Sunday, March 26, 2017

2017 Giant Pumpkin Seed Lineup

This year I've got three/four different seeds in the lineup.   I'm going to grow a 1685 Scherber and my own 747 Johnson Atlantic Giant pumpkin seed.  Last year a new world record was grown off of the 2145 McMullen seed that was a whopping 2,624 pounds.   The was a significant increase over the previous world record and I wouldn't be surprised if the world record wasn't broken this year because of it.  

The 1685 seed is a cross of the 800 McMullen with the 2145 McMullen.  The 800 McMullen is a seed that is lower on the radar, but it is the reverse cross of the 2145 (same mama and papa).   So basically the cross of the 1685 is all the same genetic lines of the 2145.   The 1685 set a new Colorado state record by a fair amount and since it was grown at altitude and it nearly went to chart (Joe's big pumpkins almost never go near the chart) it is a pretty intriguing seed.  I and one of my kids are both going to grow this seed.

My 747 seed is a cross of the 1985 Miller with the 282 Scherber.   That 1985 plant was the best looking plant I had ever had early in the season.  For the first three weeks the pumpkin was just verily off the pace of my 1421 pumpkin that was a super fast grower and it ended up 15% heavy, so weight wise it was probably heavier than the 1421 at the first part of the season.  The problem was that I didn't realize that the plant for two weeks was only getting about 25% of the water that it should have due to an irrigation timer problem and as a result the plant nearly shut down.   For a day or two the pumpkin didn't show any signs of growth and once I discovered the problem it was almost too late.   

The 282 Scherber pollinator is a selfed clone of the plant that grew the world-record 2009 pumpkin.   The first pollination on that plant was a barn burner for the first week, but a hernia in one of the lobes badly mis-shapened the pumpkin so I had to take it off.  The second pollination aborted due to the watering problems and a late season third pollination split on me.  The plant was badly damaged due to the lack of water.  

Kind of a risk growing a seed from plants that really produced nothing, but I like the genetics and a saw glimpses of what the plants could have produced so I kind of feel it is worth the try.  I also like the 1725 genetics in this seed because they are coming from the very best of the 1725 lines.   

My son or daughter will grow one of the Barron seeds.  We'll start the 1916 and the 1738 seed.  Both seeds progeny to this point have been a little disappointing considering the cross, but I kind of believe there has to be one super star, magic seed out of that cross still.   Mom and pop did too well not for a big one to come out of them.  Also wouldn't mind seeing a nice orange pumpkin in the patch.


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