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Ontario

Just like to throw out a question to the members.
My 898 x 805 (1058) had 600 seeds in her. Bryans 805 (1201) produced 2 seeds. Same care same soil yet drastically different results. Any ideas

drew

10/31/2004 7:30:42 AM

Ontario, Canada.

What was the ambient air temp. at pollination time. Could low temps have caused incomplete pollination and have affected your new seedless variety of AGP. I think Brigitte or Joze were up on this topic in a discussion last year.

10/31/2004 8:32:29 AM

Md/ Usa

Ask gerry checkon grower of the only world record pumpkin that had no viable seeds.

10/31/2004 8:49:18 AM

[email protected]

Drew
Same problem here, I started a tread on the Genetics board with the same question on a 920 Cole
Eddy

10/31/2004 9:32:50 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

The cold weather at pollination time could be an answer to this.
We here in Germany had very cool weather at that time (Owen was even using warm water bottles!) and some of my pumpkins had low or very low seed counts....check out my last few diary entries from yesterday.

Martin

10/31/2004 10:18:39 AM

Indiana

Cooler weather makes more pollinations take? I only had to work on pollination about 3 weeks this year.

Tom

10/31/2004 2:50:00 PM

Montoursville, PA

Drew......back to your question. Count spread to date from 600 to 850. Three pumpkins with mature seed. 2003 & 2004

11/1/2004 9:23:04 AM

Deer Park, WI

I wish i had an answer for both Drew and Eddy, but there are so many factors influencing the outcome that one cannot conclusively pinpoint any one factor. Could be the temp, could be the pollen, could be the female, could be a number of things.


Honestly the only thing we can do to increase the likeliness of a good seed count is to use as much pollen as possible. I'll use as many males (>4!) as i can find. Pile that stuff on there till it falls off in clumps.

There doesnt seem to be any trends from a genetic standpoint in lines producing Few/no seeds. As with all things, im guessing this occurs as a result of a unique genetic combination plus environmental factors.

11/1/2004 9:30:19 AM

C N Y

yes, there is a definite correllation between how many
males are used to pollinate and how many seeds you get.
yes, it does make sense! it is a given. i just last night got about 550 seeds or so (i'll count them as i put them into Mason jars, lol!) from a pumpkin only weighing about 250 pounds, and i used 6 males to pollinate it--
(794 Wronski X 950.4 Boyton) now, if i just had an answer to the 1201's nearly seedless dillemma! eric

11/2/2004 7:41:30 PM

[email protected]

I can't help but wonder if using many different males, even if from the same plant, doesn't increase the genetic variability of the finished seeds.

Not that I didn't do the same thing this year. We harvested A 281 pounder off a cutting (845 Bobier x 842 Eaton) that yielded 682 seeds. 21 were light. That pollination used 4 males. These seeds are nearly ready for a germination test.

Odd that such a small young fruit (59 days) would bear so many seeds.

11/2/2004 9:33:45 PM