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Back to Part 1 August 5: Measurements: H1 is 32 feet long, H2's pumpkin is 22 inches longitude circumference, H3's pumpkin is 17 inches, H1's secondary vine pumpkin is tangerine size, H1's main vine pumpkin is apple size but a little longer than normal Well, the pollination last time was unsuccessful. I suspected that it would be so from the problems discussed earlier. It probably just did not reach full maturity. However, another female a little further down the vine looks ready to blossom tomorrow. H1's main vine pumpkin was growing directly under the vine and some orangey sticky stuff formed at the point of contact. It is still hard to move the pumpkin since it is so small but I did get it separated from the vine about a quarter-inch. It will move easier as it gains weight and that weight will help keep the pumpkin from moving back after I manually nudge it every few days. I also fertilized today but used different types on different vines. H2 and H3 has those big pumpkins on them so I applied Miracle-Gro Tomato Food (high potassium) to the vines to help them along. I might also add Bloom Booster in a few days to see if I can get any more females to appear on those vines. Then, I applied Bloom Booster to H1 and H4 to encourage the females on them. H4 has one that may blossom in two or three days and it would be nice to finally get a successful pumpkin to grow on that vine. Finally, I trimmed some more old leaves from the old section of the patch and re-routed the new secondaries in the right directions. There is even one on H4 now as well. August 8: Measurements: Final length of H1 is 34 feet, final length of H1's long secondary is 15 feet I say final above because I buried them. The main vine had no more space to run and the secondary was looking starved at the end. However, here's the debate I have over it. Which is the best way to bury the ends - cut the infant leaves off at the tip and bury or leave the leaves on (pardon the pun) and bury? What I'm thinking about here is which better promotes secondary root growth as I would like nutrients now to flow back the other way to support my pumpkins. Since each leaf develops a possible root at the base of its stem, I think keeping them is better. Cutting them off and burying might just result in a buried vine with no root development. So, I buried them with the leaves on for now. If later I change my mind, I can cut them but I couldn't change my mind the other way. However, I have taken my obsession to a new level by establishing a discussion group on Yahoo called "Pumpkin Central". My friend from the "Pumpkin Nook" website has already joined and I invited my brother but beyond that I don't know anyone else involved with pumpkins. So, I have been seeking links and exposure. Hopefully this group will answer many of the questions we newbies develop. I fertilized all of H1's secondary root structures with Tomato Food. Since growth is no longer needed and I have two pumpkins already (still hoping for the third to be successful, a fourth looks like it might blossom tomorrow) on it, the potassium should give the pumpkins a boost. The pumpkin on the secondary has not really grown that much compared to the one on the main vine and hopefully this will remedy that, especially with the vine tip buried now. Yet, I watered the base roots of H1, H2, H3 and H4 with regular Miracle-Gro to promote the new vines growing from H1, H2 and H4. I am curious to see how this two-tiered fertilization works but I don't see why it shouldn't work as I plan. Also, something bit a BB sized chunk out of the female pumpkin I pollinated yesterday. I'll leave it though and see what happens. I saw a bug swarming around the plants that I have seen throughout the season. I've have never observed that type in the backyard before I planted the pumpkins. I whacked it with the flyswatter but lightly enough to keep it intact enough for a picture. I took the said pictures and may show them to someone in the know later who can tell me what it is. Squash bugs I read look like little green stinkbugs so this might be the adult vine-borer. It is black and red and about half-an-inch both ways. Whatever it is, it is going to get whacked every chance I get. Finally, I felt that rain was needed so I sprayed some of the vine with Diazinon. Seriously though, I welcomed the rain as the plants seemed to miss it from earlier in the summer. It has been dry recently and temperatures have soared. It was 101 degrees yesterday while it hit 102 degrees today. It would have even gotten hotter but the heat triggered an overcast sky in the late afternoon and then rain after sunset. Hopefully the water in the ground will keep temps down in the coming days.

August 9:
Measurements: H2's pumpkin is 24 inches longitude circumference and about 7 inches in diameter to the eye, H3's pumpkin is 19 inches longitude circumference, high temperature: 101 degrees

August 10:
Measurements: Final length of H2 is 27 feet, final length of H3 is 28 feet
It wasn't as hot today but I needed to water nonetheless. I terminated the ends of H2 and H3 since they were not growing anymore and the tips were yellowed and shriveled. However, when I went to the store today to pick up some more soil I also bought some cow manure. I mixed up a 50-50 batch of manure and potting soil (this brand's top soil was too hard) and covered the ends with it. I only had to pour one mound by moving H3's tip near to H2's. Hopefully this will help send lots of nutrients back the other way to the pumpkins on H2 and H3. Yet, doing this will likely mean that these will be the only pumpkins produced by the original vines of H2 and H3. On the other hand, they can be the exclusive recipients of what the vines offer. On one other note, H2's leaves wilt all day long and only pop back up when the sun sets. I hope the mound provides additional water and food to help perk them up more. I need to do some more naming at this point in order to keep my stories straight. The new vine at the base of H1 will be N1, the new vine from H2 will be N2, the new vine from H4 will be N3 (H3 doesn't have one). Now, I also buried a section of N1 and a section of N2 with that mixture. The sections were just on the outside of the garden. N3 still has a little ways to go before I can bury part of it. To top it all off, I remembered that I had some Miracle-Gro Starter Solution that is good for transplants and root stimulation. So, I mixed some up in the sprinkler can and watered all my new mounds with it. Hopefully, this will get the secondary roots established quicker. The points where N1, N2, and N3 join their bases are very narrow, about the thickness of a straw and in one case a coffee straw. They are still growing very nicely (all several feet long) but the leaves are not as big as the ones on the original vines. With my efforts today, I hope to add secondary roots that will rival and even surpass what they are getting from their bases. This is why I didn't name them H1-1 and so on, I hope they in a way become entities unto themselves. They also have plenty of room as the original vines in front of them are losing their leaves one by one. I trimmed off several more today. Just visualizing, I think about the first eight feet of all original vines are now devoid of leaves. Come to think about it, I need to take measurements tomorrow concerning such things.

August 11:
Measurements: N1 is 8 feet long, N2 is 7 � feet long, N3 is 4 � feet long, largest leaf on N1 is 9 � inches wide
H2's pumpkin is living off the last ten feet of its vine, while H3's pumpkin has twelve feet to support it. The rest of their vines back to the roots are bare. However, H2's leaves on that final stretch were not as wilted today and they perked up nicely after some light rain dropped temperatures into the 70's. It might be from the new mound too, I hope that starts to work real soon. The previous pollination on H1 was successful while another female almost flowered before shriveling. So, that makes two pumpkins on H1's main vine and one on the secondary. To keep things straight the first main pumpkin will be H1M1, the new one H1M2 and the secondary one shall be H1S. H1M1 is now larger than a grapefruit and doing nicely, even though its symmetry is a little off. H1M2 is the size of a lime (after a few days at remaining pecan-sized). H1S is grapefruit size but also seems to not be doing much lately. The final mound on H1 is rising and it seems the vine may be trying to continue out of it. Yet, H1M2's recent start in growth must be from the roots that developed there. I'll have to make a hard decision though on whether to let it vine again if it tries to. It's a great vine after all. In other news, the infant pumpkin on H4 was just too eaten to survive. I trimmed off a few more leaves in the patch, including one who's stem broke in the return of the windy thunderstorms. I sprayed the vines with Diazinon and the leaves of the new vines with Sevin again after an afternoon shower today. In the process, I spotted two vine borer holes and sprayed them too. Two for 35 feet's worth of vine on H1 (including secondary, excluding old bare section) isn't bad I guess compared to what I had earlier. I anchored the new vines with my clothes-hanger "U"s to protect them from wind. See, I have learned from my earlier mistakes that one needs to do these things with fanaticism if you want to protect your pumpkins.

August 12:
Measurements: H4 is 26 feet long (note to self for future measurement - 15 feet to pole), H2's pumpkin is about 7 � inches in diameter according to sight, H1M2 is lemon size
It was rather cool today, getting into the upper 80s for a high. A suspected (red and black like before) vine borer fly visited the patch while I was out there. Yet, the stupid thing flew right over to me so I stretched out my arms and swatted it between my own hands. The mound that was "supposed" to terminate H1 has some new growth trying to grow out of it. The vine looks quite vigorous so I'll have to make a tough decision now on whether to keep it, I may have a little room left for it. I suppose cutting off the tip was the correct answer if you really want to terminate a vine. I wonder if the terminated secondary in the pot will do the same?

August 13:
It was cool today too with some rain.

August 16:
Measurements: Final length of H4 is 27 feet, H2's pumpkin now living off 8 feet of vine
Yesterday, I had to remove H1S because it was starting to rot. I cut it open for curiosity and it was still fairly solid at slightly larger than grapefruit size. Today, I noticed a one-inch section on the H2's vine that was shriveling up, causing the leaves from that point to the terminating mound to shrivel up too. Wind from last night's rain had blown the leaves sideways and the rotting area wouldn't let the vine hold them straight back up. Yet, it seems the rot was older than that. I also looked for vine borer damage but couldn't find any in the area. It is a mystery why that spot on the vine went bad. So, I trimmed off the offending section. This means that H2 is no longer connected to the terminating mound. It is only eight feet long now and is supported by the one mound back closer to the garden. To help what I have left (and because no more pumpkins are likely on that vine), I buried the whole length of the vine except where the pumpkin is. The pumpkin hasn't grown much lately (still about 7 � inches across and 24 inches longitudal circumference) so I watered the newly buried vine with Tomato Food. It probably won't be long before I need to harvest it but I want to get that last bit of growth and push the date as late as possible. I trimmed many dead leaves from the patch both days. The original vines are basically bare now from the garden to the tree. I buried H3's vine like H2 while I was at it. I wonder if burying the whole length of the vine is the better way to do things in the future? I cut off the main vine of H1 that was growing out of its terminating mound. It didn't look very healthy after being buried. However, I left some secondaries that might prove promising. I shoveled much more dirt onto the mound, covering up some more leaf stem bases in the process to help some more roots grow. H1M1 is still growing nicely but H1M2 is turning yellow and may be on its way out. H4 has also stopped growing at a final length of 27 feet. Finally, I cleared the weeds in the old part of the patch that is bare. I moved N1 and N2 to better positions and sprayed N1, N2, and N3 with Diazinon and Sevin because of the rains. They are still no bigger around than a pencil, I wonder if they will remain in this sort of secondary size? To help them along in growth, I fertilized their mounds with regular Miracle-Gro. I will switch to Bloom Booster soon to see if I can get a pumpkin or two on them.

August 21:
Measurements: H2 has seven feet of vine left, H3 has five feet left
H1M2 turned very brown a few days ago and I removed it. The leaves on H2 and H3 are getting rattier every day. The first half of the remaining H3 vine had dead leaves today so I trimmed them away. Only five feet remain on that vine which supports a small pumpkin. As a matter of fact, H3's vine at the base was shriveled and rotting away so I removed it. H3 is totally living on secondary roots now. On the other hand, H2 is slowly shriveling inward from its tip. That action will soon meet up with where the pumpkin is, requiring a harvest. It probably will have to be by this weekend too. Seven feet are still left on H2. I fertilized both vines tonight with Tomato Food one last time to get those last few grams on those pumpkins. H1 is still going strong though. A few leaves were removed and the rest are doing o.k. H1M1, I might as well just call it the pumpkin of H1 now, is still growing and is now larger than the one on H2. I'll measure it next time I am working in the patch but I know it has at least surpassed eight inches. It has a stain of sorts on its side where a pumpkin leaf leaned up against it for a few days, I'll have to remember to not let that happen in the future. I also fertilized H1 with Tomato Food. Finally, I fertilized N1, N2, and N3 with Bloom Booster to see if I can get any females to grow on them. *Important note: It seems that planting early like I did was not necessary. It is now past 80-90 days and the vines are in their twilight. I figure that June 15 is the soonest one should plant regular pumpkins here in Texas from now on.

August 23:
H2 and H3 Pumpkin Harvest
H2 and H3 Vines Removed
Mesurements: H2's pumpkin is 6.5 pounds, 7.4 inches in diameter; H3's pumpkin is 3 pounds, 5.97 inches in diameter
Today I harvested the pumpkins from H2 and H3. It has been exactly 100 days since planting on May 15. H3's remaining leaves were severely yellowed and wilted so I removed its pumpkin. H2 might have gone on for another day or two but I also feared rotting if I went over that time so I removed its pumpkin as well. The latter is a very nice looking pumpkin and its measurements are above. It stopped growing awhile back like H3 did. H3 doesn't really have the traditional pumpkin look being small like it is yet it still looks healthy as well. So, I washed them in a Clorox solution (1 cup to one gallon of water) and placed them on a piece of cardboard in the house. Between that and good stems I hope they keep until Halloween. I will also look into whether to cure them in the sun in the coming days. I then pulled H2 and H3 up since there were definitely no more pumpkins in their future. This gave me a chance to see the secondary roots that were formed in the buried sections of the vine. However, some powerful roots also formed on unburied parts as well. I was careful in reclaiming my "U" shaped anchors so they would not become projectiles with the lawnmower. I can also clean them up and use them next year. I took some of the dirt left behind by H2 and H3 and buried a section of N1 and a section of N3 with it. I raked the rest and then sprayed it with the hose in order to level the area out.

September 6:
Measurements: N1 is 15 feet long with 9 inch leaves, N2 is 11 feet long, a new secondary on H1 is 9 feet long with 12 inch leaves
Not much is going on in the patch now, hence the long time since my last post. Rains are coming frequently enough so that I don't have to water that much personally. N3 shriveled up and died though, leaving N1 and N2. They have pretty much reached their maximum length with N1 being the longest. They are producing a few males but no female flowers so pumpkins from them are unlikely. They are also too small in leaf size and vine diameter it seems. I took the shade covers down because they weren't protecting anything anymore and I was tired of repairing broken string. H1 is still going strong but is slowly being eaten up by age and bugs. In addition, the last three feet going back from the terminating mound has shriveled and died off. Since the same happened to H2, I wonder if the manure mixture had something to do with it. The pumpkin has stopped growing and is now covered with an area of what looks like small brown stretch marks on the top. I wonder if it is from too much potassium or perhaps the noon sun? It is not causing the pumpkin to go bad though. There are also a few wart-looking bumps on the side. I am going to leave that pumpkin there as long as the vine holds out. Next, there is still new secondary vine growth going on, including a lot around the terminating pot of H1's secondary and another vine which is growing into the main area of the patch from the main vine of H1. There are also a few short vines growing from H4, even though H4 itself has had it by this point in time. Finally, a few males continue to appear on H1 and H4's new secondaries, but all are small and many are immature, not opening up fully when they are supposed to bloom.

September 18:
Measurements: H1's pumpkin is living off of 7 feet of vine now, a tertiary vine (that secondary I mentioned last) growing from H1's secondary is now 13 feet long
I pulled up N1 and N2 because they were not growing fast at all anymore and they were not producing females. I removed the first 17 feet of H4, leaving the rest so that a male flower can be had if needed. Much of it had rotted away anyways and the rest is living of secondary roots. By the way, N1 and N2 developed a lot of powerful secondary roots that I noticed when I pulled them. I also trimmed the dead and eaten leaves from H1, leaving just seven feet of leaves supporting the pumpkin. However, things are not necessarily finished in the patch. I saved that part of H4 for males because there is a tertiary vine growing from the secondary of H1. It is growing back in the opposite direction towards the garden from which the pumpkins sprang. It is thirteen feet long and growing like the original vines did. The leaves are a little smaller, about twelve inches, and the veins are more clustered and visible on the surfaces of the same. Also, there is a female on it that looks promising. So, I am going to leave it and see what happens. I buried a section of it to help but it seems the pot the secondary is buried in already is doing the vine just fine. With the several males growing on H1 and H4, which may yield a few more, I hope there is something to pollinate the female with when it opens. Finally, I watered the vines with Bloom Booster to help that along.

September 20:
I pollinated that female this morning with four different males. The female itself almost opened up when it was supposed to do so all the way so I pulled the petals apart to expose the stamen. I hope that it is mature enough to work. The males also didn't have much pollen hence the use of four. One taken near the pot had plenty though. I scrapped the pollen off the stamens with a small knife and rubbed the blade on the female stamen. I couldn't shove the male stamens into the female flower because the petals were not open enough and given the pollen situation it was more efficient to transfer the same this way. A few bugs inside the female will hopefully spread things around too, since it is too drizzly for bees today. One bonus though is that it is only 70 degrees so I don't need ice to cool things down.

September 28:
Well, the fertilization from last time was unsuccessful. The infant pumpkin quickly shriveled away. There was a small female a few feet down that shriveled up too. The flowers probably are not reaching maturity enough anymore. Even the pumpkins underneath the blossoms are not as big, perhaps the size of an olive instead of a pecan. However, there is another female even further down the vine that looks ready to open tomorrow, I'll leave it to nature to pollinate.

October 1:
Measurement: Length of H1 tertiary is 18 feet
I went ahead and hand-pollinated the female that opened up the other day, but in the afternoon. I have seen the bees around again so hopefully they helped earlier as well. I used one male from H1 and two from H4's secondaries. The latter two were small but had some good pollen, which is a testament that H4 is still a good producer of males. I am glad that I kept it. The H1 flower only had a little though. The female looked like it had opened up o.k. Yet, it was smaller as I mentioned so I used a small knife blade to transfer the pollen. I also sprayed it with Tomato Bloom Spray, something I hadn't done with the last few. Today, I noticed another female about two feet down that almost opened before wilting. The pumpkin underneath is only the size of a pinto bean. The female from yesterday might be a success since its pumpkin is now about the size of a pecan. I sprayed it again with Bloom Spray and watered all the root sections of H1 with Tomato Food. I also watered the nearby leaves with those two. Finally, the tertiary has not grown much recently so I might bury the end if that new pumpkin continues its success.

October 6:
H1 Pumpkin Harvest
H1 Main Vine Removed
The remaining leaves on H1 Main wilted away in the past few days so I harvested the pumpkin on it. The latter looks to be in a bad way too though as it has a flat side that rested on the ground to the point of killing the grass. In return for non-ventilation of that side, a mass of orange stuff/lumps formed on it mixed with a few black spots. The stuff won't come off either. There are also some of those black spots on the rest of the pumpkin. The stem is scarred by many small marks and a hole exists in the center of the same, which I have plugged with paper for the time being. I placed it on some sand outside since it looks too icky to store inside. This is a testament to picking pumpkins once they stop growing, like I did with the others. Without its pumpkin now, I removed most of H1 Main. What I pulled up had developed some pretty good root structures. I removed it back to the semi-buried part where the secondary starts. I also removed the now totally rotted section from the original garden to that same section. I left that two to three foot section of the original vine because of the roots, which help provide for the H1 secondary and tertiary. While I was at it, I trimmed some dead leaves from the secondary and from H4. The leaves around the secondary terminating pot are thinning out but many healthy ones still exist. Male flowers continue to bloom there too, as well as on the other vines that remain in the patch. Finally, I cut the grass in the now vacated area. However, pumpkin season may not be over just yet. That infant on the tertiary is still holding on, not growing but not shriveling either. So, I buried another section of that vine a little further back and watered it with some Miracle-Gro Starter Solution and some Tomato Food. I watered the nearby buried section and leaves with the same. There was also a good rain today so hopefully the other root sections in the grass got watered with it too. Then, I sprayed the infant with Bloom Spray again. There is a tiny female at the tip of tertiary that might benefit from all this as well. On top of all that, another vine is growing rapidly from the tertiary, making it a quaternary. It has a female growing on it that might bloom in a couple of days; I sprayed it with Bloom Spray. I am directing that vine to grow in a circle around the tree. A few other smaller vines are growing from the tertiary too, but they are not doing much so only the abovementioned vine will be called the quaternary. Finally, when I removed H1 Main I discovered a vine borer larva still in a part of the vine near a leaf stem. So, I saved that part and when I was done with all the work above I took it inside and opened it. The larva was about an inch long and I photographed it along with the damaged vine.

October 11:
I pollinated and sprayed the female on that quaternary the other day. It was in the afternoon and I used several males from H4, which contained unusually large amounts of pollen even for that particular vine. I also used one from H1 for good measure, even though it had less. Ants were crawling in that female so hopefully they spread some of it around too after I was done. Today the infant pumpkin looks a little larger. The other pollinated one on the tertiary is starting to turn yellow though. However, the vines are growing again from these rainy days. As a result, two more females on the tertiary and one on the quaternary have appeared yet further down the vines. I hope I can finally get a successful pollination in this late part in the season but it might be just a science experiment now. I may try H1 males exclusively on the next female that blooms to see what happens. Finally, I discovered and took pictures of a two-headed male flower on H4 that looks ready to open up tomorrow. How unusual is that?

October 14:
H1 Secondary removed
Measurements: H1 Tertiary is 22 feet long, H1 Quaternary is 10 feet, vine growing from terminating pot is 4 feet long
Two more female flowers opened up today, one on the tertiary and one on the quaternary. I pollinated them with several male flowers from both H1's remnants and from H4's secondaries. However, this time H4 did not have hardly any pollen on its stamens. H1 Tertiary and Quaternary did not offer anything better but then I turned to the largest vine growing out of the H1 Secondary terminating pot. It had several males blooming and their stamens were full of pollen. So, I used all I could find on both females. The one pollinated a few days ago is still there but is not doing anything. The one from before that started to turn brown so I removed it. H1 Secondary has been bare for some time now, save for a few leaves, and recently has started to wither where it enters the terminating pot. So, I removed it. It had some powerful roots in that pot too. However, that vine growing out of the pot was saved since it had yielded such nice males today. I moved the pot and vine closer to the rest of the patch. To finish off today's trimming, I removed a few dead leaves from the vines. The patch looks smaller yet again. I read online recently that phosphorus is the thing to add to promote fruit set. I used it automatically for a long time during the main part of the season to promote additional flower growth while several pumpkins were already growing. I used potassium the past few unsuccessful times thinking it would help spur rapid growth and it seems it does not do as well in setting the fruit. So, instead of Tomato Food (potassium) I applied Bloom Booster. I watered all root structures and leaves with it. I also watered the terminating pot in hopes of some more good males when the small females now appearing come of age. Finally, I sprayed today's females again with Tomato Spray. Let's see if we can get some new pumpkins now.

Go to Part 3

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