Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Saturday, April 25 View Page I'm back. Last year I got back into growing after 18 years away from it. So I got some seeds on line at WOW and despite a late start grew a 885 and a 760. They were nice orange ones , which I like. After doing some test germinating last week I started my 2026 line up yesterday. I plan on growing three plants and tilled in three 50 lb bags of alfalfa pellets into 1800 sq ft. My goal is to finally hit 1000 lbs and produce some beautiful orange seed stock. Monday, April 27 View Page After 72 hours one of the seeds I really wanted to grow hasn't sprouted in the wet paper towels. All the rest sprouted after 48 hours. Friday, May 1 View Page One of my 885 seeds popped out of the pot two days ago and another 885 is popping today. One of the 2029 Kent's is up and the other looks like it will be up by evening. Both of my 760's are up as well, the 760 is the one pictured in my first diary entry and was a beautiful orange pumpkin. I really want to make a known orange cross this year and since the 1417 Kisamore didn't germinate I ordered two 785 Schmit seeds from Moby Mike which should get here soon. The temps will be cool for at least a week yet so no hurry getting these in the ground right now. Saturday, May 2 View Page I got a package from Moby Mike today. As soon as I got it I filed the seeds and they went into the baggie for germination. These should help with my quest for orange. Saturday, May 2 View Page An action shot inside the greenhouse. I'm trying to keep one of my 885's from getting leggy. One of the 2029 Kent's looks like it might be missing a cot. We will see who wants to be in the starting line up. Three will be in the patch and I will also have a 300 sq ft "genetics patch" outside the garden where I will grow one plant to produce seed. The coldframes were secured today to get the soil temp heating up. Saturday, May 9 View Page No sign of life on the 785 Schmit seeds after a week. It would be great if they would pop soon but I'm starting to lose hope that they will. Yesterday I started a bunch of back up seeds just in case I need them later. I started to harden off the plants in the green house yesterday. I put the plants outside in the shade for about an hour. That sure seemed to help them stiffen up a bit. Tuesday, May 12 View Page Both of the 785 Schmit seeds started to break through the soil yesterday and they are still working on curling out of the soil. My plan is to put one in the main patch and see if it will catch up enough to get that spot in the patch. The other one will go in the genetics patch to be used for crossing w/ the 2029 Kent. Right now my 885 and 760 plants are twice the size of the two 2029 Kent plants but we shall see what happens once they are in the patch which should be Thursday. Hopefully we are done w/ the cool temps. Thursday, May 14 View Page My 760 and the 785 Schmit will share one cold frame for a few weeks. The 785 is small and just starting to form the first true leaf. I want to give it a shot in the patch, maybe it will catch up and win that spot. If I have to go with the 760 that's ok too, it was a beautiful orange one just don't know the genetics. It is from WOW so I'm sure the genes are very good. The other 785 will grow in the pot for a week or so then it will be planted in the genetics patch for pollination's. Thursday, May 14 View Page The back to back cold frames will have this same combination growing. This should be an interesting battle. My 885 plant is my biggest plant so far and looks to be tough to beat but time will tell. The 2029 Kent has some great genetics and I will go with one of them for sure unless something happens to them both. Thursday, May 14 View Page The plants will spend their first night in the patch. I built these cold frames 25 years ago, just needed to cover them w/ new fabric and they are ready to go. They are pretty durable and have survived some big storms back in the day. Now I need to get the irrigation system ready and get the rest of the garden planted.