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May 15: Planting day. This is my first year in growing pumpkins and the Lumina variety is what I am growing. I was wondering about the best time to plant them and settled on this date. The giant pumpkin growers seem to start theirs in late April (like April 24 in one account) but theirs obviously need more time to grow. The seed packages and sites usually list 120 days for giants. Most other pumpkins are around 90 days and Luminas fall around there (my seed package says 80-90 days though). So, if pumpkins should be ready in early October, then counting back two weeks for curing and then three months for growing should place the planting date at late June. However, I took other factors into consideration. Pumpkins need full sun but the only convenient spot to plant them was where they would only get the afternoon sun. I think the shadow over the area yields to the sun around 2:00PM, I'll have to gauge it sometime in the near future. So, with that in mind I thought that it might need some more time to grow. I also read too late about the compost and manure that pumpkins like, I just have rich garden soil. That's something to keep in mind for next year though. Add some more time for that factor. So, in order to have those pumpkins ready for Halloween I chose this date. Plus, I read on several websites that with good care, early pumpkins will keep anyways until then. The usual planting layout for pumpkins is two plants per hill with each hill at least eight feet apart. However, the confines of space caused me to come up with an alternative, which I read about in a few other places. I dug three holes about ten inches in diameter and about eight inches deep. Each hole was about two feet apart. I added some rich soil to the dug-up soil as a compromise to what I learned earlier and filled the holes back up, creating a little hill for each. In each, I sowed three seeds about two inches apart and one inch deep. I'll then thin each hill down to the best plant when appropriate. Finally, the whole garden was watered very well with the sprinkler can.

May 19:
Sprouting day.
The first seeds have sprouted, one each in two hills and the third hill just starting. The primary leaves already look much larger than the seeds were. They sure "exploded" from the soil like I read on the Pumpkin Nook website. I watered again but with some regular Miracle-Gro this time. I'll add fertilizer to the sprinkler can from now on about once a week. I also spread slug bait around the edges of the garden.

May 26:
The pumpkins are growing at an amazing rate. The rest of the seeds sprouted in a day or two after the last entry. It was 100% germination. However, it looks like the first to sprout are the largest and will perhaps remain so. Things are starting to crowd too so I removed the smallest plant from each hill, leaving two left in each hill. I'll thin once more later on. I know overplanting and thinning is the proper farming thing to do, but I still feel it is a shame every time. However, eventual crowding will harm the competing plants. Also, three vines will probably be a challenge in terms of space, let alone six or nine of them. The best plant in each hill is six inches tall and its first true leaf is four inches across.

May 30:
I timed the sunshine in the garden today. The shade yields to it beginning around 12:30PM and then shade from the trees takes over again around 4:30PM. However, the garden does get some diluted sunlight through those branches for a few more hours afterwards. During full exposure, the leaves on the plants wilt slightly when watered daily. Yet, they pop right back up after the shade returns. If you skip a day in watering though, then the wilting is much worse. Watering daily may not be right thing to do in many areas, but around here it is. That afternoon sun is nice and very bright for the pumpkins but it also dries soil out quickly. Earlier, I removed the mulch for planting. I also wanted to protect against damping-off disease by having that sun blaze down and kill it if it was there. Everything is tall enough now to warrant the mulch's return though. I might as well name the hills (I'll name the plants when I thin them to the best ones) now in order to keep them straight. The one farthest away from the fence is H1, the middle is H2 and the closest is H3. Now, I can say that the taller plant in H1 started leaning when I watered it with the sprinkler can. So, I added some topsoil around its base and pressed lightly. Then, I watered that and the plant stood well then. I guess leaning is not too bad, given that planting them in soil with heavy compost should produce the same result after they get big enough. But, I want to keep the leaves away from ground and bugs. The same plant also has a tear in the middle of its largest leaf about three quarters of an inch. It was very windy today, which probably caused it as the plants were whipping around. It does not look like an insect hole. It doesn't look too bad and the leaf still appears healthy. The tallest plants are now seven inches. I don't expect them to get much taller, as they are a ground running plant. The largest leaves are now 6 inches at their widest. I was thinking about thinning again, but given that slight wind damage to one leaf I will probably wait until at least they start to vine. They are not crowding each other yet anyways. I also lightly fertilized them again with Miracle-Gro and treated them with a spray I found in the shed that is supposed to keep bugs away. I was going to wait until I got some Sevin Dust but I found a small hole in a leaf in H3 that was probably from an insect. I saw a strange fly jumping around on the leaves as well which prompted my action. On one other note, those leaves are sure thin and delicate to the touch.

June 2:
This was quite an eventful day. First of all, one of the leaves in H3 was severely wilted and looked like it would die off. However, with some watering it came back and even looked healthier than the others. The others, even on the same plant, were not wilted. I guess this one leaf took too much heat stress, since it I think is the first to see the sun as the shadow yields in the afternoon. Shortly after, a line of thunderstorms moved into the area and produced very heavy winds with gusts to 45 mph. The plants were whipping around too much for my comfort so I covered them with large pots until the winds subsided. However, it only rained a little. Afterwards, I sprayed some liquid Sevin on the plants. A part of one leaf in H1 (about �" square) had been eaten by something. A few edges on other leaves were turning brown but the rest of the surfaces still looked good. The plants are producing more leaves everyday though so hopefully minor damage can be tolerated much better now. I thought they wouldn't grow much taller but the tallest now stand at nine inches. Many leaves are six-and-a-half inches across.

June 9:
This has been a very busy week in the pumpkin garden. Most of all last week including yesterday (Sunday), there has been line after line of thunderstorms with heavy winds. I watched the weather radar constantly and when each storm arrived I had to cover up the plants with large flower pots to protect them against wind damage. Yesterday, the plants were too big for those pots so I had to arrange the plastic lawn furniture and bags of soil around the garden to protect them. After it all, only one leaf stem on a plant in H1 broke and I cut it clean below the brake with a small knife. I was worried about what to do with the open cut afterwards but it looks fine today. The small leaf nearby also grew much faster afterwards to compensate and it is now among the largest. I also learned in the process that the stems are interestingly hollow. I didn't mind the rain but the winds were obviously frustrating me something terrible. I was not alone because tree limbs all over town came down from those winds, including one off a tree in my backyard. However there were larger losses too in the neighborhood as my neighbor lost a third of one of his trees (which forked in three about eight feet from the ground). Another tree in an empty lot up the street totally fell. The weather today and the forecasts are looking better so I hope these windstorms are finished with their mischief. Last week, I also laid down some mulch in the garden to cut down on the rapid evaporation that was forcing me to water everyday. I measured the plants today and the tallest stands at twelve inches while the widest leaf is now at nine inches. I am applying Sevin about every three days and fertilizing about once a week. Also, I have been using the patio tables to shade the plants from the sun because they wilt otherwise. They spring back after the shade returns but I think a daily ritual of this might hurt the plants. I am thinking about how to construct a more permanent shade cover. Finally, I see small stringy objects growing from each plant. The longest are about two inches. Are these the vines? We'll see.

June 14:
Thunderstorms keep on coming about every other day and have been giving me a workout in erecting the "wind breakers" until recently. The plants started to lean a few days ago again and they mostly, except for one plant in H3, are basically running across the ground now instead of standing straight up. The rain and wind probably had a hand in it but they are getting pretty big and heavy for the soft soil as well. Also, they are becoming more crooked at their bases so that they would be further and further off their center of gravity if I try to make them stand straight. I pushed soil up to the bases before to make them stand but now I have quit that. They are supposed to be ground runners and it appears now that that is what they are doing. Besides, being much closer to the ground now protects them from the wind more as I didn't erect the barrier for last night's storm and they did fine. However, I also spread more slug bait down to keep the slimy creatures away from the leaves that are touching (a few even laying) on the ground. Hopefully though, there won't be anymore of those massive windstorms from earlier for quite awhile. Instead of height, length will be the appropriate measurement to quote, which is 18 inches for the longest (in H2) right now. The largest leaf is nine-and-a-half inches across. All plants are starting to vine and one is even on the border of the garden (the 18 inch one). Those stringy objects are not the vines themselves but grabbing "fingers" (sorry, I don't know the scientific term) that wrap themselves around nearby objects as anchors. The vines are more or less an extension of the plant itself that grow more rapidly in a certain direction. As the plants become more vine-like (plus with help from the rain), I am much more able to route them in the directions I want them to grow, even though I am still moving them slowly each day to prevent too much stress. On Thursday, I also built the more permanent shade cover. I tied a five-by-six piece of shade netting to two four-foot stakes driven in the ground on one end and to the fence on the other end. It is about three feet from the ground. It shades the plants really well now so I don't have to use the lawn furniture. It also protects from heavy raindrops and hail. I can also get under it easily to water and service the plants. It may not look too classy but what can you do in the Texas sun? However, the vines will eventually grow beyond its cover into an open area. A larger net would have made it harder to get to the plants though. Besides, much of the area where the vines are to grow is shaded by a tree much of the afternoon anyways. On Thursday, I also started two more pots of backup plants. They are in six inch pots from store-bought flowers and I planted two seeds in each. I have a little one in a three inch pot that is only a week younger than the garden plants but it is tiny, probably because it is in a pot instead of the ground. Finally, I fertilized the plants with Miracle-Gro again today. I was thinking about buying some fish emulsion at the store today as well but I don't want the neighborhood cats to come calling either, so I passed on the idea. I am continuing to spray the plants with Sevin every few days as well.

June 15:
Planting day for an additional hill in the large garden.
O.K., maybe I am jinxing the weather by wishing it would stop thunderstorming almost everyday. So, I hope it continues to rain several inches for many, many days to come (wink, wink). Another strong line came through around five o'clock last night (or morning) with heavy winds. I thought that the pumpkins would be more resistant to wind damage now but I was mistaken. I didn't erect the wind barrier last night (My sleep cycle has really been messed up the past two weeks from doing it every night before) and some damage was done because of it. One plant in each hill developed a split (each about two inches long) in the vine, exposing the hollow center. The damaged one in H1 was blown in the opposite direction from where I had it before. However, the vines beyond the splits still look healthy so let's hope they will do fine. Until the vines, especially the three good ones, grow much longer and root themselves into the ground beyond the garden, it is definitely back to the radar watching, barrier erecting and sleepless nights for me. I perhaps need a permanent wind barrier too? It is definitely something to do next year (live and learn). Last night's fiasco also spurred me to work in the garden today. First, I watered again with some fertilizer (just a gallon on all plants) to make up for the inch of rain last night that probably washed some of yesterday's away. Then, I took two wire clothes hangers, clipped off several pieces and straightened them. I bent them in the center to create U's with long legs to insert in the ground. I arranged all the vines in the directions I wanted them to grow (except for one in H3 that is still standing straight up) and anchored each with a U where the vine touched the ground with a little slack to spare. This will have to do until they are long enough to bury some sections. Also, those U's might have to be enlarged/moved if necessary later on. Finally, I took that small pumpkin plant in that small pot and transplanted it to the main pumpkin garden in a corner not covered by the other H1 plants. However, when I removed it from the pot I discovered an entire ant farm living inside, complete with eggs. I had hoped to transplant it without disturbing the roots but I had to shake out all those ants (and the dirt). I dug a small hole in the corner, carefully placed the plant inside and filled the hole around it with Miracle-Gro garden soil. Then, I watered it with Miracle-Gro transplant/root solution. The plant is only about three inches high with its two main leaves one-and-a-half inches wide so it will be interesting to see how it grows now. The roots were already growing in circles around the edge of the pot when I removed it so it was definitely looking for more space. Oh, and I sprinkled some fire ant poison around the corner of the garden where the ants scattered.

June 16:
Measurements: one vine in H2 is 24 inches, biggest leaves are 9 � inches across

June 17:
Measurements: other vine in H2 is 36 inches
The seeds in the backup pots sprouted this morning.

June 18:
I moved the vines in H3 a little closer towards the proper direction today. They both were grabbing the fence and I carefully untangled their grabbers. I also added one of my homemade anchors to that last plant in H3, it finally leaned enough for me to do so. I also placed a large rock on the edge of the garden in order to push the other plant in H3 a few more inches in the right direction. Another lesson learned is that one should take advantage of when they initially lean a few weeks earlier to make them grow in the desired direction. Also, when I watered the garden a colony of ants headed for dry land near H3 so I had to apply ant poison in that corner of the garden too. What's with all the ants this year?

June 22:
The vines are growing several inches a day now. The six plants really started to crowd each other because of it so today was thinning time. On one level it feels unfortunate but actually it is the right thing to do if you want healthier plants with enough room to do their thing. I removed the one in H1 that had a split in the stem and the one in H3 that had the same. That leaves four plants. Three are growing straight out from the garden and I am tilting them in the directions they need to grow in a little every day. There is a fourth plant in H3 so let's just call it H4 and the one in H1 just H1, H2 can be H2 for the southern vine and H3 the northern - H1 through H4 now in order from farthest to closest to fence. Today, I was able to use the heat stress to arc it even more so now it is growing perfectly in the strip of grass between the garden and fence. It might conflict with the others at some point but it is far out of the way from them at the moment so I'll leave it alone for now. It might even be one I would want to keep in favor of H3. H2 is now 4 � feet long and has a leaf 11 inches across. It is the one with the split in the stem too! The other vines are only a few inches behind in length with several 10 inch leaves. The plants were heat-stressed even under that shade cover today so I had to give the garden a soaking, from which they sprang instantly back up. I hadn't watered since Wednesday so that is a lesson to not go beyond a third night without watering. I wanted to fertilize too but that will have to wait until at least tomorrow. I found one of those hairy black caterpillars eating on one of the leaves on one of the vines I removed so I killed it and applied Sevin to all the plants. I found another leaf in the process that looks like it had been eaten on by those things so this action was in order. Finally, the vine will be long enough soon to have some sections buried so it is off to the store to buy some more of that Miracle-Gro garden soil.

June 28:
Measurements: H1 is 6 � feet long, H2 is 7 � feet, H3 is 8 � feet and H4 is 6 � feet. The largest leaves are 11 inches across
The vines are continuing to grow several inches a day. I used a string to measure the pumpkins but the results seemed too long so I just held a yardstick up to them instead for more realistic lengths. H4 was grabbing and growing in the fence so I had to untangle it and move it a little further away from the same. This is another lesson in that you shouldn't plant or let pumpkin vines grow too close to a fence, or at least a chain-link one. Also, they are so long that I need to redirect their growth in the proper directions again with the help of a little (but not too much of course) heat stress. However, recent watering plus cooler, cloudier weather didn't cause any stress today. I did move each vine just a few inches today out of necessity. A few days ago I started to notice some objects on the vines that looked like flowers. Yesterday, I found a large bud on H3. It looks like a male flower from what I have read with the long, narrow stems and lack of infant pumpkin at the base. There are many others that are smaller in varying degrees as well. Secondary vines are starting to grow too.

June 29:
Strangely, the first order of business in the garden today was a snake I had to kill. It was about eighteen inches long and was beginning to eat a frog at the corner of the garden. It was wrapping itself around H1 as well. So, out came the hand-held edger and off came its head. Next, there was just enough heat stress today in the vines for me to redirect all of them in the proper directions. That one flower had opened up this morning but by the time I woke up and went outside it had already closed. There is another one nearby that looks like it will open tomorrow so I'll have to get up earlier to see it. I also spotted a few female flowers with infant pumpkins at their bases. Later on, I put a shovel's worth of soil on two different spots on H3's vine to encourage secondary root growth. All vines are growing very well so let's see how one vine with parts buried does compared to the others. I might bury parts of the others depending on how well they continue to grow. Since the vines are producing flowers now, I fertilized them with Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster (about two gallons per hill). Then, I sprayed Sevin on them. On one other note, when I pulled H4 off the fence the leaves near the end of the vine were perpendicular to the ground. Today, they had redirected themselves so that they are now parallel like they are supposed to be. Their sense of direction is pretty amazing.

July 1:
Measurements: H1 is 8 feet long, H2 is 9 feet, H3 is 10 feet, H4 is 7 feet
A flower has appeared in the pumpkin garden for three straight days now. They only last until about noon, even though the clouds helped today's to close slower. Also, they only last for that one day. Two look ready to open tomorrow. They are star-shaped with five sides, are orange in color, about four inches across and are on stems about six inches long. The stamen is deep within the flower, about two inches in and is only about half-an-inch long. The female flowers are growing slower with their infant pumpkins and are closer to the vine like I have read. I also read that there will be plenty of male flowers for the females when they open but I clipped today's flower this evening and bagged it just in case. In other news, the vines appear to be growing about five inches a day. Also, I erected another shade cover (6' X 4') in the grassy area next to the original one over the garden. The vines outside of the original cover were wilting in the afternoon when the sun appeared in the area and I was having to do some serious water-spraying of the leaves. Most of the pumpkin vines are now in the shade again, except for the ends of H1 and H2 that run out towards the yard and perhaps H4 growing near the fence. This hopefully takes care of the area that gets the blazing noon sun. The other area the pumpkins are growing toward probably doesn't get the sun until it is a little further down in the sky, I'll have to see. Also, I am going to raise the height of the covers so I can get under them to better service the plants.

July 13:
Measurements: H1 - 16 feet, a few leaves 12 inches wide, largest average 11" wide by 13" long
The other vines are now harder to get to for measurement but I'll try to do so later if I can. Also, the vines are still growing five inches a day or more. During a recent rain spell, nine to ten inches were added daily with one twelve-inch spurt on one particular day. I recently constructed my taller shade cover. I used eight-foot tree spikes driven two feet in the ground. When I drilled holes in them for the string, I discovered that they have metal cores, an added bonus for stability. However, I also discovered some white spots on the leaves under that cover, mildew perhaps, so I sprayed them with fungicide. The area might not have been getting enough ventilation since the cover was only about eighteen inches above the leaves. The cover now stands over five feet above the ground and only requires one to slightly bend over to get under it. Several male blooms have been appearing daily for two weeks now. I read somewhere that the pollen is only viable for a day so I disposed of my flower in a baggie. The female flowers at first had infant pumpkins that were yellow in color and they quickly shriveled away. Recently though, healthy looking green infants have appeared and are growing nicely along with their flowers. One on H1 and one on H2 are the size of marbles and look like they will be ready in a few days for pollination. Oddly (or not?), all these females are developing far away from the base of the vine, about at least 10 to 12 feet away. The male flowers are growing much closer to the base though. Anyways, this is actually a good thing because it puts the pumpkins further into the shade.

July 16:
I have had a very busy and nerve-racking time since the last entry. Hurricane Claudette turned further north than the originally forecasted point of Brownsville (I had a hunch this was going to happen anyways) and came through yesterday. The maximum sustained winds of the storm were about 90 miles an hour and 30+ mile winds were experienced at my location with a few higher gusts. However, I prepared for the storm about two hours before it hit. I used the wooden stakes from my old shade cover, old bed sheets and a staple gun to construct a wind barrier. Overall, it did a great job. I had to occasionally go outside and hammer down a stake or re-staple a portion of a bed sheet but it stood up to those winds. It is still up this evening and I'll go ahead and leave it until tomorrow just in case it rains again. This system was also forecasted to arrive today instead, which really would have interfered with a special occasion in the pumpkin patch. Thankfully though, it sped up to about 13-14 miles-an-hour yesterday and cleared itself out by this morning. The special occasion was the flowering of my first two females, one on H1 and one on H2. The infant pumpkins on them were about the size of pecans, being a little bit shorter but a little plumper than that though. I made sure to wake up early to hand-pollinate them. I used males from different vines to cross-pollinate for better health. I pulled the petals off and cut off some of the base so I just had the stems and stamens. Then, I rubbed each female stamen with one of them for a minute or two and then left the male stamen inside the female flower. Very fortunately, I spotted at least two bees flying around the patch right afterwards. Hopefully, they got involved too in the process for added security. Later, I also spotted another insect crawling inside H2's female, a bee flying around the same, and even later on ants crawling around in both females. Also, I read somewhere that pollination is hampered by temperatures in the 90's or greater. However, the storm had a bonus to the rain in that it kept temperatures down today so I didn't have to use my blocks of ice and small tent to cool the flowers down during this process. In the work I had to do today, I pollinated first so the flowers would have the maximum time to take advantage of my actions before the pollen's viability decreased. Afterwards, I turned my attention to the damage from the storm. Two leaves had broken stems and had to be removed. Many other leaves had slight damage to their surfaces and some parts of the vine had to be turned back up in the proper direction. There were a couple small stem splits so I buried those sections with topsoil. Around noon, a squall line far from Claudette passed through with another inch of very heavy rain. I covered the females with sandwich baggies shortly before it hit and removed them after it was over. I saw another bee (or the same one?) flying around H2's female again. I nervously watched another system just miss this area. Later, even the sun made a brief appearance. A few vines need redirection. Fungicide is also needed again I believe for those same white spots on the leaves under the cover. There are two more females, one on H1 and one on H2 again, the size of marbles that will perhaps be ready by the weekend or shortly after. They are a little further out on the vines too. Several other smaller females exist as well. The vines look a little more beat up now but they are still quite viable. It's time to see if my pollination worked and I'll report back in a few days.

July 19:
Measurements: H1 is 19 feet, H2 is 21 feet
Well, it was 50-50 on the first pollinating of pumpkins in my life. The pumpkin on H2 was a success and is now about the size of an apricot. H1's is now brown, which I think is not a new hybrid color of pumpkin. It is shriveling too as I have read such ones will do. I spent about 2-3 minutes pollinating H2 while I think I only did H1 for about a minute and a half. I used a male from H1 for H2 while I used one from H3 for H1. Also, I saw more bees and insects around H2 versus H1. So, these are things to keep in mind as future females appear. However, the future was here today as a female flower snuck up on me with its blooming. Around three in the afternoon, I was inspecting the plants when I saw one on H4 with its flower opened and now in retreat. This was the first time that I knew a female was even in that spot. So, I sprang into emergency action as I took a male from H1, opened the petals of H4 and pollinated it. Then, I jammed the male into the center of the female stamen and left it there. On the previous two, I left the stamen to one side of the female stamen. Even though the pollen was not as viable now as it was in the morning, hopefully it will still work enough. Also, I have seen several bees in this area recently, even with one flying around as I worked on the flower. Hopefully they did some work on it earlier today too. In other news, I bought a can of regular fungicide (in powder form) and sprayed a pint of it (half a teaspoon to one pint water) on the leaves with white spots, which there were a few more of today. I also coated H2's pumpkin with Sevin spray because I saw a few small possible insect bites on it. I moved the vines again to grow towards more appropriate directions. Finally, I am watering earlier in the day now rather than later to help the pumpkins have more hydration for the sunny days and also to perhaps help end the white spots on those leaves. I am sticking to one fertilization per week and watering about every other day since the deluge rains are gone for now at least. Also, I noticed several more small females turn yellow and shrivel recently. Yet, some other females are healthy green and hopefully these things will help them stay that way and on course to becoming pumpkins.

July 24:
Hmm, that pumpkin on H2 must not have liked all that Sevin spray too well. I noticed that it had stopped growing a few days ago and was turning white, in addition to the whiteness it already had from the spray. So, I washed it off as best as I could and fertilized that one vine with Miracle-Gro Tomato Food (good for all vegetables though - it has the potassium the fruit itself needs for growth). I had just bought some and planned to use it when more fruit arrived but now seemed an appropriate time. I also buried several more sections of each vine with topsoil thinking that perhaps the fruit was having trouble growing that far away from the base root. My efforts didn't help as the pumpkin is turning brown now. Well, off it comes tomorrow along with a few old and battered leaves that need trimming too. The buried parts also didn't have time to grow roots to help it but should be well on their way now in developing them for future fruit. Another lesson learned. However, another fruit blossomed a few feet further down on H2 yesterday. I pollinated it with two different flowers this time, one from H1 and one from H4. I figured that since the bees would carry pollen from several flowers anyways, doing this would help increase the chances for success. I did spend a great deal of time rubbing each male stamen on the female though until I could actually see pollen flakes on the latter's stamen. Then I left both male stamens in the flower as usual. Once again I saw several bees flying around the area and hopefully they contributed. Also, I placed a block of ice under a cover over the fruit and flower again when afternoon temperatures started to get hot. Ironically, it cooled down soon after as a storm line clipped the area. Looking at it today, the pollination looks like a success. The pumpkin on H4 is growing well too. It is about the size of a small apple now and I am not going to bother it like I did the abovementioned one. I do cover it though when the sun blazes down on that spot in the afternoon. In other news, I haven't measured recently but the vines should all be at least 23 feet by now. Room for the main vines is growing scarce, each perhaps having only about six more feet left. The secondary vines need to be left some room too and in an ironic way it looks like some now can grow in certain older areas of the main vines where the leaves have thinned out. However, a few sections have open splits in the vine with some mushy brown stuff around the edges. I don't even want to think about vine-borers so I sprayed the areas with some Diazinon and scrapped some of the mush away. Like I have read, cutting the vines open to go after them would do just as much damage (especially for a first-timer) anyways so I'll leave them be. The rest of the vines look healthy and each have several sections buried so let's hope things continue to go well. Well, a female flower on H1 looks like it might open tomorrow (or definitely by the day after) so it is off to bed now so I can be ready.

July 26:
Well, I have to think about vine-borers now. When I was trimming away some of H4 that was suffering so much heat stress everyday, I cut open a suspicious portion of the vine and found one about a half-inch from the entry wound. The borer looks like a grub-worm with a smaller head. Each vine has several areas where they are (all in about the first half of the length of the vines) so I mixed up some more Diazinon and sprayed much of it into the holes with a jet stream. I think the surgical way would kill or severely limit the vines so hopefully this will work. I'm banking on the spray at least soaking its way to the borers where they could be killed. Then, I sprayed the lengths of the vines with a jet stream so that it would roll to the undersides too. I also sprayed some fungicide on a few white spotty leaves. The frequent heavy rains earlier this season hindered chemical application but this is something I will definitely step-up on in the future no matter what. I pray that these actions will keep the current situation in check. Before the chemical application though, I pruned the vines of dead/withered leaves and unwanted secondaries. The original area of the patch looks barer now while the second half of it is still growing very nicely. The leaves down that way look healthy and the vines are continuing to grow several inches daily. This is probably partially thanks to the secondary roots I encouraged, of which I covered with even more dirt today. I have to remember to water those areas now as well. H1 and H2 are now at 25 feet. They still have about five or six feet of room left. H3 is about the same length while H4 is only about 15 or so since it had another half growing in the opposite direction that I just trimmed off. I pollinated another female today on H3 but found many bees that got involved too with the flower. If it was successful, I now have a pumpkin on each vine except H1. The one on H2 is 9 � inches in circumference measured along its stem/base axis. Measuring around its equator would mean lifting it so I'll do it this way instead. H4's is 9 inches in circumference.

July 28:
I reapplied the Diazinon after it rained pretty hard yesterday. Also, H2's pumpkin is the size of a grapefruit (it was getting dark by this time so I'll get another measurement in the coming days) and I turned it slightly again so it wouldn't grow on its own vine. Finally, I spotted a pretty long secondary growing at the base of either H2 or H3. I'll need to redirect it in a better direction but it should provide some nice additional energy to whichever vine it is on.

July 30:
I pollinated another female this morning, this time on H1's long secondary. There were only six flowers open today but it looks like the numbers will pick up again soon. Only two males (of five) were easy to get to, including one on H1, so I pollinated the female with them. It will be interesting to see how using a male from the same vine will work out. There were bees flying around the flowers so they might have brought pollen from the others too. In other news, I removed the pumpkin on H1 because it had stopped growing and was beginning to rot. I also trimmed a few browning and shriveling leaves from the vines. I fertilized with Bloom Booster, including the secondary mounds, and reapplied Diazinon in a few places where the water may have washed it off. Then, I re-routed the secondaries on H1 and H2 that are growing from the base so that they will grow into the older sections of the patch and fill up some of the empty space left by the old removed leaves. I noticed another female on H1 that will open tomorrow so I sprayed it with Green Light's "Tomato Bloom Spray II" that is actually good for all vegetables. I forgot to say earlier that I used it on the big pumpkin now growing on H2 so it may be the magic ingredient. I also forgot to spray the other two pumpkins when they bloomed so I sprayed them today anyways. H3's fruit is growing well and is about apricot size. H2's is between grapefruit and cantaloupe size - I'll try and remember to get a measurement tomorrow. An email from a more experienced pumpkin grower told me that a wooden board might prevent drainage under the fruit and lead to rot. He suggested sand but that might cook the pumpkin in this climate so I'll follow his other suggestion to just leave it on the grass. It was also up against the vine once again so I moved it another half-an-inch. It stays out of the sun most of the day but I do cover it with a small plastic patio table in the late afternoon along with its neighboring pumpkin. Tomorrow's pumpkin looks like it will perfectly avoid direct sun all day long, I hope that H1 will finally keep this pumpkin and retain the other one I worked on today as well.

July 31:
Measurements: H1 is 28 feet long, one leaf on H1 is fourteen inches across and fifteen inches long!; pumpkin on H2 is 18 inches in longitude circumference; pumpkin on H3 is 11 inches
I pollinated that female on H1 this morning. I used a flower from H1 and one from H3. However, at least two bees were constantly going between that flower and the others as well. One was so coated with pollen all over its body that I could see the stuff falling off onto the pumpkin leaves as it hovered around. I also gave the flower another quick shot of bloom spray as the morning ended. I noticed too that the vines beyond the tree do get the morning sun from about 10:00 to noon, causing brief wilting that goes right away as shade takes over again. That female now has a block of ice next to it and a bucket over it that is keeping the coolness nearby. In other news, I still have one pumpkin plant in a pot that was planted as a reserve at the beginning of the season. It grew to a maximum height of about a foot but is now blooming as well! I wonder if I can get a female out of it? I buried another part of H1 to help sustain its rapid growth. I sprayed a few leaves in the old section of the garden with fungicide. Also in that area, the secondaries I routed there have redirected their leaves upward and they look like they will fill that spot nicely.

August 3:
Measurements: H1 is 30 feet long, H2's pumpkin is cantaloupe size, H3's is grapefruit size
I trimmed some more dead leaves from the old section of the patch. The new secondaries are filling in the area quite nicely and easily bend in the directions I want them to grow. I saw some suspicious stuff on H1's recent main vine growth so I sprayed the section with Diazinon. The pumpkin on H1's secondary is about lime-size now. I also noticed that H4 took a 180 turn around the shade cover support cable and is now growing in a direction I intended it to grow anyways. It must have a mind of its own! The strange part of today's work though came when I expected another female's bloom to open this morning. I woke up early for the occasion but the flower looked like it was slow in opening. The petals were still too stiff to open up manually so I waited. I checked hourly until the bloom started to go limp and wilt around four in the afternoon. It never did open up. So, I took one male stamen and went to pollinating. However, I scrapped the pollen off a second male stamen (and off the petals too) onto the small knife blade I use and rubbed the blade on the female stamen to transfer the stuff. This way, I could see large clumps of pollen on the female. Then, I lightly applied the Bloom Spray, closed the petals as much as I could and covered the female with a bucket with a block of ice inside. I have two pumpkins on H1 so if this works that will make three on that vine.

Go to Part 2

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