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Grittyville, WA

The shell of the pumpkin corresponds to the number of sepals... the green spikes. The lobes do correspond to the ovaries, but (if I may offer another opinion)... I'm not sure the number of ovaries will affect the weight of the pumpkin because they are mostly just air space with a few seeds. The hull is where the weight is and I think this corresponds to the sepals. I havent heard anyone agree with me about this, so maybe its just my lone opinion.

5/21/2025 5:34:53 PM

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Interesting, I’ve never heard this about sepals or anything really about them. I have noticed my flowers have huge sepals this year and even posted about this with pictures above in my diary. So maybe that means huge pumpkins if you have huge sepals. I did note that when I cut my main vine up last year I saw the same pattern as when cutting into a small 5 lobed pumpkin, it appears to have the same number of separate cells as the number of lobes but perhaps it was the sepals I should have been counting.

5/23/2025 2:30:09 AM

Grittyville, WA

Well they like the number 5, so 5 sepals with 5 lobes is common. There's been some discussion about it, even some decent ones grown from 3 lobe flowers. I think one of Jutras's big squashes was 3 lobes. It may help them go heavier to chart and make a longer/flatter shape rather than tall wheel pumpkin. Pumpkin boat growers should be thrilled to see a three lober? Anyhow, nice plant!

5/23/2025 4:46:35 PM