Todd Slinde, Kellogg Garden Products

Future giant pumpkin growing site at Westurf Nursery

Northern California Tour, Part II

Good afternoon, Pumpkinistas!

The tour returned to Northern California this past week-end, with workshops presented at Scenic and Westurf Nurseries in Modesto, and Sierra Nursery in Roseville, CA. The weather was perfect, in the mid-high 70s, and clear. Attendees were enthusiastic, and I even had the pleasure making the acquaintance of the sister, Cathy O'Brien of a fraternity brother, Marty Malysz who was in Theta Xi at the same time with me at UCLA! Very small world...

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be presenting the workshop to 120 4th graders in Tustin, and this week-end, I'll be in the Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA area.

Have a great week!

Legendary California Giant Pumpkin Growers and

Distinguished Panelists and They're Handsome Too!

(Left to Right) Gary Miller, Leonardo Urena, Jose' Ceja, Pete Glasier

First Week-end of the 2010 World Tour Goes to Northern California!

Good morning, Pumpkinistas!

The tour kicked-off the garden center/nursery world tour with a whirlwind schedule in Northern California. Saturday, April 17th consisted of two workshops at Yamagami's Nursery in Cupertino. Sunday, April 18th, saw the tour stopping at Van Winden's Garden Center in Napa, where I was joined by the legendary giant pumpkin growers and special guest panelists, Gary Miller, Leonardo Urena, Jose' Ceja, and Hall of Fame Grower and California State Champion, Pete Glasier. Of course, they were all very gracious and generous with their advice, and handed out some of their own special seeds and seedlings to the extremely fortunate workshop attendees. In the afternoon, the tour finished up at Harmony Farm Supply & Nursery, in Sebastopol, where a very engaged and sun-burnt group of dedicated giant pumpkin growers and soon-to-be giant pumpkin growers enjoyed the workshop.

Next week-end, back to Northern California to Modesto!

A Field of Dreams

Good afternoon, Pumpkinistas!

I have an update from Jim Fredricks in San Diego that I received earlier this month. Jim and his friend Vince are ready, and have thrown down the gauntlet to the Orange County and Los Angeles County growers!

"Hi Stuart,

Just wanted to give you a few prep pictures of the 2010 season! Me and my friend Vince are ready to go, will start in a couple weeks. Our hope is to come up this year for the weigh-off granted we have pumpkins to bring! LOL. OK, let the rumors begin! We wanted to send a fun message to everyone up north in LA, San Diego growers are coming up to bring some competition for you! We have a a couple new secret weapons we will be trying this year! Two, actually. I will keep the secret for now, but there are small whispers in the pumpkin community around the globe about a new product that helps pack on the pounds for us pumpkin growers. Yes, we will be trying this out and see what kind of freakish monsters we can grow. I will reveal the secret at the end of the season and we will see if it has good results. Let the 2010 season begin:)

Pictures show cover crop of rye, peas, vetch and clover in the patch. Tilled in just recently.

Jim"

They look serious!

A Field Trip to The California Cactus Center

Good evening, Pumpkinistas!

Next time you're in Pasadena, I highly suggest you visit the California Cactus Center, at 216 South Rosemead Boulevard, at the corner of Del Mar and South Rosemead Boulevard. Their website is: http://www.cactuscenter.com/ I've heard about this store for years, and decided that a field trip to the mecca of Southern California cacti and succulent collectors and fanciers was in order. The array of cacti and succulents, and everything related to them, including an encyclopedic array of top dressings, containers, and books was amazing. In fact, Debra Lee Baldwin, THE author of all things succulent happened to drop by to sign some of copies of her new book, Succulent Container Gardens. It was great running into her! You can read more about Debra and her love of succulents at www.debraleebaldwin.com.

Naturally, I made a few purchases and then it was time to head back home.

Epoch Times Helps Kick Off 2010 Season!

Good afternoon, Pumpkinistas!

I received a couple of copies of the April 1-April edition of The Epoch Times that contained the great article by Linda Slupsky in today's mail and wanted to share it with you: http://epoch-archive.com/a1/en/us/lax/2010/04-Apr/01/B8_EET.pdf

Thank you very much, Linda!

Giant Pumpkins at The Great Park!

Greetings, Pumpkinistas!

I have some excellent news for giant pumpkin growers and enthusiasts everywhere but particularly those in Southern California. There will be a couple of giant pumpkin vines planted at The Great Park's Farm and Food Lab this season. The Farm and Food Lab is next to the balloon ride, off of Marine Way and Sand Canyon and the 5 freeway, in Irvine. Follow the very large orange circles that are painted on the road. Please note, however, Farm and Food Lab is open to the public only on a limited basis at this time.

The area that's been selected is ideal for giant pumpkin cultivation: open, plenty of sunshine, good air circulation, close to water, and perhaps most intriguing of all, never planted with pumpkins. There is a general belief that new areas that are planted with pumpkins do particularly well since giant pumpkins are normally very heavy feeders. Just to make extra sure, however, a soil sample is on its way to A & L Western Agricultural Labs, 1311 Woodland Avenue, Suite 1, Modesto, CA 95351, (209) 529-4080, http://www.al-labs-west.com/ I am very curious to see what the soil test from Farm and Food Lab reveals. From the sample, it appears that the soil has a very high clay content.

We shall see!

I hope that this new growing area will help me advance to the 700-900 pound+ level! Also, this year's giant pumpkin growing efforts will be part of my activities as a University of California Cooperative Extension Certified Master Gardener, in Orange County. For even further clarification, this blog is authored by Stuart Shim.