October 21, 2007: we have shut down sales for the season due to a lack of carving pumpkins.
September 28, 2007: While some items like Magician, Orange Smoothie, and our Autumn Wings gourds have recovered nicely from early root rot and vine collapse problems, Watermelon Mosaic Virus on everything else has gotten progressively much worse to the point where everything planted after June 20 will be a complete loss.
September 25, 2007: Despite the extremely dry conditions over the last few weeks, post harvest rot (usually Phytophthora but some internal breakdown) has become a severe problem in our carving pumpkins moved out of the field for curing.
September 4, 2007: We opened for sales today -- our earliest opening ever !! Several wagonloads of ripe pumpkins have been moved out of the field into shade to prevent sunburn and harden off the pumpkins to meet future fall chills. As usual, Magic Lantern looks like the best pumpkin although size in some blocks is smaller than normal. Because of the multitude of problems (wilting, virus, high temperatures) faced by the the large Gold Rush & Gold Medal pumpkins, very few fruit were ever formed. The huge prizewinner still looks good overall but we are starting to see some green flecking/tint caused by WM virus on the later set fruit. We should have a record crop of Cotton Candy & Orange Smoothie pumpkins. Some items like We-Be-Little mini pumpkins are totally MIA for 2007.
August 27, 2007: Most varieties of pumpkins, gourds, and squash are ripening ahead of schedule so we will probably open for sales in early September. Plant wilting problems seem to have ceased as the most severely affected Gold Medal and Magician plants have either died or recovered. With the hotter weather, both Downy and powdery mildew still appear under control.
August 20, 2007: The hot, dry weather and spread of Watermelon Mosaic Virus these last two weeks has shut down pumpkin flower set on some varieties like Gold Standard, Gold Rush, later planted Cotton Candy, Nest Egg gourds, and later planted Jack-Be-Little miniature pumpkins. During very hot weather WMV seems to cause excessive (deformed) vegetative growth at the expense of female flower production. The variety Gladiator, while not obviously affected by WMV, is setting very little fruit similar to last year. Some varieties like Orange Smoothie, however, appear headed for their best crop ever! Our main carving variety, Magic Lantern, still looks good.
August 4, 2007: We finally got a good rain! Fortunately for the pumpkins (but not for us) the very hot weather of the last few days plus specialized (expensive) fungicides are keeping Downy Mildew pretty much in check so far. Only one more instance of WM virus has been seen in the Gold Medal pumpkins which seem particularly prone to damage. Fruit set looks good on the early planted cultivars but very little fruit set will occur in the next few days of +95ºF temperatures. Some of the popular specialty pumpkins like the white Cotton Candy and huge Prizewinner pumpkins are maturing a little faster than I would like to see at this stage. The decorative corn crop is starting to dry down and looks great with almost no insect damage.
July 28, 2007: The Autumn Wings gourds, Magician Pumpkin, and early planted Spooktacular continue to be plagued with wilting during the day but Gold Rush, We-Be-Little, and Orange Smoothie seem to be recovering. I'm not entirely sure that this wilting is in fact a root rot problem -- residual herbicide used on rotated corn/sorghum the prior year could also be causing the problem. Late planted Spooktacular seem to be thriving!
The giant Bushel and African Wine Kettle gourds are doing so well they are starting to take over the pumpkin patch in M4-M8. Some Prizewinner pumpkins are now basketball size.
July 27, 2007: An especially troublesome fungus, downy mildew, is starting to attack the foliage on susceptible varieties like Long Island Cheese, Gold Rush, and Gold Medal pumpkins, Turks Turban and the Yellow/Green Cushaw Squash, and Autumn Wings Gourds. This fungus normally only occurs very late in the season when it can cause very little economic damage. If it occurs too early (like now) it can defoliate (kill) a whole pumpkin patch and lead to sunburn injury of the fruit.
July 26, 2007: We saw the first Watermelon Mosaic Virus infected pumpkin plant--Gold Medal in M3E but overall WMV pressure looks a lot less than 2006.
July 10, 2007: Despite the very dry weather these last few weeks and moderate irrigation to maintain adequate soil moisture we are encountering severe leaf wilting during hot sunny days -- particularly on Autumn Wings gourds, Orange Smoothie, Magician, Gold Rush, Gold Medal, and Spooktacular Pumpkins, and Gold Spec / We-Be-Little mini pumpkins. This wilting during the day is probably due to Phytophthora root rot -- a problem we started to see last year particularly on the Orange Smoothie, Autumn Wings, and Jack Be Little. Some of these drastically affected varieties in 2007 were grown on land that had been fumigated and grown in strawberries for three years.
June 25, 2007: Most of our carving pumpkins, gourds, squash, and broom corn have been planted in these last three busy weeks of excellent weather. Germination looks good but we did have a severe problem with high winds breaking off 20 to 30 Prizewinner plants (the big huge orange pumpkins) plants at ground level and effectively killing the whole plant. We will try to replant but Prizewinner requires a long growing season so early October frost could limit our supply of this huge pumpkin.
June 23, 2007: The early planted Giant Bushel and African Kettle gourds are starting to bloom and look great so far. We have planted some very interesting new varieties for 2007 that I think our customers will enjoy: a huge white pumpkin called Full Moon, some unique heirlooms like Pink Banana, Seminole, Galeux d'Dysines, and La Estrella,, and a uniquely colored set of gourds call Galaxy of Stars.
April 30: 2007: Long growing season Giant bushel gourd and African Kettle gourd plants that were started indoors in pot were transplanted to the field.
April 22, 2007: The fall decoration season began today with planting of our decorative corn.
August 18, 2006: The hot dry weather of the last few weeks have been very tough on our larger carving pumpkins despite frequent irrigations. Size appears smaller than normal and pumpkins are coloring up much earlier than they should be so in field spoilage will probably be much worse than normal. Watermelon Mosaic Virus is now evident on Gladiator and Magic lantern, large Harris varieties that we had good luck with last year. One the positive side, the giant Prizewinners appear to be doing well despite late planting and isolated root rot problems. Most squash and specialty pumpkin varieties are progressing normally without any virus symptoms. The only carving pumpkin that does not appear to display WM virus symptoms is Magician.
July 30, 2006: While there are unexpected problems this year, the overall situation continues to look good and small fruit is starting to form on most varieties. Both our corn and sorghum mazes and corn planted for stalk sales benefited form recent rains and look quite good. The drip irrigated decorative corn crop looks like one of our best ever.
July 18, 2006: WM virus is starting to become more evident in our large Gold Medal pumpkins and some Phytophthora root rot is evident in the late planted Orange smoothie and Prizewinner. A period of excessively rainy weather would probably be disastrous at this stage even though soil moisture is relatively low. Once again, the vine type Rupp carving pumpkins particularly Gold Medal and 18 Karat Gold seem to be more drastically affected with WM virus than the comparable Harris Moran varieties like Gladiator and Magic Lantern.
July 15, 2006: Gourds and pumpkins planted in J5-J7(the area across the troll bridge) seem to be doing very poorly -- Phytophthora root rot and squirrel depredation is a very serious problem. Some varieties like the Apple gourd were totally wiped out in the seeding stage. The Jack-Be-Little miniature pumpkins seem to be infected with both root rot AND watermelon mosaic virus (WMV). This poorly performing area will probably need to be rotated out of pumpkins for several years which will make our acreage situation even tighter for 2007.
July 7, 2006: Pumpkin, gourd, decorative corn, and squash planting have now been completed. Total acreage is up modestly from last year.
October 26, 2005: We moved the huge Atlantic Giant Pumpkins into the display sales area and sales have been brisk. For some unknown reason the lil Ironsides pumpkins have shown a tendency for white mold to form at the bottom of some pumpkins and sales have been terminated -- surprisingly enough the Ironsides pumpkins have remained firm but the visual appearance is unsatisfactory. The overall carving pumpkin supply situation going into the final weekend looks adequate but not excessive.
October 8, 2005: We survived our first very busy weekend in good shape supply-wise for everything except straw bales. Magic Lantern, our main variety, seems to be holding up better than last year but we are having spoilage problems with the new mini pumpkin Gold Dust and some of the very large carving pumpkins like Gold Medal and Gold Rush. The hot weather in early October could have been a contributing factor to the lower storage life. The very large Prizewinner pumpkins seem to be holding up in excellent shape, however.
October 1 , 2005: We harvested two wagon loads of Magic Lantern pumpkin -- the quality looks better than last year but the size seems a little smaller -- possibly because of the hot, dry weather. Our Indian Art decorative corn yield was a little disappointing so we may run out a little earlier than I would hope -- last year we had a good supply of all decorative corn right up to the day before Halloween! I totally misjudged our crop of Speckled Swan gourds and it as if we will have a record crop of this variety. Most other gourds are just now starting to come in.
September 28, 2005: Our first wagonload of Gold Standard (medium carving pumpkins) looked much better than last year. Overall, however, the wet weather is slowing down our harvest. The unique "Red Warty Thing" and brightly colored new squash varieties: Sunshine, One-to-Many, and Red Eye seem to be quite popular with the early bird customers.
September 12, 2005: We are starting to harvest a small number of pumpkins for opening day (probably this weekend). The normally temperamental white Lumina look like the best we have ever grown -- I guess the dry weather and irrigation is responsible. Fruit set on the Speckled Swan gourds is improving and we should have a modest crop after all.
August 25, 2005: We are starting to see good color develop on most carving pumpkin varieties. Size on the Magic Lantern (our main carving variety) is a little smaller overall than last year. I am concerned about our Speckled Swan gourds, however, early fruit set has been very poor for the third year in a row but there is still time remaining. As expected, fruit set on the very large Gold Rush is poor once again due to virus damage but Gold Medal looks a lot better than last year.
August 13, 2005: Lakeview Farms received the first significant rain (>1 inch) in over two and a half months. Our broom corn and sorghum were the chief beneficiaries of this much needed rain since we had only lightly irrigated both so far. The timing of this rainfall was excellent as our lake which is used for irrigation was so empty it was necessary to add a hundred thousand gallons of city water to keep fish kill to a minimum while maintaining daily irrigation. Unlike last year our $3-4 medium sized carving pumpkin, Gold Standard, is showing no virus symptoms and fruit set looks good so far. The medium-large carving pumpkin, Magic Lantern, is showing a little more virus induced leaf mottling than last year but the crop should be OK assuming we can prevent late season insect damage.
August 4, 2005: We saw the first signs of WM Virus on the Jack-Be-Little but it does not appear to be nearly as severe as 2004. Almost all new growth on Gold Rush is displaying WMV symptoms and Gold Medal is also heavily impacted. Like last year, however, some varieties like lil Ironsides & Orange Smoothie show good tolerance. Despite all the problems, we are still seeing some fruit set -- even in the most susceptible varieties. Unlike last year, almost all of the gourds and squash look in excellent shape (so far).
July 29, 2005: There is some scattered WM virus in the Magic Lantern, our main carving variety but oddly enough some of the most susceptible varieties like the Jack-be-Little "troll pumpkins" are showing no symptoms at all. Overall, at this point in the season, the situation looks a little better than last year but it is still an item of concern. The gourds, squash, and decorative corn are looking good but keeping them irrigated throughout this prolonged drought is proving to be difficult. The very hot weather of the last week or so caused poor pollination so the fruit set so far is less than normal.
July 24, 2005: We are starting to see some WM virus in the Gold Rush and Gold Medal pumpkins. We may need to eliminate these Rupp varieties from our planting next year.
July 15, 2005: Pumpkin, corn, gourd, and squash planting have all been completed. Because we have been irrigating almost every day for the last month and a half, everything is looking good -- particularly the large carving pumpkins. We have seen (up to now) no evidence of the WM virus that was so devastating last year. Some of The Atlantic Giant pumpkins are now the size of large carving pumpkins but the Prizewinner pumpkins are not yet to the bloom stage yet because of later planting than normal.
October 16, 2004: Just about all the carving pumpkins have been removed from the field now but we have left a few large pumpkins for "last minute" pick-your-own people on Sunday, October 17. A shipment of small to medium sized pumpkins in the $3 to $5 price range has been received to compensate for the poor crop of Gold Standard -- normally a very productive variety for us. I am hopeful that we will be able to remain open during that last week before Halloween.
October 11, 2004: We have completed removal of our main variety, Magic Lantern, from the field. Size and color looks good but we lost a lot more pumpkins in the field than is normal for this very tough variety. Insect damage was more severe than I had expected.
September 29, 2004: We have harvested several wagonloads of pumpkins and it appears that the larger pumpkins (Gold Rush, Gold Medal, and Aladdin) are in better shape than I had expected. We have also scheduled delivery of additional large pumpkins for later in October so I think that our large pumpkin availability should remain good throughout the season. Pick-your-own pumpkin people will still probably need to get to the farm by mid October, however. The medium large category, Magic Lantern still looks good but field loss due to rot is much higher than usual for this very tough variety. The early planted medium carving pumpkins (Gold Standard) are looking worse than expected and we will run out of this size class by mid October if an early fall frost wipes out our later planted block.
September 14, 2004: We are starting to harvest limited numbers of Pumpkin, Squash, corn, and gourds for opening this Friday. The Indian and Broom corn looks excellent -- our best year ever for quality. The gourds are extremely variable, however, with some varieties hardly producing anything at all and other varieties looking excellent. Overall the squash does not look as good as last year. Since we have only harvested a few pumpkins it is just a little to early to tell.
August 26, 2004: Some pumpkins are just starting to color up but most varieties seem to be maturing later than 2003. The rains of the last few days have not been a problem so far.
August 20, 2004: Indoor starting of the huge African Kettle and Bushel Basket gourds seems to be paying off -- we will have some REALLY HUGE GOURDS this year. For the second year in a row, however, our very popular Speckled Swan Gourds are not fruiting nearly as well as they should be. Last years problem was caused by mislabeled seed from one of our suppliers.
August 18, 2004: This looks like the best crop of decorative corn we have ever grown -- ear size is excellent, corn borer damage is not a problem, and it will be mature in early September. The new Broom corn varieties look spectacular!
July 19, 2004: Watermelon Mosaic Virus (WMV) seems to be a serious problems in the Rupp carving pumpkins like Gold Rush, Gold Medal, and Gold Standard where the Harris Hybrids like Magic Lantern and Aladdin seem to be producing a normal fruit load with only moderate leaf and fruit distortion. WMV leaf distortion is also evident in some squash, mini pumpkin, and gourd varieties.
July 15, 2004: We have completed our pumpkin planting for 2004--total acreage is somewhat lower than last year because of the need for fallow ground that will be fumigated for strawberries. This probably means that we will run out of carving pumpkins even earlier than last year unless we find a good source of supplemental pumpkins.
September 11, 2003: Overall, the pumpkin, squash, decorative corn, and gourd crop looks very good. Pumpkin rot does not appear to be as much of a problem as it was last year. The cool nights of these last few days are creating good color in the carving pumpkin.
August 28, 2003: We harvested our first wagonload of carving pumpkins -- the medium large Magic Lantern. Most of the new decorative (and edible) squash is now coloring up and look spectacular.
August 15, 2003: We have had to irrigate much more than last year but the cooler weather of the last week or so has been very good for blossom setting -- pumpkins don't set fruit well in very hot weather. Some pumpkins are just starting to color up.
July 31, 2003: We have complete pumpkin planting for 2003. Total acreage is up significantly from last year with several new varieties of pumpkins, squash, gourds and Indian corn. We will post pictures of each new variety as they mature.