98 wrap-up, Covington, WA

  I guess I've put this off long enough.  It was another good season here in
Western Washington.  My pumpkins all exceeded my previous best and the
largest by over 200 lbs.  I learned a lot more in this my third season
growing them.  It was warm and extremely dry by Washington standards this
year and I probably didn't get enough water on the patch, but I got enough
to keep them growing right up to mid October.  There was no rain to speak of
between  the second week of July and late September.  Two plants were grown
on 1200 square feet.  The 469 Hester 97 produced for me two fruit, a 223 and
a 304.  These were both squash at about 70% pale orange with green/gray on
the stem and blossom ends and heavily cantalouped.  I saw other fruit grown
from that seed stock that produced pumpkins at some weigh-offs and mine are
the only squash I am aware of that came from that seeds stock.  The 916
LaRue 97 produced three fruit.  All were smooth skinned and deep orange in
color, beautiful pumpkins.  None had a very good shape but with that color
it was forgivable.  The three weighed in at 429, 254, and 242.5.  All the
fruit were open pollinated as I had quit hand pollinating by July 10 as I
had set as many fruit as I wanted to grow.  We had a real hot spell that
began about that time and lasted nearly two weeks.  The plants never
appeared to be stressed by the heat and had, I thought, adequate amounts of
water. However all the fruit that I had hand pollinated aborted over that
time.  Some of these were quite large and I was left with fruit that was
open pollinated some time during or after that hot spell.
  I had the pleasure of participating in four different weigh offs this
season including the Western Washington State Fair in Puyallup.  It is
always a pleasure to get together with fellow growers and talk pumpkins. I
am proud to be associated with this group of people. I managed to pick up a
few more ideas from some of them although much of what I have learned I got
from other growers here on the mailing list and from Don Langevins two
books.  Big pumpkins get a lot of attention and start a lot of conversations
when you have to drive around with them in the back of your truck for a week
until you can get help unloading them.  Kids and adults enjoy seeing them.
I have shared seeds with other growers in 15 states and 3 Canadian provinces
and will be sending some off to the Republic of South Africa in tomorrows
mail.  Nothing else I do has ever created such an observable ripple effect
as this sport/hobby, and I feel I come away much richer for the experience.
So what will be high on the list of things that I am thankful for this year?
Giant pumpkins and the people who grow them.  I hope you all have a safe and
happy holiday season and I'm looking forward to next year already.

Thanks everyone.

Chris Michalec
Covington WA   
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index