[Chewy]

More progress... tore out the useless soaker hoses & repalced with a drip system, was quite impressed with how easy it was to set it up.

Including time to put in the pressure reducer/filter, dig the trenches, pressure testing & make a couple of splices in the recycled main hose, , flushing, staking it out, secure it in place, install the emitters & add hose to most where the drips werent landing well - less than 2 hours. Too bad it was entirely spent hunched over - thank goodness for hot tubs!

Surprisingly cost effective too...

-rain bird 30 psi reducer / filter combo - $26
-two 3/4" - 1/2" pex fittings - $2
-dual zone timer - $40
-garden hose - pex - shutoff tap - $8
-two garden hose - 3/4" NPT adapters & clamps - $10
-two 3/4" NPT - 1/2" bards - $2
-two 1/2" plugs - $4 (these were the only parts that seemed far too expensive really)
-three 1/2" - 1/2" barbed menders & clamps - $9
-about 200' of recycled 1/2" hose (it used to be part of the solar pool heater at my parents old house) - free (booyah!)
-two bags of rain bird 1 gph emitters - $32

Less than $150

Spring has even arrived to boot (i actually got a sunburn!)

Next weekend's project is to build a box over the control & exposed PEX tubing (it doesnt do well in sunlight apparently) & to do a little more thinning out of the weakest plants (took out two more yesterday). The rest all look to be healthy, but, in the section where the big boys are growing we planted three times as many as we have room for with the intention of thinning.

[Chewy]

Wasnt going to post an update on the plants for a few weeks, but theyve changed so significantly over the last week, I decided I would... its amazing the difference a week of warm weather and water actually getting to them will make i guess.

[SuperSonic]

I've planted mine this year already (June 1-2nd I can't really remember the date) And a few weeks later I don't have half of what you got already.

Mine have really only started to sprout now. A few inches off the ground me thinks. I think its too hot and to sunny in the area in which I have planted them, but slowly, they are growing. I will post pics soon (insert "To be Continued" here).

[Chewy]

Coming along really well still, almost remarkable growth. Begging to think i'm going to have to do a lot more thinning that anticipated - also have come to the realization that planting the big ones nearest the easy access might have been a mistake - will make it easy to get them out, should there be any real successes, but, also limits the area for them to grow. <sigh> next year...

Have also noticed a real difference in the size of the plants between the two beds. The only difference's being species & sun (the small bed is closer to the fence & might get a little less sun). Dont know the species well enough to be able to tell if they're normal for this point or not. Will be interesting to watch.

Couple shots of where a couple of the typical plants from the big bed are now:

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

This looks like it's turning out to be a good learning process for you (and for the rest of us, as we watch your patch progress pics). Thanks for documenting this. I'm sure you'll get some beastly specimens for your efforts.

[Chewy]

Another update - the last week has seen them all grow tremendously (im rather quite surprised to be honest, I guess i was expecting growth, but not this aggressive; hopefully i havent spawned an entire crop of Audrey's!) - especially the larger varieties. All of the plants have female blossoms developing and all have started vining (a few of the atlantics, big max & conneticut fields have vines in the 2-3' range already). Definitely planted too many! LOL

The weather here has still been unseasonally cool & wet. I can count teh number of really "nice" days we've had on one hand still - which would be fine if it was April, but, we're pretty much in July now.. yikes! Many local crops (like strawberries) are two-three weeks delayed at this point. Am a little worried about what will happen with the kins - but, nothing to do at this point but wish and hope.

For size reference, the water lines are staked about a foot or so off the ground.

[Chewy]

Update for this week, more very significant growth from last week. And, blossoms - including a dozen or so females. Will be cutting off most of the females on the giants though (boo hoo), they're too close to the main stalk - if the pumpkins get any bigger than your average jack o lantern, the pumpkin will pull the plant out of the ground.

The neighbour didnt plant this year & has agreed to take a few plants off my hands, which has made the whole "thinning" thing easier to swallow, i just didnt have the heart to do it.

The bigger varieties are still much much larger plant wise than the smaller ones, but, they're all growing rapidly. Yay!

A few pics follow

[monstermash]

The patch is really coming on nicely Chewy. I can't wait to see those beauties grow and grow. How big are you hoping for?

[Chewy]

How big am i hoping for? no idea really. The jack-o-lanterns, lumina & conneticut field - I guess we'd like to see in the 15-20 pound range. The big max are supposed to be able toget into the 50-100 pound range, so, being the conservative type, i guess i'd be happy with a couple of kins in the 25+ pound range. The giants, no idea & from what ive been reading of late, we started them way too late for them to have any chance of getting huge.

The other problem (and, I dont know how or what impact this will have), spring still hasnt arrived here (well, unless you count the three sunny days we had in June). Summer - hah. The headline on our newspaper yesterday was proclaiming cool, damp and dreary for the rest of July still. Ahhh!

Many local crops are late - but, they're proviing to be very good once ready, so we'll have to see.

Updated photos follow from the weekend



You can see the colour variations in the different species - the plants on the top right are the giants & they're much yellower than the others.



Kin coming!



Aggressive vines - some of the ones stretching across the geotex are actually from the outside plants on the far bed - the vines are 20'+ long & grow 4-6" per day right now. Trained these guys towards the smaller varieties in the small bed. I didnt realize that the jack be little's arent vining either, they're "bush" plants - too bad they have tons of room to grow into. Will plant them on an inside row next year!



a baby giant. Doesnt lookimpressive at this point thats for sure. It's about 2" across.



Another one growing, i *think* this is a big max, it's about 3" long at this point



not sure what this one is, it's probably a conneticut field or a jack o lantern



a bee hard at work, too bad this is a male blossom (no kin under it)...



couple of jack o lanterns

[Chewy]

Aggressive growers these pumpkins are let me tell you... another week - another week of rather pronounced change - including proliferation of many kins. At this point, all of the plants except for one conneticut field and the jack-be-littles have at least one kin on them.

Have removed all but two kins on the giants (and, with none of the giants anywhere near as large as the biggest half dozen of teh regular varieties, i'm not optmistic about getting any really big ones this year). Letting the rest go the way they are for now, seems to be working.

2 kins coming along well in this shot:



One of the bigger ones - to put it's size into perspective, the irrigation line is about a foot off the ground. I tried to rotate this one so its bottom was on the ground, but the vine is firmly stuck. Hopefully it doesnt get too funny a shape.



This one was interesting because the stem is fattening up quite significantly - we were surprised to see the stem so much thicker than the surrounding vine. Learn something new every day...



Wish i remembered - or could tell where the vine this one is one had come from. Bizarre shape & unique colouring compared to the rest. It almost looks like a squash. Hmm!



Couple more on the way, these guys, er, girls i guess, are about 3" long at this point



Definitely planted too many. The upside, i dont need to weed in between the plants!



Three kins in this shot:



Biggest one in the patch right now. I put my 8L watering can beside it for some size reference. This guy weights about 5-6 pounds already. I tried to reorient this one also, no luck, the vine's firmly stuck to the ground (at every point where a leaf has grown, it's tentacles (technical term i know) have rooted. I think its ok to cut it loose, but i'm a little afraid to do that, will need to do some more reading i guess.



Will be thinking about starting to slip some boards under the kins to protect them from the ground soon.

[punchi]

That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I love pumpkins!

[Tricksy Faery]

Those all look awesome. I wish I had the space to plant myself some. Great job Chewy.

[monstermash]

Cracking crop. Get those beauties off the ground. I wish I had planted this year.

[Chewy]

Thanks very much.

It's been an adventure so far that's for sure. Learning a ton about it & for the most part things appear to be on track (as best as we can tell at least, will know for sure mid-october i guess!).

Have already started planning / plotting / scheming for next year. Have moved the fence on the east side out to the property line, which gets me another 180 square feet or so, which will let me expand the smaller bed to be about the same size as the big one.

Also have made some preliminary decisions on what to plant - or, um, not plant for next year already also. Planning on dropping the giants from the patch (we do have a couple of special seeds from 800lb plus pumpkins that we'll use in a seperate mound behind the patch next year).

And, on inside rows next year am going to add a new species called kakai. Looks cool (too bad they're so small - 5-8 pounds? LOL):

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5701-kakai.aspx

[Chewy]

Update. I posted pictures of a handful of the kins asking for name suggestions in another thread last weekend. Will get my daughter to pick some names for them this weekend.

In the meantime, here's what a few of them look like now. The biggest change is a few of them are starting to turn orange. Not sure if it's on schedule, early or late. Still have female blossoms coming too, which could be interesting i guess.

The biggest was 40" & change around last weekend, is now 44-1/2" around now.



You can see one of dad's sad little squashes in behind this one. This is one of a couple that's starting to get some orange.



one of the "not so giants"



mystery kin, still dont know what variety this one is



the big one - check the orange starting to come