Re: Mixed blessings
- To:
- Subject: Re: Mixed blessings
- From: c* s*
- Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 10:27:12 -0700
rick, we have a small mill contest up here and always get seeds from howard
dill. in the past they have always been of good size and healthy looking .
been very happy . this year the seed must have come from same lot as yours
because they were very small approx half normal size and looked sick, in
fact some were broken to the point that you could see the inside of the
seed - not very happy. don,t know how they are going to pollinate. i don,t
use them - there given out to people who want to try growing -for the fun of
it . don,t know if we,ll use howards seeds next year. maybe just bad lot
but most packages were full of these seeds ( 7 pks) good luck
craig
----- Original Message -----
From: <rdi@dos.nortel.com>
To: <pumpkins@mallorn.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 8:58 AM
Subject: Re: Mixed blessings
>Paul Thompson in Michigan writes:
>
>>the only plants that are up are from a $1.95
>>packet of 10 I bought at the local garden center.
>>...
>>Those seeds were
>>considerably smaller than the "good" ones -- would that make a
>>difference?
>
>Yes, quite a difference from my experience.
>I went through this last year. I got "store-bought" seeds from Agway,
clearly
>marked "Atlantic Giant", "PVP" (hence under Dill's quality control, *I
assumed*)
>and all that. Like you mention, the seeds I got were much smaller than one
would
>expect from a "giant" pumpkin. I drove all around the county,
feeling/looking
>through all the packets they had, and none of the seeds were larger; in
fact,
>all the stores had seed from the same lot (which may be one pumpkin, I
don't know).
>I grew 3 of them, with very disappointing results, which I attribute to
them being
>of inferior genetics, as I did nearly everything else right, fertilized
weekly, watered
>daily, etc., grew one pumpkin per vine, etc. What I got was 3 plants, the
>largest vine only around 16-20 feet long, with 2 foot long secondaries.
>They were all midgets compared to the AG vine photos you see on the
internet.
>They yielded 3 nearly-identical AG pumpkins (indeed starting out cream
colored, maturing
>to orange), and the biggest weighed 4 (yes, four) pounds. While quite a
feat to grow
>such a small, fully mature AG, it didn't generate the media sensation you'd
think. :-)
>(I'm thinking of growing a known-genetics seed in exactly the same plot
this year
>as a test just to prove that it was the seed and not my technique.)
>
>This past fall, I watched the pumpkin list here, and obtained some "real"
good-genetics
>seeds from people who really care about and control the parentage, and was
stunned at
>the size of the seeds I got. My advice is to not waste your time with
these wimpy
>seeds at all, turn them under as fertilizer for your "good" seed! :-)
>Even if you have to plant later than you'd like, I wouldn't go with the
$1.95 seeds.
>
>-----------
>Rick Inzero, grower of dwarf Atlantic Giants
> "Why *ANYBODY* can grow a BIG one!!"
>near Rochester, NY
>rdi@cci.com
>
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