RE: Cooked Seed Vigor

Being the brilliant pumpkin grower that I am, on April 19th I carefully
filed and then soaked my seeds in a mixture of previously boiled rain water
and seaweed extract. The 1098 Ciliberto and 1097.5 Beachy were then placed
in a zip-lock bag with a moist paper towel and set on a dish which rested on
top of our O'Keefe & Merritt range top (the pilot light keeps it just the
right temperature). On Easter morning I decided to move the seeds to the
shelf above the range (by a heat vent) to avoid any mishap with the seeds.

When I returned home from Easter morning church I started cleaning up the
yard for the Easter egg hunt while my visiting father-in-law began cooking
the Ham. About 45 minutes later I walked by the stove and realized that my
zip-locked seeds were being cooked to a steamy perfection. I had placed them
too close to the stove heat vent and the zip-lock bag had partially
melted/welded onto the vent grid. I quickly cut open the bag (the zip had
melted closed) and attempted to remove the seeds, but the paper towel was
too hot to handle. I finally separate the seeds and rolled them from hand to
hand until they were cool enough to cradle in my palms.

After kicking myself for five minutes I planted the seeds in their prepared
garden spots and set about filing and soaking the backup seeds (810
Christensen and 821 Garrell).  The Easter Egg hunt was briefly delayed. On
April 25 I visited my garden to pull some weeds, check on the corn and
tomatoes and my drip system. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of
green under the Costco pretzel jar I had placed over the planted pumpkin
seeds. I lifted the jar and sure enough the Beachy was pushing through the
soil.  I jumped over (small garden) to the Ciliberto and there too was a
spunky pumpkin plant about to break the surface. We'll see how these plants
do, but I may have an extra Christensen and Garrell vine for someone in
SoCal.

Good Luck
Craig
Pacific Palisades, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On Behalf
Of Mastrpumkn@aol.com
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2003 9:36 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Re: 720Parks


Gary,
     Got your seed today, thank you. I'll get your other one off to you as
soon as I'm finished planting my seeds for this year. I'm so behind!

      Alan

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