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San Luis Obispo Ca

I will be using seeds from a Pumpkin that I grew this year 03. My question is. The Pumpkin was mutated/deformed in shape. However, the weight was good at 300LBS+. 2003 was my first year so I am happy with this weight. Back to the question. Since the pumpkin was strange in shape, will this always be the case in terms of what I should expect to grow? Or should I try another seed? I received these seeds from Jim Beachemin from NH. They came from a Pumpkin that was 800+. I feel that I want to climatize these seeds to the Central Cal. region before I give up on them? What do ya think?

12/12/2003 12:11:12 PM

Pumpkintown, SC

I believe climatized seeds are advantagous. However, there are probably hundreds of other seeds available out there with similar climatization. As far as your deformed pumpkin, this was most likely the result of an incomplete pollination. ie. this "trait" will not be passed on to the offspring because the genes were not responsible for it in the first place. Your seeds should be fine, BF

12/12/2003 12:24:15 PM

[email protected]

Incomplete or partial pollination can result in a mishapen pumpkin as not all the lobes of the segment expand with seeds as the pumpkin grows. Were all the segments of the fruit with seeds? If not, then the mishapen fruit would have been from an environmental cause & not genetic.

There are probably many other influences but this one comes to mind because we've seen it here.

12/12/2003 7:45:38 PM