Patch Update 25/01/2012 – A late update

Hi guys, how is everything going out there for you?

This update is about 5 days late, due to Youtube of all things not being very helpful, and taking forever to upload the video, and when it finally does update, it says the video was deleted. So, an early start this morning made sure that the video was uploaded, and here is the post finally up on the website. The video editing software I use was also giving me grief as well, so no actual intro title on this video.

Also it wouldn’t let me draw on the video, like I thought it would, so I am pointing in the video for no real reason.


What has been happening

The pumpkins have actually now started growing, there is one on each plant at a decent size where they should be set, and keep growing, there may by one or two more little ones as well, but they aren’t looking too good, and will probably rot before setting, these ones I will be removing from the plant.

So here is a video to show you what the plants have been up to, I mention in the video that when people ask me about growing giant pumpkins I say the bare minimum is to do nothing apart from put seeds in the ground. Which is true if that is all that you want to do. So following my own advice, I have almost done that this year. I have done a few things, like the compost tea, and a different type of organic fertiliser, and all this is shaping things in my head for next seasons growing effort. So while this year might be an unknown, and the pumpkins might not do the best, next year I have a lot of things try and use. I will cover all of these things in another post near the end of this season.

I heard from a few people who are also not having the best season this year, and a lot of that is coming down to the not ideal weather conditions we have had so far. That being said, you never know what will happen until on the day.

Competition shaping up
The Giant Pumpkin Carnival here in Hamilton is starting to shape up, and we are just finalising a couple of things. We have sensortronic scales helping us out with the scales this year, which will be great. And I am just sorting things out for the downhill roll, which if you haven’t seen before is one cool event, and the video from last years one can be seen here.

Interesting conversation
Just by chance I was talking to someone the other day, and it turned out that they worked for an RD1 branch, so the topic turned to the nationwide giant pumpkin growing competition that they are running, which I think is a great idea. After talking to me about size and weight and other things, they were a bit concerned with how many will turn up and if they can cope with any rather large ones that show, I think this will be a great learning curve for them, and I hope they continue it on next year as well.

I was also told of the story of and elderly man who came into their branch, and proceeded to tell the story of how he got some giant pumpkins seeds from them, and he had planted them into an old compost pile, and the only thing that grew was this! As he pulled out an apple cucumber from his pocket. He said there was no chance it just grew by itself and was adamant it had come from the seeds they had supplied. I’m not so sure about that, but it is a great little story.

That is about me for this update, I love receiving feedback either via email or the comments below, so let me know if you have something to say, and also let me know if there is anything you want to know about. I will try my best to update the site with the info you want.

Cheers
Sam

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