why not plant earlier

I generally plant my pumpkins the first week in May.  Say around May 7th or so.  9 out of 10 times my fruits will only grow for 70 days in my area.  If i planted in early to mid April, and pollinated in june, id be sitting on my fully grown pumpkin for a month or so with no growth.  I would imagine in different parts of the country/world you could plant that early and be successful.  Around here that wouldnt work for me.
Scott
> 
>        Why not plant earlier?
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> 
> Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 23:05:36 -0300
> From: Richard Plourde <RichardPlourde@rogers.com>
> Subject: Why not plant earlier?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> There is something I can't seem to figure out...  Why do most 
> growers 
> start their seeds the last week of April as opposed to a week or 
> two  
> or three earlier?  Wouldn't it be better to get a few extra days 
> of 
> growth before October weigh-offs?
> 
> I am trying to break my personal best of 804 (pollinated July 
> 20th!) in 
> a place where the summer is short.   As soon as we hit the first 
> week 
> of August,  the nights are cold and growth drops dramaticaly.  I 
> feel 
> that if I could get to the rapidy weight gain stage (15 - 20 days 
> old 
> or so) in the first week of July the warm weather would let it 
> take 
> off...  I'd have to pollinate in mid june.
> 
> It turns out from the AGGC data, all pumpkins over 1200 lbs 
> (approx. 20 
> of them) where germinated on average April 29 (April 20 being the 
> earliest and May 6 the latest) and where pollinated on average 
> July 5.  
> It seems that germinating the first week of April is not the 
> solution 
> as many would have done it and succeeded at it.
> 
> We have frost here in spring until mid-june and snow cover until 
> the 
> end of April.  We can't till until May.  So why is it that people 
> who 
> don't have too much frost restrictions and could easily plant 
> earlier 
> still wait until the end of April?
> 
> Just wonderin'
> 
> Richard Plourde
> Edmundston, NB
> Canada
> 
> - -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> 
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> 
> End of pumpkins DIGEST V1 #106
> ******************************

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