From

Location

Message

Date Posted

British Columbia, Canada

So it looks like the 2624 will remain king for a third year. I know I'm not really one to be talking about this because my pumpkins are tiny, but have we reached a ceiling of some sorts with the max weight? Or are we just catching up to the 2624 because it was so ahead of its time? I'm not really sure which one it is.

10/20/2019 4:21:38 AM

Colorado

A ceiling of sorts in that this is the first time in three decades that the world record has held for three seasons. So thats at least a awning -time will tell about ceiling or not.I think well never be at a true ceiling because of breeding biggest with biggest.I do think the slope of weight increases will have to level some.

10/20/2019 5:37:51 AM

Muddy Waters

No Its not even close we will surpass 3000 as the seeds acclimate to the different regions I see 3500 lbers at a minimum ceiling

10/20/2019 10:09:32 AM

Muddy Waters

Heres your first clue that were not even close to the max.Karl Haist grew a 2517 with far from perfect weather & a far from perfect plant.I base this on what the Birdman told me about the grow.I consider him a reliable source.Tell me if Im wrong about Karls 2019 season ??

10/20/2019 10:13:13 AM

Lloydminster/AB

Nope.

10/20/2019 7:25:02 PM

Bethlehem CT

It would help if a pumpkin went 20% heavy. I think Beni's was around 20% heavy.

10/20/2019 8:15:33 PM

Midway, UT

One thing I noticed is that a larger portion of pumpkins went heavy this year, even with the new chart. I haven’t calculated, but I’m guessing average weights are up. The world record didn’t go down, but the pumpkins are getting bigger still.

10/20/2019 9:05:37 PM

Grittyville, WA

We are due for a big one. Not saying 2500 is unimpressive. We have outdoor pumpkins performing very well --progress is being made. I think the question now is will the next WR be outdoors? Meier and Willemijns are greenhouse growers growers.

10/20/2019 10:45:39 PM

New England

20% heavy seems excessive. but that's personal opinion

10/21/2019 7:59:51 AM

Upper Strasburg, PA

People have been talking about “have we reached a ceiling” since at least 2005. Pumpkins have doubled in size since then.

10/21/2019 10:42:19 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

No

10/21/2019 12:28:16 PM

Stanwood, Washington

I think its a very reasonable question given the stats. Last year there were 23 Pumpkins grown over 2000 pounds this year there were only 20. The average weight for the top 10 also dropped. In 2018 top ten average was 2291.34 this year it was 2245.95 Of course if Steve Deletas had grown this year those numbers might have been different. It would be interesting to see some graphs generated out of the database.

10/21/2019 3:10:07 PM

Stanwood, Washington

I did a Quick survey of the results for the last 3 years and here are some interesting numbers

# of pumpkins over 1700 pounds
2017 = 78
2018 = 96
2019 = 76

# of Pumpkins over 1600 pounds
2017 = 115
2018 = 129
2019 = 104

# of Pumpkins over 1500 pounds
2017 = 163
2018 = 167
2019 = 153

# of Pumpkins over 1000 pounds
2017 = 545
2018 = 589
2019 = 502

10/21/2019 3:40:33 PM

President - GPC

Weather plays a factor

10/21/2019 4:24:13 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Captain 97, its funny you say that. You should see the work Steve's been putting in the last year in his patch getting ready for 2020! Its very, very impressive!!!

Interesting stats..

10/22/2019 10:02:17 AM

Western NY

I don't think % heavy has anything to do with it unless it's a long term requirement due to the physics of larger and larger pumpkins needing the structural stability. I do wonder if overall participation is slowing - are we recruiting new growers faster than we're losing them?

Weather is a huge factor, I've seen the numbers follow it locally. But - on a worldwide scale, those effects should disappear.... unless the majority of big ones are coming from two regions that just happen to be hit with bad weather the same year.

10/22/2019 10:51:13 AM

Buffalo, MN (Billsbigpumpkins@hotmail.com)

A quick look at total pumpkins weighed. +- a few.
2017 = 1592
2018 = 1759
2019 = 1583

10/22/2019 11:49:31 AM

Walhalla, ND.

That’s good added info Bill, it makes a difference in the numbers. Weather this year for many growers across the nation were less than desirable. Three years in my opinion wouldn’t create as accurate of a graph as say 5 or better yet ten. There’s other info that should be included as well to get even a more accurate results, like ones that didn’t make it to a weigh off that may have been very impressive AGs. It’s appears as though there were many lost this year for one reason or another.

10/22/2019 7:28:55 PM

Westmoreland, KS

Other interesting stats Pumpkins over 400 inches
2012 = 103 largest 464
2013 = 95 largest 475
2014 = 203 largest 479
2015 = 227 largest 477
2016 = 236 largest 496
2017 = 246 largest 486
2018 = 230 largest 490
2019 = 192 largest 493

10/23/2019 2:26:06 PM

Westmoreland, KS

It sure seems like we've reached a plateau. I think the world record will be broken I just don't think it will be a huge weight difference.

10/23/2019 2:29:26 PM

Colorado

The current WR was a 300lb increase. That weight almost came too fast/If it came in 2020 then we wouldnt be talking about ceiling as weights would make a nicer line graft

10/23/2019 4:08:14 PM

Stanwood, Washington

The thing that we can't really put a number on is what percentage of the increases in weights have been from advances in growing technique and what percentage have been from advances in genetics. There is only so much that you can do to improve growing technique and we may be at a point where there is not much that can be done better. If we have reached that point than we are looking solely at genetics as the source of future increases in weight and I would suspect that we will start to see smaller increases in weights as a result. It took 12 years to go from 500 pounds to 1000 pounds and another 10 years to go from 1000 pounds to 1500 pounds then things really started to take off going to 2000 pounds in 6 years and 2500 pounds in 4 years. I think we are probably going to get back 10-12 year timeline before we see 3000.

10/23/2019 7:02:18 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

The current pumpkin world record(WR) may very well be a very outlier achievement, and could stand for many years, or may be a sort of ceiling for our hobby. As a former high school and collegiate track and field athlete, if what I stated above is true, it could be likened to Bob Beamon's long jump record in 1968. He broke the previous WR by around 22". His record stood for 23 years, and to this day the current WR is only 2" longer than Beamons.

10/26/2019 1:57:49 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

Only time will tell the story.

10/26/2019 1:58:58 PM

Muddy Waters

You must factor the weather in your stats which I dont think is possible.The weather this year was terrible all over.If next year gives good weather a 300 lb jump to 2900 lbs will be very doable

10/26/2019 5:17:13 PM

British Columbia, Canada

Would it be possible to do 2900 lbs in a 100 day growth period without splitting? I feel like it'd be guaranteed to go pop with those kind of numbers.

10/26/2019 5:30:11 PM

Grittyville, WA

Captain... Good point about genetics vs care being the limiting factor. I bet the recent plateau has to do more with care than genetics. Better weather might reveal that there is no genetic plateau yet. When Willemijns, Daletas, and Brandt are in the hunt the odds of a new WR will go up. Patons are probably due... And Zaychkowski should be counted too. Even the lower latitude top growers in Spain and California have a shot but I think latitude does probably favor the northern growers.

10/26/2019 6:15:13 PM