Finally a female bloom

I finally had a female bloom develop and open, it was pollinated this Friday 8/4/06.
I trimmed off 3 side vines this week so hopefully the plant will focus on growing the pumpkin and not the vines now.
I'm also fertilizing weekly, so hopefully I'll see some fruit soon.

Dave's plant is taking over his yard and he already has a sizable fruit.

Hail !!!!!! - June 24,2006

I noticed this morning that I had my first male blossom bloom on the plant in the front yard. Later in the day I made a quick run to the local shopping center only to have hail strike while I was gone and no one at home covered my pumpkins.

I will watch the plants for a few days to see if they make a miraculous recovery, but in the meantime, I have another seed started that I will be putting outdoors soon.

I had thought about rigging up some protective covering for the 2 plants since Colorado is notorious for summer hail. But I had procrastinated since they had done so well last summer. Guess this is another lesson learned for next summer's attempt.

June 21 - The competition!

I can definitely say that using Miracle Grow makes a difference in how one neighbor's plant looks over another. Dave's plant is definitely more robust than mine.

I started another seed indoors today to add to my backdoor plant, just in case that plant dies because of all the holes in its stem.

June 17,2006 - One plant definitely better than the other

The backyard plant has more holes in the main stem and I doubt that it is going to survive, but I will keep babying it. I'm tempted to get another seed from Dave and plant it in anticipation of the backyard one dying.

I applied some Age Old Grow 12-6-6- liquid fertilizer last Friday on June 9 , to both plants, and the plants seem to be a littler more robust. We have had 90-100 F temperatures this past week and we even had rain yesterday. We've been lucky, no hail yet.

Here's the front yard plant.



Neighbor Max, 3 doors down also planted a seedling from Dave in their front yard so our street is going to have quite the pumpkin presence pretty soon.

June 10, 2006 - 2 plants thriving

Left picture:Backyard Right picture : Front yard

I planted a seed inside on April 30 and set it on top of the water heater to stay warm. It germinated on May 12.

I direct seeded the front yard plant in the ground on May 7th under a Wall of Water and it germinated on May 16th.

The outside temperatures lately have been in the 80-90 F range and I've been watering the 2 plants every evening about a gallon of water each. I noticed that the backyard plant has scars on the stem, I wonder if the squirrels have started chewing on it?

The spinach is doing quite well and we've been eating it regularly.

The front yard plant gets the afternoon sun and seems to be thriving quite well.

Pumpkin quilts in Colorado

I've been to 2 quilt shows so far this summer and noticed that pumpkins are showing up there as a subject.

Berthoud, Colorado, &
Estes Park, Colorado

Obtained Seeds - the 2006 Season has begun! - 4/30/06 12:30 pm

The 2006 pumpkin season has had its official kick off. I obtained my seeds today.

This year I've decided to plant bigger pumpkins.

Last year the backyard produced a 75# beauty in only 1/2 a season. I'm hoping for bigger since I will be home all summer to take care of it.

Dave gave me seeds for a

• 351 Noel 05
• F 771 Stellpflug
• M Unknown

That's for you pumpkin geeks. For the non geeks, it has the potential to be big and green. Dave says it is an Atlantic Giant.

We may have some more competition this year, neighbor Paul may also participate. He's a fellow engineer, so who knows where the competition may go to this year. (grower trivia: I'm an Industrial engineer by degree, Dave is Mechanical, and I don't know what kind Paul is.)

Dave has his hole dug anticipating being able to plant. He has several choices of seeds he received from fellow pump addicts on the web in Massachusetts and Morrison,CO. My Noel 05 seeds are from Massachusetts.

We had snow and freezing weather last week, so I'll start my seed in doors this week. My gardening book says the average last frost date for Colorado is May 6. But we know what averages can do to tender pumpkin plants.