The Ackers in San Martin, CA!

Good morning, Pumpkinstas!

It's a rare workshop attendee who actually does locate a backhoe, digs a 5-foot deep hole, and then follows directions. Jim Acker is one of them.

Here's Jim's progress report and a link to his own blog that chronicles his season so far. It's fascinating reading.

"Stuart,

Attached is a photo of our main vine, currently known as P1. This is just ONE PLANT and it's currently about 25 feet wide or so. We have about 8 healthy vines coming off the main root. Just last week we found several new pumpkins on the vine. Do you think we are still on-schedule to get a large pumpkin by contest time?

Feel free to share our picture on your blog if you want to. We have also blogged our entire project. Check us out at http://blog.acker1.com/ .

I will post a new entry tomorrow showing our backup vine, P2. It has a really weird mutated vine that is huge. You might enjoy seeing it.

Happy growing!

Jim Acker
San Martin, CA"