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Welcome To My 2005 Diary! February 17, 2005. Ok, time for the first entry of 2005. The soil prep at the end of last season included 250 pounds of gypsum to hopefully get the Ca:Mg ratio closer to ideal, 3-4 inches of maple leaves, pumpkin chunks, molasses, seaweed, fish emulsion, and liquid kelp. A soil test in late March will tell the tale! Here's my current 2005 lineup. Barring some germination problems, this will be what I actually grow this year. 765 Reid 2004 (1230 Daletas 2001 x 801 Black 1999) 833 Reid 2004 (801 Black 1999 x 1230 Daletas 2001) 783 Daletas 2000 (500 Hebb 1996 x 801.5 Stelts 1997) 810 Dill 1999 (920 Cole 1998 x 715 Dill 1996) 857 Rivard 2004 (783 Daletas 2000 x 960 Kline 2003) 869.5 Calai 2000 (846 Calai 1999 x 801.5 Stelts 1997) 1048.6 Companion 2003 (810 Dill 1999 x 801.5 Stelts 1997) As you can see, I'm a sucker for orange. If anyone out there has any cross suggestions please feel free to send me an email. I'm just a new grower and know next to nothing when it comes to pumpkin genetics so if you have any comments, send away! March 25, 2005. I finally got around to starting some tomato and sunflower seeds today. I went with a few Better Boy hybrids for some good eating tomatoes, Delicious, Big Zac, and seeds from Ron Wilson's 4.83# tomato for some monsters(Thank you Ron!), as well as a few Mammoth sunflower seeds for Jessica. The picture shows the pots in the germination chamber. All that's left to do now is to set the thermostat to 85 degrees and wait impatiently for them to spring to life. Here's a picture of the 2005 lineup. I have to send out a very special thank you to the growers who so generously sent me their seeds this year. It's greatly appreciated! The pumpkins I grow this year may not get very big by most standards but hopefully I'll be able to make a few of the orange crosses I have planned. After hearing so much about the sophomore curse, I just hope to have a pumpkin to take to Canby again this year. Whatever happens, it won't be for lack of trying! One final picture for today. Here's a picture of our lazy 8 month old cat that we adopted from a friend who couldn't keep him. I'm not much of a cat person but I have to say that he's one of the coolest cats I've ever met. He plays fetch as good as any dog out there!!! Best of luck to you all this season!!! April 15, 2005. Here are the tomato plants today. The Delicious' and Big Zac's are by far the largest plants. It's almost time for their first transplant! The use of one wide spectrum and one full spectrum 4' bulb really seems to keep the plants nice and stalky. The pumpkin plants will get the same treatment here in a couple weeks! I plan on starting my pumpkin seeds on May 1st again this year so there's still time to get everything done. If I ever get my soil test results back, I'll be ready for the final tilling. Considering we had frost until early June last year, I've decided to abandon my 5'x7' cold frames in favor of larger hoophouses. I haven't decided on size just yet but they'll be around 12-14 feet wide and 15 feet long to give the plants the heat they need to grow in my cold climate until it warms up. Bigger hoophouses require more heat so I've also abandoned the infrared heat lamps in favor of 1500W space heaters. I'll have a total of 4 hoophouses to heat so the electric company will love me for the next couple of months. 6000W * (1kW/1000W) * ($.04/kW-hr) * (12 hr) = $2.88 per night if I leave them on for 12 hours per night. Small price to pay for happy plants!!