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Grittyville, WA

Spots are visible on big ones like the 2106 Schmit, 2112 Skinner and the 2307 est Wallace and now the 2416.5 Haist ? All relatively smooth skinned pumpkins. (I can’t really tell though... the 2106 and the 2416.5 might be more smooth skinned?) So is there a genetic link between calai dots and smooth skin? Or is it that if the skin is heavily cantaloped then there might be dots.... but you don’t see them.

Also... are calai dots ever seen on any pumpkin color scheme other than orange? I have a red / light custard one that has dots just lacks the bright yellow so it doesn’t look very orange. (It’s also smooth skinned, as they always seem to be.). The 2112 Skinner looks like maybe it was a red / custard one... it doesn’t really look orange to me. I guess the greenies can have a patterned skin/ star marks. Which are not really the same at calai dots. I need to pay more attention.

I’ve probably been to ten weigh offs and I still have these questions come up in my mind and I can’t answer them based on my own memory... It’s like I’ve never been to a weigh off.

Let me know what you think?

10/17/2018 2:50:21 AM

Colorado

Are you asking is it still a calai spot if you cant see it:) Ive seen those spots on fruit that didn't get deep chroma but you could tell they were trying to be lookers just didn't have enough orange.To answer your question I think that that shiny with calai spots is one type of skin and heavy canteloping is another and rough fine canteloping is yet another.Shiney orange with no spots yet another.

10/17/2018 12:17:08 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

I’ve had a lot of opportunities to observe orange pumpkins grow over the last ten years and my current stance is that whether the lightened areas of the skin are in the form of flecks, or between the ribs or any other pattern, this is representative of where the most active growth is still occurring. You only see this in smooth skinned pumpkin types. That being said I’ve never personally considered this to be a cosmetically desirable trait in a finished pumpkin but that’s why we have HD voting of course.

11/3/2018 11:55:07 AM

Grittyville, WA

Oh that’s interesting. I will have to observe more closely to see if it resembles an “inverted fractal” like a cell-division pattern but that’s a really good theory. I still have a Calai-dot pumpkin out in the patch. I will take a look before it becomes animal food.

11/3/2018 1:44:22 PM