Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Saturday, January 21 View Page That’s it, apart from a few for ourselves all the 2907 seeds are gone.   Saturday, January 28 View Page I took one of the 2907 clones to a very special laboratory where Jo Hillman is going to attempt to micro propagate it. It was a 400 mile 8 hour road trip but well worth it because the plant couldn’t be in better hands.   Saturday, January 28 View Page By the time I was home Jo had started and this is what was left of the mother plant.   Saturday, January 28 View Page This is the plant material ready to be dissected.   Saturday, January 28 View Page Jo managed to extract around 15 axillary buds which is way more than I expected.   Saturday, January 28 View Page The buds were then sterilised. Jo told me that the buds were exceptionally good for the time of year. This is definitely down to the good growing tent with artificial and natural light.   Saturday, January 28 View Page The buds were then put into individual jars. We should know within about a week if there is any infections. I spent 3 hours talking to Jo and it’s highly skilled work. There’s loads of detail that I can’t include but I’m sure you’ll get the gist of it. It’s all cutting edge for the world of giant pumpkin growing but you have to start somewhere.   Friday, February 24 View Page This is one of the clones being divided up. The callous caused by the cytokines in the media is being cut away. The plants are being transferred into new jars with the aim of encouraging root initials by mid March. Jo has named the bottles IPP3000. I’ll let you work that one out   Tuesday, March 21 View Page The media has been changed to one that encourages roots and look what’s happened. They are looking anaemic partly because this has never been done before and feeding is a steep learning curve. The other reason is that they are totally under artificial lights. A few plants were potted today into 9cm shallow pots and once rooted will be gently moved into the natural environment. We may well have to get a little inventive with slowing down or speeding up the plants to meet our planting plan.   Monday, March 27 View Page And we’re off, they all got started at 30C or 90F yesterday.