YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → The Secrets of Growing Champion Giant Pumpkins

The Secrets of Growing Champion Giant Pumpkins — Transcript

by James Beauchemin · 18,249 words · 2,965 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:05welcome
0:06to the secrets of growing champion giant
0:08pumpkins my name is jim boschman
0:10and whether you're a first time grower
0:12or seasoned veteran
0:14i'm inviting you into my garden where
0:16i'll share my secrets with you
0:17on growing champion giant pumpkins
0:20[Music]
0:26the actual first step in getting started
0:29on growing giant pumpkins begins with
0:30the germination
0:32of the seeds the seeds that we use the
0:34giant pumpkin growers use across the
0:36world
0:37is the atlantic giant not not a huge
0:41seed typical
0:42about the size of your fingernail this
0:44seed
0:46has been generations and generations of
0:49seeds have been
0:51genetically worked with to create
0:53heavier pumpkins and also pumpkins
0:55that'll
0:55bring brighter colors to the pumpkin
0:57patch
0:58some are green some are orange and some
1:00are off colored uh
1:02different shades of orange
1:05what we're going to do i'm going to show
1:07you first of all how i get started in
1:09getting these germinated or this has
1:11been the most successful
1:13method that i've used obviously you
1:15could direct plant into the soil in the
1:17garden
1:18however you're going to wait uh 10 days
1:20two weeks sometimes even three weeks
1:22before you start seeing
1:24anything coming through the soil the
1:25soil temperature is going to be just
1:27right
1:27but my preferred method is indoors i
1:30start them indoors
1:31um i'll take my choice seeds and i'll
1:34file the edges
1:36basically just to bring down the uh take
1:38some of that hard shell off the edges
1:40just the pointed tip and you can see
1:42right there
1:43a little filing on each side
1:46and that's good you don't need to you
1:48don't want to break the very tip of it
1:50but just get a little bit of that coarse
1:52shell off there and it's going to help
1:54the seed emerge uh in the next few days
1:58and i'll take a couple of them like that
2:00and i'll get them all
2:01sanded and basically
2:04you're giving the you're giving the the
2:06seed a head start
2:08and the whole process the next thing
2:10i'll do i've got two
2:12basic nine inch paper plates and a
2:15couple table napkins what i'll do is
2:16i'll soak the napkins in a little bit of
2:18water wring it out
2:20like that and i'll lay the napkin on the
2:23paper plate just like that
2:25the seeds one of the first things you
2:26want to do is make sure if you if you're
2:28if you're planting multiple seeds um
2:31you want to mark them with an h or
2:33whatever the other way to coat them so
2:35you'll know which is which
2:36this is real important for the uh
2:38keeping track of the genetic lines
2:40um that is that is what we do to to
2:43identify uh which seeds are which
2:47the next thing you do you've got the wet
2:48napkin you've got the seeds laid on
2:50there and they're marked
2:51i'll take another wet napkin wring it
2:53out
2:55so it's nice and moist and i'll lay that
2:57on top of those seeds just like that
3:00the next thing i'll do is i'll put
3:02another paper plate on top
3:06and then i'll slide them into a zip lock
3:09bag just like this and i'll zip it shut
3:13i'll give it a little squeeze get all
3:15the air out now all you do is find a
3:17warm place with some controlled
3:19temperatures um on top of the
3:21refrigerator
3:22um under the sink i i prefer down by the
3:25furnace put it by the furnace where the
3:27temperature is 70 degrees 75 and
3:30you know keeps a nice steady warm
3:32temperature if you have a
3:34hot tub under the hot tubs always a good
3:36place i do i do some under there i have
3:38a steady um
3:3875 to 80 degrees but you've got to keep
3:41it warm for
3:4224 to 48 hours sometimes a little bit
3:45longer
3:46it'll take but you'll open uh at that
3:48point um you'll retrieve the um
3:51the seeds just like this and you'll
3:53notice they've all
3:56started to emerge from the shell so
3:58you'll have a tiny little
4:00seedling started
4:03what you want to do at that point you
4:04have your four inch peat pots
4:06basically you can find these at any
4:08garden center to your local um
4:10garden center will have these you put
4:12them just a sterilized
4:15potting soil i don't recommend taking
4:17soil right out of your garden
4:19you want to start out with a nice clean
4:21sterilized potting soil
4:23and basically just probe a little hole
4:25in there with your finger and you set
4:27them down in
4:28pointed end first down inside and then
4:31you just cover them up
4:32so just the tops are showing slightly
4:35you do uh just like that
4:37we'll do two of them right here point it
4:40in down
4:42and there you go and these are all set
4:44and you find uh
4:45keep these in a nice warm controlled
4:47temperature uh if you have if you're
4:49fortunate enough to have a little
4:50greenhouse on hand
4:51boy that's the best place you get the
4:53sunlight during the day and keeps them
4:54warm
4:54but if not on the windowsill yeah move
4:57them to on top of the refrigerator at
4:59night so it's where it's going to stay
5:00warm in a and a nice controlled
5:04environment
5:06in five to six days
5:09you're going to have a couple little
5:11seedlings like this will be popping out
5:14and that's a nice start you get two
5:17leaves coalescent leaves are out
5:19you'll see in the next two or three days
5:21so you're up 10 or 12 days
5:23you'll see a third a third leaf start to
5:27appear
5:28and it's at that point i'll transplant
5:31these plants
5:32into a bigger pot this is a one gallon
5:35container you can see it's two
5:37actually two containers exact same size
5:39i cut one in half
5:41just like that and then i'll take some
5:43duct tape and i'll put duct tape around
5:45here
5:46and around here to hold it together and
5:48then i slide it right inside the other
5:50part just like that
5:51and then do a transplant from this small
5:54and i'll
5:55i'll peel i peel the um this exterior
5:58peat product
5:58right off some folks don't peel it but i
6:00prefer to peel it right off
6:02and i put it into obviously some more a
6:04sterilized potting soil
6:06you're just giving it more uh area for
6:08to extend its root growth
6:10and now it's in this one gallon
6:13container and here it'll stay till it
6:14meets uh
6:16it meets the garden for the first time
6:21[Music]
6:26okay well here we are
6:29we're ready for uh for the
6:33planting of the uh getting them in the
6:35ground uh as you can see the plastics
6:37here
6:38the soil is heated up i've actually um
6:41monitored i've been monitoring the the
6:43soil temperature now for uh
6:45several days right now it's um
6:49this is this soil right now is 82
6:50degrees and
6:52without without the the heating coils
6:55and
6:56this enclosure uh the soil will be in
6:59the 50s
7:00so we're ready to get things going um
7:04all right now what we're going to do
7:06first
7:07is i dig a hole i have mounded the soil
7:10up here just to um
7:12i truly believe that a a berm or a
7:15mounded area
7:16is um is the way to go heavy rain sheds
7:20the water better
7:21and let's face it when it rains for
7:23three and four days things can get
7:24pretty soggy in the garden with two feet
7:26of
7:27composted uh topsoil that's we've been
7:30working on for years
7:31so by mounding uh mounding the soil it
7:34tends to
7:34shed the water a little bit better so
7:36you don't drown the plants
7:38what i do now i'm gonna dig a hole and i
7:40will
7:41amend the soil with a couple of things
7:43you can see all the nice stuff i'm
7:45taking out of there
7:46basically composted leaves i put in last
7:49fall you can see right there
7:50that's awesome maple leaves there's the
7:54one of the best things to get in the
7:55garden if you can
7:57and what we do is we're going to go down
7:58a good two two feet i'll go maybe even
8:0130 inches if the digging's not too bad
8:03sometimes i'll go until i hit a hard pan
8:06or you reach a point where um you just
8:10know it's not worth going
8:11any further the plant will send down
8:15a um a tap root from the main stump
8:18that will go straight down and it'll go
8:20as far as i give it
8:21so by going down this deep and putting
8:25the
8:25some nice loose soil down there um it's
8:28gonna
8:29give it a real good chance to get down
8:31down deep and
8:33pull up some nutrients if i'm down to
8:35the very bottom i'm about 30 inches down
8:38and i'm hitting um i'm actually hitting
8:41clay down here so
8:43that's far enough i'm going to loosen up
8:46what i've got
8:49and now i'm going to add oh you know
8:52i'll put a little
8:53two or three shovel fulls and you can
8:55see this is real
8:57uh it's light it's got um vermiculite in
9:00it and it's basically uh
9:02it's a potting soil they use at the
9:03nurseries and
9:05all the uh my plants that's what i used
9:08to start them
9:09but what i'm doing is i'm mixing this in
9:12and it's loosening up
9:14my base and i'm gonna do this
9:17all the way to the top so now i'm gonna
9:20put a little bit more in
9:22of the virgin soil we took out of here
9:25and put a little more of this and then
9:28you can see i'm creating a nice
9:31light mixture i'm actually creating the
9:33biggest
9:35planting pot you could get you know
9:36where it's like you know
9:38with uh out in in the garden and it's
9:41gonna be
9:43just what this plant needs to get
9:44started
9:48some people say do you really need to do
9:50all this and
9:52you know
9:55you get one shot at it and you say to
9:58yourself
9:59you know you want to look back in six
10:02months and say should i have done it
10:04and you know you just gotta i believe it
10:06certainly helps
10:07all these little things that we do add
10:10up in the end
10:12and uh there's nothing more rewarding
10:15than showing up at the local
10:19you know state fairs and you know the
10:22big
10:22new england way off have yourself a
10:24thousand pounder
10:26it's pretty cool it's not many people
10:27can do it and i've been growing for
10:29about eight years now and
10:32i've only done it once i had a thousand
10:34and seventy four pounder
10:35in 2003 and
10:39i've come close a few times but i'm
10:41planning on doing it
10:42i'm planning on doing it twice this year
10:44and if you stay with me you're going to
10:45see how it all works
10:46and i believe we're going to see uh if
10:49not uh
10:51two at least one thousand pounder out of
10:53this garden i hope you see two
10:55but that's uh that's how it is right
10:57there now i think we're about ready
10:59you can see we got ourselves a nice
11:00mixture here the heater coils are
11:03surrounding
11:04the um the hole that we prepared
11:09and these won't stick these are going to
11:10stay in these heater coils are going to
11:11stay in for another
11:12two or three weeks and um
11:15then i'll take them out i i don't leave
11:18them in through the whole summer you
11:19know it's
11:20i just think why uh they just get ruined
11:22in the weather and
11:24and i take them out when the plant
11:25starts to vine out i'll take them out
11:28now as you can see um
11:31the leaves on this plant uh this is your
11:34first true leaf right here
11:36and these are these are the cod leaves
11:38they call them these are the first two
11:39that pop out of the seed
11:41and so um you can see and then
11:45the first true leaf and this second true
11:48leaf right here
11:49that's the direction this plant is going
11:51to go
11:52and because that's the main vine of the
11:54plant and we've learned over the years
11:56you point that when you plant it i'm
11:58going to put it the direction i want
12:00this plant to go
12:01and i'm going to make sure we're at the
12:03right depth
12:04a little deep okay
12:10i have a oh this is a um a fungicide
12:14uh it's called alliet and it's basically
12:16as a
12:17systemic fungicide
12:20and i'll put on oh a half a teaspoon
12:23around
12:24where the plant's going to go the roots
12:26of the plant will absorb that and
12:28basically combat
12:30early fungus and disease that can
12:33get a plant right in the beginning as it
12:35matures i will
12:36apply some more products to the soil as
12:38it as it
12:39progresses but this is just a mild dose
12:42to uh
12:43to get it off to a good start what i've
12:46done is i've planted a
12:48pot inside a pot as you can see and this
12:52lower part the inside part is split in
12:55half so it makes easily
12:57you don't disrupt the roots uh when you
12:59do the transplant
13:00you can see we've cut the inside part in
13:03half
13:04and so there's one half you can see all
13:06the roots taken off
13:07two and a half three weeks and there you
13:08have it the uh the growth is showing
13:11tremendously in this one gallon
13:13container
13:14so now i'm going to set it in and
13:16remember now
13:17the main vine is going to go that way
13:19it's the smaller lead going that way
13:21so i'm going to plant this in the hole
13:24at a little bit of an angle
13:26because i really want to make sure it
13:28goes it lays right down and heads
13:30heads right out the door
13:35all right
13:46okay
13:48we're gonna keep that tag so we'll know
13:50exactly what seed this is what plant we
13:52got going
13:53and then we'll compact that in a little
13:55bit
13:57so you can see i got it on a little bit
13:58of an angle
14:00if you don't do that sometimes that main
14:02vine will come start growing and they'll
14:04want to go straight up in the air it's
14:05going for the sun
14:06and the next thing you know it's up here
14:08and you're trying to pull it down to go
14:10the certain way you want and a lot of my
14:13uh you know pumpkin growing friends have
14:16uh
14:17actually broke the main vine uh
14:20you know a cold morning that thing comes
14:22down it'll snap
14:23so by putting it in on an angle you're
14:25guaranteed it's gonna take right off
14:28and head uh the way you want what i'll
14:30do now is i'll just kind of
14:32prepare a little oh just i call it a
14:34little damning effect or saucer effect
14:37i'll water by hand for the next couple
14:39of weeks
14:40um i'll use a a mild
14:44concentration of a miracle grow
14:48i'll use a little neptune's fish
14:49fertilizer
14:51but a real weak solution and i'll water
14:54it daily
14:58i'm going to cut a little hole in the
14:59poly basically so the plant can uh
15:04come through and then
15:09we'll keep the rest of the black poly
15:11down because we're still want to keep
15:13this
15:13keep the tent warm there we go
15:24it's pretty much uh i'll put our tag
15:27here this is the 748 kotch
15:30which is a this happens to be uh the
15:33green squash but there's five pumpkins
15:35and one squash gonna be grown
15:37um but that's the uh that happens to be
15:41the squat
15:42i'll put a little soil down and just to
15:44hold the plastic in place
15:46because it will be here for the next two
15:49to three weeks
15:54and that's going to do it i think we're
15:55good to go
15:59[Music]
16:02the month of june is when you're going
16:03to start seeing some big changes in the
16:05garden
16:07along with the excitement of watching
16:08the plants grow
16:10there's going to be a lot more effort
16:11needed in your part
16:13what i find at this point the weeds are
16:16taken off the weeds are trying to
16:18outgrow
16:19your pumpkin plants if you have a
16:22good sized garden you want to be out
16:24there on a daily basis
16:25keeping ahead of the weeds you let them
16:27get behind you and the next thing you
16:29know they're overtaking the garden
16:30weeding is essential i can't express it
16:33enough
16:34your plants are combating for territory
16:37in the garden so weeds got to be removed
16:39um you want to minimize soil compaction
16:42with all the walking you're doing in the
16:44garden and all the moving around
16:46minimize the compaction of the soil uh
16:49that's uh the month of june is when i
16:51will
16:52start laying out my boards this is
16:54basically um
16:56a 1 by 8 piece of pine board you can buy
16:58them at your local
16:59lumber yard um buy
17:02i i buy hundreds of feet of this and
17:05i'll lay them out
17:06you'll see as you'll see in the footage
17:08to come the the boards are laid out for
17:11access between walking between the
17:12plants if you stay on the boards you're
17:15minimizing soil compaction because
17:16you're only compacting where you walk on
17:18the boards
17:19this will become important down the road
17:21because the
17:22root growth needs to extend itself
17:25and with minimal compaction easy
17:28traveling for the roots
17:30along with um the that um
17:33the soil uh compaction you're in the
17:36weeding you're gonna see
17:37the next thing is vine management um
17:41your plant is gonna start taking off and
17:43you've gotta
17:44um you've got to let it know where you
17:46want it to go
17:47have a plan you're going to have a plan
17:49in your garden where you're going to
17:50send that
17:51that plant every plant starts out this
17:54is the stump
17:55and this is your main vine and you can
17:57see you can you can you can direct that
17:59main vine to go wherever you want at
18:00this point
18:01um i will use um my my little pinning
18:05devices
18:06they're just coat hangers that i've cut
18:07in half basically you pin down the vines
18:10where you want it to go
18:11and keep keep that growth controlled
18:15um this is one of the most key elements
18:18that you're gonna
18:18learn in this uh this whole video is the
18:21proper pruning
18:23um if you don't do the proper pruning
18:25you're basically um you're in for a
18:28world of stress and a lot of problems in
18:31the garden because
18:32vines want to grow everywhere this is
18:34your main vine here's your stump here's
18:36your main vine
18:37these are your secondary vines or some
18:40call them side vines
18:42you want to cut every other sideline off
18:44that way you don't have
18:45you want to you want to allow for air
18:47flow air flow in between the vines
18:51also on on these when these side vines
18:54come out
18:55there's going to be little vines that
18:56try to grow off of the side vines these
18:59are called tertiary vines
19:01got to go they do nothing but take
19:03energy from the plant
19:05and put you behind the eight ball
19:08you're not sending energy where you want
19:10it and that's to your pumpkin
19:11so tertiaries cut them off as soon as
19:14you see them coming
19:15two inches three inches long you may get
19:17out there if you miss a day or two and
19:19they'll be two feet long
19:20cut them off and get them out of the
19:22garden out of the garden
19:24um now you're you're you've
19:28opened up your side vine areas for air
19:30flow you've gotten rid of your
19:32tertiaries
19:33you want to be watching now for
19:36your pumpkin development you're going to
19:39start seeing uh
19:40and it won't be till the end of june
19:42into july
19:43you're going to start seeing female
19:46flowers with
19:46tiny pumpkins on them and you have to
19:50start preparing
19:52for proper alignment and
19:55placement you know where you want their
19:57your pumpkin to grow
19:58the typical grower who's in this for the
20:01competition
20:02will cut all pumpkins off you take all
20:04pumpkins off
20:06of side vines your brain vine is going
20:09to grow your biggest pumpkins
20:10if you're going for competition and you
20:12want big you're going to grow your big
20:14pumpkins on this main vine
20:16so focus on all your all your
20:20uh the fruit development on main vines
20:22keep them all
20:24keep them all and as you get further
20:26into the
20:27month of july you will slowly start um
20:30cutting them off
20:31and it's called culling the smaller
20:32fruit and you'll keep your choice
20:36pumpkin there i i typically i always
20:39keep
20:39one pumpkin per plant and that's what
20:42all the energy goes to that one pumpkin
20:44but this is going to be real critical
20:46this is the the most critical part of
20:48the whole growing season is
20:49vine management more more and more new
20:51growers um
20:53take two and three years before they
20:55learn how important that is
20:56so if you're a first time grower you've
20:58got one up right now
21:00pruning is very essential this is called
21:02a christmas tree pattern
21:04as you can see basically like a big
21:06christmas tree
21:07and that's what you can get um these i
21:10typically go
21:11five to six hundred square feet per
21:12plant and um
21:15that's plenty that's plenty and that'll
21:17give you plenty of energy
21:19to produce uh your first very first
21:21thousand pound pumpkin or better and
21:23hopefully uh put you in the winner's
21:26[Music]
21:28circle
21:31right now they're um oh between six and
21:33eight feet long the main vines
21:35and they're coming out the door so it's
21:37time to give them more room and open
21:39things up for them
21:40oh about a foot a day they're growing
21:42and so i have to um i
21:44pinned down the main vine this is the
21:46main vine and it's going to go out about
21:4830 feet long maybe even 40 if i can if
21:50um
21:51if i've got a real good pumpkin on it
21:52i'll let that main vine keep going
21:54but i keep pinning it down every um
21:56every every day i i'll take
21:58the back one and i'll move it to the
21:59front like this
22:01and what this is doing primarily is
22:04just that protection number one from the
22:06um heavy winds
22:08if if heavy winds came in right now they
22:10would lift this right up off the ground
22:12so by pinning it down and it gives it
22:15that um
22:16a little protection but also i'm
22:18directing it i make this go anyway
22:20you know i can make this go over there
22:22or whichever direction i want
22:24and i'll pin it down along the way to
22:27give me uh
22:28you know to send it the direction i want
22:30as you can see you i don't know if you
22:32can get
22:33get it from there but um as the main
22:35vine grows
22:36i'm burying the main vine all along the
22:39way
22:40putting soil and i'll actually bury it
22:42along the way
22:43and what this is doing is just anchoring
22:46this plant to the ground
22:48so it's got the wind protection again
22:50but also
22:51it's sending off new um root nodes at
22:54the leaf junctures and it's that will
22:57bring more nourishment to the plant
22:59so by being buried and also it's
23:01protection um you there's a what's
23:03called a squash vine borer
23:05which they'll just they go for the vine
23:07of the plant and they'll just lay their
23:09eggs and suck the life right out of the
23:10plant
23:11so by not exposing the vine
23:14you get that's less chance of being
23:17violated by those things you know
23:19every time it's it'll send out a new
23:21side vine they'll send out feelers
23:23and it's it's amazing it just sends out
23:25these technical
23:27feelers to lead the way and right behind
23:30it will be another vine
23:32and as you can see we'll go up here a
23:33little further to a bigger one
23:36and this is you can see there's the side
23:39vine
23:40and i started anchoring that down
23:42there's the tentacles they're just um
23:44leading the way and so that's pretty
23:48much and i'll cut those off eventually
23:50um when i when when i feel i've reached
23:52a point
23:53that it's you know long enough the
23:55sideline's long enough
23:56right here same thing you can see nice
23:59little side vine coming out
24:01and i've directed it the way i want to
24:02go these are females
24:04the tiny little pumpkin is formed and
24:06the flowers on top of it
24:08um these are probably uh you know
24:12a good uh two weeks
24:15be you know earl you know i won't even
24:17keep these they're too they're too
24:19close to the uh stump um but it's
24:21they're too early but that's that's what
24:23they look like
24:24um you let's see if we can see like
24:27right here's a male there's a male
24:28flower you can see the male
24:30it's still it's still tiny but there's
24:32no pumpkin on the bottom of it
24:34uh it's just a stem with a male blossom
24:36that'll
24:37this is what's going to pollinate the
24:39female when it's time
24:41but everything's really still young so
24:43but we're just getting a preliminary
24:44view of what what's going on but
24:46that is indeed uh little pumpkins you
24:48can see there's another little one here
24:50so there's a you know there's definitely
24:54going to be a lot of fruit on this
24:55pumpkin i see
24:56one two three four little pumpkins
24:58already but we're only
24:59five feet from the stump so it's way too
25:01soon i won't i won't keep one until it's
25:04another uh four feet three or four feet
25:07out
25:08what has happened here uh here is um
25:11in the beginning this is probably a week
25:13ago when we had that hot weather
25:15these plants were just started growing
25:17gangbuster they were just going faster
25:19than they uh
25:20than the vines could tolerate and what
25:22happened is
25:24this vine right here grew so fast
25:27and it was growing straight up it got
25:29top heavy and
25:30just uh just from the weight of itself
25:33it snapped itself
25:34there was nothing and there's nothing
25:36that i could do about that at all i mean
25:38it's something that just happened almost
25:40overnight
25:41but what i do is i put some white powder
25:44on here it's called capped hand
25:46and it's basically an anti-fungal
25:49powder that's going to will not let the
25:54rotting you set in and it'll save the
25:56vine
25:57this is the first side vine on the plant
26:00uh and you could see
26:01it's still growing nice but it's because
26:03i've i've amended it there and it'll
26:05heal itself and it'll be okay
26:08this is my uh my uh green squash plant
26:11the uh it's actually the 748 koch which
26:14is
26:14that's the seed i used and this is going
26:16to be a true green squash
26:18and as a matter of fact i believe i saw
26:21a little squash form and we'll take a
26:22better look at it but what's happening
26:24here i got a real problem
26:25and this is going to hinder me for the
26:27next month
26:29you can see the main vine just keeps
26:32trying to go up for the sky
26:34that this becomes a problem because
26:36obviously it's going to get taller and
26:38keep getting taller
26:39and it's going to get so top heavy it's
26:41going to snap which is exactly what that
26:43side vine did over there
26:45so i'm really pampering this plant and
26:47every day you can see i've got the
26:49little anchor anchor cloth here and and
26:52some little
26:53tie downs and basically i i tighten it
26:56up a little bit every day and i'm trying
26:58to
26:58uh you got to watch the temperatures the
27:00last few days three or four days it's
27:02been real cold
27:03the plant is real brittle so you have to
27:05be i really couldn't do much tightening
27:08in the last three or four days it's been
27:09so cool it's been in the 40s
27:11and you'll snap the main vine like and
27:13and once you you snap the main vine
27:16uh your chances for a thousand pounder
27:18have ended
27:19on that plant you may grow a five or six
27:22hundred pounder on
27:23a side vine but um as you know we're not
27:26here to grow five and six hundred pound
27:27pumpkins we want
27:28thousand pounders right now i definitely
27:31need some um
27:33some fertilizing in there in the root
27:35zone of the plants and um
27:36i want to give them a good drenching and
27:39what i use right now this is my
27:40this is my choice of fertilizers it's
27:43the neptune's
27:45harvest this is a fish and seaweed
27:46fertilizer this is basically
27:50going to really stimulate the roots and
27:51get it get the plant
27:54that little extra boost it needs right
27:56now
27:57i'll actually i'm going to do a
28:01drenching right now but i will do a
28:02weekly treatment
28:03fully or foliar fertilizing on the
28:06leaves
28:07throughout the summer with this product
28:10um
28:13basically it's just a little sprayer i
28:15put it i put it on there and i'll hook
28:16the garden hose to it
28:19okay
28:23oops
28:28okay
28:35all right and what this is going to do
28:36it's going to siphon it
28:38right out of the container i've got
28:40right now um
28:41i've put 16 ounces in here and
28:44the water will go in here this will make
28:46about um six gallons of
28:48of drenching treatment
28:52let's just get a look here
28:57and this little device i have it's got
28:59them i can go up under the leaves
29:02or i can go down on top of the leaves
29:04when i want and i'll use this method
29:06here for my drenching
29:08um but right now i've got a nice little
29:10batch ready to go
29:11the plants going out there and so i'm
29:13putting the
29:14uh drenching the uh the area where the
29:17plants heading
29:17these side vines are all coming over
29:19here and up in there so i'm just kind of
29:22getting this
29:23uh those are my focus points and then
29:26obviously around the base of the plant
29:29to really get a um a good soaking down
29:33for the roots
29:36every week i've got a different
29:38treatment i'm going to be using
29:41or you know i'll i'll use the same
29:43treatments
29:44you know um every third week week or
29:46something but i'll
29:48add different stuff but you can see this
29:50is gonna
29:52the um there's a lot of surface surface
29:55feeding roots on these pumpkin plants
29:58and they're going to uh just love this
30:07what the innate what they all need more
30:09than anything right now is some sunlight
30:13because it's been it's been rainy and
30:15overcast right now for uh the last
30:18uh five to seven days it's
30:21we've had no sun it won't be long and
30:24this whole garden will be a
30:26a sea of leaves and sea vines you won't
30:30you won't hardly see any dirt it'll be
30:32all
30:33vines and leaves
30:38[Music]
30:39what i've done here here is this is the
30:41um this is just all
30:42um dead vegetation around the patch you
30:45can't help but the stuff grows and
30:47what i'll try to do on from time to time
30:49to the season i'll put um
30:51roundup on this and basically if you can
30:54minimize
30:55the growth around the garden you're
30:57going to minim you're going to minimize
30:59the intrusion of
31:00you know different insects i mean
31:02there's certain things in the pan
31:04on the around the edges that it invites
31:06them in and next thing you know they're
31:08in your garden you know
31:09so it's important to keep the keep the
31:11borders of the garden
31:13clean and you'll you can see uh around
31:16the whole patch
31:18i've i've killed it all off and i will
31:20you can't do that on a windy day though
31:22they'll go right onto your pumpkin plant
31:24but it's important to keep
31:25keep the growth down it's going to keep
31:28uh you want to keep maximum airflow in
31:30the pumpkin patch what's going to happen
31:32in uh
31:33in another three weeks like i've said
31:36before this will be a complete
31:38sea of of la of leaves and vines
31:42so you want to keep good air flow in
31:43there otherwise you're you're inviting
31:45diseases
31:46another week that'll be ready right
31:48there
31:49um there's been a few more i go one
31:51right here i may pollinate that one
31:53that one's about as big as a marble um
31:57and there's been i've actually oh yeah
31:58that's the one i was going to show you
32:00i'll cut that i'm going to cut that one
32:01because it's way too early for back here
32:05but you can see
32:10okay right here
32:14i i don't know if you can get in there
32:15and see that see that female
32:17yep that's a uh there's a little pumpkin
32:19there but it's too early
32:21on on the vine so i'm going to cut that
32:23right off
32:27and you can see uh
32:30that's the uh a little pumpkin that was
32:33starting
32:34not a real pretty looking pumpkin
32:36neither you can i'm gonna open up the
32:37blossom so you can see the inside
32:40that's the uh the steamer
32:43and that's where all the pollinating is
32:45done right in here
32:47but this is a real early one so it's not
32:49even uh not even an option right now
32:52um but i'm a little further out over
32:53there and i'll be good
32:55as you can see i've had visitors um
32:59on these leaves these little holes and
33:01i'll show you i've got i
33:03caught a um stink bug on this this
33:05morning
33:06and um so i have to keep
33:09an eye on things i'm gonna be my my
33:12keeper right here um
33:13hopefully um by the end of the week um
33:16i'll have a nice um
33:18i'll have a female and i can pollinate
33:20that with and that'll be a keeper
33:22um and i will continue to pollinate ones
33:24on this main vine
33:25you can see i'm getting some side vines
33:27coming out now right now that's about
33:29eight to ten feet out so it's it's okay
33:31that's a good spot
33:32this is one of a punk and grow is um one
33:35of his major fears in the first
33:36month or two of growing actually they
33:38stick around all summer but they're a
33:39little more
33:40in force right now this is called a
33:42stink bug he'll go underneath the leaf
33:44and he'll lay about oh in in in
33:48one session probably um 50 to 100 eggs
33:52under a leaf right now i'll just use um
33:55either a um
33:56an eight which is an ortho product uh
33:59ortho seven or eight or i may even
34:02i will be spraying tomorrow with a
34:04warrior
34:05which um foliar it's a fully applied and
34:09that'll take care of any any bug because
34:11right now uh
34:12the squash vine borer will be moving in
34:14end of june where today's the 25th
34:17they'll be moving in any day so that's
34:19the worst fear is this
34:21squash vine borer and so i'll put down
34:23the warrior tea tomorrow and
34:26that'll take care of these guys cucumber
34:28beetles and the squash vine borer
34:36okay so there we go we've just finished
34:38up the month of june
34:39very exciting month in the in the
34:41pumpkin patch a lot going on
34:43um as we go into july now basically
34:46you're
34:47still weeding you're still doing some
34:49selective pruning
34:51you're just monitoring the patch keeping
34:53your eye out for diseases as usual
34:56the most exciting part of the month of
34:59july
35:00is going to be now determining which
35:02pumpkins you're going to keep for the
35:03remainder of the summer
35:05um the whole month of july you want to
35:08consider
35:09pollination as the month of july if you
35:12can get it done the first couple weeks
35:13that's great it's putting you a giving
35:15you a jump start
35:17i this is a little uh drawing
35:21you can basically see this is what is
35:23going to be in the in the patch
35:24a female flower has the little little
35:28pumpkin growing right before the blossom
35:30and the male flower doesn't have a
35:33little pumpkin growing it's basically
35:34just
35:35a some petals and the male
35:38pollinator so basically you're going to
35:41see
35:43coming up next uh as a competitive
35:45grower i do all controlled pollinating
35:47i'm up early in the morning and i make
35:49sure that i
35:50put the pollen where i want it from
35:51which pumpkin to which pumpkin
35:53and so you're gonna see uh this is the
35:56open end of the blossom looking down in
35:59these are the lobes
36:00this is a particular drawing there's a
36:02four lobe sometimes you'll have five
36:03lobes and there's even been six lobes
36:05in the past but typical is a four lobe
36:09and you're going to peel the petals off
36:11the male
36:12and you're just going to insert the male
36:14into the um low barrier of the blossom
36:17and just spread that powdery
36:20pollen around on the lobes typically you
36:23want to do at least
36:24three if you can three male into the
36:27female
36:27and then once it's all pollinated you're
36:30tied up with a zip tie
36:32and you're on your way and you'll know
36:34within three to five days maybe a week
36:36if
36:37you've got a good take and the pumpkin
36:39will remain shiny and
36:41prosper from there but that's what we're
36:44up to for the
36:44that's the highlight is um in in july is
36:48getting your pollinations done
36:50and sometimes the weather doesn't always
36:51cooperate but
36:53uh you'll see uh you gotta you get it
36:55done and it's uh it's a real exciting uh
36:57month of the of the growing season
36:59so uh that being said uh let's
37:02see uh how it looks in the patch let's
37:04head out there
37:08[Music]
37:12uh what i've got here here is the um
37:13this is the um
37:15uh the 1104 hester and
37:18i'm gonna do a pollination you can see
37:21um right now
37:22um i've got the um the female
37:26zip tied up i zip tied it up last night
37:28to make sure
37:29i was here when it opened i'm going to
37:31take this off and you can see
37:35she's all ready to to be pollinated
37:40and there's the little four lobe
37:44blossom inside these are all male
37:47flowers you can see the male
37:48doesn't have a little pumpkin on it the
37:49female has a little pumpkin at the base
37:51of the flower
37:52and you cut it off just like that
37:57and you're just going to wipe it gently
37:59inside there around all four lobes i try
38:01to get it right down inside
38:03all around the edges and get a nice
38:05pollination
38:07now we'll typically we'll use two or
38:09three
38:10and and make sure you really get it good
38:13and now i'll close the blossom up
38:16and i'll put a zip tie on there just
38:18like this
38:28yeah and we'll just let that sit
38:31i'll take this off tomorrow um about
38:34this time you know tomorrow morning
38:36sometime i'll take the zip tie off
38:37i'll open up the blossom and i'll let it
38:39air out
38:40and uh that should be a successful
38:43pollination right there
38:47[Music]
38:49nice looking aren't you i mean that's
38:51you know that's a nice looking
38:52and you could see um but the flower
38:54wouldn't open this morning and i waited
38:56till about nine ten o'clock and it
38:58wasn't opening
38:59and it was due to open i mean i just i
39:01know
39:02you know a plump shiny little pumpkin
39:04and
39:05the the the blossom head
39:09swelled up and it was yellowed up it was
39:12ready to oh it's time to open and it
39:13would not open
39:14so i just took the old number two steak
39:17knife right here
39:18and i cut it i cut it open for century
39:20we call that
39:21and uh and pollinated it and hopefully
39:25she'll take i mean i hope next time you
39:26come in a week
39:28this thing will be about the size of if
39:31all is going good a big grapefruit um
39:34maybe even
39:35going on to the football size type thing
39:37you know this is actually a uh
39:42a male blossom that went by this was one
39:44of yesterday's
39:45it's already opened and the bees have
39:48already got to it so
39:49that that would normally be snipped off
39:51on a day-to-day basis
39:53i actually had shade tents on everything
39:55up until like a few days back
39:57and i slowly took them off because
40:00it's time to take the sun in and let's
40:02get moving you know
40:04and uh but you can you know like i'll
40:06probably if we have another day tomorrow
40:08like today i'll throw up i threw up a
40:10quick shake tent on that one
40:12uh mainly because i was i had one
40:13pollinated under there and
40:15this morning so i have to uh try to keep
40:17it as cool as possible you know
40:19you can see here's a little female just
40:22never really
40:23developed and this is what's happening
40:26they're shriveling up
40:27um not developing at all and this is a
40:30nice strong
40:31main vine right now we're about uh 12 to
40:3515 feet out right here this is ideal
40:37setting
40:37area and i've had three in a row that do
40:40they just
40:41didn't develop they just shriveled up um
40:44on a couple of the other plants i forced
40:47the
40:48the blossom open and pollinated but it
40:49didn't didn't take
40:51so we're basically up against this right
40:54now i've got
40:54as you can see there's a there's another
40:57nice one forming there and a little
40:58teeny one at the end but
41:00you know this is um every four feet
41:03is another week before i can pollinate
41:06and
41:07right now we're at a point uh ideal
41:10ideal first two weeks of july you know
41:12so we're not i'm not in a panic mode but
41:15it's um
41:16it's certainly a little bit behind
41:18normal you know
41:20[Music]
41:26well here we are here with today's uh
41:28july 10th and uh
41:29pollinating uh session of the season is
41:32well underway
41:33um i think the last time we talked i was
41:36definitely having some problems a lot of
41:37us were in new hampshire
41:39our the female blossoms weren't
41:42developing
41:43and even the male blossoms were not
41:45producing and we just couldn't get the
41:47pollinations
41:48more so than anything it was the fit you
41:51know the females little pumpkins would
41:52get about as big as a grape and they
41:54would just dry up and fall off
41:56but in the last week or so i've managed
41:59to get a few things happening for me
42:01i came out this morning and there she
42:02was i got a nice shine to it
42:05it's about the size uh boy it's almost
42:07up to like a goose egg right now so it's
42:09a real nice
42:11pollination set kind of looks green but
42:14it's turning yellow
42:15sometimes they'll start out green and
42:16they slowly um
42:18they'll turn into the yellow color but
42:20that's uh
42:21this is about 15 feet out from 14 15
42:24feet up from the stump so
42:26you can see it's quite a distance
42:27normally uh at 10 to 12 feet i'd like to
42:30get one going
42:31but right now we're where pollination
42:34was a real
42:35um you know a chore for all of us uh you
42:38can see i'm pretty far out and i will be
42:41my vines about 20 feet 20 feet long
42:45on most of these plants i've got another
42:48little one right here at the 20-foot
42:50mark i'll um
42:51i'll definitely pollinate that one just
42:53in case something goes wrong with this
42:54one
42:55but it's getting out there pretty far
42:57you like to have them in that 12 to 15
42:59foot range
43:00what i'm looking for right now at this
43:02stage is for it to maintain the
43:04the shiny gleam and the um and the
43:07smoothness
43:08and that tells me that it was a
43:09successful pollination
43:12it looks like it's going to be okay it's
43:14been about five days now so if
43:17if it was going to abort it would have
43:18done it by now i believe
43:20so this will probably be my number one
43:22this will be my keeper on this plant
43:24that's an excellent cross
43:26um the 8 the 898 by 845 barbier
43:31so that's the uh that's the good news on
43:33this end of the garden
43:37what you're looking at there is a
43:38japanese beetle um
43:41definitely don't want any of these in
43:42the garden they'll chew the leaves right
43:44up
43:46all right i'm gonna uh definitely be
43:49spraying this evening
43:50um i like to spray my oh i didn't get
43:53them
43:54i spray my insecticides in the evening
43:57and try to uh
43:58you know when the sun goes down it's a
44:00little cooler
44:02but i haven't i haven't applied any
44:04insecticides
44:06in weeks because we've had so much rain
44:08and it's just
44:09uh you know you put to put it on all the
44:11leaves and have the rain just wash it
44:13off the next day
44:14you need a good 24 to 48 hours um
44:18with no rain and that way it'll it'll um
44:20adhere to the leaves
44:22we don't walk on the soil because we
44:23don't want to compact it but you can see
44:25just keeping it fluffed up
44:27right now i've got probably eight to ten
44:29inches of nice
44:30fluffed up loam here for the vines to
44:32just traveling
44:34most of these uh vines are surface
44:37feeding vines and they're
44:38so your roots are gonna they're not
44:40gonna go deep they just they surface
44:42feeders
44:43and so you gotta keep uh keep the weeds
44:46down and keep the compaction to a
44:47minimum if you can you know and that's
44:49basically all you can do right now all
44:51the
44:52roots you'll see a lot of dark colored
44:55pieces in the
44:56soil that's all the all the um wood ash
44:59that i
44:59i put in like right there you can see
45:03you know like there's a real that that's
45:05the composted
45:06wood ash that's gonna just help elevate
45:09my ph
45:10and make the uh make the plant a little
45:13more
45:14um you know just move a tall
45:17and tolerate the heat better and it's
45:18just going to be a stronger plant
45:20and it's actually going to help the
45:22overall process
45:24so definitely something you got to do is
45:27keep an eye on that
45:28that ph level
45:40[Music]
45:41this was pollinated about a week ago
45:44real nice pollination
45:46got a nice long stem you can see right
45:48here
45:49a good four or five inches long right
45:51now it's growing perpendicular to the
45:54vine
45:54that's exactly what we want what i do is
45:58i edge it a little bit i help it out
46:00you can see i put a little dirt to one
46:02side and i'll push it a half an inch a
46:04day
46:05just like that don't put boards up
46:07against it don't put anything
46:09you're gonna anything but dirt you're
46:11gonna scar up the pumpkin
46:13i put a little dirt up i push half an
46:15inch a day
46:16of course of a week i'll have it
46:18perfectly perpendicular to the vine
46:21that's because it's going to grow big
46:22and so we don't want it touching the
46:23main vine or choking itself
46:26i've propped it up with some little
46:28pieces of styrofoam
46:29right now because i want the main vine
46:31to come up
46:33and this pumpkin is going to grow it'll
46:34start growing um
46:36massive in in in within a week's time
46:39this thing's going to
46:40quadruple in size and so as it gets
46:43bigger the vine has to come up
46:45and so i prop it up with styrofoam i
46:47pull the root and
46:48the node roots up out of the soil
46:52and right now the pumpkin's a little
46:53dirty because it's been raining on
46:55off and on all day you'll never see my
46:57pumpkins that dirty i keep them
46:58i have a spray bottle i clean them daily
47:00just to keep
47:02the contaminants and stuff off the
47:03pumpkin
47:05but right now with the hard rains that
47:06just came in
47:08um it just splashes the dirt up
47:11but that's the 500 boschman this is the
47:14one i'm putting all the eggs in the
47:15basket this is the
47:16one that's gonna take me to the uh the
47:18elite three
47:20see how it's growing with the vine this
47:23is what we don't want but i can't get in
47:24there with any dirt
47:25because it's too close to the vine right
47:27now so i'm slowly
47:29with a piece of styrofoam up against the
47:31stem i've wedged it in there
47:34and i'll slowly each day i'll i'll i'll
47:37put a bigger piece in
47:38until i slowly get it to come out the
47:41next time you come here
47:43you'll see it um it'll be it'll be out
47:46here and it'll be perpendicular to the
47:48to the vine but it takes a lot of you
47:50know a little little at a time or you'll
47:52snap it you can't just go
47:53turning it uh all one day this is
47:57this one's gonna open tomorrow you see
48:00that's a
48:00that's another female we're about 22
48:02feet out on this one right now
48:04i'll pollinate it though in the morning
48:06just to make sure i get one on this
48:07plant um um
48:11because there the um the blossom is
48:13solid green
48:15up until the day before it's going to
48:17open and it'll start to turn yellow
48:20you can see the tips turning yellow and
48:22it stretches out
48:24this will open in the morning now the
48:26one on the right
48:27um that that's a male blossom that
48:29opened today
48:31and you can see it's all shriveled up
48:32it's closed up now and it's curly for
48:34the
48:35for the day it's open for the for one
48:37day they're they're um
48:39they'll open up for the beast apology
48:41and get the pollen from them
48:43the one to the left uh notice it's uh
48:46turning the tips turning yellow
48:48that's your um that's an indication that
48:50this will open
48:51um tomorrow morning this is my second
48:55year doing a squash
48:57true green squash it used to be squash
48:59could be uh
49:00it was pale you know cream colored it
49:03was a squash
49:04and gray it was a squat now it's going
49:06to be solid green like that to be
49:08considered a squash and what i'm going
49:10to have to do
49:11you see how it's growing straight up in
49:13the air
49:14i'm actually going to it'll get a little
49:17big
49:18when it gets a little bit bigger a
49:19couple more days um i'll start
49:22pinning some uh styrofoam behind the
49:24stem and pushing it this way
49:26not on the pumpkin on the stem yeah
49:30yeah i want this right now if i can get
49:32this to come right down i'll cut this
49:34this vine on this um stem this is a leaf
49:37stem
49:38i'll cut this right off and then i'll
49:40start bringing the pumpkin this way i
49:41want it to lay down
49:42right here that's where it's going to
49:45lay
49:45down and that's going to be the starting
49:48point for the
49:48first 1 000 pound true green squash
49:51notice how all the vines have come to an
49:53end
49:54you know that one hasn't got here yet
49:55but we've it's called um
49:57dead we deadhead the vines and
50:00you actually cut the uh the vine
50:04you you you dead end it uh this one's
50:06dead ended over here
50:08and you just this the vines will grow
50:12for 40 50 feet if you let them so you
50:14actually cut it like that just square it
50:16right up nice
50:17i cut all the um oh the tentacles in the
50:20um
50:21different blossoms cut them right off
50:24and bury it and it's there for the rest
50:26of this rest of the um the summer
50:30[Music]
50:36um well here we are this is that we're
50:38winding down the pollination season
50:40actually i'm all done pollinating as of
50:42uh now
50:43my uh today's the 30th my final
50:46pollination was the 25th
50:48and that was on my squash plant i
50:50finally got one to take on the main vine
50:52but we're at a point now where i've made
50:54i've made final decisions on most of the
50:56plants
50:57uh which particular pumpkin is going to
51:00go the distance
51:01i've been i've been um pulling off all
51:04the
51:04smaller ones everything's been pruned
51:07and uh
51:08and i'm downloaded there's just one
51:10basically on each plant
51:11uh some plants still have two i will i
51:13will make my decision and cut those off
51:15by uh by tomorrow
51:17and we're gonna head right into monday
51:18morning which will be august first
51:20and i'll be down to one pumpkin on each
51:23plant just keeping it on the dirt
51:25it can't slide fast enough and what
51:27happens is
51:29the bottom of the pumpkin will grow up
51:30inside itself it'll actually
51:33concave up inside the cavity um and nine
51:36out of 10 times you're going to get a
51:38break under there because
51:40you're messing with the uh the the
51:42symmetrical growing of the pumpkin is
51:44not
51:44rounded anymore it grows up inside
51:46itself
51:47and um and we found that yeah and and
51:50by doing this by putting this material
51:53down
51:54uh the bottom of this pumpkin when we
51:56harvest it will be as
51:57flat as a pancake there'll be no
51:59concaveness and at all in the bottom of
52:00the pumpkin it'll be flat as a pancake
52:03and that's all because it's been put on
52:05on this fabric and
52:06so it just it lessens the likelihood of
52:09of losing the pumpkin at five
52:10eight six hundred pounds seven hundred
52:12pounds um which will happen
52:14without this material we you could you
52:17could put like um
52:18a fine sand a lot of guys will put down
52:20beach sand you know or just a
52:23play sand for sandbox a sandbox material
52:26um
52:26type sand that'll work too but you know
52:29you get seven pumpkins in the garden and
52:32you need
52:32ten bags each at seventy bags of sand um
52:36you buy invest in this once and i've got
52:38this now forever and i use it every year
52:40you can see it's some conveyor belt
52:42material for
52:43use at pulp mills and it's very slippery
52:46we buy it from them real cheap you know
52:48because they they replace it on a
52:50i don't know if it's a year-to-year
52:52basis but they usually the pulp mills um
52:54get so much use out of it and then they
52:56replace it and we buy it pretty cheap
52:58from them
52:59and it's real slippery it's silky like
53:02it's so slippery it's made out of a
53:03nylon
53:04material and what happens with this is
53:07the pumpkin is able to slide on it
53:09because it's going to be growing 25 30
53:11pounds a day at one point
53:14and so it's going to be really really
53:16moving along
53:17so and this is porous so the water will
53:20drain through it if it should get wet
53:22um it won't hold water and and tend to
53:26create rot on the pumpkin so it'll drain
53:28well and it's slippery
53:30there's a lot of guys use a number of
53:32materials but we found this one it's
53:34real
53:34it's real durable you can see lasts
53:37forever
53:38um but right now the thing is i got to
53:40get it under the pumpkin
53:42generally you try to do this when the
53:43pumpkin's about a you know you do it
53:45when it's a
53:46soccer ball or basketball size
53:50and you can do it by yourself but i've
53:51waited a little long here because i was
53:53just wanted to make sure that i i was
53:55making the right choice and i definitely
53:57have made the right choice here
53:58so i'm going to lift the pumpkin and get
54:02my friend hugh here to
54:03yeah slide it down underneath and we'll
54:05uh we'll uh
54:07we'll be all set for the season this is
54:09just over two weeks old
54:10um and so got a long ways to go and
54:15we're kind of going downhill here you
54:16know you can see
54:18um you kind of i'd like to have it up
54:20further like that
54:22but that's part of growing on us i'm on
54:24a hill and i got to deal with that
54:26um obviously the the more level you can
54:28keep it
54:29the less chance of you know something
54:32stretching and breaking there's a lot of
54:33tension in this vine you can see
54:36i've got it propped up on the sides here
54:39and on the other side over here because
54:42this pumpkin
54:42is just um it wants to grow and it's
54:45kind of
54:46almost like it's a little top heavy
54:47wants to go this way
54:49so i may build this up with some soil
54:52and try to
54:52level it off at least for a while and
54:55the thing is once you start
54:57leveling it off and it keeps getting
54:59bigger you got to keep leveling it off
55:01and this pumpkin is going to
55:02this pump will be out to here if all
55:04goes right this pumpkin is going to be
55:05out to here
55:06come october 1st this far out and this
55:09high up if all goes right
55:11and so you can see it's going to be top
55:13heavy it's going to it wants to kind of
55:15tip over
55:17and you know i could wake up one day and
55:19it will it'll snap right off and
55:21fall over so i have to try to level this
55:23area a little bit
55:25but that's something i'll work on in the
55:26next few days just nice um
55:28fresh water sometimes i'll put a little
55:32calcium in it
55:33especially if i start showing some
55:35irregularities or
55:36weak spots in the shell you know like a
55:39dill ring
55:40we we will hopefully we won't see a dill
55:42ring but
55:43i'll point one out to you if we do it
55:45doesn't they usually don't show up till
55:46later
55:48but you know just that while any fruit
55:51you know a light
55:52misting like that they just love it and
55:54that's what i'll do from
55:56day to day give them a little a little
55:58misting let me just show you this and
56:00whatever you end up doing this is pretty
56:02interesting because people i hear about
56:04it all the time
56:04and people panic um what you're seeing
56:07here is a
56:08vine split and this happened when the
56:11plant was little
56:12and so often people uh you know they
56:15abandon the whole season
56:16and they get discouraged because the
56:19vine will split
56:20this is my 664 look at this it happens
56:22to be a side vine
56:24but it would be just as typical on a
56:25main vine and you can see when it was
56:27little it split open and i thought to
56:29myself well so much for that vine
56:31but it healed itself up you can see
56:32right there you can you put your hand
56:34finger right in there but it's it's
56:35perfectly fine here we are
56:38right now here we're on the uh the 500
56:40boshman plant
56:43and you can see i've made my decision
56:45and you can see why it's a beauty
56:47this is the next one on the main vine uh
56:50just a football size but uh it's time to
56:52go
56:53uh august 1st is the day after tomorrow
56:55and
56:56i i have um a policy at uh by the end of
57:00july i'm down to one pumpkin on each
57:03plant
57:04so what i'm gonna do is i don't
57:06typically like to cut it all at once
57:08because it may send a surge to the one
57:10that's growing so what we're gonna do is
57:11just gonna
57:12i'm gonna cut into it um halfway today
57:16just right to halfway mark you can see
57:18and tomorrow
57:2024 hours from now i'll go the rest of
57:22the way if it was bigger
57:24i would do it in a three-day cut i would
57:26do
57:27a third or third a third uh just to um
57:31minimize the possibility of sending a
57:33surge to that to that main pumpkin and
57:35i'm keeping
57:36so tomorrow at this time i'll sever that
57:38right off completely and that'll be the
57:40end of that
57:41[Music]
57:44okay well how exciting was that our
57:47choices
57:47have been made our pollinations have all
57:49been done and
57:51we're right on things are right underway
57:53right now and this is this is when the
57:55fun begins
57:57we're going to step right into the month
57:59of august
58:00you're going to start witnessing some
58:02incredible growth spurts
58:04in your giant pumpkin or squash this is
58:08when you will start seeing
58:0925 30 pounds a day if you've got the
58:12right
58:13conditions and you've been doing
58:14everything that you're supposed to
58:16you cannot ease up on your weeding this
58:19is where a lot of the
58:19first time growers are going to get
58:21yourselves a little tired and you're not
58:23you're going you may give up but you
58:25can't give up your plant is constantly
58:27competing
58:28for nutrients in the soil and if the
58:30weeds are growing the plants not getting
58:32the nutrients
58:33so this is where you got to really um
58:36keep an eye on
58:37on things you're watching for diseases
58:39still
58:41your your your pesticides are still
58:43being applied maybe not as often
58:45you've gotten through july that's the
58:47worst month you're in august
58:48this is when powdery mildew and your
58:52your vine diseases will start coming
58:54around and
58:55uh you want to continue with your
58:57treatments and stay on your plan
59:00because uh you you even if you're not
59:02excited about how big what you
59:04your pumpkin is at this point it will
59:06get going it will jump start and get
59:08going
59:08so you don't want to give up at this
59:09point so you're basically
59:13now you've selected your fruit you're
59:15watching the growth
59:16and like i said earlier the spurts of
59:19growth are so incredible
59:21um you know there's a wise tale old
59:24farmer told me that if you listen close
59:25enough
59:26at this point you can hear them growing
59:29and i'm here to tell you i have heard
59:31him growing
59:32and it's a it's an incredible uh
59:36experience i've been uh right leaning up
59:38against one of my giant pumpkins at one
59:40time and i heard it stretching
59:42and uh that full-timer that told me that
59:45story um
59:46he wasn't kidding because it definitely
59:47happened to me and it's
59:49exciting to experience because these the
59:52these pumpkins are growing fast at this
59:54point
59:54and uh it's um this is where all your
59:58efforts that you've put into the garden
59:59up to this point
1:00:00this is the payoff time and you have to
1:00:04stay
1:00:04excited so let's head right into the to
1:00:07the month and let's see um
1:00:08what's about to happen next
1:00:14[Music]
1:00:17uh well listen today's the 9th of august
1:00:20and all my decisions have been made
1:00:22um i've got some real nice looking
1:00:24pumpkins started my plants are
1:00:27more gorgeous than they've ever been
1:00:29very healthy looking plants
1:00:31no signs of disease anywhere no mildew
1:00:35really really been taking care good care
1:00:37of the plants
1:00:39a little bit of a little concern on some
1:00:42vines and i'll show it to you later
1:00:43because it's something uh
1:00:46i hope it doesn't you know it's not a
1:00:47disease or something but we'll wait and
1:00:49see
1:00:50what we're gonna do we're gonna do today
1:00:54a couple of things i'm going to show you
1:00:56guys this is a um you should keep a log
1:00:59of of all the pumpkins i usually wait
1:01:00till august i don't keep track of
1:01:02anything until august because
1:01:04you know that's when they're really
1:01:05starting to put on some pounds right now
1:01:07i've got two or three pumpkins that are
1:01:08putting on um
1:01:1025 pounds a day which is good they're
1:01:13really
1:01:13kicking right in my biggest right here
1:01:16is like i've been saying right along on
1:01:17the 500 boschman plant
1:01:19gorgeous it's the best looking pumpkin
1:01:20i've i've had in a long time
1:01:23it's um pollinated on july 13th so it's
1:01:27not an early pollination so it's got a
1:01:29real stir you know
1:01:31the the whole plant is just beautiful
1:01:33the leaves are glossy
1:01:35leather leathery looking
1:01:38look at this leaf right here i mean this
1:01:40is gorgeous
1:01:41look at this that's got a um got to be
1:01:43at least 30 inches across right there
1:01:46you know you look at the ones over this
1:01:48side and they get that drooping effect
1:01:51that all had to go you know when we had
1:01:53those hot hot 90 degree days
1:01:55they wilted but they stayed strong and
1:01:57they they hung in there and they didn't
1:01:59they didn't crumple up and
1:02:00wilt and die and uh but as the plant
1:02:04we got out of that hot season and we get
1:02:06going and everything's really matured
1:02:08i'm pruning every day right here i got
1:02:10my little pruning knife
1:02:11uh i bet you i take um two wheelbarrow
1:02:14fulls out of here a day
1:02:15of uh still a side you know tertiary
1:02:18vines constantly popping up and you got
1:02:20to keep them cut
1:02:21keep the aisles open for in between your
1:02:24rows just like that so you can walk up
1:02:25here easily
1:02:27you know and i'm right now i'm saying
1:02:30i've made the decision that um
1:02:33the weeds i'll live with the weeds i'll
1:02:35do more damage going in there trying to
1:02:37get them and i don't want to hurt my
1:02:38leaves because
1:02:39there's right now they're the ones that
1:02:40are feeding the pumpkin and those what
1:02:42few weeds i get
1:02:44now i'm just going to let them stay in
1:02:45there and if i'm in an area to get
1:02:47something out i'll grab some weeds but i
1:02:49don't go in there just to weed right now
1:02:51because i don't want to do damage to the
1:02:52vines and the
1:02:54the leaf stems will snap really easy
1:02:56right now this chart has been
1:02:58designed it's been worked on year after
1:03:01year after year to get more and more
1:03:02accurate and
1:03:03what they do is they calculate all the
1:03:04pumpkins that were grown
1:03:06what their circumferences were their
1:03:08total measurements uh end to end
1:03:10in side to side and what they did was
1:03:13got an average on on how much pumpkins
1:03:16really weighed
1:03:18and what the chart said and they
1:03:20basically came up with this formula
1:03:22that's really within five percent
1:03:24of accuracy this is the tape measure we
1:03:27use
1:03:28and basically we're looking for three
1:03:29measurements um
1:03:32on these pumpkins and we're gonna do uh
1:03:35let me see here
1:03:36we'll find it in the 664 ligate
1:03:40okay this is the plant the uh this this
1:03:44particular seed produced a 1300 pounder
1:03:46last year
1:03:471353 from bob liggett
1:03:50and let's see here right now it's 101
1:03:55inches
1:03:56101 inches circumference okay
1:03:59so four days ago it had an 84 inch
1:04:02circumference
1:04:03today it's got a 101 inch circumference
1:04:07that's 16 17 inches in four days
1:04:10so that's over four inches a day in
1:04:12circumference which is really good
1:04:14that's roughly 25 pounds a day right now
1:04:17so i'm happy with that
1:04:20okay so we get that we get the
1:04:21circumference we're gonna go end to end
1:04:24now
1:04:32okay it's uh 70 inches end to end
1:04:36so we'll mark that in here end to end 70
1:04:38inches
1:04:39and the last measurement will be side to
1:04:42side
1:04:44side to side
1:04:48big tall pumpkin it's um it's 74 inches
1:04:5274 inches side to side if you just want
1:04:55to do a circumference that'll
1:04:57that'll get you pretty close to go just
1:04:59by my circumference
1:05:00it says it should weigh um 280 pounds
1:05:04okay but we found by doing all three
1:05:07measurements
1:05:08and adding them together and then you
1:05:11get the total and you go to the chart
1:05:12here this is going to get real accurate
1:05:14it's a little more work but it's three
1:05:16measurements
1:05:17um so that according to the chart it
1:05:19says
1:05:20this pumpkin should weigh
1:05:26two it should weigh 318 pounds
1:05:30so what we're going to do we'll mark
1:05:31that in here 318 pounds
1:05:36july 25th was a set on this um
1:05:39july 25th most guys would have said yeah
1:05:42call it a call it quits at that point
1:05:45but i haven't given up
1:05:46i said if i'm going to grow something
1:05:48that's going to compete at the fair
1:05:50um it needs to be on the main vine i had
1:05:52one three times bigger than this i still
1:05:54have it it's on a side vine
1:05:56and i've i've elected actually i've
1:05:59kept it on there and i what i've done is
1:06:02slowly cut the sideline off
1:06:04and so all the energy is going to this
1:06:06main vine pumpkin but today's um
1:06:08august 9th and it's actually growing
1:06:11five inches a day right now
1:06:13in circumference so that's good i mean
1:06:16let's let it roll and it's going to get
1:06:17all this is a beautiful plant
1:06:19it's disease-free it's just an excellent
1:06:22shape so i'm going to just let it ride
1:06:24and
1:06:24and hopefully i can get in the top three
1:06:27at topsfield i guess that's my goal
1:06:29you know if i can get in the top three
1:06:30on the squash division i'll be excited i
1:06:32mean i did it last year with um
1:06:34681 and so i think if i can just keep
1:06:37this one
1:06:38chugging along um i'll be there
1:06:41you know i want you guys to see this is
1:06:42a this is a common stem split
1:06:46this is a high growing pumpkin you can
1:06:48see the vines a foot and a half off the
1:06:50ground
1:06:51and because it's growing so high and
1:06:55fast
1:06:56it's growing four to five inches a day
1:06:57right now in circumference um
1:07:00it you know just develop this stem split
1:07:03right there
1:07:04and what i'm going to do it's just um
1:07:06it's dry capped hand powder
1:07:08you can you can get it at your local ag
1:07:10way or true value
1:07:12and i'm just going to brush in here a
1:07:14light dusting
1:07:16um and it basically this is going to if
1:07:19there's any disease that's kind of
1:07:20hanging around or
1:07:22just an open wound like that and
1:07:25if you'll notice there's a crack here a
1:07:27crack here that that started naturally
1:07:29but i opened up the bottom i made a
1:07:32little crack on the bottom a little
1:07:33v-shaped crack
1:07:34because water goes in here when i when i
1:07:36when i irrigate
1:07:37water goes in here and it'll collect and
1:07:39rot so you cut a little just a little uh
1:07:42b on the bottom and uh
1:07:45now you can see i'm dusting it real good
1:07:49and that way water getting in they will
1:07:50drain
1:07:52right now you can see um they're
1:07:55starting to they're starting to uh
1:07:57we call it just oranging up a little bit
1:07:59you can see last time you were here was
1:08:00like probably eight to ten days ago you
1:08:02and it was
1:08:02they were white white white white white
1:08:05and you can see it's starting to
1:08:06and right now it's completely shaded but
1:08:08it's taking on its own color
1:08:10um nice nice texture and it's still got
1:08:13a nice shine to it
1:08:15you can see him it's really a
1:08:18nice nice blocky looking pumpkin that's
1:08:21what we like
1:08:22is blocky
1:08:25[Music]
1:08:30all right today's august 15th halfway
1:08:33through the month of august
1:08:35and right now my plants are at their
1:08:39prime at their peak and they're growing
1:08:42uh
1:08:43the the fruit are growing incredibly uh
1:08:45fast
1:08:46almost a little too fast and i won't i
1:08:49won't be discouraged if
1:08:51this one slows down a little bit it's
1:08:52still doing 35 pounds a day
1:08:5435 pounds a day for over a week now 35
1:08:57pounds a day
1:08:58um i just noticed i checked just about a
1:09:01few minutes ago
1:09:02and i i've developed some uh
1:09:06stem split um which is typical you know
1:09:09when something's growing that fast
1:09:11uh so i'm gonna have to captain that
1:09:13this evening
1:09:14and just to uh protect it and to
1:09:17discourage any funguses from setting in
1:09:19around the stem but at 35 pounds a day
1:09:23it's it should be we're going to tape it
1:09:25tonight and i think
1:09:26should be over 600 pounds and it's um it
1:09:30was 30 days old
1:09:32the day before yesterday the 13th of
1:09:34august it was 30 days old
1:09:36and um you know 600 pounds not bad right
1:09:40now
1:09:40i'm looking good with that one so you
1:09:42can see she's moving along good
1:09:44got a nice shape i was a little
1:09:46concerned um the um
1:09:48the uh blossom end is kind of um
1:09:52it's getting sucked under you know it's
1:09:54growing so fast the bottom
1:09:55it's it's not sliding fast enough and
1:09:58like i remember we talked about it
1:10:00earlier in the season
1:10:01the the reason for this tarp is it's
1:10:03very slippery
1:10:05and it's porous so it lets moisture
1:10:07through but um
1:10:09as slippery as it is it's not it's not
1:10:11sliding fast enough
1:10:13and it's just growing uh it's growing
1:10:16downward and over
1:10:17itself and that's okay um last year's
1:10:20record
1:10:20world record holding pumpkin the 1446
1:10:23eaton
1:10:23did this exact same thing you know it
1:10:25just kind of grew over itself
1:10:27right now this fruit is um
1:10:30it isn't even 30 days old this fruit is
1:10:34uh
1:10:34was pollinated on july 25th
1:10:38so that gives it actually it's 20 days
1:10:40old 21 days old today
1:10:42so it's got a nice uh well we may check
1:10:44that we'll check the circumference on
1:10:45that
1:10:46uh i've been monitoring uh uh maybe
1:10:48three days and it's been
1:10:50putting on seven inches a day um
1:10:53in the um circumference so you can see
1:10:56it's got a nice
1:10:58nice shape a little lighter green than
1:11:00normal
1:11:01and that's okay i mean as long as it's
1:11:03completely green and it's considered a
1:11:05squash
1:11:06um it's i've got one on the side vine
1:11:08that i've i've i've
1:11:09actually cut the sideline at the at the
1:11:12intersection where it meets the main
1:11:14vine
1:11:14and it's still growing two inches a day
1:11:16in circumference but this is the one i'm
1:11:18putting all the
1:11:19i'm putting all the chips on this one
1:11:20this is this is going to be my biggie i
1:11:22think
1:11:22and it's just you know overtaking this
1:11:25little
1:11:26this is the last little top i had and it
1:11:27was a little one but
1:11:29that's good enough and at least it'll
1:11:30it'll ride right down here and i'm
1:11:32hoping uh next time you come she'll be
1:11:33down
1:11:34here but as you can see weeds are a big
1:11:37issue weeds
1:11:38in my opinion um weeds are competing
1:11:42with the
1:11:42with your with your roots or your
1:11:44pumpkin plant um
1:11:45i'll take i'll take time in the next
1:11:48week to 10 days and i'll do one plant a
1:11:50night
1:11:51and i'll actually just go go through and
1:11:53just
1:11:54try to get the weeds out you know um you
1:11:56have to you have to decide
1:11:57at what some at some point though you're
1:11:59going to cause more damage
1:12:01you'll do more bad more harm than good
1:12:04because you start breaking leaves
1:12:06and stems but i'll try to reach in there
1:12:08and get as much as i can
1:12:10you can see it's like um just going to
1:12:14reduce the competition in the in the
1:12:17soil for nutrients
1:12:18weeds are sitting there hey they're
1:12:20sucking in the nitrogen sucking in the
1:12:21potassium and i put down everybody's
1:12:24taking the ingredient the elements out
1:12:25of the soil uh
1:12:27it's here for the pumpkin plant so the
1:12:29more the more you know this is the hard
1:12:30part you've got to discipline yourself
1:12:32and say you know it's got to be done
1:12:33and i'll do one one one big finale one
1:12:37big weeding shortly and
1:12:38that'll be it for the rest of the season
1:12:40that and it'll it'll take them down and
1:12:42then i won't go in there and mess around
1:12:43anymore but
1:12:44um i started over there i did a few
1:12:46earlier this evening i've taken a few
1:12:48you know but you can see stuff's getting
1:12:50big under there
1:12:51because i really been trying to minimize
1:12:54my
1:12:55movement in the in the vine area and
1:12:57compacting the soil
1:13:05well all right here we are uh things are
1:13:07getting uh getting exciting now here
1:13:09we're down at the uh
1:13:11mid august today's the 22nd of august
1:13:14things have peaked as far as growing uh
1:13:17the days of 35
1:13:1931 pounds a day have gone um
1:13:22right now everything's in the 20 to 25
1:13:25pounds a day hopefully i'm still going
1:13:2725 it could be could be 20 on my big guy
1:13:30these are all the restaurants doing 20
1:13:3219
1:13:3320 21 pounds a day uh my squash is taken
1:13:37right off it was doing 27 pounds a day
1:13:40four days ago it's a late pollination
1:13:43but boy it's a beauty and it's coming on
1:13:45strong
1:13:46um so right now we're just uh watching
1:13:48things i had a little um
1:13:50fatality on the 664 ligget um
1:13:54the uh finally the um the main the stem
1:13:58it's been splitting we've been watching
1:14:00it now through the weeks and it finally
1:14:01went right through yesterday
1:14:03so i filled it up the bulging white
1:14:05stuff you see is um
1:14:06that's insulation foam from a can and we
1:14:10basically sprayed it into the uh
1:14:12into the stem area a lot of times when
1:14:14you get a pumpkin um
1:14:16this wide it generally gets tall too so
1:14:18it's even more weight
1:14:19on the top of the pumpkin and that's
1:14:21pushing down on the sides and that's
1:14:22where cracks develop
1:14:24this old girl just keeps getting wider
1:14:26and wider and that's okay
1:14:29it can just keep getting wider and it's
1:14:32keeping a little less weight on the top
1:14:36but i give it a little support as you
1:14:39can see
1:14:40i brought in about uh half a cubic yard
1:14:43of
1:14:44loam from my loan pile over there and
1:14:46i've been packing and packing
1:14:47uh some folks will do sand you could put
1:14:49sand around it if you wanted to buy play
1:14:52sand
1:14:52i've been through that and i'm after you
1:14:54buy 40 bags of play sand that three
1:14:56dollars a bag
1:14:58i'm sure you can buy a truckload but you
1:15:00know i i don't know somehow carrying it
1:15:01from over there into here
1:15:03i usually buy it by the bags and but
1:15:05this year i said i have my own loan pile
1:15:07right there so i just bring in a nice
1:15:08fresh soil
1:15:09and loam topsoil and packing it under
1:15:12the edges
1:15:14and hopefully um it just gives it a
1:15:17little side support
1:15:18and and you're funny i'll come out and
1:15:21i'll be i will see the um
1:15:24i'll see the tarp has moved and that's
1:15:27exciting
1:15:28[Music]
1:15:34it's august 28th today
1:15:37things are still chugging along good my
1:15:39plants are looking nice and healthy
1:15:41um definitely uh the best the best
1:15:44season i've ever had as far as
1:15:47the plants the health of the plants and
1:15:49the longevity and the keeping
1:15:51keeping the plants young looking
1:15:54pumpkins are all still growing we'll
1:15:56we'll do a few measurements today and
1:15:58see exactly what we get going on but
1:16:00just from visual look inspection
1:16:03i can tell they're still growing the
1:16:05squash is going crazy
1:16:07and so um i can if i can keep up the
1:16:09growth that they've
1:16:10they're doing right now for a couple
1:16:11more weeks i'm going to really be
1:16:12looking good for the weigh-offs
1:16:14um but i yeah we'll um we'll head down
1:16:16this way we'll take a look
1:16:18um i'm
1:16:21um
1:16:25really doing good this this is um well
1:16:27let me see
1:16:28um it's about um the 20
1:16:32it's a month and three days old right
1:16:34now
1:16:35and boy i'm gonna say she's in the 400
1:16:36pound range for being 30 days old that's
1:16:39really good
1:16:40um beautiful shape nice uh
1:16:43symmetrical uh shape to it no um no
1:16:46big dips or worries no big concerns if
1:16:49you
1:16:50want to take a look here just to take a
1:16:51look at the stem on this i mean
1:16:54um you can see the big difference in the
1:16:57squash stem and the pumpkin stem you
1:17:00always get a good eight or ten inch stem
1:17:02on a squash
1:17:03and that kind of keeps the vine away i
1:17:05mean it really
1:17:06it helps out the whole progress of the
1:17:08growth uh when you get the long stem on
1:17:10there and this one's definitely uh get
1:17:12just what i want
1:17:13usually a pumpkin is longer than it is
1:17:16wide but as you can see
1:17:17this is the widest pumpkin i've ever
1:17:19seen i mean this is
1:17:21it's got incredible width um
1:17:24what i've been doing here here and i'll
1:17:26kind of give you a little brief in them
1:17:28and because of the uh the tremendous
1:17:30width and the overhang i call it
1:17:32um i've elected to pack i've packed dirt
1:17:35underneath it all around
1:17:37just to give some side support uh you
1:17:39have to think of this as a little
1:17:40structure and
1:17:41you know the walls can only hold up so
1:17:43much weight and right now
1:17:45um if i'm correct these are going to be
1:17:47some pretty thick heavy walls
1:17:49uh right here and and so and some just a
1:17:52whole shell
1:17:53a lot of weight up here pushing down on
1:17:55the side so i've packed dirt up under
1:17:57the edges and
1:17:58just to give it a little support and i i
1:18:00see uh day to day i can see the uh
1:18:03the movement in the tarp and it it's
1:18:05definitely uh
1:18:06it's gaining
1:18:07[Music]
1:18:10okay so now the month of august has
1:18:12passed those uh
1:18:14peak growth spurts have ended um you are
1:18:17going to see your pumpkins will still
1:18:19continue to put on weight every day
1:18:21but it's not as much as you are used to
1:18:22in august so the excitement may drop off
1:18:25a little bit
1:18:25but don't get discouraged keep your
1:18:27fertilizings going
1:18:28keep your weeding keep you feeding as we
1:18:31said you got to
1:18:32make sure that you don't give up at this
1:18:33point five pounds 10 pounds a day it's
1:18:36all going to add up in the end
1:18:38you're going to notice um two things are
1:18:40going to be happening here we're going
1:18:42to start getting cold nights
1:18:43with real sunny warm afternoons um
1:18:47it's going to be important um because of
1:18:49those cold nights
1:18:50open your shelters you'll notice all
1:18:52your choice um
1:18:54pumpkins all my choice pumpkins had
1:18:57little
1:18:57protection shade tents over them those
1:19:00tents were designed to give them
1:19:02protection from the elements the weather
1:19:04and keep them dry and clean
1:19:06but i open them up now in september i
1:19:09open them up and
1:19:10and invite the warm fall sun in and
1:19:12it'll warm up the shell of the pumpkin
1:19:14so
1:19:15as you go into the evening months if
1:19:16they if you really if they're predicting
1:19:18um
1:19:1940 degrees 45 degrees at night throw a
1:19:22blanket on them help hold in some of
1:19:24that heat
1:19:25yeah you're also going to notice right
1:19:27at this
1:19:28point in time your fruit is going to
1:19:30start to develop some irregularities if
1:19:33it hasn't already
1:19:34by that i mean what we call dill rings
1:19:37and i'll i will um
1:19:39i'll show you what those are exactly but
1:19:40the dill rings um
1:19:42you'll notice that and just dips and
1:19:44irregularities that
1:19:45are a little threatening your only
1:19:48protection there is um to mix up
1:19:51a batch of calcium product which is
1:19:52going to give them uh
1:19:54basically one tablespoon per gallon of
1:19:56water of calcium
1:19:58and you put um some little towels rags
1:20:01in there
1:20:02and you just lay it on the bill ring and
1:20:04it'll just help harden that
1:20:06that weak spot because that's generally
1:20:08with a a dip or a dill ring it can tend
1:20:10to be a weak spot on the pumpkin
1:20:12so by putting the calcium on there it'll
1:20:14harden that shell and help protect it
1:20:15from
1:20:16from cracking through um other than that
1:20:19you're continuing with uh
1:20:20everything you have up till this point
1:20:22your powdery mildew is um
1:20:24it's still hanging around if it's out
1:20:26there it's it's trying its best to take
1:20:28down your plant
1:20:29keep your uh your spraying program going
1:20:32because you're
1:20:32you're every pound counts right till the
1:20:34end when you get to the big way off
1:20:36um but that's pretty much it uh let's
1:20:39head out to the garden and see what
1:20:40we're doing we're gonna be taking some
1:20:41measurements
1:20:42this is the uh one another exciting part
1:20:44of the month of september
1:20:46is taking those measurements and seeing
1:20:49how much growth you're getting and
1:20:50it's been going on through august and
1:20:52all september and
1:20:54every inch is another five pounds every
1:20:56two inches it's
1:20:57you gotta keep on adding on the weight
1:20:59because uh your
1:21:00your your goal here is to win the win
1:21:03the big prize at the annual fair
1:21:05so let's see what we got
1:21:08[Music]
1:21:11today's um september 4th beautiful
1:21:14weather for september
1:21:15it's actually a good growing weather
1:21:17right now and we're taking advantage of
1:21:19every hour every moment of beautiful
1:21:22sunshine and warmth during the days
1:21:25right now i've elected to open up the
1:21:27tents uh in the daytime let the sun warm
1:21:30up the pumpkins
1:21:31and when the sun goes down i'm putting
1:21:33the blankets on real heavy
1:21:35uh we're going down into the 50s mid 50s
1:21:37now
1:21:38in the in the night and evening so you
1:21:40know the colder it gets
1:21:42uh the slow it'll start shutting down
1:21:44the growth on on a lot of the pumpkins
1:21:46so
1:21:47um what you typically like to do is try
1:21:49to keep them warm keep that warmth in as
1:21:51much of the nighttime as you can
1:21:54i did i did a complete weeding on all my
1:21:58on my primary plants um in the last
1:22:01few days one last time went in there
1:22:04pulled out as many weeds right now i
1:22:06want everything that can go to the
1:22:07plants to go
1:22:09i'm really excited we're september 4th
1:22:11and
1:22:12i've still got growth going on all right
1:22:14what you're looking at here is um
1:22:16this is actually just a little scarring
1:22:18caused by myself
1:22:20carelessness measuring the pumpkin the
1:22:23more you're around
1:22:24the squash or the pumpkin and you you're
1:22:26gonna nick it you know i
1:22:27i keep um knee pads on my knees and i
1:22:30i'll skin it from time to time that i
1:22:32would um
1:22:33that would i assume is from my belt
1:22:35buckle uh reaching over to get the tape
1:22:38on there and um it could it won't be
1:22:40that harmful but if it was deeper
1:22:42yeah it could start you know cause a
1:22:43problem uh but it does he this one's
1:22:46healing over nice
1:22:47but that's an example why you have to
1:22:48kind of uh be careful when you're
1:22:51working around your fruit and not to uh
1:22:53scar it up and cause more damage than
1:22:55you need
1:22:56well we have here is the um this is the
1:22:59898
1:23:00nos and it's funny because i've grown
1:23:02this for three years and this is the
1:23:04first time
1:23:05i got a um a real cantalouping
1:23:08this is cantaloping we call it
1:23:10cantalouping style pumpkin
1:23:12i usually have a smooth skin a nice
1:23:16pinkish orange in color but you never
1:23:19know i mean it's
1:23:20you don't know what genetics are going
1:23:21to come out when you plant certain seed
1:23:23has its characteristics
1:23:25color is not always uniform
1:23:28and so surprisingly this came out like a
1:23:32white cantaloupe
1:23:33i'm leaving the shade tent open here i'm
1:23:35letting the sun get in it
1:23:36not only is it going to um you know
1:23:39you know generate some some heat into
1:23:41the pumpkin for tonight and i'll put the
1:23:43blankets on but
1:23:44it's going to possibly bring a little
1:23:46bit of orange color to it i can i can
1:23:48see it bleeding through a little bit a
1:23:49little bit of color here
1:23:51um so it's all part of the um the uh
1:23:55growth process and just the maturing of
1:23:59of the fruit
1:24:07you talk about winding down the season
1:24:09we're uh if i've got 10 or 12 more
1:24:11growing days left that'll be it we
1:24:14actually be harvesting on october 1st
1:24:16but um
1:24:17the nights are getting cold and uh time
1:24:19is running short right now
1:24:21um uh my big contenders
1:24:24my right here my um this is my 503
1:24:27boyfriend
1:24:27currently down at 12 to 15 pounds a day
1:24:32unfortunately as you can see it's
1:24:35developing a
1:24:36dill ring right here and what a dill
1:24:38ring is
1:24:39is a mystery to all giant pumpkin
1:24:41growers it's something that just happens
1:24:43some get it some don't but we do know it
1:24:46is a it's a it's a stress point
1:24:48uh on the pumpkin you can see especially
1:24:51where there are deep ribs
1:24:52um the shell of the pumpkin will only
1:24:55probably be two to three inches thick
1:24:56where there's a dill ring
1:24:58the rest of the pumpkin will have six
1:25:00eight ten twelve inches thick of a
1:25:02shell but where there's a dill ring it
1:25:06tends there's inside the pumpkin it
1:25:08splits
1:25:09and there's uh it's real weak point i've
1:25:12been putting um
1:25:14calcium soaked rags on the dill ring
1:25:16just to hopefully um
1:25:18strengthen up the shell so it might it
1:25:20may um
1:25:21prevent it from cracking it's a wait and
1:25:24see game it's right
1:25:26now it's still growing and uh there's
1:25:28nothing i can do about the dill rings
1:25:30um but it's uh hopefully it'll hold out
1:25:33and i'm gonna keep my fingers crossed
1:25:35and she'll be a top contender at
1:25:37topsfield
1:25:38what do you want to watch out for when
1:25:39you when your pumpkins getting this big
1:25:41uh or actually even not to be this big
1:25:43500 any any of these giant pumpkins
1:25:46you they create um dips and crevices
1:25:48underneath
1:25:49and boy is that the place for uh the
1:25:51mice to hang out especially when the
1:25:53cold nights start moving in
1:25:54and so what i'll do i've already done it
1:25:57i've already put these are regular moth
1:25:58balls old-fashioned moth balls
1:26:00and uh you just i slide one right down
1:26:03in there i keep a few all around out
1:26:04here
1:26:05i've actually got them all around the
1:26:06entire pumpkin they're on the sides
1:26:08i keep them about a dozen or so
1:26:10mothballs around the entire pumpkin
1:26:12because
1:26:13with the warming blankets on at night in
1:26:15in in the dry
1:26:17warmth everything it attracts mice
1:26:20moles anything that's outside looking
1:26:22for a warm place this is where they're
1:26:23going to go
1:26:24and so it's a good idea when you know
1:26:26when you get into their
1:26:28mid august and your september months
1:26:31especially when the nights get colder
1:26:34a few moth balls it doesn't hurt and put
1:26:36them around
1:26:37um i i actually was when i first went to
1:26:40put a mothball in here the other day i
1:26:42looked and i saw something moving inside
1:26:43there and
1:26:44it turns out it was a big toad he had
1:26:46taken up residency so
1:26:48i didn't want to throw anything in there
1:26:50and possibly uh
1:26:52you know kill him and then he dies under
1:26:54there so i i waited
1:26:55a few days he finally moved out and uh i
1:26:57put mothballs down there
1:26:59what you're looking at right here is uh
1:27:01this is um this is a leave that's been
1:27:03infected with powdery mildew
1:27:05these uh you generally start seeing this
1:27:07um
1:27:08oh mid-august third week in august i
1:27:10mean uh
1:27:11some sometimes first week in august what
1:27:13it's going to do is
1:27:14it's going to actually spread on the
1:27:16entire leave and
1:27:19it sucks the moisture right out of the
1:27:21leaf and and the leaf will just
1:27:23will um at least going to die it'll just
1:27:25drop
1:27:26and dry out and drop and obviously right
1:27:29now
1:27:30your leaves are your source of energy
1:27:32they're taking the sunlight and they're
1:27:34they're bringing it in into the plant
1:27:36and that's what's putting on the weight
1:27:37on your giant pumpkin
1:27:38the best preventative measure for
1:27:41powdery mildew is going to be um
1:27:42a weekly application of a dat of a
1:27:45product called dakanil
1:27:46and well it's an ortho product i believe
1:27:48that makes it
1:27:49and but uh dachnell um is your biggest
1:27:53um
1:27:54uh yeah it's your best uh com combat and
1:27:57for
1:27:57uh powdery mildew
1:28:00[Music]
1:28:03as things have picked up on my fruit um
1:28:06uh
1:28:07i was a little depressed there i had
1:28:08gone down to 9 10 pounds a day
1:28:11in my last measurement three or four
1:28:12days ago i back up to 14 pounds a day
1:28:15not usually uh you don't usually see
1:28:17that once you get down to 9 10
1:28:19it never recovers it's slowly downhill
1:28:22uh i taped the squash
1:28:24back up to 14 pounds a day so i was
1:28:27really excited
1:28:28and you can see the stretching right now
1:28:30there's uh it's showing signs of um
1:28:32stretching stretch marks almost um it's
1:28:35you
1:28:35losing that um that smooth baby skin
1:28:38uh because it's still growing and right
1:28:41now
1:28:42uh as of uh last let's see a few days
1:28:44ago it was 8
1:28:4526 it was back up to 14 pounds a day
1:28:49so i'm hoping by tomorrow at this time
1:28:52i should be up to um around 870 if all
1:28:56goes right 865. i want to get it i want
1:28:59to see this squash go up into the 900s
1:29:01if i can then
1:29:02and i'll be happy with that if it'll
1:29:04tape in the low nines then i got a shot
1:29:06at hitting a thousand pounds
1:29:08i think i'm i think i'm over the threat
1:29:10hump where you know
1:29:11the splitting uh it would have split by
1:29:14now if it was going to split
1:29:16and it's growing um it's still growing
1:29:1913 pounds
1:29:20a day and here it is the the 18th of
1:29:24september
1:29:25um according to my measurements where
1:29:28i'm at
1:29:29and what i'm putting on per day it
1:29:31should weigh 1200 pounds
1:29:33at the end of the day today um
1:29:36i'm not measuring today i'm going to
1:29:37take there's an off day i'm measuring
1:29:39tomorrow and i i definitely should be
1:29:41over 1200 pounds uh
1:29:43tomorrow and we'll see where we're at i
1:29:46mean it's not a real
1:29:47tall pumpkin but it's got a massive um
1:29:52girth the circumference is just huge and
1:29:56i don't know you know i'm hoping my my
1:29:59ultimate dream is to be in the in the
1:30:01top three which i'm calling the super
1:30:03bowl and
1:30:04hopefully win the super bowl one day and
1:30:06and but i'd like to just get there for
1:30:08now and
1:30:09uh that's being one of the top three
1:30:12uh at topsfield but right now i know of
1:30:15in new hampshire there's there are two
1:30:17other ones in the same
1:30:20same measurement range so it's going to
1:30:22be come down to who
1:30:24who weighs heavy and who doesn't
1:30:34here we are here this is uh september
1:30:3625th
1:30:37this is we've got a week left and the
1:30:39and the big showdown
1:30:40was upon us um things have
1:30:44subsided in the patch i mean we're
1:30:45getting it's getting late in the season
1:30:47the nights are getting pretty chilly
1:30:48right now
1:30:50um the my squash right here is down
1:30:53i i my most recent taping was a 900 even
1:30:57and that was two nights ago at 900 even
1:31:00and um it was at seven pounds a day
1:31:04still
1:31:05um i really believe i mean it's got us
1:31:07it's going to keep dwindling because
1:31:08it's been going steadily down
1:31:10and so i think if we get the if i get
1:31:12four pounds a day now for the next three
1:31:13or four days that'll be okay
1:31:15and the closer i can edge myself to a
1:31:18thousand
1:31:19pounds the better chance i'll have of uh
1:31:21getting in the elite group of thousand
1:31:23pound squash holders you know
1:31:25this down to four pounds a day i did a
1:31:28um
1:31:28i did a taping two nights ago and it was
1:31:31at um
1:31:321216 pounds you right now and uh
1:31:35i'm real excited i mean i i just can't
1:31:37imagine if it weighs heavy what what
1:31:39will happen but
1:31:40even if it's just even if it just weighs
1:31:43what it tapes i'll be
1:31:44more than pleased um if it's in the
1:31:471100s
1:31:48i'll be more than satisfied also
1:31:52all right folks we've uh we've ended uh
1:31:55the month of september
1:31:56things are really exciting our peak
1:31:59growth spurts have ended
1:32:01but things are looking great we've got
1:32:03some great things going on in the garden
1:32:06choices have to be made now it's time to
1:32:08decide um
1:32:09which pumpkins are going where and
1:32:11hopefully at this point you have
1:32:12something you're real proud of
1:32:14and i personally will be taking my
1:32:16choice pumpkins and squash
1:32:18to the local um topsfield fair one of
1:32:20the oldest and most recognized
1:32:22way off sites in the in the usa and so
1:32:26upon um harvesting my my choice pumpkins
1:32:29i will
1:32:30lift them off the ground with a cargo
1:32:33net
1:32:34i'll inspect them completely then the
1:32:36underneath
1:32:37the sides everything needs to be
1:32:38inspected make sure there's no holes
1:32:40into the cavity
1:32:41um a hole or a crack could spell
1:32:43disaster and eliminate me from all
1:32:45competitions
1:32:46so that's pretty much what's uh what's
1:32:49in store at this point
1:32:51and we're going to move forward right
1:32:53into the month of october here and let's
1:32:55see what's going on in the garden next
1:32:58[Music]
1:33:01it's friday night five o'clock this big
1:33:04showdown time
1:33:05going to topsfield fair in the morning
1:33:07um
1:33:08i'm real excited right now the big boys
1:33:11she's taping out at 12
1:33:1250. uh with any luck she might weigh uh
1:33:15way heavy you never know and uh
1:33:17but i'll take whatever she gives me uh
1:33:19definitely be a personal best i believe
1:33:21and
1:33:22i'm really excited i gotta all the guys
1:33:24are here to help me do what we gotta do
1:33:26and uh
1:33:26send it off to topsfield in the morning
1:33:30plants still holding out i've been
1:33:32trimming and cutting things back and
1:33:33making room and
1:33:35we're gonna bring uh the fork truck in
1:33:37and we're gonna lift it up and get her
1:33:38uh
1:33:39get her put where she belongs uh the um
1:33:41the the big squash you she's weighing in
1:33:44she's taping in right now at 9.05
1:33:47i cut her a couple hours ago and i can
1:33:49see i've set the vines
1:33:51and watering jugs actually drank two or
1:33:54three inches out of this one
1:33:56an inch out of that one so it's drinking
1:33:57a little bit i figure i
1:33:59get it to drink about a gallon of water
1:34:01before it gets to the way off
1:34:03put a few more pounds on that'll be uh
1:34:05that'll be nice
1:34:06um yeah she's flawless still in nice
1:34:08shape got no
1:34:09cracks no uh stem stress anything
1:34:12everything's looking good
1:34:14i'm real excited and uh we're ready to
1:34:15bring her uh bring it to topsfield
1:34:18well what we're going to do here today
1:34:19you will basically cut we're going to uh
1:34:21cut her from the main vine and i'm going
1:34:24to bring in a
1:34:25harness strap it's very sort of like a
1:34:27cargo strap
1:34:29and we're going to wrap it around the
1:34:31entire pumpkin
1:34:32and all the straps will come up to a
1:34:33circular ring that'll be attached to the
1:34:36forklift
1:34:37and we're going to lift it right up off
1:34:38the ground only about a foot
1:34:40and we're going to slide a pallet
1:34:41underneath it with a good
1:34:43four to five inches of padding and set
1:34:46it down and that's where
1:34:47she'll she'll make her uh journey to top
1:34:49field in the morning
1:34:51basically i've got a um a gallon jug
1:34:53ready here
1:34:54uh let's see i'm going to uh i'm gonna
1:34:56cut this jug a little bit
1:34:58wider it's just fresh tap water um
1:35:01it's it's a uh it's a proven uh
1:35:05theory and the whole thing once uh once
1:35:07i cut the vine
1:35:08it's gonna draw water for the into the
1:35:10night and if it can
1:35:12if it can draw a gallon of water so i
1:35:14mean that's another six or seven pounds
1:35:15uh
1:35:16for the way off tomorrow so what i'll do
1:35:18right now i'm gonna i'm going to trim
1:35:19off a few leaves
1:35:21these uh there's a little vine we're
1:35:24gonna trim off
1:35:25we'll cut this right here you can see
1:35:27the water the juices are still in there
1:35:29this
1:35:29she's still plugging along a couple
1:35:31pounds a day right now
1:35:33um so what i'm gonna do basically is um
1:35:37see here we're gonna get uh i'm gonna
1:35:40make the cut right here
1:35:44there it is now she's been disconnected
1:35:48and what i'll do is basically get it in
1:35:51the jug of water like this
1:35:54and i'll leave it right like that and uh
1:35:57hopefully it'll um
1:35:58it'll um i'm going to mark the water
1:36:01level
1:36:02and i'll get a magic marker uh basically
1:36:04going to i'll put a line right here and
1:36:06see how much it drinks um
1:36:07between now and we'll be we'll be
1:36:09actually lifting it in a few minutes
1:36:11or maybe 20 minutes half an hour before
1:36:13we actually lift it
1:36:27[Music]
1:36:36okay
1:36:39[Music]
1:36:47okay guys here we are uh this is the big
1:36:50morning we're here toss field uh
1:36:52the totsfield arena and uh ready to get
1:36:55things underway the entries are coming
1:36:57in i got my squash here
1:36:58she made it made the trip sound no
1:37:00cracks everything's looking good
1:37:02um i left a few feet of vine um
1:37:06on both sides and i and i estimate she
1:37:09drank about three quarters of a gallon
1:37:11between yesterday when i picked it and
1:37:13now
1:37:14three quarters to a gallon right in the
1:37:16era that could be another five or six
1:37:18pounds so
1:37:19i'll take whatever we can get so right
1:37:21now on the
1:37:22contest rules you can keep one inch of
1:37:25vine on each side of the stem
1:37:27so i'm going to make a i'll make a cut
1:37:29right here
1:37:32and that's it she's done now
1:37:37and then i'll make a cut on this side
1:37:48yeah okay
1:37:52that's it we'll uh we'll be back
1:38:03[Music]
1:38:09[Music]
1:38:15[Applause]
1:38:30there you have it folks it doesn't get
1:38:32any better than that in giant pumpkin
1:38:34growing
1:38:35first place in the pumpkin division
1:38:37first place in the squash division
1:38:39uh 1314.8 pounds on the pumpkin and
1:38:43880 at 1.6 pounds for the squash
1:38:47uh the ultimate uh achievement in this
1:38:50hobby
1:38:50to win both categories um i couldn't
1:38:52have asked for more
1:38:54um but it all that's the product of all
1:38:56your hard work is
1:38:58uh is the celebration and the fun that
1:39:00comes out of
1:39:01winning first place um you your next
1:39:05your next concern at this point is going
1:39:08to be
1:39:08show it off as much as you can and
1:39:10harvest those seeds
1:39:12all right so let's go back to the
1:39:13pumpkin one last time
1:39:19well here we are today is october 30th
1:39:22and the the season has formally come to
1:39:25an end
1:39:26halloween's tomorrow um all the giant
1:39:29pumpkins have been brought to the uh
1:39:31all the different way offs all the cash
1:39:33prizes and trophies and ribbons have
1:39:35been won
1:39:37and now it's down to uh well making one
1:39:39final little
1:39:40um memento out of your giant pumpkin and
1:39:42what i
1:39:43i generally will do is um i try to
1:39:45create some type of a sculpture i do uh
1:39:47giant pumpkin sculpturing and i do giant
1:39:50pumpkin carve outs
1:39:51and i try to create something of
1:39:53interest and the pumpkin itself is of
1:39:55great interest but when you
1:39:57when you carve something neat into it
1:39:58it's even uh more amazing to people
1:40:01um ideally too what we're looking for
1:40:05right now is to get the seeds out i got
1:40:07to get the seeds
1:40:08in the into the drying drying process
1:40:11that needs to be done
1:40:12um if i wait too much longer and they
1:40:14get hit with frost
1:40:16and freezing on the pumpkins it could
1:40:17affect the
1:40:19seeds to turn out of the seeds just
1:40:20going gonna sink it in
1:40:22all the way and then i'll start cutting
1:40:26[Applause]
1:40:31you can see nice um it was about six
1:40:34inches six six
1:40:35to seven inch thick walls um
1:40:39and what we'll do is we'll just take a
1:40:42little search through here make sure
1:40:44there's no seeds the seeds will be nut
1:40:46will be um you know all inside the uh
1:40:49the different uh
1:40:51cavities of the wall let's get a look
1:40:54here there's no seed there okay here's
1:40:55the seeds now
1:40:57and you can see that's how the seeds
1:41:00will come out
1:41:02and what we're gonna do is i'm going to
1:41:03put these in a separate pail
1:41:05and i'll sort through them later um
1:41:09but it's not a it's an average size seed
1:41:11it's not it's not
1:41:13a real big seed sometimes you'll get
1:41:14seeds as big as um
1:41:16biggest quarters they're um material
1:41:19it's it's no uh
1:41:21there's no method or you know to getting
1:41:23bigger seeds or you get
1:41:24and as far as quantity you never know
1:41:26what you're going to get for quantity
1:41:28neither um but you can see right now
1:41:33uh yeah there's no seeds in that little
1:41:35portion there but let me see if we get
1:41:37another handful here
1:41:42see there's a lot of seeds that's a nice
1:41:43group of seeds right there
1:41:46yep the an actual um see the seed
1:41:50drying chamber that i've fabricated this
1:41:52is my own design
1:41:53basically um it's a critter proof you
1:41:56can see it shuts tight
1:41:58snaps shut nothing can get in it and
1:42:01and most of the growers um some growers
1:42:04have
1:42:04fabricated their own little devices but
1:42:07it's basically to you know get air flow
1:42:09around the seeds
1:42:10um because airflow is essential we'll
1:42:13set up
1:42:14i'll set up a little um a fan on low
1:42:17for the first two or three days after
1:42:20harvesting the seeds
1:42:21make sure i get plenty of airflow around
1:42:23here to get them dry and
1:42:24lay them in a single layer on the on the
1:42:27screen mesh
1:42:29and you can see i have multiple uh these
1:42:31are different racks
1:42:33and so i can put these are pumpkin these
1:42:35are seeds from my 698
1:42:37and then these are seeds from my 855
1:42:41that i grew this year because uh you'll
1:42:43sometimes like uh you'll harvest
1:42:45three or four pumpkins in a row you know
1:42:48and one raft to the other
1:42:50and um when they all need two or three
1:42:52weeks of drying
1:42:53you're going to have different places to
1:42:54store them i got two of these racks so i
1:42:56can store seeds from four pumpkins
1:42:58at once um and then i'll move them along
1:43:01and get them out as
1:43:02quick as i can and get the next batch in
1:43:04and i like this year i think i had six
1:43:06or seven pumpkins so i've still got um
1:43:08my big squash i've got to open up and
1:43:10get the seeds out
1:43:11but i put it on hinges and it shuts
1:43:13tight and and basically keeps
1:43:15keeps the mice out if you didn't go on
1:43:17to go to this extreme
1:43:19you could just take um pieces of door
1:43:21screen or
1:43:22this quarter it's quarter inch mesh they
1:43:25call it
1:43:26the quarter inch squares you could just
1:43:28take layers of that and just stack them
1:43:30up on a piece of cardboard
1:43:32in a well ventilated area as long as
1:43:35they have
1:43:35airflow underneath them and on top of
1:43:37them you're in good shape
1:43:39this is the 1314 pound
1:43:42uh boschman second to the last final
1:43:45stop it's gonna get this will be uh
1:43:47the carving was done yesterday i did it
1:43:50myself and i'm going to be uh
1:43:53taking it to the um the parade halloween
1:43:56parade in goss town tomorrow and that'll
1:43:58be its final tribute and
1:44:00uh it'll days are numbered now it'll be
1:44:04off to the compost pile but
1:44:06this is a evil homer it was the title
1:44:08and uh come out pretty good
1:44:10about all you can do with a big giant
1:44:11pumpkin like this i guess
1:44:13make the funniest space you can and i
1:44:16can't wait to see it at night i've got
1:44:18got to put some lights in it and see if
1:44:20what kind of glow it gets you know
1:44:22but the the seed count was pretty low
1:44:24but a
1:44:25couple hundred seeds and we'll take what
1:44:27we can get though
1:44:30yeah that's about it well thank you so
1:44:33much for watching
1:44:34and good luck to you and your pursuit of
1:44:37growing your own
1:44:38champion giant pumpkin
1:45:05you

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of The Secrets of Growing Champion Giant Pumpkins by James Beauchemin, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 18,249 words across 2,965 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.