Tuesday, June 30

Is this the Chosen One?

I took a chance and gave the girl a nice fish emulsion and seaweed bath tonight. Hopefully this little girl will appreciate it!


Monday, June 29

Decision Time

So which is it gonna be? The current plant, happily growing, sensing no threat?



Or will I go with the youngster just getting started? The decision will have to be made once and for all sometime this week.






Deep in thought... who should live, who must die... how did this picture get in the blog???



Thursday, June 25

Is There a Fungus Expert in the House?!?!



What the heck is this stuff? I've had it erupting here and there since spring. Well Ms. Fungus, you are nasty and I don't approve of you and I wish you would go away!



Wednesday, June 24

I Don't Like my Leaves

I know, all pumpkin growers are paranoid people. If it wasn't this, I'd be fretting about something else. But still... big leaves provide the energy to power fast pumpkin growth. Is something wrong here, or an I just worrying or no reason?

The leaves on the older part of the vine are decent:



But the new leaves should be "fluffy" and already taking over.




Sunday, June 21



I Thought I was Going to be a Father

But would YOU want to give birth in 100 degree heat?
I'm just not comfortable with the way this girl is growing... more on that soon.

Friday, June 19

A Time for War

I hatched my first squash vine borer (SVB) today. You know what that means:


What, you don't hatch bugs in baby food jars at your house? Yeah, I guess that counts as a bit unusual.

At MY house, I collect SVB eggs and hatch them in a baby food jar. It lets me know exactly when that dreaded creature has become a serious threat. Then I let the kids take them out to the driveway and fry the buggers with a magnifying glass in the sun. That part is fun too!

All this stuff mixed together looks almost as nasty as Norwegian Seaweed Extract:




Meanwhile the vine is about 8 feet long and growing about a foot a day. I'll get a picture posted Sunday.



Sunday, June 14

In the Beginning...

God created Norway.

One does not question the Almightly lightly, but still, one can't help but wonder if this was the best of moves.

I mean, all the people do there is Alpine ski. And then in the off-season, they fish. But then somebody hatched a brilliant plan:

"Americans are stupid. Let's start selling them our excess seaweed and claim it is miracle food loved by Giant Pumpkins!"

And like millions of other stupid American pumpkin growers, I've fallen for it!

Then on the other hand consider Alaska. It is very similar to Norway, except that contrary to popular belief there are virtually no mountains, so the locals can't even Alpine ski.

So instead, you guessed it, they pulverize fish scraps and once again sell it to gullible pumpkin growers.

Put the seaweed and the fish fertilizer together and I don't know how well the plant really likes it but the flies think it smells great and the wife makes me sleep in the back bedroom. (Maybe I should move to Norway???)







Sunday, June 7

Time to get the Show on the Road

The roots are established. There are worms down there big enough to make a small meal off of, it you're into that sort of thing. The vine borers are out there somewhere (more on that later). The plant will grow a couple of inches tomorrow, a couple more the day after that, and then BOOM! it'll add a foot of vine a day as we race towards Pollination Day.








Saturday, June 6

Vandalism?

Look kids, I've got a pretty good idea which of you might have been playing around with my irrigation system. And I think it's fair to warn you: I know a thing or two about vandalism myself. When I was a kid, I spent as many hours playing with firecrackers and fire in general as you do now playing video games. So if you don't want your mailbox going up in a pillar of flame at 3:00 am, hands off my stuff!

On a more cheery note, I'd be happy to teach you how to build a Toilet Paper Launcher some time for getting the stuff into those hard to reach upper branches.

Oh by the way, the vine is starting to look better and it about to take off - I'll get a picture and update done tomorrow.