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Bountiful,Utah,USA

when I looked at one of my first pumpins to open and be Pollinated I saw 6 heart shaped structures making the entire stigma about as big around as a 50cent piece. The next female on the same plant had only 4 1/2 of these heart shaped structures in it's flower. I wondered if the small Stigma was due to dammage that the plant endured when a rodent chewed up the end of the main vine. That was till I noticed today on another plant that's stigmas up untill now had the usual 5 structures. This morning a flower opened that had 5 1/2 structures in its stigma. I would think if it were genetics that caused this all of the stigma would be the same. Is this a common caracteristic in giant pumpkins?

8/3/2004 6:08:58 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

The females are all different...What you were seeing is what we refer to as "Lobes" 1st one was a 6 lober hope you pollinated that one.

8/3/2004 6:22:08 PM

Indiana

Very normal to have a varrying number of lobes. I have had 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5 lobes on various plants. Never seen anything under 3, or over 6.5 here at our place.

Tom

8/3/2004 6:23:28 PM

[email protected]

Those structures are properly called segments. Together they do make up the Stigma. Most of us here call the segments "lobes". It is not uncommon to have any where from 4 to 6 lobes. Sometimes they do not form completely & thus appear to be "half there".

Both environmental & genetic factor would play a role in determining how well formed a stigma is.

8/3/2004 6:24:18 PM

Utah

here is a picture of a 7 lober a few days after pollination:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/DisplayPhoto.asp?pid=345

I know there have been other flowers with more... 10-12 ...
something like that.

but tremor has it right ... its both genetic and environmental.

8/4/2004 1:09:02 PM