MOMBERT 567.5 PUMPKIN History

MOMBERT 567.5 PUMPKIN

By Kirk Mombert

We asked Kirk Mombert of Harrisburg, Oregon to give us a history of
his 567.5 seed which had such a successful year in 1995.  We know he
has been more than generous with these seeds and they are spread across
North America for 1996

In the "1996 Mother Seed" survey we carried out, the 567.5 was picked as

the seed with "the most probability of growing the 1996 world cham-
pion".

My 567.5 was produced in 1992 from Joel Holland's 1991 616 lb. pumpkin
(female) and pollinated with a Laemmle 1989 609 pumpkin.  See the
attached
history of the Holland 616.  I tried to trace the history of the 609
by placing a call to Helmutt Laemmle this past winter.  He explained
that he had no idea about it's background.  He had grown pumpkins for a
number of years and kept the seeds from the biggest pumpkins each year
and
planted those the next year.  I heard that the 609 produced long
pumpkins
with nice width.  My intentions were to combine the blocky shape and 9"
thick walls of the Holland 1991 616 with the characteristics of the 609.

The result was the 567.5 with a total measurement of 287" which on the
chart at the time came out to 464 lbs. thus this pumpkin was slightly
more than 100 lbs. heavier than the chart.  As I recall the 616 was
about 100 lbs. over the chart as well.  The 567.5 had 9" thick walls
in the stem and and 6" to 7" walls elsewhere. There was very little
open cavity inside the 567.5.  The underneath of the pumpkin had grown
upwards off the ground and this reduced the cavity inside the pumpkin.

1993

I sent seeds from the 567.5 out to about 20 growers during the winter
of 92-93.  That next growing season I planted two 567.5 plants, one
plant as one of my competition plants and the other in my trial plot.
The competition plant produced a 727 lb. pumpkin which I weighed off
at Clackamas and took first place.  The second 567.5 plant in my trial
plot produced a 649 lb. pumpkin, 10 days later I weighed it at Half
Moon Bay, California it weighed 633 lbs. and placed 2nd at the weighoff.

I know of no other pumpkins grown in 1993 from the 567.5.  The 727 was
pollinated back to itself with the 567.5.  I sent a number of seeds out
to
growers but never heard of any large pumpkins grown from it.  Of
interest
on the 649 it was open polli- nated but had good pumpkins around it.
After weighing it at Half Moon Bay, I delivered it to the Bonanza Casino

in Reno, Nevada for display.  They saved the seeds from the 649 and sent

them to me this past winter with the seeds from a 714 lb. pumpkin that I

weighed off at HalfMoon Bay this past year and also sold to the Bonanza
Casino.  I have planted one of the 649 in my trial patch and sent a few
of the 649 to other growers to try maybe a sleeper with some potential,
and not re- lated to a lot of the seeds out there now.

1994

I planted two 567.5 plants in 1994.  One plant produced my 800.5 which
I weighed at Clackamas and took first place.  The final total measure-
ments on the 800.5 were 351" which made this pumpkin about 70 lbs. light

according to the chart.  The other plant had a nice pumpkin on it but
it split in the blossom and I lost it when it split on August 26 it had
a total measurement of 325".

Pete Glasier grew a 567.5 in 1994 and produced a 696 lb. pumpkin its
final measurements total 318" which made it approximately 72 lbs. over
the chart.  Pete weighed this pumpkin at HalfMoon Bay, California and
tied for the first place with Joel Holland.

1995

During the winter of 94/95 interest grew in the 567.5 after it produced
the 800.5 pumpkin.  I sent out a number of seeds that winter.

Unfortunately I planted only a single 567.5 in 1995 and produced a 833.5

lb. pumpkin, it's final total measurements were 350.75".  I had 3 fruits

on this plant but lost 2 of them to splitting, one split underneath and
the other in a bad Dill ring on top of the pumpkin.  The pumpkin that
split on 9/15/95 was bigger than the 833.5 at the time it split.

Shown below is the 875 lb. pumpkin, grown in 1995 by Jack LaRue of
Tenino,
Washington and weighed at HalfMoon Bay, California.  It is the biggest
official off- spring from the 567.5 todate.

PUMPKINS GROWN FROM THE 567.5 IN 1995

Grower           Weight        Male      Inches     Finish
Jack LaRue       875 lbs.      JH 782    363        1st HalfMoon
Jack LaRue       850.5 lbs.    JH 782    370        2nd Clackamas
                                                    4th GPC
Lyle Richart     846.5lbs.     LR 632    348        2nd Clackamas
                                                    5th GPC
Kirk Mombert     833.5 lbs.    KM 800.5  350.75     8th GPC
Jerry Rose       816 lbs.      Open      362        1st Ohio Valley
                                                    10th GPC
Gus Saunders     680 lbs.      Zehr 804  332        8th Ottawa
Shellie Cramer   657.5 lbs.    .......   .....      8th Clackamas
Janet Wilson     633.5 lbs.    .......   .....      11th Clackamas

There were a number of other 567.5 pumpkins at the Clackamas weighoff
in the 500 lb. to low 600 lb. range.



---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index