Oregon Update
Yes its true, back from an extended vocal layoff from the chat lines, the new
year has begun here in Oregon. Now entering its 4th year on the pumpkin
email airways, it is once again time for the Oregon Updates to start. For
all Newbies, my name is The Pumpkinguru from the grand city and host to the
most grower friendly weighoff site in the world, Canby, Oregon. It is here
that the new growing season was named in its entirety, "P2K". My goals for
the upcoming season are simple, and play to the 2K theme. In 1999 the Good
Lane patch was the first to produce an official 850 pound plus pumpkin, and
official 850 plus pound squash in the same year, and I have decided to try
and up the numbers to a 1000 pound squash and 1000 pound pumpkin.
Seed selection is going well actually with my current top list looking like
this....
Pumpkins
#1 935 Lloyd #2 801 Stelts #3 946 Geerts #4 697 Ciliberto #5 865 Mettler
#6 620 Black #7 1009 Eaton #8 850.5 Hester #9 815 Checkon #10 730
Stellpflug #11 888 Mombert #12 914 Wier #13 879 Holland #14 720 Hester
#15 793 Hester #16 698 Richart #17 743 Hester #18 968 Sproule #19 1010
Mackenzie and #20 688 Hester. Only 12 will have homes in the patch so I will
have to narrow down.
Okay, Now squash
#1, is there a doubt, the seeds are unique, they are huge and ready to rip,
Fruit weighed really heavy and was big that they came from. The #862.5
Hester. It is from the 900.8 Lyons squash and crossed with my #469 pumpkin
from 1997 that weighed (no BS) 30% heavy. The #469 offspring have been
averaging 16.6% heavy as well. Cannot wait for that seed to break ground.
#2 900.8 Lyons #3 821 Stellpflug from way back, #4 815 Anderson, #5 738
Stellpflug, #6 611 Hester.
Now the patch is still in hybernation, but my soil reports came back very
good. My PH is down at the worst site to 6.8, while all but one other are
sitting at a grand preseason mark of 7.1. I am adding a little lime to
counteract the manure, but that is not a problem. Standard manure amounts
this year at 12 yards per site, have another 36 yards of potting soil to
loosen up the soil even more, 50 yards of mint compost already here and all
the fertilizer is ready to go.
I am running 7 full 45 x 45 feet sites again this year double planted xmas
tree style with mains running NE and SW, as well as 4 smaller sites 10 x 30
for pollinators. I will give them love this year however since the #850.5
came out of a pollinator site last year. 2000 has a good feeling to it, so
lets all start getting pumped up.
Take Care,
Brett The Pumpkinguru Hester
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