It all depends on your definition of the word "record"...

This whole "record" thread strikes me as about as unproductive as listening
to Bill Clinton "testify" on the meaning of the word "is."  (No offense to
any particular political persuasion intended, but that was a sad, silly
moment.)

Now we hear things like its the "world's heaviest" but not a "world's
record."  Come on!

If there are 3 weigh-offs in the Northwest on 3 different weekends are the
growers supposed to designate ahead of time which particular plant and fruit
they are growing for which event??  No.  They will figure out as they go
along which one will max out for which weigh-off and enter the best they've
got at each event.  This is fulfilling a strategy, but has nothing to do
with establishing whether or not the pumpkin weighed is a record.

These pumpkins have a finite lifespan and growth-span, as we all know.  They
won't grow forever.  If someone could create conditions to allow prevent
their fruit from maturing indefinitely and to allow the plant to survive
indefinitely, then maybe a pumpkin planted in 2002 could be weighed off in
2006 at 5000 lbs for a new world's heaviest.  It would be ridiculous to try
to argue that this would not constitute a world record weight...but this is
not going to happen.  The plant is an annual and every pumpkin fruit is
going to be less than a year old, so why fuss if the grower kept the fruit
growing for 3 months or 4 months or 4-1/2 months or ....?

Prize money is an entirely separate matter, and every weighoff or pumpkin
organization has the right to determine what they will pay prize money for.
Just like they determine the definition of "pumpkin," the GPC could if they
wished stipulate that they want only fruit that were planted on or after
such-and-such a date.  But, they are not likely to do that if it would limit
the size of the fruit that would be brought.  In most areas where record
fruit are possible, most of the fruit have maxed out by the first weekend in
October, and after that frost is too much of a problem in most areas anyway.
I don't think it would be out of line to consider zone-based weigh-off dates
to better accommodate growers with different regional climates under the
aegis of the GPC, but some of our zones just will likely never really have a
chance at the big money anyway.  (Here's a whole other possible thread for
friendly discussion...)

Could it come down to a person having to make a strategic decision between
cutting off a fruit before weight maxed out in order to get some prize money
and in order to be a contest champion VERSUS letting it grow longer and
getting a new state or national record with no money or contest recognition
at all?  Obviously this could happen, and I think most of us would love to
have the chance to try to resolve this dilemma...but truly one cannot always
have one's cake and eat it too, no matter how much one would like to do so.
But to say that someone else's pumpkin isn't a world record holder because
it wasn't grown or weighed under the same conditions as your own seems like
either pie in the sky or sour grapes, depending on your point of view.  (I
must be hungry!)

I am not making these comments to anyone in particular.  I have been
skimming through the bickering too fast to even notice who said what.  Lets
just grow the heaviest soundest fruit possible and get them accurately
weighed with knowledgeable witnesses who can rejoice with us in our new
personal, state, national and world records.  If we are blessed enough to
qualify through an organization to win some prize money as well then so much
the better.

I want to say thank you to those who have helped to put this discussion in
perspective of the brevity and preciousness of life.

Peace, pumpkin brothers & sisters,
Chris

---------------------------------------
Chris Wilbers
Springfield, MO / Zone 6
Growing giant pumpkins since 1996
Personal best 520.4 lb. (2000)
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but
God who causes the growth. -- I Corinthians 3:7
---------------------------------------
g*@att.net
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing FAQ: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/search.cgi
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index