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Back to Part 2 September 13: V6 Pumpkin Harvested: 6.6 inches in diameter; 3.5 pounds V6 Vine Removed The pumpkin is small but nicely shaped. It has a few nicks in it that have healed over. I washed it off in a solution of one cup bleach to one gallon water and placed it in storage. It has been thirty days since its pollination and along with last year's data 30 days seems to be the ideal time on the vine for this variety at least. There was a pollination on the far V3 secondary on September 11. The September 2 pumpkin a few feet back aborted, turning brown at about egg-size. Also, there are some yellow spots on the newest leaves of V1. It doesn't look like Powdery Mildew spots. From what I've read elsewhere it could be that the vine is growing too fast/big to keep up with chlorophyll development due to not enough nutrients in the ground. September 15: V4 Pumpkin Harvested: 8.36 inches in diameter; 8.5 pounds V4 Vine Removed V7 Pumpkin Harvested: 8.28 inches in diameter; 7 pounds V7 Vine Removed These are nice looking pumpkins too. It has been thirty days since they were pollinated. The patch is looking quite bare in the middle now as their vines were removed along with some battered leaves on the remaining vines. Those remaining vines are V1, V2, V3, and V5. I also sprayed all but the newest leaves on all of them with Fung-Away. Tomorrow the vines will get some Tomato Food for their fruit and perhaps some localized Bloom Booster for a few more females. One female on V3 far secondary was pollinated yesterday, but it looks unsuccessful. It appeared to be one of those "about-to-bloom but wilts" flowers with only halfway-opened petals but I tried nonetheless. There is the September 11 one a few feet back that is still hanging in there though.

September 18:
V2 Pumpkin Harvested: 8.28 inches in diameter; 7.5 pounds
It seems that 26 inches in circumference is a magic number for these pumpkins.
The August 30 pumpkin on V3 aborted at about orange-size. The September 11 pumpkin a few feet further down also failed at about ping-pong-ball-size. There was a female flower a fewer feet down from it that wilted right before it was supposed to open today. Other females have not been making it either. The temperatures are back up in the mid-to-upper nineties so that is probably the cause. But, it is also Day 95 (vs. August 22, 2003) so age is likely starting to work against the process too.
I fertilized the vines a few days ago with Tomato Food. I noticed that since it has a good deal of phosphorus in it (18-18-21) I went ahead and did the selective watering with it too.
There are now three pumpkins in the patch. One on V1 and one on V5 are approaching cantaloupe-size. Then there is one on V3 secondary near the garden that is grapefruit-size. However, I had to trim off many dead leaves on that secondary which leaves only a few feet of new growth nearby. V3 far secondary has nice growth but is many feet away in the other direction. These pumpkins have slowed down in recent days so I soaked the patch again with the hose.
Finally, I am spraying the new growth with Malathion. I saw a suspicious black bug flying around the other day, it wouldn't slow down long enough for me to see what it was.

September 23:
Measurement: V2 is 53' long!
Yes, 53 feet long! That is an average of 10 2/3" per day. There is no pumpkin on it now and the females have been wilting but I am interested in how far this can go. There is a sizeable female now around the fifty-foot mark so with the cooler temperatures let's see if it will make it. However, the newest leaves and vine are getting pretty yellowish with a more lack of green so it might be starving now for nutrients. I took a picture of this.
The other vines have one pumpkin each on them. V5's is fairly round but may come in a little smaller than the three larger pumpkins harvested so far, which is no surprise since the vine itself is the same way. V3's will be one of those cantaloupe-size pumpkins. Finally, I don't know what to make of V1's pumpkin. It is slightly larger than V3's but is getting some nasty splits on it, about half-an-inch long on average. One looks fairly deep. I even shaded it from the sun, why is the skin doing this?
I also noticed that these pumpkins are not even growing much with the Tomato Food. Whenever I added potassium in the past, the pumpkins I was trying to enlarge didn't do so by much if at all. They seemed to do the best growing when I was using Bloom Booster (phosphorus) to encourage more blooms further down their vines. So, a few days ago I fertilized with some of the latter to see what it would accomplish.
Finally, a bunch of the remaining oldest leaves wilted and died so I removed them. It has been 100 days since sprouting so I wonder if there is such a thing as a "100th Day Die-Off"? Lots of leaves and sometimes some vines have tended to do so these past two seasons. The main part of the patch is now completely bare. V1 is bare on its first 20 feet, V2 on its first 33', V3 on its first 28', and V5 on its first 15'. I sprayed all leaves with Fung-Away and the newest sections of vine with Malathion.

September 25:
Measurement: V1 is 44' long
The existing vines sure have grown longer than the ones last year. After a long lull in the patch, another female flower finally bloomed today on V2 with the cooler temperatures. The male flowers and stamens are now smaller compared to the peak season but they still have good amounts of pollen on them. While I was out there, I also trimmed off some more leaves that had wilted. Finally, it looks like the new growth on V1 and V3 is slowing down. The vine tips and newest leaves are getting smaller.

September 30:
V5 Pumpkin Harvested: 7.48 inches in diameter; 5.5 pounds
Measurements: V3 Far Secondary is 46' long; V5 is 40'
The pollination on V2 appears to be a success. The pumpkin is the size of a small apple today and is growing rapidly. However, there are some strange small rings on it that look like an imitation of the blotches on the leaves nearby but the pumpkin looks healthy otherwise. Another female appeared to be ready to bloom tomorrow but I removed it so that the pumpkin that is on there now can get all the energy on such an old vine. I remember the two earlier pollinations on V3 Far Secondary that doomed them both probably because demand exceeded resources. V2 itself is still growing nicely though.
The base of V1 shriveled up and died so I removed the first several feet of it. So, V1 is totally living off its secondary roots now. Its small pumpkin has not grown any in a long time so it will be harvested soon and its very slow growing vine removed. V3 Far Secondary's females have been shriveling up along with V5's. The former's growth is still good though while the latter's has slowed down like V1's.

October 4:
V1 Pumpkin Harvested: 7.64 inches in diameter; 7.5 pounds
V1 Vine Removed
It has been 28 days since the pumpkin above was pollinated. The thirty-day mark would have been Wednesday but this pumpkin has not grown in over a week. With heavy rains on Saturday, it looks like it may have had a very light growth spurt but it would be so slight I am not sure. With much more rain forecasted for the rest of this week, I thought the best opportunity to harvest was now. Even though there are many small splits on the surface as mentioned earlier, it is still a good pumpkin and of a size comparable to the others. If the rain started it growing again, its skin may have been too hard and it would have cracked much more.
Last Saturday as it rained, a tree branch fell right on top of part of the remaining patch. It broke many leaves but did not harm any vines. The rain also shredded many other leaves. So, with the cleanup of this and the removal of V1, the patch is smaller yet. Only V2, V3, and V5 remain. I cut the tips off most of the remaining secondaries, including the big secondary on V2.
On one other note, these past few days I have noticed several bees flying between the pumpkin blossoms all day long. The systemic pesticide must have filtered out by now for this to happen.

October 15:
Measurement: V2 is 65' long
V2 Secondary Vine Removed
Well, the patch is looking much smaller yet. All the shredded leaves from last week plus many more shriveled up so I trimmed them off. V2 Secondary was removed since it was terminated and no more flowers were developing. Only about an eight-foot section with leaves remain each on V3 and V5. A twelve-foot leafy section remains on V2. Several more females have blossomed and been pollinated by the bees but their pumpkins stop growing around golf-ball size. As I remove older sections of vines I have also noticed the insides are drier than usual, so even though they still look alive they are sending less water and food from the base roots. Maybe this is why any new pumpkins won't grow. The oldest sections of the vines are not as green as they used to be either but still exist all the way to their bases. I saw a huge bee in one flower too and took a picture of it for the gallery. Which reminds me, as I was trimming away the dead vines I spotted three sections where Squash Vine Borers had blasted out of on their way to pupate in the ground. I also found an egg and a tiny larva in another section. I was thinking I could get through the season without any. Still, it is much better than the dozens of SVB last year. It has been so late in the season I have not been spraying for them thinking they would not have time to mature. So, I'll have to be on the lookout for them again in these final days of the season. V2 still has that pumpkin, now at cantaloupe-size and growing slowly, at three weeks of age. I fertilized its nearby roots with Tomato Food (potassium).

October 25:
Measurements: V2 is 71' long; V5 was 50'
V5 Vine Removed
Age, Powdery Mildew, and heavy rains have taken a toll on the oldest leaves yet again so they were trimmed away. V5 has developed that sure-tell sign on its vine tip that it has stopped growing. You can tell when all of a sudden the most recent foot of vine gets smaller, along with the leaves, and a jumble of leaves and flowers develop at the tip (yes, there is always a jumble on a vine tip but much more so now). Since only a few feet of leafy vine remained as well, I removed V5. I discovered a SVB split in one part and another part closer to the base root had a dead SVB inside it. I wonder if the systemic pesticide is still having an effect in the older sections? I also found another SVB split in a V2 secondary that I trimmed off. Well, like I said before at least it is not the dozen or so per vine of last year.
V2 shows the stop-growth symptoms at its tip and has just a few feet of leaves as well. But, it also still has a pumpkin on it so I'll leave it for a few more days. I am hoping to get a boost in weight from trimming off the dead leaves and I also applied the one last dose in the box of Tomato Food I had to help it along. The vine of V3 is still going strong though with about 12 leafy feet and another female about to bloom.

October 29:
V2's Second Pumpkin Harvested: 7.13 inches in diameter; 5.5 pounds
V2 Vine Removed
Measurement: V2 was 71' long
That second pumpkin on V2 did get a little bigger from the events described a few days ago. But, today the base of V2 was tan-brown and just starting to shrivel up. So, without the base roots and only four feet of yellowing leaves I decided to harvest. It has been thirty-four days on the vine for this pumpkin so that timing is about right too. It still has those strange marks on it but it looks healthy.
As I was removing the V2 vine, I found that four SVBs had blasted through. Two more were still in the vine, including a huge larva, which were promptly killed. This was all in the newer parts of the vine that may have not been sprayed. I probably have to consider the life cycle of those pest to be shorter than previously thought and spray closer to the end of the season. But, it is still not bad for 71 feet of vine compared to last year.
Finally, V3 is the only remaining vine. I, along with several bees in the area, pollinated a female flower on Wednesday. It is only ping-pong ball size today and might not be successful just like the last few. I sprayed it with Tomato Bloom Spray II. I also fertilized the nearby leaf-stem roots, which there weren't many of, with Bloom Booster. The base is not very green either. I inspected the vines for new SVB damage and found no new cases. The vine is still growing a few inches a day though.

November 8:
Measurement: V3 was 63' long
V3 Vine Removed
End of Pumpkin Growing Season
That pumpkin on V3 stopped growing and started to rot at around golf-ball size like the others recently. The base of the vine shriveled up so it wasn't getting support from the main roots either, just from the secondary roots. Even though the vine tip wasn't shrinking in size it still didn't grow much these past few days. Many remaining leaves were battered by recent rains. I also spotted two more areas where SVBs blasted out. So, with all this in mind I removed V3. A normal-sized female did open today though and just out of curiosity I cut the little pumpkin open and found little spots that looked like the future seeds, pretty cool. The jack-o-lanterns were quite mushy and fuzzy with mold too as I threw them in the garbage with the vine. They only lasted half as long this year compared to last but it was a lot rainier and humid this time around. So, this ends the 2004 Pumpkin Growing Season.

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