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Deer Park, WI

I've been having a blast playing with the numbers thus far, and am happy to be able to report something out of it.

While all the data is valuble, I've been focusing on the data for fruit over 1000lbs. We have 16 fruit logged in the 1000-1099 range thus far. Not a whole lot, but something to work with.

Using a 95% confidence interval, I have determined that 95% of the fruit with an end weight 1000-1099lbs reached the following benchmarks:

Day 10 25.5"
Day 20 68.5"
Day 30 108"
Day 40 135"

For comparison, Al Eaton's benchmarks are quite similar:
Day 10 25"
Day 20 70"
Day 30 110"

Becuase of size differences in truly huge pumpkins vs. 1000lbers, adding in fruit >1099lbs creates a larger Std. Deviation, which creates a larger confidence interval, and subsequently lowered benchmark values, hence i have only selected fruit in the 1000-1099 range to represent what it takes to get to 1000. Makes sense eh?

I'd LOVE to develop benchmarks for 1100, 1200, 1300, etc, but in order to do that, we need data for fruit that have acheived those weights.

Im going to keep asking- if you have day 10, 20, 30, 40 measurments on fruit >700lbs, please please please post them here or email to myself.

Thank you to those who have contributed thus far. Your submissions are quite valuble. If you would like to see benchmarks for weights <1000 please let me know.

ENJOY!!

12/28/2004 12:16:04 PM

Deer Park, WI

Here's some other neat stuff I've gathered:

Smallest Day 10 Circ for a 1000lber: 23.5" (1058 Papez '01)
Largest Day 10 Circ for a 1000lber: 33.5" (1016 Ailts '04)

Smallest Day 20 Circ for a 1000lber: 53" (1062 Rivard '01)
Largest Day 20 Circ for a 1000lber: 85" (1125 Frantz '04)

12/28/2004 12:31:06 PM

ontario

very good post......

12/28/2004 2:05:36 PM

Key West, FL

very cool

12/28/2004 2:15:46 PM

Puyallup, WA

Great information! What I need is the "intestinal fortitude" to cut off an earlier pumpkin when it is bigger than one "down vine"!! :>)

12/28/2004 3:02:43 PM

Cologne / Germany

Yup, thanks for the good work so far Joze and Russ! Could be the most important statistic right after the OTT tables in the near future. I hope more growers will provide you with personal info.

12/28/2004 3:14:50 PM

Ontario, Canada.

A big thank you, to all those who have contributed to date. Special thanks to Joe for crunching all the numbers and putting this together.

Print this info out and keep it in your shed. Just in case you get too attached to that special pumpkin. Slow growth at the day 10 mark is an indication of poor future performance. Cut the sucker from the vine and try for another faster set further out.

Russ Landry

12/28/2004 5:01:49 PM

Utah

not to hi-jack your thread Joe and Russ

... but I've wondered about day 0 size... and if it has any influence one the final outcome.

Personally I have never measured any fruit at day 0, but I know I have pollinated different fruit on the same plant and on different plants that have varied in size. I'd guess by as much as 2 (maybe 3) times in size.

any thoughts or observations ???

12/28/2004 5:36:04 PM

Canada

Awsome, G1T I also wondered the same thing, as I pollinated
6 in total this past year myself and the odd thing was my last pollination ( late ) in the season was from a fruit
that was the size of hardball ( day flower opened) and dureing the 20 days it did grow before the entire plant died it grew much larger and faster in those 20 days then any of my other fruits which were pollinated. But ya that 10 day growth chart will come in handy come 05 season for sure !!
thanks


Later Dave

12/28/2004 6:07:41 PM

Ontario, Canada.

A very good point. Next year we could all undertake a new caliper (Width across) measurement of all fruit on pollination day. This can be very easily performed with a pair of dividers. Some out there may in fact have already done this. I don't know about you guys but I have learned from this most basic of studies that resources and time could be diverted to and concentrated on the best plants with the fastest growing pumpkins. I wasted much time on plants that simply had no chance of producing big pumpkins. Early detection of large potential progeny will help me to possibily gain bigger and better fruits.

12/28/2004 7:12:49 PM

Deer Park, WI

way to go Gordo, now you got my wheels turning again. Gonna hafta add another column to the spreadsheet: day 0.

It would be interesting to see what happens there. In my experience, day 0 fruit on the same plant are usually the same shape and size, but its definatly worth looking in to.

12/28/2004 7:59:20 PM

Cologne / Germany

I think we should not overdo :) The basic idea is good, but when it comes to pollination time we basically look for the best females avaibale, not?
Mother Nature is not always offering the best things just about the time we need it. We have to go with it, still trying to produce the best we can get.
A day 0 fruit at the right point means nothing unless it looks deformed or has seeds in the blossom or something else, if not we would try to get it growing, right? IMHO

12/28/2004 8:55:35 PM

Puyallup, WA

Out here in the Pacific Northwest, our pumpkins really do not start "rollin'" until the last week in July. That is when the heat begins turn up a notch or so. My 1268 Est. although not measured at Day 10 was not much bigger than a oversize grapefruit. It did not surpass the expected figures given here until Day 32!

12/28/2004 10:54:11 PM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Could be that the maximum potential size a fruit is decided by day 0 after that maybe its about keeping as close to maximum growth as possible.

12/29/2004 5:33:23 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Joze & Russ, here are my numbers from last season.

839# - 19"@ day 10, 61"@ day 20, 111"@ day 30, 134"@ day 40

926# - 19"@ day 10, 62"@ day 20, 105"@ day 30, 124"@ day39

12/29/2004 8:06:58 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Thanks Phil,

12/29/2004 8:50:00 AM