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No Place Special

Just wondering if clones are now becoming more popular than ever before? I was in chat the other night and a few growers mentioned that they had saved and are growing clones over the winter. Thought it would be nice to find out how many are attempting a clone, what they cloned and what they thought of clones in general.

11/20/2004 1:23:56 AM

No Place Special

I have never attempted a clone before but have two cloned plants in my basement right now. One from my 869.5 Calai plant that grew a very beautiful shape and orange 1125 lb pumpkin for me and the second is from Dan Carlson's / Marc Peterson's 1097 Beachy plant that grew their 1432. I think in the very near future it will be proven that a clone plant has much more potential than is generally thought. I know from my experiences and others that VERY big pumpkins can be grown on plants without stumps. Im going to go out and say that a clone plant is probably capable of 80% of what it was as a "seed". What does everyone think?

11/20/2004 1:30:37 AM

Colo.Spgs.CO. Pikes Peak Chapter @ [email protected]

I did the clone thing back in 2000 and kept a few alive at my place all winter for the mad clone man Marc which took a lot of time and looking after, which I would not hesitate to do again on an extra- ordinary exceptional plant that produced well..But other than that, some people need a pumpkin vacation, or you may just experience pumpkin burn-out....lol..Unless you are like the pumpkin-ready bunny and you just keep going and going and going....As I experienced in the spring of 2001, as I told myself why do I want to grow pumpkins now!!,as I have been growing them all winter, I need a vacation...Such is the life of a dedicated grower..lol...JK.

11/20/2004 4:06:41 AM

Ontario, Canada.

I did not save any plants and now I am kicking myself. I sure would like a cutting of the 869 and the 1097 you have Mike. This is turning out to be much more interesting than I thought.

11/20/2004 7:13:49 AM

Cologne / Germany

I had 3 clones from 2004 and they all looked nice. Started in summer in 3 ft boxes from secondaries that needed to be pruned anyway. My guess is you can go with them as pollinators, I´m still not sure about having a real big one from a female on a clone (stump issue). Maybe Madman Marc can clear it up.

However I don´t have the clones anymore. Frost and snow came without a warning, and clones don´t like that, so I have my personal vacation now :)

11/20/2004 7:20:50 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

I HAD clones from the 801.5 Stelts 97, 940 Mombert 98, 845 Bobier 00, 783 Daletas 00 and a few others until frost came along with 25cm of snow.... now I'm in the same situation as Ingo.... they are frozen, dead...

Martin

11/20/2004 9:22:29 AM

Greencastle, PA

I think Nic Welty grew a 700-800lber of of his 801.5 Stelts clone which came from the plant that grew the 1049 Koch. That's the biggest fruit off of a clone that I've heard of.
Tom

11/20/2004 10:20:16 AM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Mike; Dan said you have one that your planning on sending me...LMAO...!!!!I've got three different plants at the moment... 303/ 805 / 962

11/20/2004 12:38:44 PM

No Place Special

Marc, I know Dan would love for you to have one he mentioned that to me when he gave it to me. I think I can split it into two clones pretty soon but I prommised that one to Beachy. If I can clone a third one from it this winter then it will have your name on it.

Mike Frantz

11/20/2004 12:52:40 PM

Rockford,il

Excuse my stupidity but what is the difference between a clone and a cutting?

11/20/2004 4:56:03 PM

Jackson Twp, Ohio

Don't give it to beachy he'll kill it.

I'm pretty good at killing them off though too myself at least this year. Sorry Jerry (little life but not much left) I still have though a 582 hester from Steve Razo and an 898 Knauss from Quinn that are doing quite well. None of the self terminating vines or anything like that. A few other stragglers too.

Nick

11/21/2004 10:43:51 AM

[email protected]

Clones & cuttings are the same thing. Clone might infer true petri dish style tissue culture while what we are doing is really just rooting a vine end & thus producing a cutting. It's all the same result in the end. An entire winter of extra heating bills, frozen watering cans & powdery mildew nightmares.

We still have:

846 Calai
705 Stelts
I think we have an 801 but I can't move it to read the pot.

We lost an 810 Dill which irked me.

11/21/2004 2:26:07 PM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Nice to hear Mike...yeah...don't give it to Tom too soon..LOL!!!

I have a clone going from a plant I think has potential to break my 852 Lb. P.B., maybe even reach 1,000. I need to beat Nic's clone record he set with his 801 cutting. The one clone I kept is from one of my genetic crosses (303 Sawtelle '03}, which may be a "new and improved 801". I substituted a 940 '98 for Mombert genetics that the Rose has. Quite impressive results happened in my genetics patch with that seed... Only Scherber had something larger {605} in Colorado than the 591 it produced in a "no care" patch
with just 200 SF of poor soil to grow in. The soil was so bad, the main stump never really grew the main root system.
The plant set a couple of mains a few nodes out from the stump which grew to over 10 feet on the top 1-3 inches
of the hard clay soil. I didn't intend to even put the plant in any patch, it was a prune experiment I started in late February 04, but planted as a last minute substitute after 10 really great older genetic seeds were stolen from my front doorstep (never solved that mystery either). If all goes as planned, I'll also grow the self crossed offspring from the 591, and use the clone off the mother plant to back cross its' original genetics back into it's next generations seeds. If that isn't a method to REALLY isolate a strain, then nothing is!
I am also looking for interested participants in 2005 experiment...
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/MsgBoard/ViewThread.asp?b=3&p=96489

11/22/2004 12:59:57 PM

Carrollton, Ga.

Hey Marc,
When you have a clone what do you run the fan all the time for?
Dude

11/22/2004 1:12:13 PM

Choctaw, OK

I cloned an 801 stelts that grew the 1049 Koch. I used the university of WI-Stevens Point greenhouse to keep it alive. It worked very well.

I gave a piece to Tom Beachy in april of the next year and he managed to keep it alive and grow it over 500 lbs....LOL. Nic Welty did even better with it. This 801 grew the most beautiful fruit i have ever seen.
case

11/23/2004 10:50:08 PM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Why run a fan? Wind causes micro- tears in plant tissue, and the plant responds by strengthening and repairing the damage. This is why plants need "hardening off" when brought outdoors. A fan keeps the plant from becoming whimpy and weak while being held hostage over the winter. The fan will assist in keeping down powdery mildew if there is a problem you have not taken care of that yet. Any mites or any similar pests also have a harder time overtaking the plants if you have not taken care of that yet either. I have found the fans which are no larger than computer fans are the best. You don't want a hurricane, you want a slight breeze and very little leaf movement. The circulation also helps the plants "breath" by removing the oxygen which it transpires. Areas on and around the leaf surface area have micro- environments which trap in oxygen "pockets" if there is no movement in the air and air becomes stagnant around the plant zone.

11/25/2004 1:04:30 AM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Hey Casey... Did you or anyone else keep another generation going off of that clone? Have you got anything going on this winter? I wondered how Tom was able to have a live clone by springtime....lol

11/25/2004 1:08:07 AM