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Clinton, Iowa

I have seen alot of charts and growth rates and bench marks over the years and personally the best one I have witnessed over the last oh say 5 or 6 years is this....
some fruit grow fast early and peter out..others start slow and keep on chugging and surprise even the most seasoned growers..
personally I feel the best bench mark I have seen is what the fruit does 7 days after it reaches 500# pounds...it doesn;t mater if it reaches 500# on day 20...day 25 day 30 or day 40.....what is does over those next 7 days has been the telling tale for marc and I....
we have not seen a fruit make it to the 4 digit mark that did not put on atleast 140 pounds over those 7 days after it reaches 500#.....it seems to be the "telling amount" it takes for a fruit grown in our patch In Iowa ..
anyone else have any similiar observations??

7/2/2007 11:13:14 PM

Minnesota

No, I'm still waiting to break the 100 mark.

7/3/2007 1:57:25 AM

Danny,,I used your formula last year and it was dead on with all 3 fruit that went 1k plus,,,the problem I have with the 10 and 20 day marks on the A/L charts (which are a great tool)is that I always have cool/cold nights in late June and early July which seem to throw those early numbers off, I make selections based on shape and placement of the early sets and hope for the best later on.

7/3/2007 6:05:16 AM

Rhode Island

to me everything depends on the timing of your efforts.
pumpkins will all (the healthy ones ) go through growth phases.
i do agree that some will do for example 40 pounds a day for a week at there prime and others will do 30 per day but will do it much longer.
not only do you want to be pollinating during the prime period ( june 25 to july 5th ) but you need the plant to be large enough at this time so that by july 15th all sides before the pollinations are at target length and dead headed
this has a lot to do with your early fruit growth.
the worse thing you can do is to be growing a plant when its supposed to be growing a pumpkin

7/3/2007 6:52:20 AM

Berlin,mi.([email protected])

Dan; I took a look at my records on my 1302 from last year. Day 10 cir. was 21 inches. It hit 516 lbs. AUG.4TH. on Aug.11th. it was at 723 lbs. for a gain of 207lbs.In 7 days. Thanks for sharing this. I will watch measurements this season to see if it holds true. That is if I have anything to measure. lol

7/3/2007 6:52:35 AM

Utah

Dan,
I've only had one fruit do more than 140 lbs in the 7 days after 500 lbs., my largest 963.5 from last year. It gained 155 lbs in that time frame. None of my other 900+ or 800+ pumpkins gained the 140 lbs. I can post the data if people are interested. good post- interesting observation.

7/3/2007 11:16:02 AM

Little-TON - Colorado

Yes good posts, post the info please, and LongBeard he said 140 lbs in 7 days not 170 lbs at the end.

7/3/2007 3:19:16 PM

Kalamazoo, MI ([email protected])

I'm sure I could find this somewhere on another post but to Pap: how long you want your secondaries before you dead head them?

7/3/2007 7:23:01 PM

Ontario, Canada.

Yeah, I agree with Dan too. The benchmarks are good but they are only a tool. There are many conditions which can slow a plant and a fruits development. Pap is right on about vine growth. I believe too many competive sinks lead to thin walled fruit and don't do anything to help the Calcium highway. Thats why I got out to an early start this season.

Russ

7/3/2007 9:55:48 PM

Rhode Island

we keep records of the ten best pumpkins grown on the east coast area.
we compair pollination dates. and estimated weight for days from pollination
example day 20-30-40-50-60-70-80-90-?
we compair this years reading with those in our charts. works very well. even if you wish to calculate an average for the projected future weight
pap

7/3/2007 10:50:46 PM

Indiana

magic number seemed to be 130 lbs here, the hybrids reached 1000 lbs with just 110, but the others were about 130

7/4/2007 12:57:16 AM