2011 TEG Giant Pumpkin Contest - JOIN US BY AUGUST 1ST!!

[Cats Critters and Garden]

I'm not doing so good here, I've been having problems with heat and bugs...

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Don't forget if you want to join us you need to state clearly so on this thread by the due date, August 1st.

I'm doing ok here, still not the best of weather. Still have a large amount of cucumber beetles, but less than earlier.

Got a couple pumpkins growing. I've been keeping a very close eye on them. So have the chickens, you'll notice. One in particular has the ability to squeeze through the 3 inch gaps in the fence that even my banty can't fit through. But she's incredibly cute and personable and my favorite chicken, so I haven't murdered her yet.

Here's pictures of what I have growing so far. Not too good considering how many plants I have/had. Not all of these are giant pumpkins but I can't tell which is which cause the vines have finally started to go nuts.

And my rouge vif d'etampes:

And the cute culprit of all the holes in the pumpkins:

 

[lesa]

She is way better than a giant pumpkin! Lookin good!

 

[stepstephens2]

SCG- What breed of chicken is that? She's super cute! My chickens break into my garden too. Fortunately they don't have a taste for pumpkins. I had to build a small fence around my giant cabbage (it's supposed to be able to get up to 60 lbs.) but they just stuck their heads through like I had made them a feed stand. In the end, it doesn't matter because I overwatered the cabbage, it grew too fast, and the middle exploded. My biggest pumpkin now was in amongst those little pumpkins that were just starting. I went from softball size to basketball size in 3 days. It has stretch marks. I'm probably going to cause the pumpkin to explode too, I know they can sometimes.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

SCG- What breed of chicken is that? She's super cute! My chickens break into my garden too. Fortunately they don't have a taste for pumpkins. I had to build a small fence around my giant cabbage (it's supposed to be able to get up to 60 lbs.) but they just stuck their heads through like I had made them a feed stand. In the end, it doesn't matter because I overwatered the cabbage, it grew too fast, and the middle exploded. My biggest pumpkin now was in amongst those little pumpkins that were just starting. I went from softball size to basketball size in 3 days. It has stretch marks. I'm probably going to cause the pumpkin to explode too, I know they can sometimes.

Glad you guys like her, she's a speckled sussex. She has a great back story, when I got her as a chick in the mail (with 30 others) she had a broken leg from shipment. I had to give her a cast and separate her from the others and give her chicken PT, but she survived. She's a bit odd and a chicken social misfit from it all - 2 weeks of being lonely in a box by yourself with only a human for company means that she imprinted on me and not other chickens. She follows me around like a dog, and tries to sneak in the house. She also stalks me - if she's outside in the run she'll pace the fence trying to look in all the house windows until she spots me, then just stares like "COME AND GET ME!" - I love her to death.

Your above post made me laugh so hard - an exploding cabbage? Pumpkins with stretch marks? Who said gardening wasn't fun?!

 

[ShortCircuitRanch2332]

im doing great (I think) lol ill get some pics up later of my 22 incher the one I HAD would have been like 50 by now but it got taken out my a squirrel then i took out the squirrel haha ive averaged out that my lil hopeful grows 2 1/2" every 48 hours is that under normal or above agerage?

 

[stepstephens2]

The pumpkin with the stretchmarks went from the first picture to the second picture in 9 days. The stretchmarks are those light zig zag lines running down the sides of it (the lighting makes it hard to see.)

It is now 28" around and 12" tall... so softball to beachball in 9 days!

And here is my exploded cabbage! My husband has begged me to pull it out (I think it disturbs him to have exploding vegetables in the backyard ) but I can't bring myself to do it...

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

im doing great (I think) lol ill get some pics up later of my 22 incher the one I HAD would have been like 50 by now but it got taken out my a squirrel then i took out the squirrel haha ive averaged out that my lil hopeful grows 2 1/2" every 48 hours is that under normal or above agerage?

No idea! Maybe we'll find out at the end of this shebang.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

The pumpkin with the stretchmarks went from the first picture to the second picture in 9 days. The stretchmarks are those light zig zag lines running down the sides of it (the lighting makes it hard to see.)
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/8005_extra_pumpkins.jpg
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/8005_pumpkin_stretchmarks.jpg

It is now 28" around and 12" tall... so softball to beachball in 9 days!

And here is my exploded cabbage! My husband has begged me to pull it out (I think it disturbs him to have exploding vegetables in the backyard ) but I can't bring myself to do it...
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/8005_explodede_cabbage.jpg

Your cabbage looks all right to me, I'd leave it. But I'm still trying to fathom what exactly one would do with a gargantuan cabbage. All my thoughts keep turning to sulfurous malodorous thoughts.

...

I'd leave it says the girl with this in her garden:

 

[stepstephens2]

SCG- The plan was to enter it into the fair... or enter the Guiness Book for the largest cabbage rolls ever made.