Page This Spudaree Purple has been the strongest plant in my garden this year. Its loaded with fruit. As long as I can keep the rats away I will have a great harvest from it. Thanks Sue for the seeds!   Monday, June 8 View Page This one won't be getting any Spudaree Purple tomatoes.   Monday, June 8 View Page This is a Zluta Kytice; its got more blossoms than any plant i've ever seen. #WOW   Monday, June 8 View Page this purple serrano is producing some huge fruit. I am curious to see if there's any heat to them at all.   Monday, June 8 View Page This chili plant, a Kung Pao, bit the dust as well. Really strange. I've got some grubs in this flowerbed so perhaps that's what took it down. It was a prolific producer.   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Sprayed the 1139 Langiness with some organic pest control today. I used a mix of Horticultural Oil and Capt. Jacks Dead Bug Brew (Spinosad). The plant is very young still so this is sort of a no harm no foul compromise. No signs of pests but a few very small black winged looking bugs hanging out that didn't need to be there. Used up the leftovers on the tomato plants.   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Thought I might make a list of all the changes I am making this year to reflect back on. More Sun - my wife took the tree out of the patch while I was away on business. That's love right there. The City came and trimmed the trees in the park behind the house also. My patch will get 50% more sunlight, both in the morning and the late afternoon as a result. No more dead leaves- because of the trees, I've always just mulched them up and stirred them in; right before planting to boot. Bad Idea- locks up nitrogen! Cover Crop- planted my first cover crop of mighty mustard. No more Grubs - killed off the grubs with a combination of things, including the mustard and covering the patch after tilling it in. No more manure - Not using it at all this year. Added Drip Tape - no more overhead watering. Added a pesticide and fungicide program - Added Eagle, and Merit and will routinely spray. Aggressively controlling pests, particularly aphids that have destroyed my plant early and often. Changing misting system to high frequency short interval pattern whenever temp goes above 85% Measuring everything precisely and writing down every thing I add to the patch/ plant. Limiting foliar applications to extend leaf longevity. I sure hope this all comes together for a new PB!   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Update from the big patch - 12 plants from 11 growers are doing very well. We had some of the plants suffer some stress to the first true leaf but not to worry says Mr. Debacco. So we won't. Heres how the final lineup shook out. I planted 33 seeds to get to what would be 13 plants, including the home patch. If I had 3 or 4 seeds, I planted them all (new this year). When the smoke cleared, 30 of the 33 had germed. 28 were suitable for planting. In the big patch: 1738 Barron - Thanks Don for the HDA Winning seed. This plant is kicking a*&. Its leading the patch right now. 1213.5 Rea - I think Sue sent me this - Thanks Tomato Queen! You rock. This is a 1610 Lieber x 1610 Lieber damaged by a mouse if I recall correctly. 777 Young- Sue sent me this HDA winner and I am so glad to have John's plant in the patch. We will pollinate heavily with this. One of the very best Orange Producers grown. 743 Grande - This is another HDA Winner and and a great cross (1495 Stelts x 1623 Wallace). Looking good so far. This seed came with my RMGVG membership packet. Such great genes. 1037 Gantner - Bird - Thanks Mr. Gantner for these. Gary sent me more seeds than I could grow in years. So generous and glad to include one in the patch! We have two of these HDA Winners in the patch! 705 DeBacco- this is one of the prettiest pumpkins grown in 2014 and with the 2009 Wallace Pollinator, #WOW. Thanks Matt for the seeds. I am very excited about what this will produce. 559 Fraley- This is was maybe the most red pumpkin I've seen. Its a fantastic cross with the 288 Buglio x 777 Young and should produce a great orange fruit. Thank you for the seeds! 703.5 Schweigert - What a great cross. 811 Gerhardt x 1610 Lieber. a 2013 HDA winner. #nuffsaid Thanks Paul for the seeds. 823 Rahe - Thanks for the seeds Ron! This is a 2014 HDA winner- the cross is 874.8 Gayelin x 979 Rahe 1208.5 Kibler - Another HDA Winner. This seed I picked up off the table at Elk Grove this spring and its keeping pace with the 1738 Barron. Its a great cross, 1602 Glasier x 1417 Wolf. Potential is both big and Orange! 668.9 Krueger - Somehow fell into this HDA winning seed. Sue? Elk Grove? Can't recall. But this seed has amazing genetics, being a cross of the 1059 Vincent McGill x 1634 Werner. There you have it. Sorry I can't post pictures but that SoCal Grower Chris Dunn is already snooping around and well, we have to keep some things under our hat. For now!   Wednesday, June 10 View Page One seed didn't ever germinate- it was the 993 Vincent McGill, the oldest seed I planted (2008). Sad about this one. Also had two of three 980 Fredericks seeds fail to germ. The third seed came up but it was very late and had a missing cot. Its still in a pot as an emergency backup and it looks to be developing normally, although very small. I had this picked for the home patch but it didn't happen. The 1139 Laginess was grown off Jim's seed so that is great.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page Drip Tape installed. The folks at www.dripworks.com were very helpful. I put a valve on each line so I can have better control of where to water and where not to. This will conserve even more water in our drought riddled state.   Thursday, June 11 View Page So here's something fun. A few of you folks are familiar with the 'pepper pepper' that my son and I make from chili peppers we grow in our yards. (I usually send it out with a bubble with my seed requests) My son BJ made friends with the brewmaster at a local pizza place called Pizza Port in San Clemente, CA. They got to talking and Trevor decided to make a batch of beer with our pepper pepper! He did a fine nitro double IPA that they call 'Man v. Beer' and its on tap. That is BJ on the left and Trevor on the right; yours truly in the middle. Very cool to have our product end up in a pint glass!   Thursday, June 11 View Page Applied 5 lbs of Neem Seed Meal to the home patch. This stuff stinks!   Friday, June 12 View Page A shot of the 'Big Patch'. Tom had some signs made and they really came out sharp. The 1738 Barron and the 1208.5 Kibler are still leading the pack. The stump on the Barron is 1.5 inches in diameter already and the plant has been in the ground a week and a half.   Wednesday, June 17 View Page Things are looking good over at the big patch. The plants are growing strong; the main vines on several plants are putting on 9" per day. the 1208.5 Kibler and the 1738 Barron continue to be strong growers and the 559 Fraley has caught up in recent days. We had a few cucumber beetles show up. Tom didn't waste any time and knocked them out quickly.   Wednesday, June 17 View Page Tom and Mike did a great job getting the drip lines installed. Each line is separately controllable so that we don't grow weeds and also save (reclaimed) water.   Friday, June 19 View Page The 1139 Langiness at the home patch is doing great. I've culled down to a single plant now. The main is out to 4.5 feet or so. We've had 90 degrees the past few days; the misting system is up and running and the new Galcon timer is working as planned. I'm running tornado misters from dripworks on a 1 minute every 10 cycle from 10 am to 4 pm. I started the pesticide program; something was dining on my leaves already. Chewing little pinholes in the mature leaves. The only thing I've seen is some small black gnats.   Friday, June 19 View Page Patch view showing the misting system and with the heat, the shade canopy is back up.   Saturday, June 20 View Page Took a few temperature measurements today----stuck my thermometer in the dry soil at the edge of the patch, outside the misting zone and the shade cloth. Full sun = 113 degees at 12:45pm Its 85 degrees in the shade using the same thermometer. Accuweather says its 74 in Mission Viejo. Weather.com, which is seemingly far more accurate, shows 82 degrees right now.   Saturday, June 20 View Page Took another measurement in the misting zone under the shade. It reads 90 degrees. That is a whopping 23 degrees difference being under the shade and in the misting zone. The shade cloth alone, (22%) read 99 degrees. Thats 14 degrees of temperature due to the shade cloth and another 9 degrees attributable to the moisture under the misting zone.   Sunday, June 21 View Page I turned my back for just a minute and the next thing I know, this fella is snooping in my box trying to figure out what I am using!!! I called him out and he said he got lost looking for the bathroom. Lame. LOL Great having you visit Chris! You are the best.   Monday, June 22 View Page So this guy Chris Dunn says he wants to come for a patch tour. I'm thinking 'cool, haven't ever had another grower come by the patch' and 'maybe he will give me some pointers'. Then he says, "let's take a selfie" and I am thinking hey, this SoCal Grower is a cool dude.   Friday, July 3 View Page We lost one plant over at the big patch. the 1208 Kibler went down to Yellow Vine Disease. I can't believe how quickly this plant went from healthy to dying. A week ago today it was one of the strongest plants in the patch. All other plants look pretty good. The 705 Debacco, the 1738 Barron, 777 Young and the surprise of the patch is the 559 Fraley. 10 of the 11 plants will be ready to pollinate in the next week with female blossoms at the 12-15 foot mark. The powdery mildew is here; we are doing battle already despite weekly applications of at least one fungicide.   Monday, July 6 View Page First Pollinations at the big patch today! 559 Fraley - 5 lobe crossed with 823 Rahe 1738 Barron - 4 lobe crossed with 705 DeBacco 743 Grande - 4 lobe crossed with 777 Young Another plant may be stricken with disease. The 1213 Rea looks to be succumbing to something. We may be down to 10 plants in a few days.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Three more pollinations today 823 Rahe x 1139 Langiness 1037 Gantner/ Bird x 777 Young 703.5 Schweigert x 559 Fraley If you aren't sick of looking at female blossoms yet, the 823 Rahe threw the prettiest 6 lobe flower I've ever seen!   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Pollinated 669 Kruger (1059 V/M x 1634 Werner) with 705 DeBacco today. Nice 5 lobe flower   Wednesday, July 8 View Page I am going over for a visit to Chris Dunn's place next week. I have a new pet, his name is Peter Peter. I usually take him with me on patch tours. Cost less to feed him that way.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page Pollinated the 1139 Langiness at the home patch today. It was a pretty small 3 lobe flower but after the plant was shocked a couple weeks ago I was glad to have it. I went over to the big patch last night and collected flowers from the 669 Kruger to pollinate with. This flower is 14' out on the main and is the same distance, and date that I pollinated a year ago despite planting 10 days later.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page Update from the big patch Sad to say that the 1213 Rae (1610 Leiber x Self)appears to be a sterile plant. Glenna emailed me and asked how the plant looked. Hadn't really noticed (11 plants will do that do you!) that the male flowers weren't growing normally. Very few even get a stem. I opened one of the male flowers and there was no stamen in it. Glenna indicated that this has been a sporadic problem with this seed. Too bad. We have two females that appear normal but Glenna says we can anticipate them to abort after a bit. The 705 Debacco is a bit of a crazy plant. It's thrown double vines on two secondaries and the first female blossom was badly malformed. The second female out opens tomorrow and we are hoping for a better flower. Even the tendrils on the vine are not normal. They put out twice the number of tentacles than a typical tendril. The plants that continue to impress are the 823 Rahe (WOW), the 559 Fraley and the 777 Young. The runt of the litter is the 703.5 Schwiegert. It got overwatered early on and never seemed to really recover. The leaves are small and the plant just doesn't want to grow out of it. Our last pollination will be tomorrow morning on the 705 Debacco. We have two or three pumpkins on each vine. The largest right now is approaching the size of a number 3 soccer ball. We spent last night putting S curves in the vines and wishing we had started earlier.   Thursday, July 23 View Page Tough day in the patch. Mosaic Virus hit us hard and we've now removed 6 of our 12 plants. A couple were expected but 3 others had promise but the pollinated fruit wasn't mature enough to withstand the disease. This blows. No way around it. Plants lost include the 1213.5 Rae, the 705 DeBacco, the 703.5 Schweigert, the 1738 Barron and one of two 1037 Gantner Bird plants. We have nice kins on 5 of the 6 remaining plants. The 668.9 Kruger is leading the patch so far and looks to be going orange. The 743 Grande is right behind in it and did 14 lbs/ day over the last two days and is only 14 DAP. Nice Orange ones on the 559 Fraley and the 823 Rahe also. Too soon to tell if the 777 Young was pollinated in time; so far the kin is weirdly shaped and not doing much. Maybe the next one down the line will go. its about the size of a softball and the Orange is already seeping in around the stem. So awesome!   Thursday, July 23 View Page Ok now that I am caring for seven fewer pumpkin plants I can refocus on GIANT TOMATOES! Planted a May and a Wellington in the garden tonight. Mr. Dunn and Mr. Frederick, GAME ON. And that little jar in the front is a secret ingredient.   Friday, July 24 View Page Here's a shot of the 559 Fraley from 7/20. This one has orange in its veins. Great plant Steveann, thanks for the seed!   Friday, July 24 View Page This is the 823 Rahe. This was a beautiful six lobe flower and the biggest flower i've ever seen. It would have fit a softball in it. Its shape is a bit peculiar but the fruit is going to be a great orange one.   Friday, July 24 View Page This is the 743 Grande; nearly 60 lbs on 7/22 and putting on 14 lbs per day at day 14. Not too shabby. I don't think this one will be orange despite its 1495 Stelts Momma.   Wednesday, August 5 View Page Things are going ok at our big patch. After losing 6 plants out of 12 to disease, the other remaining plants are also suffering from various degrees of Mosaic as well. We've decided to prune all the growth below the plant as we feel it causing more harm than good. Despite this, we have 6 pumpkins going. The pride of the patch to this point is the 668.9 Kruger. Its got a funny shape and appears to be getting a dill ring, a first for me. But its growing over 20 lbs a day. The 1037 Gantner Bird is going well (82 lbs in three days) as is the plant in this picture, the 559 Fraley. This will be a nice Orange one. Its gained 23 lbs per day in the past 3 days and weighs an estimated 286 lbs today (day 29).   Wednesday, August 5 View Page This is the 823 Rahe. You can see the leaves behind the pumpkin that have deteriorated badly in the past 10 days. I believe this is a form of bacterial wilt. Its the only plant with this condition so far. the growth on the fruit went from about 17 lbs per day to 14 lbs per day so our hopes of a fruit making it to October are slim. Too bad. This was one of our strongest plants and I would definitely give this seed another go. Its a real wagon wheel of a fruit.   Thursday, August 6 View Page The home patch has been an adventure this year. After about 2 weeks the plant went into a toxic state with an over abundance of N, resulting in badly deformed leaves. Matt D said to give it a little Cal Mag and then just leave it be. The plant did start to grow out normally although all the fruit on the main, from 11 feet out past 20 feet eventually aborted. I pretty much gave up at that point because I was spending a ton of time over at the big patch. I was going to pull the plant but the Mrs. liked it in the yard as it was pretty and green. So I left it. No fertilzer. No pesticides. No pruning. Nothing. It turned into a jungle. I left for about 5 days and came back to find a couple small fruit on side vines that looked promising. Well the bees have apparently done their job because I've got a couple cantelope-sized pumpkins on side vines. I decided I better start pruning away some of the extra growth. In this picture you can see the plant growing over the fence and into the park next to the house.   Thursday, August 6 View Page Not much of a surprise that I found another pumpkin on a side vine while pruning. This one is a couple days or so bigger than the others but as you can see, its up against the wall and not in a good position at all. I will tinker with the vine some to see if I can improve that.   Tuesday, August 11 View Page The 1139 Langiness at the home patch is growing well. The vine is small, even for a secondary but its putting on 4" of cc per day so far. Nice shape and the orange is already pumping in around the stem. Today is 13 DAP and its at 43" CC. Because it wasn't supposed to ever happen, I'm calling this one Grace.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page Here's the 559 Fraley. This has been one of our strongest plants although you can see the leaves have become very distressed. The pumpkin will be a nice orange one. We've nicknamed this pumpkin Lard Ass. At day 33 it had an OTT of 250 inches and and an estimated weight of 351 lbs.   Wednesday, August 12 View Page This is the 777 Young, nicknamed 'great orange hope'. We crossed it with the 559 Fraley. This plant has a stump with a 12" diameter and the main vine looks like a massive 3" pipe. Biggest Stump and main vine in the patch by far! At DAP 29 it hat an OTT of 233" for 286 lbs est. At last check it was doing 3" of cc's and 17 lbs per day.   Thursday, August 13 View Page Sad Day. The 777 Young, "Great Orange Hope" has suffered a blossom end split. It was on our healthiest plant (if you can call a plant with Mosaic Virus healthy) and doing 20 lbs a day. Such a bummer. The only redeeming value is that this is a great cross and the seed will be exciting to grow next year. 777 Young x 559 Fraley   Friday, August 14 View Page My 1139 Langiness is going good. Its Day 15 and its at OTT 136 already. Typically gaining 5" of CC per day. We will see; its 100 degrees and going to get hotter tomorrow. We will see how it does in the heat. Misting system and shade cloth are critical now. Running 1 minute every 5 on the misters.   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Grace is growing slowly but with 4 days of 100 degrees and above, I am glad she's still growing period. At 20 DAP, she's at 163 inches OTT. Considerably ahead of last years kin. Despite all the troubles I am still hopeful of a PB from the home patch. At least the weather is back down into the mid-80's.   Saturday, August 29 View Page "Grace" on day 31. Est. weight is 246 lbs. Steadily gaining 10 lbs per day. Not lighting the world on fire but for a sidevine fruit in 500 sf its not bad. It was 105 degrees at home yesterday, four days at 100 degrees or more. Cooling trend begins tomorrow. So far this is on a pace to be a personal best and it sure is pretty.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page Misters full speed ahead!!   Tuesday, September 8 View Page I'm having a little problem with the stump at the home patch. Any suggestions for what to put on this?   Friday, September 18 View Page Grace on day 51. Taping at 364 lbs and growth slowed to a pound a day. Stump has been gone for about 3 weeks now. Nice shape and color and for a side vine fruit I'm glad to have it. Maybe it will grow another 20 lbs between now and the weigh off.