Washington update.

Well I promised an update so here it is.  I have pumpkins on vine.  They are
growing.  They are embarrasingly small.  Well OK, not all of them.  But I
had such high hopes that this year with the good seeds, increased space and
the know how that I have picked up over the last few years that I would
finally grow a true giant and have something of truly impressive proportions
growing in mid August.  Well I'm not quite there yet.  .   The weather in
Washington has been a contributing factor this year.  I fear I missed summer
when I went to Ohio on vacation.  Flowering and fruit setting started a good

two weeks later than normal this year.  If you saw my updates from earlier
in the season my 758 Mombert 97 was growing like crazy it is still the
biggest plant I have ever grown.  The fruit on it are not.  I was unable to
set any on the main vine so they are on the secondary mains and secondary
vines.  I was adjusting the position on one of the largest ones with a nice
shape when I heard a crack.  It was the stem breaking halfway across.  I
didn't move it much and it was in the afternoon.  But it was only about 67º
out at the time.  Anyway there are several fruit on the plant but I haven't
measured them yet.  I'm still waiting for one of them to impress me and them
I will make some culls.  Plenty of aborts again this year on all the plants.


The 769 Mettler 98 is also an aggressive grower I've limited it's space and
pruned a lot of vines. I mainly wanted it for a pollinator for the 916 LaRue
97.  It has two fruit set that I will probably keep and several other open
pollinated fruit that I will cull off soon.  Again no measurements.

The 916 LaRue 97 was the seed that produced my biggest plant and fruit from
last year.  This year it has been my smallest plant.  It suffered some early
season damage when part of the cloche blew down on top of it and some leaves
were scorched.  It was slow to recover and is still not a large plant.  It
has very little resemblance to last years plant at all.  But it also has my
two largest fruit growing on it.  One is on the main vine and on 8-15 it
measured 189" OTT.  On 8-12 it was 172" OTT.  Over that three day period our
weather was basically crummy.  Friday may have gotten into the low 70's and
Sunday's high temp was 63º with a lot of rain.  We get one or two nice days
and then another front comes through with rain and low temps.  I wonder what
the growth would be like if we had gotten any warm weather?  The second
fruit on the plant is on a secondary and on 8-12 it measured 159" OTT and on
8-15 measured 173" OTT.  The one on the main was pollinated on 7-12 and the
one on the secondary was pollinated 7-13.  The larger one has me ahead of
the measurements I had on my 429 last year and the other one is on par with
it for this date.  

I am pleased and suprised with what this plant is doing so far.  I know it's
a long season and a lot can happen between now and October, but it's good to
know that even with the crummy weather we're having I'm ahead of last years
pace.  I wonder if the stress the plant went through early in the season had
anything to do with it's perfomance now?  Does anyone else have any
experience with plants performing well after an early season setback?
Perhaps they need that to produce up to their potential.  And if so, what
would be the best way to provide it without truly damaging the plant?  I
know that with roses if you want bigger blooms you do more pruning of the
plant and if you want more blooms you do less.  Perhaps there is a corrolary
with AG pumpkins. That 759 Mombert I have growing is as big and pampered and
as healthy a plant as you are likely to see but all those buried vines and
big green leaves aren't adding up to big fruit yet.  Maybe it just needs
more heat than we've had this year.  Anyway that is all for this update.  I
want to publicly thank Jan Canyon for coming out and watering my patch for
me on short notice when I was away on vacation.  She hasn't posted much on
the list this year but I know she is on here and I hope all her pumpkins are
intact in October and extra heavy.  I'll post another update when I start to
get excited or (cross my fingers) disaster strikes. 

Chris Michalec
Covington, WA

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