Re: 2000# Pumpkin Paradox

>Heres one to talk about since we are already diving into the culling
>questions.  I've read about a few growers that have grown two or even three
>fruit on one vine and ended up carrying in excess of 1500 pounds of fruit
>on one vine.  What does this mean about our plant and fruit relationships?
> I hope some people will be able to respond with some experience and maybe
>some sort of guess as to the explanation.
>
>When I hear about this happening I sit back and think to myself that
>supporting one fruit to 1000 pounds hasn't maxed out the plants ability to
>fill fruit.   I get the feeling that there is some other limiting factor
>that is only allowing the fruit to get so big......and that factor of
>course is probably genetically controlled.    My theory would be that our
>plants in general are able to produce and move enough photosynthates,
>nutrients, and water  to make 1500-2000 pounds of fruit, but there is some
>reason why the plants won't or can't put it all in one fruit.....at least
>not yet!
>
>I welcome as much input from as many people that have any thoughts.  Even
>some silly explanation based on something you observed could be a key to
>the answer of the 2000# pumpkin pair-a-ducks!
>
>Rick

Here's my take on this one:

	In nature what advantage would one really big fruit be from a plant
capable of many more? The answer is probably nothing. More fruits mean a
higher probability of survival. More seeds from the fruits give a better
chance of passing on the gene lines.   Also the multiple fruits give a
better chance of being pollinated with diverse pollen increasing diversity
in the population. Plants that produce one really big one would likely fall
behind there smaller cousins and disappear.
	C. maxima is descended from some wild source and most likely
retains some of the above mentioned charateristics. It appears that in the
development of the C. maximas known today many of these survival stategies
have been breed out but probably a significant percentage remains.
Although, I suspect that certain varieties have different degrees of these
characteristics, and even within the AG variety certain seed stocks may
have different degrees.Then how do we overcome this? We may have to look to
other highly domesticated plants for hints.
	Corn has been domesticated for some time and extensively breed and
studied. Somehow it has went from a medium grassy plant with many small
ear-like pods with seeds to what we know today. Now most the resources the
corn plant produces goes into one or two big "fruits" not a bunch of
smaller ones. However in the wild a corn plant would have little chance of
competing. Even if it could grow well its large "fruits" would quickly be
targeted by animals and have little chance of making it into the next
generation. Maybe we can learn something that may be applied to pumpkins?


John



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