Re: Hybrid Theory

Marc,

I guess one of the reasons I am not so eager to jump on the hybrid vigor bandwagon is that it is too often portrayed as a magic elixir in everyone's quest for a larger pumpkin. "Just cross this with that and voila! 1000 pounders for everyone!". The grim realty is that environment and horticultural practices play a very, very important role as well. The exact ratio of genetics-to-environment required is of course unknown but there's no denying there's more to this game than seed crosses. Many will argue that the top producing seeds are doing so largely because they are being sown by the top producing growers.

Another reason is that often very large pumpkins will come from plants displaying very unhybrid vigor-like (is that a word?) characteristics. We've all heard the stories of world class specimens being grown from runty little plants. Often too, the resulting pumpkin will exhibit very poor seed production with few or no viable seeds. These are not characteristics of a hybrid plant.

It is unfortunate (but understandable) that I cannot track every pumpkin grown from every seed. In tracking only those over 500 pounds, I realize I am focusing on the sucesses rather than the failures. Truth be told, most people are more interested in the sucesses and my time and resources are finite. The only way to really test a seed's potential is to put a variety of them in the hands of similiarly skilled growers, all growing within the same enviroment, and carefully log each and every pumpkin produced. As the AG has no real commercial value, its unlikely your big seed firms are going to invest a whole lot of manhours in this. I dont have the time or inclination either but perhaps somewhere out there exists someone who does. Not sure its really the best use of someone's free time though....

A good discussion. Thanks!

Mike

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