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Location

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Grittyville, WA

willemijns said the 2145 could 'handle more' than his other fruit. Holland also dumped on more goodies on his than he usually does. Dont know if he really thought the plant could handle it or if he was just willing to take a risk to steal his crown back from cindy. Whatever the reason. . . It clearly worked.

My thought is what are the techniques that used to explode the fruit and should we revisit some of these ideas ?

1/1/2018 5:28:46 PM

Ireland

Temperature fluctuations combined with variable irrigation. Just my two cents

1/1/2018 5:31:31 PM

Grittyville, WA

does anyone have comments about being able to push a certain kin more than another?

How do you tell you can push it more ? Who has tried pushing more ?

LaRue tried but it backfired. Maybe because it wasnt the mcmullen or his nitrogen was too high.

1/1/2018 5:40:05 PM

Grittyville, WA

maybe the mcmullen has raised the bar for indestructibility

1/1/2018 5:46:25 PM

Grittyville, WA

i know nothing... too new at this.

1/1/2018 5:49:13 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Ahhh I think they all get pushed to get 2,000lbs. or maybe I am possibly doing something wrong..:)

1/1/2018 7:09:04 PM

canal winchester ohio

"If you ain't blowing 'em you ain't growing 'em"

1/1/2018 7:47:13 PM

Cheshire Ma USA

I think all the 2000 + fruit get pushed much more than us average. growers think. Only the growers of them really know how much they pushed them. I'm sure most of the heavy hitters pushed them to far in the past before they figured out what they needed in their patch. Also they continue to find new ways every year to grow even bigger. Hats off to the guys that do it in the end it helps all of us.

1/1/2018 7:54:54 PM

Ontario

I'm certainly no expert but that slow and steady thing is a load of crap..if you want to go big then you better push them from day one.. Just my opinion but it worked for me this year I beat my PB by almost 400 lbs

1/1/2018 8:06:01 PM

Grittyville, WA

Yeah my hat is off to everyone I mentioned. And to everyone else isn't it an interesting coincidence that the two largest outliers in the past two years were ones that got 'pushed' more than usual. It's not a great surprise that a bigger kin would need more resources. But other big name guys are losing kins... don't know if it's because they are pushing them in the wrong way or maybe it's just a matter of getting a lucky seed that can take it.

1/1/2018 9:36:18 PM

Colorado

I don't think its about pushing.Beni meyer showed its about ideal fertilization.Fertilizer is a salt-plants don't like salt above a certain range. pushing is gonna hurt vs. help. Blowing up is prob. related to moisture and temperature swings imho

1/1/2018 10:42:19 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

I know a pair of brother's who grow consistently in the teens OTC!!! IN KENTUCKY!!!I would venture a guess that they PUSH them, just to their limits!! Maybe they could be a source of information. Or, just buy some of their seeds at the KGPG Auction! LOL Peace, Wayne

1/1/2018 10:52:27 PM

Grittyville, WA

i know the salt effect of excess fertilizer. . . or anything else which disrupts the turgor is dangerous to the plant and maybe to the pumpkin.
The turgor pressure is what keeps out funguses and bacteria so maybe humidity helps and allows the plant to thrive in a higher salt environment

1/1/2018 11:49:48 PM

Grittyville, WA

the fires here last summer made it noticeably more humid.

1/1/2018 11:51:46 PM

Grittyville, WA

willemijns actually thought his ventillation was not adequate/ideal in 2016 but maybe this made the humidity higher and this was actually why he was so successful

1/2/2018 12:08:57 AM

Grittyville, WA

this year he presumably ran more ventillation through but he lost more fruit. Is there a connection?

1/2/2018 12:12:34 AM

Netherlands

I talked to Willemijns at the weigh-off and he said his weather was poorer in 2017 than in 2016. Moisture and temperature swings are the biggest reason why pumpkins split. To a degree plants can deal with excess amounts of fertilizer, but some nutrients actually prevent the plant from taking up other ones. So there is a definite limit to the amount of certain nutrients you can apply.

1/2/2018 4:29:19 AM

Ireland

Ditto what Cojoe and Brad say

1/2/2018 6:01:22 AM

Plainville, Connecticut 06062

Interesting discussion. In 2017 I had 8 plants going all treated equally and pushed every day to the max. Four out of the eight split at the blossom end. The first at day 30, my biggest and fastest grower 40 pounds a day. It was cut at day 35 without a stump and missing four big secondaries because the stump was foaming and I had to remove the stump and four secondaries to save the pumpkin prior to day 30. It was still doing 40 a day when I cut it at day 35. The other three all split within one week of each other between August 7-14. They all taped close to one another 1,300+. Two of my split pumpkins were in my back yard patch and the last and third pumpkin in that patch I couldn’t get a pumpkin pollinated on the plant a first for me? In my second patch at my Church 2 miles away, I had five plants. Two out of the five split, one stopped growing at about 1,000 pounds and two made it? That’s right two pumpkins out of 8 made it, pretty depressing. Why did the two survivors make it and didn’t split like the other four? All were treated equal with fertilizers and water. It just makes you wonder as I always push my plants to the max and I am seriously thinking about backing off a bit on that. I guess the weather and moisture could play a major part in all of this but until an extensive experiment is completed over a long period of time with all factors involved including genetics, I think we are only guessing at what causes splits to occur?

1/2/2018 11:21:52 AM

Grittyville, WA

well it sounds like fast and steady is what wins the race.

But is the 2145 a harder kin to blow up does someone have a %dmg on the 2145 vs others? Bill? Scott? or maybe fast and steady got it to the finish...

1/2/2018 1:41:11 PM

Netherlands

Shape and wall thickness also play a role. The question is if those traits are only genetic, or if environmental factors, etc also affect them.

1/3/2018 3:05:45 AM

Grittyville, WA

sounds like spraying dilute fertilizer every day to keep the humidity up and to keep fertilizer levels high and consistent is one part of the equation.

1/3/2018 1:54:43 PM

Grittyville, WA

our humidity is very low. . . Possible to do this without disease if careful

1/3/2018 2:05:21 PM

Grittyville, WA

top growers are artists... Imho

1/3/2018 2:53:04 PM