RE: seeds
Darcy,
There can be anywhere from as few as 30 to as many as 600 or more seeds in
an AG pumpkin. They need to be scraped out of the inside of the fruit and
cleaned off. They tend to be attached pretty well to the inside of the
fruit so it takes a bit of effort to clean them off. They then need to be
dried in an area with good air circulation and be kept seperate while drying
so they won't get moldy. Most growers use some type of screen material to
dry them on or paper. You can keep and use your own seeds or trade and give
them to other growers. The bigger your pumpkins are the more desireable the
seeds will be. Or if they show over the course of a season or two that they
produce much larger fruit than themselves or have some other characteristics
that other growers are looking for like good color, thick walls, good shape
or resistance to heat or disease. Its taken a lot of selective breeding to
get where we are with these fruits. I think we will once again be getting
into some lively discussions of AG genetics and breeding judging by John
Failor's most recent posts. So search the archives and read Don Langevin's
books How to Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins the original and Volume II. I
think you will find many of the answers to questions you might have in those
sources.
Chris Michalec
Covington, WA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DARCY Butcher [SMTP:darcykbutcher@juno.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 1999 12:20 AM
> To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
> Subject: Re: seeds
>
> Chris,
> Thanks for the E and info. I will keep my eyes peeled. When people
> harvest seeds do they just crack the pumpkin open and then pull out the
> seeds to dry? Is there a lot of cleaning that has to be done? Is there
> a fair amount of seeds from a batch that don't produce or do most all do?
> Once I grow some giants do I harvest the seeds each year and keep them
> going year after year? If so, how do you improve your "gene pool"? I
> guess I have a lot to learn and will keep my ears and eyes open. Thanks
> again. I am REALLY looking forward to stepping into the pumpkin world!
> Darcy
> Salt Lake City
>
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