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Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

I'm thinking of planting 2-3 plants to make crosses for genetics(for viable seeds). I'm planning on setting one pumpkin on each plant. The males will not be used from these plants, as they will be used soley for the female genetics. I don't want to devote much space and time on these plants, as I plan on also growing 3 competition plants(which will be the pollinators of these "genetic" plants).
I was thinking of training/pruning these "genetic" plants as snakevines. I'd do regular foliar feeding on these. I'd like to hear from others who have grown plant soley for genetic purposes. How big were your plants? How big did your pumpkins get? Did you get a good number of mature seeds? Do seeds from from smaller pumpkins have the same "shelflife" as those from larger pumpkins? I know Tom Beach grew a 21 lber. with viable seeds. This is encouraging.

2/21/2006 7:17:03 PM

Cincinnati,OH

In 04 I grew 4 genetic plants 5' apart in regular garden soil.
The genetics only plants grew to 5' wide and 15' long. The 6 pumpkins from them ranged from 67lbs to 326 lbs. The # of seeds varied from pumpkin to pumpkin as usual. All of them had viable seeds.
Some of them were more difficult to sprout than others as usual. I also had 5 more plants that I did regular sets on and late sets on secondaries. In all from 9 plants I had 16 pumpkins that resulted in seeds. The 16 pumpkins ranged from 67lbs to 592 lbs. Last year I grew a 646lber from the seed from a 190 lber. The 190 was set on Aug. 14nth and 55 days old at harvest. It was a genetic set on a secondary vine.

2/21/2006 8:05:43 PM

Norton, MA

Jim B. has grown some genetics plants under 150 sq. ft. and gotten O.K. fruits. Fine for seeds though, I know that. I'll be growing 3 6X20, or so, as pollinators this year. AleX Noel.

2/21/2006 9:05:13 PM

sevierville, Tn

I grew a genetic selfed fruit on a side vine that i had to cut off the main this year. It was about 15 feet long, with no latterals of its own. The fruit was cut at 60 days and weighed about 100 lb.It had 318 seeds, my big 789 fruit only had 294. The seed so far germinates great from my tests this winter.

2/22/2006 12:04:14 AM

Syracuse, NY

my main idea is to grow about 4-6 fruit on a plant and then as i cull tham away to "make weigh" for the biggest one, those culls are my genetics fruit(s). so, every year i have about 5-6 genetics culls that are piling up everywhere,
so someday i had better have a seed blowout in case anyone wants to try them based on their genetics only. someday.
these culls ranged from about 75 pounds to maybe 160 pounds.

jeez, 845 X 1076.5 Werner, 845 X 582, X 689.5 Sandercock, etc., etc. ...

i know i am not entirely staying in-line with the question, but, i see no reason for the seed-counts to be different,
the seeds will last just as long as any other, and the pumpkins can get as big as the plant can handle, which means that below a certain plant size, which i am not sure of, the fruit size will eventually suffer....but we've all heard stories! also---even a 156 pounder can have an incredible # of seeds in it...cool! good luck...eric

2/22/2006 1:53:42 AM

Mocksville, NC

and I thank you Chris for sending me a pile of them Thanks
Roger:)

2/22/2006 12:33:21 PM