Atlantic Giants for 2020!

[TheWaterbug]

I've never come anywhere near my 305 lb. fruit from 2013, but I'm going to keep trying!!

I forgot to order seeds this year, so I had only 3 pedigreed seeds left over from my 2019 purchase (e.g. 2018 fruit), plus 2 seeds from the ~100 lb. fruit I grew last year.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the 2019 seeds pop up right away! This is 7 days after sowing into seed starting mix, on a heat mat:





And 2 days after emerging:



and 5 days after emerging. Atlantic Giants have comically large cotyledons:



Now I have to hurry up and prep the bed for transplant.

[TomatoNut95]

Atlantic Giants....those are pumpkins, right? Dill's Atlantic Giants? Wow! I'd like to know how a person lifts those things without breaking their backs? I wish I could do pumpkins, but no room whatsoever to do those.

[TheWaterbug]

Atlantic Giants....those are pumpkins, right? Dill's Atlantic Giants? Wow! I'd like to know how a person lifts those things without breaking their backs? I wish I could do pumpkins, but no room whatsoever to do those.

Yes! Dill's. I buy the seeds from the Prince Edwards County Pumpkin Growers Assn. This year I tried mounding the soil up instead of tilling down. Well, I tilled down first, and then mounded it way up:



It seemed to work pretty well. One of the plants was murdered by gophers, and another one had its fruit rot away, but the other two made a 110 lb and 172 lb fruit, respectively. Here's how we lift and weigh:





It's the heaviest one I've grown since my 300 lb one years ago, so I'm going to mound up again this year.

[TheWaterbug]

And I just sowed seeds again for this year. I'm using a seed pack from 2019, so I sowed 2 seeds per cup. We'll see if they germinate.