Re: Rochester, NY update, 6/25/99 + broke personal best :-)

Go Rick GO!!!!!

rdi@dos.nortel.com wrote:

> Over the weekend, my 771 Fortin 98 had three pumpkins go through
> the 10 day mark.  All are perfectly round fruit set on secondaries (I lost
> the primary a while ago when it cracked off in a thunderstorm), set
> at about 17 1/2' from the stump.
> The plant is huge, with the secondaries roughly 25+' long.
> It's got over 80 21-25" leaves.
> It's getting very difficult to walk in the garden as it's only 9' wide...
> (everything's trained to go up the 38' length) the secondaries are only
> about a foot apart.   I have not had a single chewed flower since I
> put the 1" hole chicken wire around the whole garden.  The rabbits could
> get through the 2" hole chain link, but not through the 1" holes.
> Everything I have set (on both plants) used pollen from the 771.
> I need to decide what to put underneath the fruit, and soon.
>
> Pumpkin F-2  30" circumference at 10 days since pollenation (basketball sized)
>    Unfortunately, I have nicked the skin on this one (while swatting a bug), and
>    it's developed into a 3" gash (across the ribs) due to the relentless growth-
>    this makes it hard to heal up.
>    I don't have any experience so I don't know if this is a recoverable situation
>    or not, so after 3 days I finally plastered captan paste into it in a last ditch attempt
>    to save it.  It was a 5 segment flower.
>
> Pumpkin F-3  31" circumference at 10 days
>    This one has a somewhat poor fruit position relative to the vine,
>    and I'm slowing (daily) trying to adjust it.  Luckily, it has a fairly long
>    stem, so this may help out in the long run.  It was a 5 segment flower.
>
> Pumpkin F-4  27 3/4" circumference at 10 days
>    I just nicked the skin on this one, too.  A bamboo stick broke while I was
>    pushing it in nearby and it whacked it.  Since I had the captan out, I plastered
>    it right away.  The nick wasn't as bad as on the F-2 pkin, but we'll see.
>    It was a 4 segment flower.
>
> I also have 4 other fruit on the 771 plant so far, most about softball size.
>
> The couple days of 90 degree weather killed a few developing immature females,
> plus caused a new pollenation to fail.
> I've been cutting off many 3' tertiary vines.
> I found one squash vine borer in a leaf stem.
>
> My 608 Hester 98 plant has just two pumpkins set, both on the main vine, one
> softball size at about 6 days, the other baseball size.
> This plant seems to be about 2 weeks behind the Fortin development-wise,
> although they germinated the same day.  It has tons of male flowers, but not
> many females.  It's got perhaps a dozen 20" leaves.  It has a few secondaries,
> but not as many or as long as the Fortin.
> I found evidence of two vine borers in secondaries, and carved away, but never
> found the larvae (probably inexperience here; I later found the one in the
> 771 leaf, so now I know what to do).
>
> The best news is that I've BROKEN MY PERSONAL BEST already!!  Whoo-oo!
> (My personal best was a fully mature AG of 21" circumference- a whopping
> four and a half pounds, from last year!)   :-)
>
> -----------
> Rick Inzero, *FORMER* grower of dwarf Atlantic Giants
> near Rochester, NY
> rdi@cci.com
>
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--
***Rocky Rockwell***

http://home.cyber-quest.com/rocky.r

"Woodchuck - The Other White Meat"


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