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Willamette Valley, Oregon

To add to my earlier post:

Maybe this is common knowledge already, but I noticed that most of the largest pumpkins came from parents with some combination of:

845 Bobier, 846 Calai, 898 Knauss, and 723 Bobier

in their pedigrees, very often exclusively limited to some combination of those 4.

Here are a few notable pumpkins whose parents can be traced back to only those 4 (or 3 or 2 of them), but nothing else:
845 846 898 723
1689 Jutras (from 998 Pukos seed) - 1/8, 3/8, 1/4, 1/4

1662 Young (from 1068 Wallace seed) - 1/2, 0 , 1/2, 0

1631 McKie (from 1041.5 McKie) - 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4

1568.5 Connolly (from 1566 Rodonis) - 5/16,3/16,3/8, 1/8

1536.5 VanKooten (from 1142 VanKooten) - 3/4, 0, 0, 1/4

1535.5 Glacier (from 1092 Martin) - 1/2, 0, 1/2, 0

Please add to the list if you'd like. Are there any really big ones that don't have ANY of those 4 in the pedigree somewhere?

9/8/2009 1:23:10 AM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

TODAY's largest pumpkins pretty much all have one or more in their background but, before any of those you mentioned were ever grown, the largest pumpkins had a different commonality. Those seeds are all relatively recent.

Growing techniques have evolved exponentially to give the weights we have today. Fifteen or twenty years ago, the WR would have been five or six hundred pounds. A more experienced grower will have more to add.

9/8/2009 5:30:38 AM

Minnesota

Have you decided what your growing next year Bathabit? do you know about www.briansinsanity.com www.aggc.org www.pumpkinlink.com three really good info sites.

9/8/2009 9:38:03 AM

norway , maine

in the how to section on this web site is a couple writings on hybrid vigor.my skull is pretty thick so i had to read both several times for it to make sense,bbut when you take in that info and start checkin out family trees on the websites richard b mentioned you can get a real good idea about whats goin on

9/8/2009 1:58:57 PM

Pocatello (cliffwarren@yahoo.com)

It's true that most of the really giant ones have one of those seeds in their background. But it's also true that it's hard to find a seed, any seed, that doesn't have one of those in it's background.

9/8/2009 3:07:15 PM

Sequim, WA

Years ago it was the 935 Lloyd, 567.5 Mombert, 827 Holland, 990 Bax and 946.6 Geerts that we were looking for in the background. Those pumpkins are still there farther back in the family tree. I know I have a number of seeds in my collection with those as direct parents. I think those genetics are still capable of producing very competative fruit using the current growing methods. The advances that have been made in our understanding of what it takes to grow the biggest pumpkins has probably outpaced the genetic advances of the current favorites. I know I would like to see more effort made to make the producers of the heaviest fruit look more like pumpkins than most currently do, but then, this isn't a beauty contest. So must current crosses favor heavy over beauty.

9/8/2009 7:10:47 PM

Willamette Valley, Oregon

I think I found a >1200 lber with none of those 4.

1262 Emmons (940 Mombert x 801.5 Stelts)

There may be some others, but that was the first one I happened on.

The former WR 1385 Daletas was grown off a 783 Daletas which didn't have any of those 4. (The pollinator of the 1385 did though.)

Richard B.: I have no idea what I'm growing next year. I'm trying to figure that out. I may try to go with one good non-(845 846 898 723) seed, for something different.

Any suggestions?

9/10/2009 12:40:32 AM

Minnesota

None here (suggestions), still kind of new at this, realizing how important good soil is.

9/10/2009 12:55:56 AM

Greencastle, PA

Even the 1262 isn't very different... the 940 Mombert is mostly 567.5 Mombert which is found in the 846, 723, 845, and (allegedly) the 898. I've heard that the 837 Waller (an ancestor of the 898) was grown on an 865 Mettler, but there's no proof.

If you look several generations beyond the 723, 845, 846, and 898 you'll see that everything has some 567 Mombert and/or 722/827 Hollandin it. The 898 definitely has the Holland genes.

9/11/2009 4:28:26 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

To find commonality in the hierarchy trees, look back another generation like Tom did.

9/29/2009 11:48:34 AM