Re: Serious questions in a light vein

>Terry:
>	Put it there Terry (high five) Yes!
>	I'm real interested to see if you get a response in favor of your ideal
>pumpkin.  I've posted a number of similar articles about breeding a better
>shaped pumpkin.  However, here in the giant pumpkin e-mail community size,
>as in weight, means everything.  For instance: last year the World Record
>and 1,000 lbs limit was broken. That grower won $100,000.00 plus.  The guy
>that grew the best shaped pumpkin got a cupie doll.  Talk about insentives!
>	We all know that a few commerical seed companies have developed
>some big
>beautiful pumpkins like the hybrid Burpees Prizewinner, but I don't think
>they get big enough - 100-200 lbs, if grown intensively they may even get a
>little bigger.
>	What I'd like to see is a 2,000 lb Jack-O-Lantern, deep red-orange in
>color, a slightly elongated sphereical shape, no flattening, mild ribbing,
>strong stem, with fine grained flesh that tastes wonderful and can feed
>4,000 people at a single sitting.
>
>	I've got some real interesting seed stock, some knowledge, ideas,
>etc. and
>might be able to assist your efforts to a minor degree.
>	If any others are interested in Terry's ideas please raise your hand.
>
>Michael in Akron
>mcohill@neo.lrun.com



	Here is a crazy idea. Instead of one person trying to develop an
ideal pumpkin, why don't a group of growers get together and devote one or
two "hills" in their gardens to this purpose. Over the winter we could get
together a seed stock with the best characteristics and devise a breeding
plan for them and then distribute them to interested growers with
pollinating plans, instructions for crossing, etc. next spring. It may take
many years to to see any real results but who knows???? With all the giant
pumpkin growers out there if only a few of us participated then that would
be one large experimental breeding plot.

Just an idea,
John
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