Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Sunday, March 8 View Page Hello BigPumpkins! Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. It's been 13 years since Emily and I last grew. We last competed in the 2013 season, winning the VT state weigh-off with a 1,290-pounder (throwback photo attached!). For the past decade, I poured my obsessive energy into Ironman triathlons. It was an incredible journey, but Ironman is a lonely sport. You simply can't take your family out on a 120-mile weekend training ride. I missed the patch, the biology, and the community. But mostly, I wanted a hobby we could share. Emily and I now have a 4-year-old son, and I want him in the dirt with us. It feels great to be back. Let's grow them big! Tuesday, March 10 View Page Beat the weather window today! Soil cores have officially been pulled and are heading to Western Labs in Idaho tomorrow morning to get an exact read on the native dirt. I also managed to get the clear plastic pinned down over the patch footprint. The goal here is twofold: shed the upcoming spring moisture and trap the solar heat to accelerate the thaw. I'm on a really tight schedule between now and seed-starting, so I'm doing everything possible to ensure this ground is dry, warm, and ready for tilling by early April. The 2026 season is officially underway! Saturday, March 14 View Page The Ground Game - Turning Clay into a Pumpkin Patch Every season starts from the ground up. My future 750-sq-ft patch is currently just a backyard lawn. Because this is my first year in this location, my focus is simply building a healthy foundation. I shipped core samples to the lab, but I already know the physical challenge: native clay silt loam. It's heavy, sticky, and holds water. Since these plants love a highly oxygenated, fast-draining medium, I'm heavily modifying the top 20 inches. (I should probably announce that this season is brought to you in part by Pro-Mix HP and perlite.) As soon as the ground thaws, I'm adding: - 30 Bales Pro-Mix HP - 15 Bags Coarse Perlite - 5 Yards Seacoast Compost Once I get the lab results back, I'll learn how to properly dial in the pH and nutrients. Monday, March 16 View Page The Heat Is On! I'm seeing some encouraging progress with my early patch prep. Just a few days ago, before I put down the clear plastic tarp, the native soil was sitting at a chilly 39.2F. I just checked under the plastic today, and the greenhouse effect is already doing some heavy lifting. The soil is up to 45.9F, almost 4 degrees higher than the uncovered grass! I also took an EC reading while I was poking around under there. It's sitting at a super low 0.11. I'm taking this as a really great starting point. It tells me the native dirt is basically a clean slate with no leftover salt or chemical buildup from previous use, which should make a perfect, neutral base for my amendments. Hoping this trapped heat continues to wake up the soil biology before I fire up the tiller in April! Sunday, March 22 View Page From Florida Sun to Vermont Snow (But the Patch is Heating Up!) Here in Vermont, Mother Nature isn't quite in the pumpkin-growing mindset yet. I just got home from a sunny Florida work trip to find six inches of fresh snow in the yard! The first thing I did was grab a shovel and clear the snow off the 6-mil clear plastic covering my patch to take full advantage of the UV solar gain. The plastic is doing an incredible job. Despite the freezing air and snow, I measured the soil temperature under the tarp and was thrilled to find it at a balmy 49.3F! To put that in perspective, the bare, uncovered ground right next to it was practically frozen at 35.3F. That is a massive 14-degree difference just from trapping radiant heat. We are knocking on the door of 50F, meaning the soil biology is actively waking up under there. Not long now until seed starting! Tuesday, March 24 View Page Nematode Eviction Notice Got my Western Labs test today. Good news: zero Root Knot. The catch: 620 Root Lesion nematodes. They won't kill a giant outright, but they chew up roots and leave the door open for disease. Then I had a realization. That clear plastic warming my soil (55F today, almost 20 degrees warmer than outside!)? It's creating a "green bridge"; an all-you-can-eat warm buffet for nematodes to feed on the grass and multiply before the pumpkin gets transplanted. So, I'm issuing an eviction notice. Instead of tilling the grass in, I'm using a sod cutter to peel off the top two inches of turf. This physically removes the root mass and carts the highest nematode concentration right out of the patch. Then, I'll broadfork to crack the hardpan, and throw the clear plastic back on to bake the bare dirt and starve the rest. What's your go-to for nematode pressure? Mustard crops, bio-drenches, or physical removal? Let me know! Thursday, March 26 View Page The Seedling VIP Treatment: Rolling Out the Microbial Red Carpet I'm experimenting with a 2-zone system in 2-gallon pots to completely eliminate transplant stress for a 3-week indoor grow. The inner 4" zone will be clean Pro-Mix HP, providing a sterile-adjacent germination environment for the first week. I'm currently pre-charging the outer zone, which will act as the biological engine. My thinking behind the outer zone: - Water Prep: My tap water uses chloramine, which won't off-gas and suppresses biology. I neutralized it with ascorbic acid, then pH'd to 6.5 for the peat medium. - Worm Castings (6%): Blended into the Pro-Mix to act as physical housing for the microbial network to colonize. - WOW 5:2 (Humic/Fulvic + Seaweed): Added to feed the biological community as it establishes. - The Inoculants: Mycorrhizae, Azos, and Trichoderma incorporated throughout. This outer mix is pre-charging on an 80F heat mat for 7 days to activate the spores. When the root pushes out of the clean inner zone, it drops right into a living, fully functioning ecosystem. Ill fill 2 gallon pots tonight. Overcomplicating? Likely, but I can't help myself. Sunday, March 29 View Page Seed Selection: Next Generation Heavy Orange After 13 years away from the patch, it feels incredibly good to be starting seeds again. There are so many amazing genetics available now I've easily spent hours going back and forth on strategy and which seeds would best execute it. Where I landed was attempting to create a cross that expresses both heavy-to-chart density AND Howard Dill-potential orange. This year's cross: 2741.5 Haist (f) x 2453 Sherwood (m). The "why" behind the genetics: The Haist brings three generations of accelerating density with same-patch, same-year standout heavy-to-chart performance. The Sherwood is the largest Howard Dill winner ever recorded, bringing elite size and color genetics. What's even more compelling is that this Sherwood seed produced five Howard Dill winners in its first year out. Beyond their individual traits, a four-generation pedigree analysis shows only ~19% shared ancestry between these two lines meaning roughly 81% genetic divergence. That divergence will hopefully result in hybrid vigor. The primary goal isn't a pretty pumpkin this year. It's seeds for a future generation that are both predictably heavy AND beautiful. Seeds are soaked. Two Haist, two Sherwood. Fingers crossed I don't fry these in the wet paper towel! Tuesday, March 31 View Page The Sod Slog This weekend I spent two days removing 750sqft of sod. The patch transformation has begun. Two inches deep, completely saturated from a wet Vermont spring. Rough estimate somewhere around 6,000 lbs moved twice; once into the wheelbarrow, once out as fill. My back knows all about it. There's actually a practical reason beyond just clearing the ground. My soil test came back showing Pratylenchus lesion nematodes at levels worth paying attention to. My guess is they are concentrated heavily in the top couple inches of soil where the sod root mat is thickest. The clear plastic I've had over the patch the last two weeks brought soil temperatures up to 60 degrees, so I'm hoping they woke up and started migrating into the top couple inches. Pulling that layer out physically removes a big chunk of the population before it will ever see my pumpkin roots. No chemistry needed yet, just a lot of trips with the wheelbarrow. I also didn't want the sod breaking down in place, as it robs nitrogen from the soil. A lot of heavy lifting still ahead. 5 yards of compost being delivered next week. Tuesday, March 31 View Page They're Alive! Four seeds started. Four seeds cracking. I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I haven't done this in 13 years and I was starting $300 worth of seed genetics all at once. The process was pretty "straightforward." I sanded the edges of each seed lightly to thin the hull and help moisture penetrate faster. Just the seam edges, not the faces or root tip. Then soaked them for 90 minutes in a diluted seaweed extract and hydrogen peroxide solution using John Young's paper cup trick to keep them submerged. From there, damp paper towels soaked in the same seaweed solution, seeds wrapped up and sealed in zip lock bags. Heat mat connected to a temperature probe tucked right against the bags to hold 85-90 degrees. Dish towel over the top and underneath to insulate and hold the heat in. 33 hours later, all four seeds had root tips emerging almost simultaneously. Both Haists slightly ahead of the Sherwoods, with one Haist leading the pack. Carson was pretty excited to see the little white roots poking out of the seeds. Honestly, so was I. It always amazes me to watch a seed wake up from dormancy. Now we get them in the ground before those roots get any bigger.