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When is a pumpkin considered dead? I always assumed that the moment it was cut from the vine it would be dead. On october 1st I removed my 1083 from the vine and took it to the contest on the 2nd. Because MANY people dont believe they are real, it ended up with a few fingernail gouges in it. Long story short I noticed this week that the nail holes had actually HEALED and scabbed over. This would indicate life in the pumpkin wouldn't it?????

10/15/2004 11:36:58 AM

Rockford,il

When humans die ,our fingernails grow for another 3 or 4 days even though the rest of our body is biologically dead.Maybe theres enough energy in the plant cells to keep the plant going.I have cut flowers in the bud stage that have grown into fully opened flower.Plus we take cuttings from plants and root them, so I guess with plants it not over until every bit of energy is used up.Just a thought.

10/15/2004 1:45:22 PM

Western Pa.

Mike,

You'd better beware! IT'S ALIVE........!!!

10/15/2004 2:32:03 PM

Long Island,New York

Just wait til you see what happens the day after you carve it...........................................

10/15/2004 3:21:38 PM

Out of my gourd, I'm pretty sure that postmortem fingernail growing is an urban legend. I think that they attribute the appearance of fingernail growing to the decay of the flesh around the nail beds. Could be wrong, but pretty certain.

10/15/2004 3:54:34 PM

Oz

Life,,,
The fruit is a self contained womb.
And meal for "young"
Would "death" would be exposure to the outside air,and growth of fungi,rot,etc?
I had some whole fruits lumped in a poly can.
They sat all winter/spring in darkness,,
A bunch of seed sprouted. 8in stems.
They grew well.
Im starting my next years seed in pumpkin "wombs"
What is the longest lasting "celler pumpkin"?
Ive had some howdens in the warm garage since august.

10/15/2004 5:45:03 PM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Old metalheads never die... they bleed pumpkin blood!
Seriously now...I've had undevoped seeds end up maturing enough to be viable within a 2 week time after being picked. They do actually put all energy towards continuing on the species. I opened up the back, grabbed a handfull and found zero seeds with any kind of embryo. I wrote it off as a loss, but I went to toss it on the compost pile, and low and behold... I found many well developed seeds capable of germination. They are very amazing plants...

10/16/2004 1:09:15 AM

[email protected]

Mature AGs seem not to do this as much. But less than 60 day fruit really heal well even after harvest.

Its important we keep this in perspective. To us they're a way of life. To them it is life & worth protecting at all cost.

10/16/2004 7:20:45 AM

Rhode Island

do pumpkins have more gas before or after death ???

i had a wake for one of mine and no showed up

10/16/2004 9:20:08 PM