Pumpkin harvest August 2016

Despite the fact that the melon crop this year was almost an entire loss because of the rain that came in late August and didn't stop for two weeks, I was still able to harvest a dozen sugar pie pumpkins.

These 12 pumpkins came from four or five plants only. I started them as transplants in late May when ongoing spring rains showed no signs of letting up.

I planted sugar pie and Howden pumpkins but the Jack O'Lantern pumpkins only produced two fruits that were taken by rot and insects.

I planted the transplants in mid June into a hydroponic Dutch bucket system where they grew for 3 months until the pumpkins were ready to pick and cure.

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Sweet peas sown January 27, 2017

On January 28, 1986, I skipped classes at Waxahachie High to sow sweet peas in the field next to my house.

I was unaware that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded that morning until my friend called me and asked if I had heard the news. Immediately, I turned on the TV and found all the major networks covering the story.

Still, the events of that day are tied together in my memory, and each year that I sow sweet peas, I remember the date that I sowed Wando sweet peas and harvest the greatest yield I've ever picked.

This year as the date approached, I made sure to have seed on hand, and I sowed the peas on Friday, January 27, 2017, in the same field where I grew sweet peas in 1986.

Gourd harvest

Today, the gourds were harvested, just before a quick rain.The vines grew in 10 Bato buckets in an outdoor hydroponic system.They were started as plugs back in late May and grew through the summer.

Experiment in cucumbers begins

I began a test to see if cucumbers started in small pots could be transplanted into a hydroponic system for more efficient change out of plants between crop turns.The hybrid cucumber seeds were started in mid-August and grew until the end of September in the pots before I transplanted them into Bato buckets.Each cucumber plant was a foot and a half to two feet long, therefore giving each plant almost a month head start before being placed in the system.So far each of the transplants seems to have fared well even though cucumbers are not usually suited for transplanting.

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