Lucky's Garden 2013 and (Giant Pumpkins)
I started my giant pumpkin inside on April 10th this year 2013. My husband came up with a good name for the giant pumpkin this year. This year he is named "Semore" because we want to "see more" this year than we did last year with "Morty" my first Giant pumpkin attempt.
This year I planted a seed I bought too late to plant last year. I got it from the Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin growers website. It was easy to order with PayPal.I thought $10.00 was a bit steep but I figured it was helping the association which I am a member of so I bought a package.
I choose a seed from Cecil Weston's pumpkin. He is located in Circleville, Ohio and Teresa have been very nice to answer my questions about growing a giant pumpkin.
Imagine my surprise when the seeds came and it wasn't seeds it was "a seed" a $10.00 seed... Oh my goodness. I should have taken a picture of it but I didn't think of it at the time. It was a really big seed way bigger than the seed I ordered from eBay last year.
I was a long time before it finally sprouted. I actually dug it up because I was afraid the soil was too wet and it was going to rot. At the time I planted I didn't have any seed started so I scooped out the seed and added the jiffy mix and re-planted. To be honest I dug that poor seed up 3 times in all... I wanted to see what it was doing and I just couldn't understand why it was taking so long to sprout. Since then I've learned that there are tips to help the seed along but I didn't know them at the time.
May 10th
May 16th All the plants in the garden are wilted and look like they are dying. We watered them well last night. I'm wondering if the the miracle grow was the cause or not enough water?
May 10th
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| Placed in Garden looking good. Transplanted May 10th. |
May 17th Still alive
The plant is still alive but the bottom two leaves are pale. One of those has a big chew hole from some sort of critter. I hope the plant lives...This makes me sad. It does look much better than yesterday. I put some newspaper around it to hopefully keep the soil moist. I think I will try adding some mulch today.
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| Still alive but looks bad |
It is official "Semore" is dead. We thought initially that the problem was from a fungus in the bag of soil I used when I transplanted. The whole garden is looking really bad though and not growing like it should be all of the plants took a hit. We now think it could be the lawn care service that we use and that the wind carried the poison into the garden. We canceled the lawn service.
May 18, 2013
We did a really fun thing today. We attend a giant pumpkin growing seminar in Circleville, Ohio. We took this pic of the pumpkin water tower when we drove by.
We became members of the Circleville Giant Pumpkin Growers Club and we came home with two giant pumpkin plants That they gave to us. They also gave us zip lock bags of stuff to put on the roots. Thanks to them we may still get to grow a giant pumpkin this year. Yay! I'm soooo excited!
We decided to plant them at the back of the yard and let them grow toward the east (which I guess is the directions that pumpkins like to grow "naturally"). We will be urban pumpkin growers.
We went home and that same day made plans to prepare the soil for planting. We chose a spot away from our vegetable garden along the back fence.
The only place we have is in the grass in the backyard. We will scrape off the grass and do the best we can with what we have to work with. With God's help maybe we will grow a giant pumpkin.
June 21st 2013
The veggie garden is planted and growing and today was my first harvest of 6 peas. LOL ... still very exciting for me.
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Me in the teepee with my pea harvest |
I made a teepee at the edge of the garden for the kids to play inside. The peas are planted in the inside to grow up and on the outside are pole beans. I also planted cucamelons this year. I had never heard of them before but thought it would be fund for the kids to pick them and eat them too. I guess they taste like cucumber with a bit of lime accent flavor. They are about the size of a cherry tomato. They are so cute and unusual I wanted to try to grow some.
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This is a picture of a Cucamelon plant the leaves look like grape vine to me  |
Our 9 year old grandson David was with us today. We just love him he is such a blessing in our lives. We got some pictures of him with the giant pumpkin plants.
June 26th 2013 our pumpkin plants are growing. They seem even bigger than they were a few days ago.It looks like at least a yard longer... crazy....
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| Here Steve is adjusting the secondary vine to grow out from behind the post |
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| Here is a picture of our two giant pumpkin plants. The one in the foreground is the is the larger of the two |
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| Here you can see Steve Checking to make sure the vine is covered |
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| We had to put up a fence to keep the dogs out of the garden they love the fishy smelling stuff we put on them to help them grow. Chester is in the background wishing he could get inside. Earlier each plant had their own little fence and you can see some leaf damage caused by the chicken wire. In this pic you can see one of the secondary vines so exciting! |
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| A few weeks ago Katie our old senior dog went into the garden and dug up and ate the roots of my tomato plants. She loves the fish product that I put on them to help them grow. I added soil and reburied the poor exposed chewed roots and tried to baby them but they are not doing well at this point. I'm hoping they were just set back a bit on time rather than dying.The entire garden looks bad. I don't know why. |
June 28 2013
Our new baby!
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| Our first pumpkin soooo cute and small grow baby grow! |
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| Here he is again. I know it's a female but for some reason I call all the baby pumpkins boys |
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| This is the plant with the tiny baby pumpkin on the end for perspective. You can't even see the baby in this pic but he's there on the end. June 30th: They grew even more after the huge rain. |
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| Me.. "Farmer Lucky" as Steve calls me with the giant pumpkins. |
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| Here you can see the veggie garden with the giant pumpkins in the background |
July 1st 2013
Two new babies |
| New Baby |
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| And Another New Baby! |
What a nice surprise to come home this morning after work and see that Farmer Steve had been out working hard burring vines and making new white covers for the babies.
The white covers are what Cecil and Teresa (giant pumpkin experts in Circileville, Ohio) recommend to shade the pumpkins from the hot sun. As the pumpkins grow larger they need to be protected from the sun so that the otter shell won't become hard and firm. If this happens they can split open because of their rapid growth rate.
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| The Giants love the rain! Look how they have grown |
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Here is Baby today. He is about the size of a golf ball or maybe a little bigger. Humm... that gives me an idea about naming him... Maybe I'll call him "Little-bigger". There is a story behind the name "Little-bigger."
The Story of Little bigger
When Rosie our grand daughter was around 3 years old she didn't want us to say that she was too little to do what she wanted to do. She would say no I'm "little bigger". At that time when visiting she still slept in a pack-n-play. One night we decided to use a big air mattress instead of the pack-n-play.... This did not go over well with Rosie. She cried and cried and said "no Lucky I'm a "little-bigger" sniff ..sob... sob .."I'm a Little-bigger". So out came the pack-n-play and Rosie slept with her feet pushing out on the side netting. She was a truly happy "little bigger" that night.
The Little kid's Tee Pee is taking shape
The Tee Pee looks great. The rest of the garden is drowning. The tomatoes still look pretty bad since Katie our dog dug them up a few weeks ago. I'm still hoping for some garden fresh tomatoes. In the picture you can see the Giant pumpkins in the background with their new white sun shades. Thanks "Farmer Steve" You Rock!
July 7, 2013
July 8, 2013    July 11, 2013
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Little Bigger today looks like 3 time as wide as the water bottle and almost as tall! I think we will need to remove the vine between the pumpkin and the bottle. I sent Cecil Weston an email for help on how to do it. I don't want to damage the pumpkin.
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| Sibbie is bigger too! |
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Onesimus on second plant with the long stem which is very good in the giant pumpkin world from what I have learned.
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July 12, 2013
Giant Pumpkin Patch
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| Here you can see Little Bigger and Sibbie our Giant pumpkins getting bigger. Today they were given some "Mega Sea" an organic solution that helps them grow. |
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| I think he's a little bigger than yesterday |
July 19 2013
He looks like Little bigger did 10 days ago...
July 23, 2013
Here is our grand daughter Rose with Little-Bigger July 23, 2013
Here is Rose showing us the garden
Here are Zeke and Rose harvesting in their tee pee. Zeke was so busy working he didn't want to look up but did for one second for the picture. He loves to help me in the garden.
Zeke took this picture of the sky. It was so pretty.
July 24, 2013
The grand kids are still visiting and enjoyed helping harvest today in the garden. We took some new pictures with the two giant pumpkins.
Rose and Zeke with Onesimus the giant pumpkin
Zeke with Little-Bigger the giant pumpkin
Farmer Steve was busy today making sure our giant pumpkins were protected from the sun. Each has their own hoop house. We want the outer shell of the pumpkin to stay tender so as it grows it will be able to expand. If they get into the sun the shell will harden and when the pumpkin grows it will split.
One of our giant sunflower's in full bloom
July 28, 2013
We worked hard in the garden this evening. Each giant pumpkin got new styrofoam and a new hoop house. It was late by the time we were finished but I will post pictures of the happy pair tomorrow.
Unfortunately, we are having a problem with squash bugs. I have not seen the bugs just the damage to the leaves and the eggs.
I spent several hours today looking under each leaf for eggs and annihilating them. I also had to remove some damaged leaves. This is a scary process but it needed to be done to prevent the sick looking leaves from carrying disease to the rest of the plant.
Cecil explained how to cut the vines close to Little-Bigger and how to treat the areas that were cut after they were removed. (Cecil is our mentor and giant pumpkin expert who lives in Circleville, Ohio) We cut the vines and leaves applied peroxide, and then apply fungicide immediately. The leaves don't look great they look like they have a disease. I'm hoping we can nurse the plant back to health by removing the bad spots. I'm hoping we don't lose the whole plant and the pumpkin. Last year disease killed one of my vines in a little less than two days.
This is what the Squash bug eggs look like eeeewwww gross! The squash bugs are gross too. I have to scrape the eggs off of the leaves and squish them. Besides being disgusting I found that I was causing damage to the leaves and as I tried to remove the eggs some dropped into the grass. I will never find them.
Later I looked around online to see if there was a better way. some people light them with a lighter, others saturate them with a mixture of dish soap and oil but that also damages the leaves. I read where one person tried using duct tape. They simply applied the tape and lifted the eggs and disposed of them. So this evening I tried it and it worked Amazingly well and there was no damage or only minimal damage to the leaves! I didn't actually count the eggs but by estimate I removed approximately 320 squash bug eggs today from our two giant pumpkin plants.
I talked to Cecil Weston (expert giant pumpkin grower) today and I guess the only way to kill the adult bug is to spray it directly. I have not seen the adults but I'm sure they are hiding somewhere. BEWARE adults squash bugs ...I am after you....die die die....
As I was looking for eggs I found another bug which I believe is a bean leaf beetle. It sort of looks like a lady bug but unlike the lady bug they are not good to have in the garden. I didn't want to touch them so I put the duct tape on them, removed them and folded up the tape to get rid of them. I do have damage to my beans in the garden too. They chew and make them look like the picture above. Of course our bean leaf beetles seem to be confused and also like chewing on our giant pumpkin leaves. This means WAR...
This afternoon we did some research and Farmer Steve went out to the home depot and bought an arsenal of insecticides that will kill these little pests.
Little Bigger
This is "Little Bigger" today he is starting to look kind of lumpy. LOL. We worked to fit him with some new sheet of styrofoam to accommodate his growth. This pic is from this morning before we fixed him and built the new hoop house.
Onesimus
Here is "Onesimus" today He is doing well. The plant looks much healthier than Little-Bigger's and the leaves don't have nearly as much damage. As you look at the picture you can see that the stem end and the blossom end are not level. It is important to have them level for the best growth and to prevent stress on the stem. This evening he was leveled and also go a new hoop house. I will post some pictures tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will work to slowly raise the vine to be level with the pumpkin stem. This is done slowly only a few inches per day. If the vine isn't raised to be level with the pumpkin it can snap off.... scary thought....
July 29, 2013
Today we had a new problem. On our second pumpkin "Onesimus" I found an area where a SVB (squash vine borer) had laid eggs and they hatched. I had to split the vine and dig out the gross grubs living inside.
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| This is a picture of the moth that lays the eggs at the base of the vine |
| This is a picture of the larvae inside the vine. The larvae inside of Onesimus was smaller about 1 centimeter long. There were several in there EEEWWWW!!!!!! I had to split the vine, dig them out and kill them. It was totally gross. I also found an adult squash bug laying her eggs and killed her and at least 80 eggs that I found on the leaves.  Picture of the Squash bug...disgusting |
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Onesimus on the left and Little-Bigger on the right in there new hoop houses that we built for them yesterday.
I spent the day burring the secondary vines which are the vines growing off the the main vine. When growing a giant pumpkin only one pumpkin is grown and nurtured on the vine. The secondary vines are important because they bring nutrients to the pumpkin. I also fed and watered the pumpkins.
In the garden I harvested cherry tomatoes and beans. I offered them to my neighbor. He said "no thanks", "we just bought some".
July 30 2013
Today I found "frass" which is a saw dust-like dropping on the pumpkin vine. The frass indicates the presence of the dreaded SVB (Squash Vine Borer). The squash vine borer is a moth that lays her eggs at the base of the plant. When the eggs hatch the larvae bore into the plant and feed on it from the inside robbing the plant of vital nutrients. They will usually attack plants that are in the squash family such as zucchini, pumpkins, and gourds. One sign that the larvae are present is when the leaves appear wilted. If the borer's are not found and removed they will kill the plant.
I spent the day slicing open the vines where I found the "frass" was and digging out the caterpillar/grubs from inside and killing them. Applying peroxide and fungicide then covering the vine with dirt. It was extremely gross. I'm guessing I found and killed around 15.
These are a couple of pictures that I found on the internet. The larvae is just like what I found in my plants however the one's I found where not this large.... thank goodness. The moth looks a little like a wasp when it is in flight. If you see these in the garden it is not at good sign. I need to read more to learn how to prevent these from attacking my plants next year.
August 2, 2013
I'm not so sure if the pumpkins are growing much after all of the bug attacks but still they are fun for us.
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David and Rose with Onesimus
Onesimus is estimated to weigh 175 by measurement
Next we will take our Giant pumpkins to the weigh-off in Dublin Ohio. When we are there we should be able to see some of the giants grown from all over.
The weigh-off is at 1:30pm September 13th... I'm excited.
September 19 2013
Sad news... Little Bigger deflated... I'm not sure what happened? I will go out today and harvest any seeds.
After the loss of Little bigger we moved Onesimus into the house. Here are the Grand kids with him on the dining room table.
September 19 2013
Sad news... Little Bigger deflated... I'm not sure what happened? I will go out today and harvest any seeds.
October 13, 2013Oakland Nursery Weigh-off17th place149.5 pounds
After the Weigh-Off a couple wanted to buy Onesimus... I couldn't part with him so we brought back home for our fall display.
Highlights from last year's garden
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This pic was on the ebay ad of the seeds I bought last year
During the last growing season in 2012 here in Ohio I decided to attempt to grow a giant pumpkin. I joined a few groups of people who were growing pumpkins and read everything I could find about the subject on the internet. I also had my "normal" veggie garden. I just decided to plant the giant pumpkins on the end and let them grow out into the yard.
I am pretty sure that my giant pumpkin named "Morty" was eaten by the Squash Vine Borer (SVB). Poor Morty.
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Squash Vine Borer- Meanie |
Morty weighed in at 12.5 pounds... I think maybe he would have taken the record for the smallest atlantic giant pumpkin.....Still it was the biggest pumpkin that I've ever grown and I hope "Semore" will be able to easily break that record this year.
Here is a few pictures from last year's garden.
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2012 Morty |
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Rose and I in the garden the evening we harvested Morty |
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David and Rose modeling the potatoes LOL! So stinkin cute. |
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Here is Zeke my little garden buddy. Of my 3 Grand children he was the one who loved to help me in the Garden |
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Here Zeke has the harvest all lined up. Cute right!? I could just eat him up! |
