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Belgium Europe

When measuring the circumference of a pumpkin, at what height should this be done? Some say at stem height, others claim that this should be the greatest circumference, but always parallel to the ground. What is the right way?

9/13/2026 2:18:22 PM

Germany

The widest circumference parallel to the ground. Sometimes one needs to try the procedure in more than just one or two heights to find the one which gives the widest cc.

https://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=246073

9/13/2026 2:24:27 PM

Belgium Europe

Thank you, this is clear.

9/14/2026 5:35:27 AM

Mn

I don't think the parallel to the ground should mean much as long as it's circumference but that's me. There's a lot of pumpkins that are larger up top on front and lower in back. At the end of the day they are going to weigh what they weigh though.

9/19/2026 7:32:23 PM

Germany

The "parallel to the ground" is the key to obtain values that consider the three dimensions of the fruit in close to equal manner (CC, EE, SS reflect three cuts through an ellipsoid with equal contributions of the ellipsoid's three principal axes). Just imagine what would happen if you had a fruit like a wheel, not perfectly upright, maybe 10 deg tilted. So, you measure the largest wheel dimension when measuring the SS, and then you measure the CC in close to the same direction (simply just because you can). This results in putting the upright principal axis of this ellipsoid into the result with 3-fold weight (because then all three values CC, SS, EE) would have large contributions of this axis.

9/20/2026 2:15:58 PM