Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

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Germination was flawless this year with eleven of eleven sprouting.  Sanding the seed edges certainly helped and the cotyledons emerged mostly undamaged.

The Ciliberto 983 and 801 were up in under three days.  On the fourth day came the 846 Calai.  They came up so fast I was late in getting the sites ready.

I planted the two Ciliberto's in the first site I finished and found that after just four days from germination the  roots had already hit the bottom of the one gallon pots.  I knew it would take me at least two days to finish the Calai site so I decided to re-pot it in a five gallon pot.

When I pulled the Calai from it's pot, to my absolute amazement I found the main tap root coiled around the bottom of the pot like the curled tail of a dragon.  Unfettered, the root was over 16" long from the base of the plant.  I have never seen anything like this. Three days after breaking ground, the Calai had over twice the root system of it's older cousins.

This is no ordinary ninja pumpkin.  A day later the cotyledons were over 8 inches across and the first true leaf was starting to pop.  This plant truly wants to rumble. It is large and it is hungry.   I got it out of the confinement of the pot and into the ground on it's fourth day with a sense of relief that I had not restrained it's appetite too much.