Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 21 Entries. Sunday, March 15 View Page Pollinator seeds sown today. Saturday, March 21 View Page We have lift off! Under the lights PPFD @ 100 Friday, March 27 View Page The 2641 Paton will be the fruiting plant this year and I have 3 seeds which will be sown tomorrow. Saturday, March 28 View Page The pollinator seedlings doing well under the lights, ppfd now 300 Tuesday, March 31 View Page So far 2 of the 3 Paton 2641 sown a couple of days ago have germinated. Saturday, April 4 View Page The final 2641 didn't germinate but I can only plant one anyway so it'll be one of these although which of the two is anybody's guess at the moment. Wednesday, April 8 View Page It's been about a week since germination and I think we will go with the one on the left, it's not as leggy and just looks a bit bigger/stronger. Light ppfd is 350 for 14 hours daily, temp is between 22-24C day and night. Planting out will be next week. Tuesday, April 14 View Page Things looking good so far. Night temp 20C, day temp 25C, 600ppfd, RH 70%, EC 1.2 pH 6.0. Easy to do while the plant is small, not so easy as time goes on. Tuesday, April 21 View Page The 2641 is now just over 2 weeks old and thinking about starting to vine. Still maintaining 20C nights and 24-28C days with ppfd600 and rh65-75%. Thursday, April 30 View Page Just under 4 weeks old and things are looking good with about 4 inches growth a day. Side vines are starting to make an appearance all the way up the main vine. We've had unseasonally warm and sunny weather which is always a bonus. Saturday, May 2 View Page It's early afternoon and for a young plant these conditions are just about spot on. Tuesday, May 5 View Page This female appeared at 6-7ft on the main vine, there's one on a side vine too. Growth really picking up now. Monday, May 25 View Page It's been hot these past few days and more to come, the challenge is to get the temp down to between 25-30C in the day and 19-20C at night AND get VPD levels correct too, not easy but the past 24 hours have been pretty good Monday, May 25 View Page This will probably open tomorrow at 18ft but the pollinator plant isn't producing male flowers yet. I might have to self it unless I can find a donor soon Tuesday, May 26 View Page A small flower let's hope that it's not a sign of a small pumpkin. Big thanks - as usual - to Ian Paton for saving the season! Without the generous donation of some of his 2020 males I would not have had a pollinator this year! Friday, May 29 View Page This is DAP 3 and there is some swelling but not much. It's been very hot so I am not sure if the pollination was successful. Sunday, May 31 View Page DAP 5 and still not much of a change. There is another female due to open tomorrow, but because of the S bend created for the earlier pollination it's in a really bad position... some major vine repositioning might have to take place. Monday, June 1 View Page Not the prettiest flower but beggars can't be choosers. This will be the back up as it seems the first pollination will fail. Saturday, June 6 View Page WIth pretty much no growth after 7 days the first fruit was zapped. So this is the new pumpkin, hopefully the keeper, a Paton 2020 cross at DAP 5 and looking so much better. It's growing parallel to the vine, which is a bit of a nuisance, and will require slow and steady rectification over the next couple of weeks. Wednesday, June 10 View Page This is the first leaf analysis of the season. Mn deficiency usually shows as yellow patches on the leaves, but they look ok to me, and even though it's 'low' it's not super low so a touch of foliar should redress the balance. As for Ca there is plenty of it in our hard water and the calcium nitrate fertiliser so I can only imagine that it's not getting to the leaves through the transpiration stream as it should. Again a foliar application should sort it out but I will use chloride and not nitrate as we have enough nitrogen as it is. Wednesday, June 10 View Page DAP 8 and things are looking good.