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Salem, Oregon

I've been keeping track of the weight gains on the 1807 Stelts in my patch. For the last ten days I've averaged very steady gains of 24 to 28 pounds. There was a bigger weight gain yesterday of 32 pounds, then today it gained only 14 pounds. I know they say not to get caught up in the day to day gains and getting a ten day average is better. The tape was in the same distance above the ground measuring the circumference.

Is it growing inside? Adding more shell internally before it starts again. The weather hasn't not even been close enough for it too abort. The average high has been 79 degrees. Nothing fertilizer wise that was over added to made the soil "lock-up".....strange......Any thoughts??

8/1/2012 12:35:34 AM

Connecticut

You never know.
One of mine was doing a steady 20lbs a day avg then in a 5 day measure only 11-12lbs a day. I taped it the next day to see if it had stopped and it put on 30 overnight.

8/1/2012 8:31:55 AM

Netherlands

Pumpkins do not grow inside without growing outside. The daily difference is simply a matter of incorrect measuring and rounding off of measurements. That means your measurement of yesterday was probably 8 lbs too much and should have been 24 lbs and your measurement today would be 8 lbs more, which means 22 lbs. The other 2 lbs is a matter of rounding off. I wouldn't be too worried about it. Tomorrow you will hopefully be back to 20 plus lbs.
For this reason some of us measure every 5 days or if you have the guts, every 10 days.

8/1/2012 9:21:13 AM

Little-TON - Colorado

So then....twice a day would be conZidered....excessive?

8/1/2012 9:44:35 AM

Torrance, Ca.

That's me WiZ!!!


Its bad! :)

8/1/2012 10:04:35 AM

Bristol R.I. USA

Ive found that a 7 day average works for me. You cant choose the climate you get or the other situations.

8/1/2012 10:20:07 AM

Frankfort Ohio

i got to learn to go with 1 time a week ever day or other day will drive you nuts but i do want a weekley measurement before i fertalize cause it its doing 35 a day i dont want to dump a lot on it

8/1/2012 12:35:01 PM

Mission Viejo, CA

Measuring the pumpkin and determining how many pounds it has grown is the fun part - its like Christmas every day! Maybe in my second year I won't measure so often. Or maybe I will! LOL

8/1/2012 12:48:35 PM

while i agree with what dutch brad wrote about daily measurements and pumpkins dont grow alot 1 day then hardly any the next thats true


but on the other hand late season is another thing
ive have weighed pumpkins to see if they can grow without gaining ott
3 years so far ive had as many as 5 pumpkin gain 50 to 80 pounds with no ott change
the first year i just thought its how and were my tape was going around
then i went with dial indicater last year i know it sounds bizzare but scale showed me some can and do gain pounds and not just a few lbs but not every pumpkin gained

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=169413

8/1/2012 1:04:34 PM

South of Buffalo

My 1079 has had very choppy growth and i do see the value in measuring every 5-7 days vs daily. But i have not had consistant daily growth. High of 35# one day last week then to 27 then to no registered growth, back up up to 33# yesterday from 12 on sunday and now 15# today. Compared to my 1426 wolf whcih has been at 18-22#/day for weeks now.

8/1/2012 1:14:19 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

Great observationZ....Would be cool to see a pumpkin grown on a scale and trap the gains for analysis....

8/1/2012 1:34:20 PM

Salem, Oregon

Very good responses. Wiz........I don't remember where I saw it, but it was a video and someone had a pumpkin suspended from a tripod with a industrial scale. Very nice to see the gains that way........

I think part of it is weather driven. Since I hadn't added anything in a large enough amount to lock up the soil, part of me wonders about the weather....particularly the amount of direct sun. The last several days it's been overcast and then the sun pops out around noon(ish).....

Going back through my excell sheet I see that when I had my previous "largest one day gain" on Day 30 (26Lbs), the next day I recorded 19 a pound .......So maybe weather related?

8/1/2012 1:57:50 PM

Midway, UT

Bobier grew on a scale on the Lord of Gourds PBS show I believe. I think I saw a post once from Pukos saying he grew on a scale.

8/1/2012 3:27:00 PM

Northern Cambria, Pa.

I agree with Don 100%. I have also seen a nearly 100 lb. gain with little OTT change. Bill Bobier did grow one on a scale and made similar observations.

8/1/2012 3:35:48 PM

Salem, Oregon

That's who I think it was who grew on a scale. Very clever to do that. Since i only have one giant going measuring once a day aint such a bad thing, I know there would be some variations in growth because of weather and mismeasurement. Trust me there was no mismeasuring taking place. When I measure the circumference, I'm usually measuring three times amd having the tape end up in three different spots. When two are the same, that's the one I roll with.

I've also given some thought to watering. When I know the weather will be overcast til noon or early afternoon, I turn off the automatic timer watering in the morning , since the soil is still moist and it doesn't evaporate as much.

8/1/2012 3:37:38 PM

canal winchester ohio

I've weighed them on the vine mid Sept & when I took it to the scales a month later it weighed more without any addition to the OTT

8/1/2012 4:19:11 PM

Ashby, MA

My 10 day average (D30-D40) on one of my pumpkins showed only 5 lbs/day. However, my D20-D30 average was 23 lbs/day. I sure hope it was growing inside (like Don said they could). The plant and everything still looks healthy. I'm going to measure in another 10 days and hope for the best.

8/1/2012 4:23:57 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

Absolutely, I wish people would understand that there is a lot that can go on inside a pumpkin, particularly late in the year, that isn't measured in OTT on the outside. The flesh could grow, and/or get more dense (more wet).

What we have in the OTT charts is a collection of (mostly) mature fruits, with what they measured and what they weighed. The key point being, "mature". So, when you have a fruit that is 20 or 30 days old, and we try to line that up with a mature fruit number to another mature fruit number, it's kind of bogus. When the fruit is young, the walls are thinner and less mature... you can expect larger OTT gains but not as much weight gain on a fruit at mid-season.

Anyway, I guess my point is, if you have a fruit that seems to stop adding OTT in early September and you say, "I'll pick it and go weigh it..." No! Keep it on the vine and let it really mature, probably adding weight all along the way!

8/1/2012 5:17:29 PM

Rhode Island

it is very rare when a fruit that we have been tracking for months suddenly has a jump in daily average (7day avg) over a previous weeks daily average.
it did happen to us once last year in late september and, it was only a gain of 2 lbs per day (8 lbs the week before and 10 that week )i dont even consider that a gain ----just a mismeasurement or a couiple more crows feet that last week.
it has been our experience that these things do not go up and down in daily gains ,especially when averaged over a weeks growth.
yes some days the fruit will grow a bit better than others due to temp and weather. but for the most part on any good grower?,the gains go up each week-then peak for several weeks, then start to drop in daily average up to seasons end.
thats my story and im sticking to it ---lol
pap

8/1/2012 5:45:16 PM

nOVA sCOTIA

i don't think there are too many on the AGGC site that remained on the vine for 120days and went light:)

8/1/2012 6:13:08 PM

Salem, Oregon

I like the idea that a pumpkin can gain weight without adding to to OTT.

8/1/2012 6:57:44 PM

Salem, Oregon

Ok everyone......Grab your beverage of choice, settle in and enjoy a good laugh at my expense. We all know that from time to time we make mistakes in the patch. Some mistakes are major and cost growers the entire season, some others minor mistakes are relatively minor and we get a good chuckle at what we did and breathe a big sigh of relief....Fortunately the latter is the case here.....

I reached another milestone yesterday which was the measuring tape I had used all last season and up until yesterday had run out.....Not big enough to measure the circumference! So I went to town to get a 100' fiberglass reel tape measure. Of course I knew one side was the engineer side (yellow) and the other was standard inches........Here's where I kicked myself....6' is 72" not 70"........So when you measure Blossom to Stem and get 6'6" you have 78".......Make me look at what I might have been doing wrong though~! Glad it was that simple!

8/1/2012 9:55:35 PM

most big ones run out of tape at 16 feet or 192 inch
never heard of blossom to stem measurement

8/1/2012 10:13:48 PM

Torrance, Ca.

192 ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, now that's a giant Don!!!!

8/1/2012 11:48:14 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

There is a grower I know that was lifting his pumpkin with a tripod to measure the weight gain vs the OTT gain. I think his results indicated clearly that the pumpkins are putting on alot more weight late in the season than shows up on the tape...maybe he will post his findings here.

8/2/2012 1:43:35 AM

Netherlands

A European grower has grown many! pumpkins on a scale with an indicator for years and years and once the indicator showed no movement (ie. no outside growth) there was also no weight gain on the scales. But if you are talking about huge pumpkins, every 16th of an inch would mean substantial weight gains without being able to measure it accurately with a tape.

8/2/2012 4:05:43 AM

Bristol R.I. USA

This is an interesting debate. My first year growing I had a pumpkin that measured about say 500 it seemed to stop growing about 3 weeks out. It had the appearence of growth stopping being really ruddy and cantaloped. Many grower advised me to just keep the fruit healthy and ride it home aying it was done. I did what they aid when the pumpkin hit the scales it was 33 percent heavy and thumped solid. So I do believe at the end of a pumpkins growing cycle it does gain weight. That weight being water in the cell of the pumpkin. When the seed where being taken it wa discovered that the seeds where sitting in a soupy mess. Perhaps the skin was able to take the water however the inside pumpkin walls may have exploded and began to rot out. Just a theory as to what could have taken place.

8/2/2012 1:24:03 PM