Intro and Question

Hi all,
I was happy to hear of this list from another South African subscriber as 
my husband has become mildly obsessed with the idea of growing a record 
sized pumpkin since I foolishly brought home a packet of Big Max seeds a 
few years ago. Luckily we live on a large property outside of Johannesburg 
and have the space for this hobby (otherwise I suspect that I wouldn't have 
any garden at all apart from the pumpkin patch!). We produced a few big 
pumpkins from seed obtained from Bernard Lavery last year. I have no idea 
what they weighed, but they were significantly larger than the Big Max's 
grown the previous year and took four healthy guys to lift onto the back of 
a truck using a tarpaulin. I would guess at 100KG plus for each.
This wasn't enough for the man in my life however, so late last year I 
contacted Howard Dill and bought two packets of Dills 700lb+ seeds as a 
present for my him. Our summer is just starting, so we have planted the 
precious seeds in the same way as in previous years. Each seed in a 6 inch 
pot filled with a sand and compost mixture placed on a heating mat to 
germinate. So far only ONE seed out of the fourteen has germinated and this 
is 9 days after planting. Have we done something wrong? I've never had such 
poor (or slow) germination before. Are Dills seeds bad germinators? Should 
I rush out and buy some Big Max seeds (the only ones that can be bought 
commercially here in SA) so that we have at least some big pumpkins this 
summer? Please help a pair of beginners in the Atlantic Giant growing game.
Cheers
Sue

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