Raising the Titanic
List,
After a long absence, I am back to post a season update from Woodridge,
IL. I'll begin by summarizing the season to this point. After delays
caused by a very wet spring, plants were transplanted between the 17th
and 24th of May. Plants were at two sites.
Site 1 - 729 Hackney '96
296 Sliwka '99
Site 2 - 918 Handy '98
854 Holland '98
858 Baird '97
937 Mombert '98
Early on the 937 Mombert, and 296 Sliwka pulled out in front. The 854
Holland began to show stunted growth which was surprising after the
fairly good showing last year (370 UOW blossom end split at 44 days).
In mid June the 729 Hackney suffered a broken main, inches from the
stump, in a strong storm. The stem was broken 3/4 of the way through and
I nearly pulled the plant. Instead I buried the damaged area and waited.
By mid July the vine was recovering at 14' with 22" leaves. By this time
the 854 looked so bad that I pulled it. The 918 also looked bad, and
although it wasn't pulled, it failed to produce any decent pumpkins. by
7/16 the 296, 937, and 858 all had set fruit.The 729 finally set a fruit
on 7/30 and although it was a late set, it has been gaining on the
others. The current standings are:
296 Sliwka - 102"C 231.75"OTT at 48 days
858 Baird - 88.5"C 211.5"OTT at 39 days
729 Hackney - 79.25"C 195.5"OTT at 27 days
937 Mombert - 106.5"C 251.5"OTT at 47 days
Along with the usual problems to deal with (cuke beetles, vine borers,
powdery mildew, etc...) I have 2 potentially fatal problems to add. I
fear that mosaic virus has shown up on the tips of two seperate plants.
If that weren't enough, vandals have again visited my remote site and
pulled a section of fence down and trampled some vines. The pumpkins
were not damaged yet, but history tells me they'll probably be back, and
of course my biggest pumpkin is at that location. With 6 weeks to go
until the weigh-off I'll probably wind up in the nut house or at least
some kind of therapy group.
Holding my breath,
Greg "Titanic Atlantic" Sliwka
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