And the 2007 winner is ...............

Here he is, the grand master, along with his 342# beauty.
The official weight for my pumpkin was 133#.

September 22, 2007 - It's final

Well, sad to say, it's that time of year again, we're officially done with the 2007 pumpkin growing season. Dave had an official weight done by the government and took the crown, yet again, at a whopping 342#. It took 5 guys to get it into and out of his truck.

Steve and I did a very unscientific weigh in in our back yard with 2 different scales and about 5 different weights, but I think mine was about 130# and 76" in circumference. I plan to send it to work with Dave on Monday to get a more accurate weight.

My second fruit had started to rot on both the top and bottom so it was deposited into the compost pile along with the vines. It didn't get much larger than a normal medium sized pumpkin. It's good to have my garden and backyard back again.

My big pumpkin stopped increasing in size several weeks ago so I assumed it had completed its growth for the season. The nights have been regularly in the 40s and 50s lately with days in the high 80s and 90s.

September 9, 2007 - 50 F and overcast

We are getting our first taste of fall today. I was starting to look forward to winter since I had bought a new pair of XC ski boots, but now that it is 50 F today, I think I'm not done w/summer yet.

It's supposed to snow above 7000' today. I'll have to check the mountains tomorrow when the clouds lift to see if we actually got any of the white stuff.



Here are the latest statistics on the pumpkins:

Mine:
The beetles are continuing to eat away at my leaves and I'm starting to see mildew on the leaves closest to the roots, but mine continues to thrive.

It measures 74" in circumference and the larger pumpkin appears to be healthy. There is another pumpkin on my second vine that is doing OK but is definitely showing signs of the beetles feasting on it. I'm going to leave it as the sacrificial fruit. I discovered a 3rd smaller pumpkin on my main vine, that I hadn't seen before and I pulled it off today. It was a little moldy and chewed on, so I threw it into the compost this morning. It's time to let all the nutrients go to the main one now. According to Dave's notes, the rapid growth will start to slow down now that the evenings are getting cooler and days shorter.

I'm going to keep the hail / shade screens over the pumpkin. The squirrel has been distracted with the plums this year so maybe he won't chew on my pumpkin.

Dave's:
The latest measurement was 90" as of last night. His vine is definitely healthier looking than mine. He has been manually killing the beetles and the special attention shows. The bugs tend to congregate in the blossoms so its easy to squash a lot w/one stomp by picking the blooms.