Just to do a quick recap of 2012:

1. It was a successful growing year.
2. I ended my season blowing up two pumpkins(too much vine pruning at once) and having one not take and rotted half-way through.
3. The remaining two pumpkins did very well and I set a personal best at 818 pounds.
4. I continue to meet new people who also enjoy the hobby of growing pumpkins.
5. Both my pumpkins weighed extremely lite this year compared to the chart.
6. I wrote a mobile application that any mobile device can use to track the growth of the fruit.  I developed the application using my Droid X and now I have the iPhone 5.  It will be interesting to see how it behaves with my new iPhone.  If I find bugs, I will fix them, but the application can be found at http://reporting.giantstogrow.com
7. My nicest pumpkin survived multiple vole attacks and cat scratches.  It really shows you how thick their shells are.  The vole had chewed on pounds of my pumpkin, but it still made it to Halloween.  I used a little sulfur dust and that seemed to do the trick by drying  out the wound.  They never did chew all the way through to the cavity of the pumpkin.  I thought the sulfur dust would also be a deterrent, but the voles continued to eat on it.
8. Placing wood under the pumpkins is a good idea and will help you move it later in the season.  However, I wonder if it made it too cool for the fruit to develop heavy.

Why did my pumpkins weigh so lite to chart?  Continued below :The start of the 2013 pumpkin growing season actually starts in 2012.  This fall, I paid particular close attention to  adding additional nutrients to the soil.  My pumpkins weighed lite so I’m trying to determine what I can do to prevent this from happening again.  Every year I learn new tricks and things to try.