Saturday, August 30, 2008

Pumpkin Seed Genetics

Many pumpkin growers will cross pollinate their pumpkins with another pumpkin plant at pollination time to develop their own genetic crosses rather than letting the bees do the pollination. Good growers will pollinate two differnent pumpkins together because they have certain traits that are desirable plus they have the potential to grow really big pumpkins. Those crosses do not effect the pumpkin on the plant but are passed on to the seeds that grow in the pumpkin.

The record for the world’s largest pumpkin was 460 pounds until 1981, when Howard Dill, a grower in Nova Scotia, came up with one that was close to 500 pounds. He patented the seed, and growers around the world jumped to buy Dill’s Atlantic Giant. As they crossed and re-crossed varieties, the pumpkins grew ever larger; by 1994, the symbol of Halloween had passed the 1,000-pound mark. The world record pumpkin was grown last year by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island and weighed an amazing 1,689 pounds.

To get great genetic seeds please contact the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers at http://www.coloradopumpkins.com/ or feel free to contact myself. I have a number of great seeds from local and national growers that I would be willing to share.

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