Giant pumpkins August 2, 2013

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. 

David with Onesimus the giant pumpkin

David with Little-Bigger

Rose with Little-Bigger the Giant Pumpkin

Zeke with Little Bigger

The boys having fun with squirt guns

Fun in the pumpkin patch

Rose waters the plants with her squirt gun

Here are our sweet Grand kids in the new hammock

July 30, 2013 Giant Pumpkins and the Squash Vine Borer

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.

Little-Bigger today

Onesimus is Catching up 

July 29, 2013 Giant Pumpkins

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.

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

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 28, 2013

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- 32 days old
This is "Little Bigger" today he is starting to look kind of lumpy. LOL. We worked to fit him with some new sheets of styrofoam to accommodate his growth. This pic is from this morning before we fixed him and built the new hoop house. We had a small sheet of styrofoam under the pumpkin but added to it. We bought a large sheet but we didn't think we could lift the pumpkin and get it under. Steve tried to lift him.... too heavy... which really is a good exciting thing.





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 24, 2013 New Hoop house

July 24, 2013

Our 3 grand kids are with us now while their parents are out of town. We enjoy having them and two of them Zeke and Rose love to garden. David isn't into gardening today. He is really into watching "Duck Dynasty" and playing his Spider man video game.

  Little Bigger the giant pumpkin July 24, 2013

 Rose and Zeke with Onesimus the giant pumpkin

 Zeke with Little-Bigger the giant pumpkin

 One of our giant sunflower is in full bloom

This is David he is really into watching "Duck Dynasty". Check out his comfy spot on the sofa.

Today farmer Steve built a hoop house for Onesimus the giant pumpkin on the left and fixed up Little-Bigger's hoop house so the sun won't get on him.

Giant Pumpkins July 23, 2013

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.

July 20th 3013 Giant pumpkins

July 19 2013

Little Bigger wow!
Onesimus July 19 2013- He looks like Little-bigger did 10 days ago...

July 12, 2013

July 12, 2013

Giant Pumpkin Patch

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.

I think he's a little bigger than yesterday

Thursday July 11, 2013

July 11, 2013

Yesterday before the storms rolled through I gave the pumpkins some "Mega Fish" .... I think they really liked it!

Farmer Steve with Little Bigger the giant pumpkin

Farmer Lucky with Little bigger the Giant pumpkin

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.

Sibbie is bigger too!

Onesimus on second plant with the long stem

July 8th

July 8, 2013

 Little Bigger 

Sibbie the sibling pumpkin

Our Pumpkin Patch

Lucky's Garden and Giant Pumpkins 2013

Lucky's Garden 2013

July 7, 2013

Our Pumpkin Patch is growing. Farmer Steve was busy extending the fence over the weekend. I'm glad the pumpkins like the rain the ground is soggy out there but they seem to like it.

Our first baby named "Little Bigger" is much bigger today. I'm guessing about the size of a baseball. I placed a water bottle next to the fruit for perspective.

June 28 to July 7 changes. Little bigger started out about the size of  Steve's finger nail and now is about as big around as a water bottle. You can see in this photo that the blossom is finished blooming.  I am not sure if the pumpkin was pollinated.  If it was not pollinated the fruit will die and drop off of the vine. That is a very sad thought. 

Here is a pic of the new pumpkin on the end of the vine located 3 feet away from "little-bigger". You can see that the blossom on  the end has not opened yet. I call this pumpkin "Sibbie" because she is a sibling to little-bigger.