Monthly Archives: September 2010

Kong to go to Colorado Springs Weigh-Off

Turns out the weigh-off in Boise City, Oklahoma has been canceled which is just as well as I don’t think I could stand 2 more weeks of anticipation of what might be with Kong. So I will go to the Colorado Springs weigh-off. Plus the seed that produced Kong was a 895 Grande, which is a Colorado grower and I  have been a member of Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers up in Colorado , so I feel closer to the Colorado group of giant pumpkin growers.

I will measure Kong tonight and Friday AM just before we cut him off to see what my final measurements reveal, but it is too close to tell at this point if I have broken the NM State record…

Kong crawls to 400 lbs with three days left..

My giant pumpkin, Kong is now at 400 lbs and I must get to 405 lbs by Friday AM (when I cut it off). 405 lbs would just barely beat the NM State Record (404lbs) and the weigh-off is this Saturday in Colorado Springs. I just found out there is another official weigh-off on Oct 16th in Boise City OK (which is actually closer) but last year I waited till a later weigh-off hoping to get more weight and missed it because of a blizzard here in Santa Fe and in CO and my weighing it here on a certified scale didn’t count as it has to be weighed on one of these big GPC (Great Pumpkin Commonwealth) events to count. That plus my giant pumpkin buddies are in Colorado. I am going by an older weight chart which puts Kong at the least weight (400 lbs now). If I go by the newer charts, I’ve already beat the record. I’m leaning to going anyway this weekend as I already have a truck lined up to borrow and 6 strong guys coming out on Friday to lift it in the truck for me.  And who knows how long this beautiful weather will last. I also have a giant zucchini that I have to get weighed as well. At last week’s weigh-off (they have three of these official weigh-offs in CO) the biggest zucchini was 4 lbs-my biggest is around 50 lbs! What a quandry…Grow Kong, grow..

Kong reaches 396 lbs…

Kong has reached 396 lbs! I am trying to get it past the state record of 404 lbs by pushing it a little with fish emulsion and seaweed every day. I have to be careful not to blow it up! It will be touch and go until the end when we take it on Saturday up to Colorado Springs, CO for the weigh-off. Every pound is critical now. I won’t know if it beats the record until they officially weigh Kong as I could be wrong on my measurements (wishful thinking?) or it could weigh light (or heavy).  I need at the minimum 10 lbs in 4 days and that is if the measurements are correct. The weatherman is predicting warm days in the 80’s which bodes well for Kong. Grow Kong, grow.. Stay tuned!

2010 Tomatoes winners from my garden

This year I planted 20 varieties of tomatoes and want to give you my favorites. Here are the winners!

HEIRLOOMS

costuluto genevese tomato

Costuloto Genevese-This Italian heirloom is the prettiest tomato I’ve ever seen. It has highly fluted or scalloped edges that are beautiful when sliced horizontally. It ripens to a beautiful deep red and and has that old fashioned tomato flavor. Very prolific. One of my favorites for Caprese salad.

Black Cherry-I grew them last year. Wonderfully complex, earthy sweet flavor so typical for black tomatoes.

Paul Robeson-I grew them last year and I like them even better this year. This one is a favorite of many at our Farmers Market. Complex flavors of sweet and just the right amount of acid.

Green Grape-This is my new favorite cherry tomato. Unbelievably complex sweet flavor. I like to mix them in with my other cherry tomatoes for a medley of color and flavors

black pear tomato

Black Pear-New for me this year, they have a wonderful sweet black tomato flavor. Very abundant.

Striped German-Giant Bi-Color beefstake that is a supersweet. Beautiful yellow and red marbling inside. Takes all summer to ripen but it’s worth the wait!

pantano romanesco tomato

Pantano Romanesco-Another Italian heirloom hailing from Rome. This one is very prolific and nice sized.  Beautiful fluted tomato with that old fashioned tomato flavor

NM State Fair Results for giant pumpkin/marrows

I went to the 2010 New Mexico State Fair yesterday and won first place for my littlest giant pumpkin and first and second place for my marrows (zucchinis). It was fun seeing all the different veggies on display and which ones won. Next stop-Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) Weigh-Off in Colorado Springs, CO with my biggest pumpkin and marrow on October 2.

1st place-giant pumpkin 2010


1st and 2nd place-zucchini 2010

‘Kong’ grows to 360 lbs!

‘Kong’ has grown to 360 lbs. It is now my PB (personal best), still putting on weight and looking good. I wonder what it will end up at.  I’m going to the Oct 2 Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) weigh-off in Colorado Springs, CO. The New Mexico State Record is 404 and with this warm weather I have a chance to break it. A long shot but still a chance. So put a word out to the universe asking for Kong to break the state record! GROW KONG GROW!!!

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Giant Marrows gone to State Fair

I had my friend Lava, enter 3 zucchinis in the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque last Tuesday for me while I’ve been gone in NYC. One (the smallest) was a traditional zucchini, and 2 were giant varieties called marrows. A marrow is in the zucchini family-Curcurbita Pepo. It is grown more in Europe than in the states. It is eaten when small but the giant varieties have the capacity to get big-really big-much bigger than our ordinary variety of zucchini! I weighed my two smaller marrows that I entered into the fair on my bathroom scale and one was about 25 lbs and the other was around 35 lbs. I wonder if anyone in NM is growing a giant variety of marrow. I didn’t even weigh my traditional zucchini because it was so small compared to the giant varieties. I am going down to the fair today to see if I got any ribbons..

Getting ready to measure the biggest marrow

I still left the biggest marrow in the patch to see how big it will grow before the Colorado weigh-offs. It measured almost 30″ long and 14″ wide about a week ago. I think it weighs about 45 lbs right now. Here is a pic of me getting ready to weigh it.

measuring length-almost 30" (see I wasn't lying!)

I love the marrows-one of the most exciting plants I grew this year. I’ll have to harvest some seeds, although they were probably cross-pollinated by the bees with my winter squash. I’m still going to keep some seeds..

I also entered in ‘Harpie’, one of my two giant pumpkins. Lava said it officially weighed 99 lbs at the fair. I don’t think it will place but I’m gonna try!

biggest marrow that went to the fair-35 lbs!

See the difference between a marrow and a regular zucchini?!

measuring width-almost 14"

MG Giant Veggie Garden Tour and Winter Gardening Class Information Sheets

Here are all the information sheets I had out at the Santa Fe Master Gardener’s Giant Veggie Tour and the Winter Gardening Class held at my garden for anyone that wants them. I’m also listing the  link to the whole article on attracting beneficial insects that I got from http://www.grinning planet.com. Following are the pdfs for the info sheets from the tour on Attracting Beneficial Insects, the Mid Summer/Fall Plant Help info sheet, the Squash Bug Preference Chart (yes squash bugs actually have squash preferences!) and Organic Plant Insect/Critter Control Recipes. Also are the sheets from the Winter Gardening Class held today. Two plans showing how to build coldframe/hotbeds, winter gardening information sheet and Fall/Winter Vegetable Planting Guide from Ed Hume Seeds website. Just download them and print them for your files.

PDFS FROM TOUR:

Attracting Beneficial Insects

Mid Summer/Fall Help For Plants

Squash Bug Preference Chart

Organic Plant Insect/Critter Control Recipes

PDFS FROM WINTER GARDENING CLASS:

Winter Gardening Sheet

Fall and Winter Vegetable Planting Guide

Hotbed Plans

Cold Frame Gardening

Cold Frame/hotbed plans


Master Gardener’s Giant Veggie Garden Tour on Sunday Sept. 5

I’ve been out of town but wanted to get the tour post in. Here is a slide show of the of my giant veggie garden tour yesterday for the Santa Fe Master Gardeners. They saw giant sunflowers (Titans), giant pumpkins (Atlantic Giant), giant marrows, and giant tomatoes (that aren’t ripe yet so not much to see). They also saw many regular veggies and flowers. I talked  about my growing techniques and answered questions. About 30 people showed up. I had a great time showing the fruits of my labor. I think they enjoyed it as well.

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‘Kong’ hits 278 lbs..

‘Kong’, my only giant pumpkin left, hit 278 lbs tonight. (I’m putting ‘Harpie’ in the NM State Fair tomorrow-it was much smaller at around 100 lbs). If ‘Kong’ can put on 6 lbs a day till the weigh-off, I can beat the current New Mexico State Record. It’s been putting on 8-12 lbs daily for awhile but I know it will slow down to a crawl this month. Hopefully I still have 2 or more weeks of good weight gain before the crawl. Grow nagua, grow…

Giant pumpkin ‘Kong’ hits 228+ lbs!

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Here is a mini slide show of ‘Kong’, my biggest giant pumpkin right now. There is an apple on it for perspective. Kong is 35 days old and 228 lbs as of tonight. It’s been putting on between 12-17 lbs a day. I said a day! 17 lbs is the best weight gain in a single day I have ever had with a giant pumpkin. I know others have greater gains but we have harsher conditions and shorter growing season here. Kong is starting to get longer and bumpier. I like its looks! I love going out after work and measuring them every evening. You can actually see a difference from day to day. It is mind blowing!

‘Harpie’, my other big pumpkin, is beautiful, being perfectly round and not gnarly like Kong. It is at 100 lbs and its weight gain varies from 4-10 lbs a day. I will post pictures of it later.

It has been around 47 degrees during this past week so I have to put a blanket on both of the pumpkins over their row cover so they don’t loose so much heat at night. The pros say to blanket them when the temperature gets below 60 degrees at night. That way they don’t have to wait to warm up in the morning to continue growing. The row cover is to provide shade during the day (think like a light weight covering) so their skins don’t get hard. It is easier for them to grow when their skin is soft.

This is my pumpkin mantra, “Grow Naguas, grow” (grow pumpkins, grow). I say it everynight when leaving the pumpkin patch!

Virginia Sweet Tomato

Virginia Sweet Tomato

Check out this tomato! Yesterday, my friend Janet Hiron, a fellow S.F. Master Gardener, gave me an huge tomato that she grew called ‘Virginia  Sweet’. She only has maybe 8 of them on her plant  (so I got 1/8th of her harvest-bless her). What a beauty and I can’t wait to eat it! It is a bicolor and should be marbled with red orange and yellow streaks inside. She said the flavor is unbelievable. This one is over 2 lbs. Thanks Janet!