August 29 - overcast but no rain

We have an infestation of Western spotted cucumber beetles as identified by Dr. Dave. They've moved from my front yard to the back yard and are eating the leaves of the pumpkin now. They started by eating my string beans and now they have branched out. Dave says he has them on his pumpkins now too.











Mine = 64" Dave's pumpkin = 83"

The nights are starting to cool off so the end of the growing season will be here soon. My tomatoes and zucchinis have slowed their production already.

August 27 - ovecast most of today

We had a hot weekend and then today it was mostly overcast. My pumpkin is 60" in circumference. At this rate I'm going to have to tape 2 tape measures together to keep measuring.

I've noticed that the little yellow beetle with dark spots that are all over my string beans and tomatoes in the front yard are now in the backyard and are on the pumpkin and basil now. Hopefully the pumpkin survives.

August 24 - still growing and raining

We left town for a few days to explore Telluride and I came back to find my pumpkin still thriving. It measured 54" this morning. I've put the hail screens on it as protection since we had hail last week and I didn't want to take any chances. The skin seems to still be soft and not turning hard yet. That could be from all the shade the back yard gets. I noticed lots of little red bugs running all over the surface of the pumpkin. Must be mites of some kind.

Dave says his measured 74" last night. Last year this time it was 81".

August 18,2007 - still getting afternoon showers

My pumpkin is at 37" and Dave said his is at 61". The hot weather and regular afternoon storms are really helping.

I was duly chastised again today for not putting my pumpkin in the front yard. But you can see for yourself how well everything else is doing there. I've really been enjoying all the different tomatoes that we've been eating.

August 14 - no rain but they're still growing

We've had weather in the 90's lately, afternoon clouds, and minimal rain.

My pump measured 29" today.

The North Carolina pumps are dying, who knows why, the leaves are yellowing.

And then there's Dave's pump.........51" around stem-to-blossom.

August 12,2007 - statistics

My pumpkin in the backyard continues to grow and is now starting to take over the grass.
The pumpkin itself measures 24" in circumference. I'm still watering it daily and fertilizing weekly.

Dave has a whopper. He's had 2 fruits abort on the same vine but has a huge one growing on another vine. The plant is heading for the side walk. This is the largest vine he's ever had in this current house. Not having any hail this year was a huge help with the plant growth.

I may have to concede the contest to him already. I may not win the pumpkin contest, but I definitely have a very tall sunflower in the front yard this year. It's at least 10' tall now but doesn't look like it will bloom for a few more days.

A new competitor joins us from North Carolina

We have some new competition this year and it's coming from a southern state. Sean has decided to join in the fun from North Carolina. We're having a virtual grow off here.

Sean planted Burpee seeds in early April and already has a few pumpkins. They were planted in fresh mushroom compost which may be contributing to the leaf color. NC soil is definitely different than what we're growing in, here in Colorado. All of us have had to supplement our native soil in some way or another .

Sean planted both regular and giant size pumpkins but the giant's have not fruited yet. I gave him a lesson in pollination so hopefully that will help his giants get started soon.












The 3 of us are using different growing techniques this year. Dave's plant is on flat turf in his front yard, Sean is growing his down hill, and mine is growing over the edge of a raised bed in my back yard.

The latest news today is that Dave's big pumpkin is starting to show signs of dying, so Sean and I may have a fighting chance this year. But, Dave let another bud pollinate, so he now has a backup fruit in the works.

I let another female bloom pollinate this morning to better my odds this year. My first fruit is about the size of a golf ball now. I have also switched to fertilizing once a week per Dave's advice.

We're at it again in 2007

It's another summer and we're growing pumpkins again. Dave provided me with 2 seedlings this year which I planted in the backyard. Shannon pollinated the first female bud for me on July 26. I've been using organic liquid fertilizer and feeding both vines every other week.

The 2 plants have taken over the boxes and are now proceeding into the grassy area. Fortunately I had already harvested the lettuce and spinach that had been planted there in the spring.

We were very fortunate this year to have NO hail. My vine recovered last year but I never had a fruit.




I plan to plant the pumps in the middle of the back yard next year so they will have plenty of room to grow. One of the vines has already broken off its leader vine when it spilled over the side of the box, despite the edge being padded.

I turned over 1/2 of my front this year (after living here 27 years) and planted the hot weather plants there, tomatoes, peppers, stringbeans, and cucumbers. They are all thriving beautifully and we've already been eating their produce. I was criticized by my competition for not giving this space to my pumpkins .














Dave pollinated his first female bud on July 4 and now has a fruit the size of a basketball.
He has given his plant the run of the front yard which faces east.

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.

Pumpkin weigh in stats as of 10/8/05

Dave - The "King" Pumpkin grower of Boulder ( so far ) - 125 #

Kenny, Cheryl, Jack in Ft Collins - 93#

Cara - The "Queen" - 79 # (and slowly turning to mush since the mold set in) and 35# (this is my pumpkin that grew from the top of the trellis in the sling

Anybody else have any stats to publish?


For the record, we had our first frost on 10/6/05

News of another pumpkin grown in Ft Collins

I gave some seeds to a friend in Ft Collins who later gave her plants to a friend. Here's news of their pumpkin that grew outside of our neighborhood........................

We are Kenny, Cheryl and Jack, in Fort Collins. We have been following your blog and growing our own pumkin with a plant given to us by our friend Delia. We were so happy with our pumpkin that we took it to a benefit and sold chances to guess its weight to raise money for the Larimer Center for Mental Health. We haven't weighed it yet, but when we do, we will let you know. We're looking for a scale that's big enough!

Thanks so much, growing this pumpkin has been so much fun, and showing it off even more fun!

63" and 79# as of 10/2/05

I picked my pumpkin this evening. It was a bittersweet event.

We left for the weekend to see the fall colors in Fraser, Colorado, only to return and find that the squirrel had chewed about an 8" diameter circle and the pumpkin was starting to mold. My application of cayenne pepper slowed him down on the other spots but he was clever enough to start chewing in a new spot. He must've sensed that I wasn't here.

I doubt that I'll have much to show by Halloween. So we did one last measurement and Steve volunteered to hold it while on the scale which came in at 79# which isn't too shabby for not getting pollinated till August.

I'm hoping I can keep the squirrel away from my pumpkin in the hammock long enough to actually have something to show for Halloween.

61" as pf 9/19/05

The squirrel has been taking bites out of my pumpkin! grrrrrrrr
I sprinkled cayenne powder on the spot where he's been eating, hopefully that will discourage him from any more snacking.

My hanging pumpkin is still pretty round and still hanging. I've noticed that the part that is not hidden by the lycra is starting to turn orange.

58.5" as of 9/13/05

I think my pumpkin is as large as it's going to get. It's been 58.5 " for 2 days in a row and today has really cooled off, it's cloudy and in the 60s.

My other pumpkin that is growing off the ground is getting some heft to it and it. Maybe it's good that the growing season is ending cause I don't think the trellis could handle much more weight, it's already starting to sway

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