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Grittyville, WA

Speaking out of ignorance here... do we know for sure that we are dealing with genetics here or is this a culture thing. Because if two grower A plants the same seed as grower B then will the outcome be the same or not? If one has orange stripes because of different temps grower B's patch or the days on the vine or the specific ratio of nutrients... then we are banging our heads against the wall to say grower A had the correct genetics and grower B didnt. Are we 100% certain the traits we are looking at to meet judging criteria are wholly based on genetics?

3/9/2021 10:15:13 PM

Netherlands

True marrows do not have orange regardless of temperatures or any other factor.

There are totally white marrows (with a tinge of yellow), but no orange. They are a dying strain and could be confusing so the GPC opted to leave them out. An experienced eye sees a fp/marrow cross immediately. Usually they are shorter, fatter and under the green there is some orange going on, which intensifies with age till it goes completely orange. I have also seen very long marrow/fp crosses that were totally orange and even dark yellow.

3/10/2021 3:31:11 AM

Dorset UK

I agree with Brad 100%, I've seen the stripes on striped marrows turn yellow as they mature but a true marrow shouldn't have any orange.
Unfortunately some growers still don't see the importance of practicing closed pollinations and send seeds out to people daft enough to plant them which leads to all sorts of controversy!!

3/10/2021 5:39:29 AM

Iowa

Some green squash varieties when they hit maturity and overly mature will exhibit an orange spot on the bottom where they were in contact with dirt such as acorn squash and zucchini. I've noticed this on a couple of marrows who's seeds were supposed controlled cross from well known grower also that sat around after being mature. Is this natural to show some color from ground contact or were these not the pure genetics they were supposed to be and should be disqualified? Once again to be clear no other part of the marrow showed orange other than the spot where it sat on the ground while growing.

3/10/2021 12:19:23 PM

Grittyville, WA

Hopefully the judges will not be confused. I'm gonna need a 20 page pamphlet on judging marrows before I raise my hand to be a judge :)

3/10/2021 12:41:41 PM

North Of The Border

I'm confused.
I read Bernard laverys book on giant vegetables, written mid 90s, and it had a section for marrows. In This section it said, "marrows can be either yellow or green"
As marrows are much like zuchinni, would they not come in the same colours?

3/10/2021 3:25:20 PM

Grittyville, WA

The pepo family has various color schemes and it seems that marrows are not inherently immune to any of them... in other words it will require effort to keep those colors out. Its unclear to me if there will be recessive genes continually popping up. If so it will make them a challenging category.

3/10/2021 6:14:08 PM

Netherlands

As I mentioned above, there is a variety of giant marrows that are yellowish-white. Some did quite well when Lavery wrote his book. There aren't many successful growers that still grow them though. I've seen weigh-offs with more than 20 entries and none of them were that colour. I doubt if any of that variety are even grown outside of the UK. So to make things easier, the GPC opted to just accept the green ones.
But if you think marrows are the difficult ones, try beet(root)...

3/11/2021 3:37:12 AM

Dorset UK

To make things even more confusing all of these marrow/FP crosses start out green so if harvested young enough before the orange has started to show through then they could/would be considered to be marrows LOL.

3/11/2021 8:30:23 AM

North Of The Border

I know this thread hasn't been used for awhile, but here is something from Don Langevins book,

"Marrow Types

There are several types of marrows. Although most marrows are green, some are yellow and some are striped. Some have smooth skin and some have lumpy skin, which are referred to as alligators or "crocs." The green croc-type has won all the recent world records. The shape can also differ. They can be short, fat, long, or skinny.


The long skinny ones will weigh more than the others; the short, fat ones less. A short, fat marrow is any marrow that is less than 150% longer than wide (using end-to-end and side-to-side measurements). A regular marrow will be between 150%-175% longer than wide, while a long marrow will have a factor of more than 175%. Recent measurements have shown factors ranging from 119%-217%."

This suggests that neither colour, nor shape can be used to determine true breeding.

Any thoughts?

3/31/2021 4:22:36 PM

Grittyville, WA

I think the GPC rules should add specify the exact length/width ratio that is allowed. Invariably, some will be hard to judge. The judges opinion may differ from the grower, or from other judges.

3/31/2021 7:11:03 PM

Thomas

hello out there is there a weight chart for marrows like pumpkins ?

7/13/2021 1:02:37 PM

Netherlands

Only an old one I made many years ago.

7/14/2021 2:55:43 AM

Prairie Du Sac Wi

My marrows that I grew this year are a yellow striped variety from the UK.

The 2021 GPC rules handbook still says that yellow stripes are allowed ( page 30 ). Am I missing something? Or have the rules not been updated on the GPC website?

Thanks for any info!

9/20/2021 11:06:42 AM

Netherlands

Yellow striping is quite common. They are allowed.

9/21/2021 2:58:51 AM

Prairie Du Sac Wi

Yes! That's what the GPC rules say. But I was just disqualified for having yellow stripes at cedarburg WI. They said no yellow but the GPC rules book says yellow striped is fine. ( page 30 ). So I'm still confused?

9/23/2021 5:56:47 PM

Prairie Du Sac Wi

Yes! That's what the GPC rules say. But I was just disqualified for having yellow stripes at cedarburg WI. They said no yellow but the GPC rules book says yellow striped is fine. ( page 30 ). So I'm still confused?

9/23/2021 5:56:49 PM

Netherlands

Then the judge was wrong.

9/24/2021 2:37:36 AM