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Grittyville, WA

This should be the deadest horse on this forum but here I go anyways:

Can two white pumpkins make orange? If so then orange is a recessive gene... ? can two orange pumpkins make white? Then white is a recessive gene...

The idea is you (and your pumpkin too) can't carry a dominant gene without expressing it. A recessive gene can hide though. It can show up later when the dominant gene is lost.

Sadly I have read hundreds of posts and probably a hundred diaries and I still am struggling to understand white/red genetics. But there is also pink and dark red and cream and maybe yellow too... Let's stick to "pumpkin" colors to keep this as simple as possible. Let's figure it out!...

12/4/2016 3:21:41 AM

Corryton, TN

No way to keep it simple. More than one gene is involved. Some dominate, some recessive, some incomplete dominate, some isolated in other cucurbita species but not isolated in maxima (yet). Many have been isolated in one "variety" of maxima but not confirmed in Atlantic Giants. That doesn't mean they don't exist in both cases, just not isolated. As growers we have seen many but due to AG's not being hugely economically important in the real world not much research has been done. It's my assumption, for what it's worth, if it's been isolated in maxima we have. Here's a list of some I've located info on.
B-2 Bicolor. Precocious yellow fruit pigmentation.
L-1,l-1,L-2,l-2 All control light color in the fruit and striping in some way. L-1 and l-1 have been isolated in different varieties with L-1 being dominate. L-2 and l-2 work the same. All the L's work together. Gets over my head very quick.
Rd Red. Dominate to white and yellow (don't forget to figure in the L's)
I know I've missed a bunch but to try and answer your question, probably. But I haven't grown for orange.

12/4/2016 6:19:40 AM

Grittyville, WA

Great info.... exactly what I am looking for. Every phenotype color/ stripes/ pale/ mottled must have a corresponding set of genes. Scott Holub did a good job of using Mendelian genetics to isolate his world record squash from a cross with 2109 zyweic pumpkin genetics this year. Congrats to him! Pleas feel free anyone reading this to share your experience (success or failure ) in targeting specific color genes. Let's keep sharing our knowledge??

12/4/2016 3:24:48 PM

Grittyville, WA

Pic from Mr. Holub's diary. Click on "view full 2016 diary" to read how he created the cross and did his selections...

Beautiful squash!

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=267638

12/4/2016 3:35:50 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

It is all a crap shoot, or an educated guess. Selfing or sibbing sometimes controls the desired traits. Other times it brings out some other characteristics. Take the 359 Foss. Which was a 1048 Engel x 2009 Wallace. I rolled the dice, as Bill's 2009 had some desirable orange. I have seen it go the opposite direction.

12/4/2016 5:19:17 PM

Germany

@Glenomkins, you mentioned "Scott Holub did a good job of using Mendelian genetics to isolate his world record squash from a cross with 2109 zyweic pumpkin genetics this year."

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question (perhaps I simply haven´t understood what you actually wanted to say), but where did you think Scott Holub had brought 2109 Zywiec genetics into the crosses which eventually produced his WR squash? The 2109 Zywiec was grown in 2015 and then the 2109 seeds were planted in 2016, no chance the 2109 could have contributed to the genetics of the 1060 Holub (the seed which produced the WR squash).

12/5/2016 6:29:00 AM

Grittyville, WA

My bad. I confused the 2109 he mentioned at the end of his diary with the 1725 Harp / the seed that grew the 2009 Wallace... The squash in the pic looks similar in shape to the 2009 interestingly...

12/5/2016 8:33:15 PM

Grittyville, WA

Yeah I bungled factual precision in that post :)

12/5/2016 8:37:46 PM

Germany

Ok, no worries ;-)

12/6/2016 1:28:11 AM