Adventure anwer


Richard was on the right track with his answer.  7 of those 11 biggest pumpkins shared one common factor, that is each had Lloyd genetics either as a mother or a maternal grandparent.  Keep in mind that the male pollinizer had no genetic influence  on the respective 1000lb pumpkin, so disregard the "father's half"  of the chart.   Hmmmmmm.... what's the signifigance you ask.
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb here, so bear with me.  And keep in mind that what I say is all theroretical and highly opinionated.  When I look at the backgrouds of many of the biggest pumpkins, there appears to be two "classes" of seeds.  They are the "Holland" based background and the "Lloyd" based background.  I know that all AG's came from Dill's work many years ago, but over time these two names seemed to separate genetically.  The Lloyd seeds (935, 909.5, 875) do have one "Holland occurence" five generations back from the 935, but this is almost negligable.  With that explained, consider this:
 
4 of the largest 8 pumpkins (including the largest) are the result of a Lloyd x Holland cross.  (1190, 1109, 1096, 1039). To me that holds importance!! 2 of these 4 that are not are the result of a Lloyd Lloyd cross. Hmmmmm...  I don't want to go as far as saying that these 4 are experiencing hybrid vigor, but I do believe that there is something special about these Lloyd Holland crosses.  As for the Lloyd Lloyd cross, thats a out of the scope of this post.
 
Look at some of the hottest seeds right now -815 Checkon, 846 Calai, 723 Bobier, 826.5 Hester, 991 Hunt. These babies are known producers!  Have you ever stopped to consider why?  And what do these all have in common?  Yep you guessed it, Lloyd Holland cross.
 
One more point, 12 of the top 17 pumpkins have geneologies where there are no common maternal parents back to the 3rd generation.  That may hold merit as well. 
 
What's the moral of the story here?  I think there are many hidden secrets in our pumpkin past, and with a little diggin, some of this stuff can come to light.   Its up to us to interpret it and put it to the test.
 
I ask all of you to let me know what you think of this stuff. Am I talkin to deaf ears, is this way off the mark, or am I on to something?   Thanks--
 
Joe


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