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Kentucky - USA

This has been a very bad year for peoples pumpkins to crack so I would like to hear some of the theories from you guys on what causes them to crack..

Thanks for any info..

Tadams

P.S. ( I have one that is still growing,lest than a 150 lbs and it is getting cracks)

9/27/2002 5:15:20 PM

Utah

Tadams-
we know what causes them to crack, the applied stress in the form of external and/or internal loading, was higher than the ultimate stress of the pumpkin wall where it cracked.this can happen in several different ways.
small surface cracks are pretty typical, they are caused
by the skin ripening and getting harder and/or the pumpking
is still growing causing internal stress. small localize spits occure. no big deal.
big fatal cracks happen: 1)where the pumpkin wall is thin for example the blossem end, the pumpkin grows faster than it can keep up with itself and the unique shape of the blossem is a week point, so that is where they split. 2) the weight of the pumpkin top becomes so great that shell can't handle it any more... a dill ring 3)there is an imperfection that causes a stress riser, for example a rib or edge of a concave bottom. bottom some times what to grow out big and round like the tops but they can't because they are pushing against the ground and they aren't srong enough to lift up the entire pumpkin anymore so they split or go concave. also 4) bottoms i think are often weak because they are subject to rot. so weigh off day comes and we roll them on their side which causes the bottom to take a load that it hasn't seen before, which causes them to spit. my guess it this is what happened to Tom Beachy's pumpkin.
... the problem is how do we prevent these problems ?

9/30/2002 8:36:45 AM