Yesterday, I couldn't pick it up.

Nuff said.

I'm from Missouri...

Okay, so you know how I've been writing this blog for a while now? And how every time you've checked it, you've seen some pictures of seeds, or vines, or talk about fertilizer or genes or something? Well, I bet you were starting to wonder why I call this the ridiculously humongous pumpkin blog, and not the blah blah blah blog. Well, as the title of this post says, I'm from Missouri, the "show me" state. So, I'm gonna follow the golden rule:
















Bam. That's a big pumpkin. At its widest point, this pumpkin's circumference is 173 cm (68 inches). So there you have it. I've shown you. I hope you're happy.

But, of course there's more to say. One of the big developments is that we're really now down to one pumpkin. Sarah H. is working on a second pumpkin on the other vine, but all my attention is now on this guy, because I really think he deserves it.




This isn't the world's greatest picture, but what you can see in the foreground there is my ultimate pumpkin defense system. It's a 4 foot cube of chicken wire, with a pallet inside. On top of the pallet is a tarp, and a pile of sand. The sand provides drainage to keep the pumpkin from rotting and also padding to prevent the pumpkin from crushing itself under its own massive weight. The only thing left to do is add some shade cloth, keep watering and fertilizing, and watch this sucker go crazy.

Hell yeah.

Pumpkin: 1, Vine Borers: 0.

Huzzah!

Look at those healthy vines!



Hear how I exclaim their Majesty and Health! They are MAJESTIC and HEALTHY!

Once more, Huzzah!

Not only are there vines, but there are pumpkins! The size and force of FISTS!



They have developed from the stems leading into flowers, for that is their way!



Upon the accession of such masterful fruit, the flowery progenitors crumble into the earth!




A taproot such as this could feed the hungry growth of a legion of lesser pumpkins, but this vine will feed the health of only ONE - the GREATEST pumpkin!




A sensitive portrait of whom will soon become a splendid, HUMONGOUS pumpkin!!!

Once more, and finally, HUZZAH!!!!!

Like a surgeon...

So this is a little bit of a historical post. This is about what happened last week, and I'll bring you up to date on current status in the next couple of days.

Last week, Sarah saw some holes in the pumpkins that she thought looked like they might be from squash vine borers. I was a little bit skeptical at first, probably just wishful thinking, but then we got a positive ID from Dr. Taylor. There were borers in the vines, and this was no time for trepidation, this was a time for action.

So, I got together some tools - razor blades, forceps, and composted manure, and I headed out to the pumpkin patch to do some surgery. I saw a couple of things. At first glance, I saw this:















You'll notice that the vine on the right is severely wilted, although the one on the left looks as perky as the girl who plans the office secret santa. Now, the vines do temporarily wilt sometimes on hot days (it's a water conservation response) but it's usually the whole vine or nothing - this doesn't look good for vine #1.

Looking closer unveiled the smoking gun:















That hole right there (with the brown, necrotic ring around it) is the squash vine borer's calling card - that's where it entered the vine to begin it's reign of terror. I simply could not let this stand.

So, with help from Jonathan, from Dr. Jan Jaworski's lab, I cut open the vine:















And we pulled those little scoundrels out:



Just look at him - he thought he could just sit there inside my vine, eating away, destroying our hopes and dreams of giant pumpkins. Well, he thought wrong. I tossed him and every one of his friends that Jonathan and I could find out into the tall grass to dessicate their way to a slow, painful death. To make sure the injured vines wouldn't suffer a similar fate, we covered the cut portions in a thick layer of composted manure to keep in moisture and keep out potential secondary infections:



The next night, I came through and sprayed a heavy coat of Sevin, a potent commercial insecticide, to ensure that no more pests tried to take up residence inside my vines. I made sure to spray after the flower buds had closed so that beneficial insects like bees would be unaffected. Bees are smart, they only touch the inside of the buds when they come to do their pollinating, so as long as you don't get pesticide inside the buds, you won't hurt them.

After that, there were a lot of risks, though: did I get them all? Would the insecticide have side effects for the plant? Would the injury to the vines from the surgery cause other problems? Even if everything went well, what effect would this episode have on the ultimate size of the pumpkin? Only time will tell...

XOXO