Last Sunday before the Chili Fest Jimmy, Richie and Grandpa G picked a few of their pumpkins. We left a few in the garden in hopes for a heavier pumpkin.
Jimmy picks his largest pumpkin. He had three very nice fruits on his vine. We wonder how big this one would have got without the other two. We bought our pumpkin plants from Cooks nursery. They were labeled as "Atlantic Giants". Unfortunately I don't think they were from the largest of fruits.
Richie picked his pumpkin and we were surprised to find the pumpkin wall was very thin in comparison to pumpkins we have grown in the past.
Richie and Jimmy measure height, length, and ground to ground. We will be posting these for all to beat. Yes our pumpkins are little this year. They had so much promise but just did not grow. We received some good seed from David but they would not set fruit. He had a few grow over 100 pounds but ours started, then shriveled. One of our vines would start to grow into the air and then break as it grew longer. We are joining the Utah Pumpkin Club (yes there is such a thing) and they will help us with some good seed. David's seeds were good genetics we just started growing them a little late and had a problem with fungus and setting fruit.
Richie and Jim weighed the pumpkins on our bathroom scale.
They looked a lot bigger in the garden. I commit myself to growing a much bigger specimen next year. I talked with some other growers and one of my problems might be fertilization temperature. I was trying to do my crosses in mid July and the temp is just to hot for a good set. They explained how to get around that issue and still set fruit in the heat. I will share this next summer. We will be carving these soon with Jacob. I am not saving any seeds even though I we did cross the mutant pumpkin with some pollen from a few of David's plants.
David came over for the chili fest and brought his big pumpkins. The pumpkin on David's left is over 100 pounds. It has a great shape and will be the future of one line of Glassford Pumpkins. Conner's pumpkin is just under 100 pounds... his daddy beat him. I think the one to David's right is called a Cinderella pumpkin. It has a great color and shape. I don't know how large they get. Thanks David and Conner for bringing your champion pumpkins.
This year the Giant Pumpkin Award goes to ..... David and Conner. They are fierce but generous competitors. I hope you continue to grow large pumpkins.
Don't tell me I don't read your blogs. This is another example of your excellence photography and comments. Keep up the good work. We all had lots of fun doing it with you. Dad & Mom
ReplyDeleteStart planning your pumpkin hill. Before you head to Nevada lets work some good old fashion steer manure into the soil.
ReplyDeleteThose are huge pumpkins! Hopefully Jacob does better at the pumpkin carving then last year. My goal was to make sure he knew we are not killing the pumpkin when we cut into it, second is that he isn't afraid of the inside of the pumpkin. Yes... last year was a bit traumatic for the little guy.
ReplyDeleteThis is another tradition that just isn't the same without Angie... we will have to carve and compare over the internet. She was always an amazing carver!
Thanks Jess :) I will definitely post my carving on-line. But you're right, it's just not the same. Remember what pumkin carving was like when we were young? we would completely cover the kitchen floor with garbage bags and dad would do his best to gross us out with the "pumkin guts" :)
ReplyDeleteHaha I remember carving pumpkins but I just enjoyed watching Grandpa and Dad pretend to eat the pumpkin insides and scare us... Very intense but very memorable! Angie and Jess had the most creative pumpkins, Me, Rachel and Rich just liked to play with the gooey insides!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure to scare you all with pumpkin guts. I had so much fun teasing you all. You were good sports putting up with my scare tactics. I love you guys,
ReplyDeleteDad