Giant pumpkin question

[Amigatec]

The 1081 is at 7 1/2 feet. the 1024 and 1112 are both at 6 1/2 feet.

There was a famous seed grown in 2003 called the 1068 Wallace, and it has produced more 1000+ pumpkins than any other seed grown. Well the 1081 Leonzi is from the same 2 plants that produced the 1068, so I have big plans for this plant. My goal this year is the Oklahoma State Record. The current SR is 638 Lbs, my goal is 700+ for this year.

[aninocentangel]

I've been looking at some of the big veggie sites. I noticed that the seeds have cryptic looking names like 2003 1068 Wallace. I think that it means grown in 2003, the seed came from a 1068 pound pumpkin, and it was grown by someone named Wallace. Is that what they're doing?

[Amigatec]

That is exactly right.

The FULL name of my 1081 is:

1081 Leonzi 05
under that you will find:
845 Bobier (which is the female that grew the fruit) X 898 Knass (which was the pollinator or the male).

These name always refer to the pumpkin that the seed came from, and the plant that was the pollinator, the female always goes first, then the pollinator.

Sometimes you will see thing like DMG, EST, or UOW after the name. DMG means the fruit was damaged, and the weight didn't count for prize money, but the seeds are ok. EST means estimated weight, and UOW means the fruit was not weighted at an official weight off site.

If one of the parents are listed as sib, (460 X Sib) clone or self, that means:

Sib is sibling, or you planted 2 seeds from the same pumpkin and one was the female and the other the pollinator.

Clone means you started a cutting from the plant and used that as either the female or male.

Self means you used a male from the same plant to pollinate the female.

I hope this is easy to understand.

[aninocentangel]

It seems kind of complex, but in a straight forward way LOL. I haven't seen too many of the parent seeds listed in the way that you mention but I have only been skimming the forums.
Hmm...at $10+ per seed I think I'd steer clear of the EST and UOW's unless they were a bargain.
As for the sib, self and clone, which is the preferred method?

Do the plants themselves get bigger when grown like this? I ask because we have some cheese pumpkins that we grow (Rumbo, a Korean hybrid from Park Seed, runs about 10 lbs or so) that I think I'll try some of the techniques on next year. This year I'm running them up in the ceder tree, not really conducive to burying the nodes lol.

[Amigatec]

Well the growers like to keep track of where the seed has been. That is why they like to list the parents of the seed.

$10 is cheap for a really good. At auction a 1689 Jutrus could run several hundred dollars. But most of the seed auction are to support the weight offs. Most grower if you send a self-adressed-stamped-bubble-mailer will give all the seeds you need. Or you can join one of the clubs and you send them seed and you will get back more seed than you can grow.

As far as the EST or UOW, those are not in any real demand.

I do have a couple of 1568.5 Connelly DMG seeds. this was the biggest one grown last year in the US. There was another 1568.5 grown in Canada, that was the biggest recorded . The Connelly seeds are still good and I may plant one next year.


As for the sib, self and clone, this is normally somebody trying to grow certain genetics for a plant grown the next year or some other reason. Those are not in high demand. I did do a Self last year, because I had 2 plants and didn't like the way the other plant was growing.

[Amigatec]

All 3 plants have reached 10' in length, and my 1024 plant has a possible keeper fruit. Notice the 'football' shape, and it is at 10' on the main.

[KLorentz]

Your vines look great.I would say you have a good start. Now if nature cooperates you should have some impressive Giants.


Kevin

[veggie babe]

great, keep me posted. I have so much to learn, I'm a visual person so pics help.

neva

[Barbee]

I want to comment how much I've enjoyed this thread. I still don't have my pumpkins planted and it's obvious to me that I will never have the patience to grow a giant pumpkin but how fun to see the details on how it's done.

I will plant my giant pumpkin seeds and hope to get a few nice sized pumpkins and be tickled with that.

[Farmette]

Great to hear the plants are doing so well! I've learned alot from this thread...now if I just had the space...
Please keep the updates and pictures coming.

[Amigatec]

He is the 1081 Leonzi

1. The plant at 11 feet.
2. Here you can see how I bury the vines.
3. I put a little Mycro down and...
4. ...cover it with dirt.
5. I have a female at the end of the this plant.
6. Here it is from the other end.

[Amigatec]

Here are the 1024 and the 1112.

[Amigatec]

Now you are wondering how I walk around the patch and not pack the soil down.

Well here it is.

[Barbee]

Haha! Love the shoes! I was wondering that (I thought that's what the boards were laying in there for) and also wondering how you keep the grass/weeds out of the patch.

[Amigatec]

I used Preen Weed preventer on it. The walk boards only work so far, but I ran out of boards so I just built some 'portable' boards.

Well the idea for the shoes comes from the current World Record holder, he came up with the idea, and a bunch of us are copying his idea.