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Grittyville, WA

Is this the consensus now, that older pumpkins will go heavier to chart?

Is there a rule of thumb for this, say, at 60 DAP you should expect the pumpkin to go to chart, and every day after 60 days/ every additional 15 DAP thereafter should gain, say, an extra 5% hvy-to-chart?

Just want to know if anyone has approximately figures the math out on this.

Genetics and plant care, would still be other major factors, besides the DAP. Setting those aside, whats a good rule of thumb for DAP & %HVY...?

9/16/2023 1:28:02 AM

Grittyville, WA

Sorry about the poor editing.

9/16/2023 1:30:09 AM

Austin MN

#1 is genetics #2 is your soil #3 your watering #4 a couple of secrets. I studied this hard last year and did a bunch of reading on cell density of fruiting crops. In short this is what I believe are the main factors.

9/16/2023 6:53:43 AM

Grittyville, WA

Tanner, you dont think the age of the pumpkin is a factor in the % hvy? My point is, it takes time for the pumpkin to grow 12" thick. At 40 DAP the pumpkin might only be 6" thick... but at 80 DAP it might be twice that, or at 20 DAP it might be just half as thick.

At 30 DAP, even with the correct genetics, soil, and watering, and secrets, a pumpkin should still generally be expected to go 10% light to chart, simply because of its youthful age? Or do you still expect it would go heavy to chart.

9/16/2023 12:56:25 PM

Grittyville, WA

Can anyone give me a better rule of thumb than every 15 days adds 5% HVY? Of course these awkwardly hulky shaped 1885 pumpkins might stretch their OTTs out farther, so the rule of thumb for them might be every 5 days on the vine gains .1% hvy ??

Idk. Just asking if the gurus out there have a rule of thumb they are using.

9/16/2023 1:05:28 PM

Grittyville, WA

So for an 1885 werner at 95 days old, you'd calculate 95-60 = 35. 35/5= 7. 7 x .01 = .07. It might go 7% hvy.

For a pumpkin with heavy genetics at 105 days old,
120-60=45 60/15 = 4. 4 x .05 = .20. So it might go 20% hvy.

Assuming the grower did everything right nutrient-wise! Just something to think about.

9/16/2023 1:16:37 PM

Grittyville, WA

Correction to that last post:

So for an 1885 werner at 95 days old, you'd calculate 95-60 = 35. 35/5= 7. 7 x .01 = .07. It might go 7% hvy.

For a pumpkin with heavy genetics at 120 days old,
120-60=45 60/15 = 4. 4 x .05 = .20. So it might go 20% hvy.

Assuming the grower did everything right nutrient-wise! Just something to think about.

9/16/2023 1:18:33 PM

Austin MN

I don’t think age matters as much Iv had a 120 day old fruit go 3% light and a 55-60 day old fruit go 14%

9/16/2023 1:32:27 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Like Conner, all my really young fruit have gone heavy. Cell, division, cell division, cell division those first 25 days of growth are very important in a fruit going heavy if anything at all, plus everything Tanner said above with water being very high on the list.

9/16/2023 1:38:56 PM

Grittyville, WA

Well I see your point, although the 3% light fruit might have gone 18% light if harvested earlier, or the 14% fruit might have gone 29% hvy if harvested later. Good info, thanks Tanner.

I realize this is speculative, growers can come to their own conclusions from their own personal experiences.

9/16/2023 1:41:32 PM

Grittyville, WA

That's intersting So.Cal.

I can see that there is no consensus about this. But I do suspect that if a pumpkin was heavy at a young age it would only have gotten heavier. I dont see how a pumpkin could get lighter to chart as the DAP increased, but there's still a lot I dont know.

9/16/2023 1:46:05 PM

Syracuse, NY

LK - Assume there must be five or more unseen charts applicable to a pumpkin's growth over its lifespan.
Input vs. output, watering frequency and depth, temperature at that time of watering and the plant's ability to utilize said water, sunny days vs. cloudy days, changing daylight hours and longitude vs. latitude, lol. Just chiming in, pal. 'pal2
PS - As far as I've ever been concerned, percent heavy if substantial merely results in a fruit that is a big surprise at the weighoff, like a
blindfolded, turned-around game-winning shot that brought the house down;
'Look at how thick my pumpkin was!'
'Did it win?' 'No...' 'Awww...'
Don't anyone take that the wrong weigh, lol---I planted the 1541.5 McMillin in hopes of having exceptionally-thick walls myself - to be crossed with anything of mine that are simply beautiful and orange otherwise. MY goal would be to grow pumpkins that are HUGE AND thick-walled, not just potentially high-percent heavy. They've just grown more inward than outward. We've had this discussion before, somewhere...
To help answer your question, once a fruit stops growing VISIBLY,
THAT'S THE TIME... I FEEL LIKE MAKIN'...it grow on the inside.
Don't stop the ferts! Ha Ha Ha Well, later---eric g

9/16/2023 6:03:56 PM

Salem Ohio

I agree with Tconway completely, but I also think that DAP plays a factor. 2022 was the first year I grew on a scale and my DAP 25 was 16% heavy to chart. After DAP 25 it went down and did not get to 16% heavy again until DAP 100.
DAP 25 16%
DAP 30 9%
DAP 40 7%
DAP 50 0%
DAP 60 10%
DAP 70 10%
DAP 90 14%
DAP 100 16% HEAVY TO CHART
One thing I found very interesting was that at DAP 25 the percentage heavy to chart was the same as the final percentage heavy to chart at DAP 100.

9/16/2023 10:02:06 PM

Salem Ohio

Maybe DAP 25 is a good idea of the percentage heavy a fruit will go after a full 100 days of growth, but this is not a scientifically proven fact, but I will definitely be checking all my future fruits grown on a scale at DAP 25 closely in the future...

9/16/2023 10:07:19 PM

Grittyville, WA

Nice info there! I gotta get a scale!!!
I think mine was thumping light earlier this year... probably it was at 0% hvy at day 50 like yours.
But now day 90 and I think its been creeping upward. No way to know yet.

9/16/2023 11:15:02 PM

Syracuse, NY

Awesome, Ben and I'm still growing the 1541.5 'Over A Barrel' and it'll be neat-o to pick the seeds out of probably solid pumpkin meat, reminiscent of the 503 Beauchemin of many years ago. eg

9/17/2023 12:59:52 AM

Bethlehem CT

McMillin Giants, that is really interesting stuff!

9/17/2023 8:04:06 AM

Torrance, Ca.

Great chart McMillin! Very interesting for sure.

And a scale to show the change so we know what the fruit was doing.

9/17/2023 12:06:35 PM

Lodi, California

Only way to know for sure is with a scale under the pumpkin during the whole growing period. There are only a few data points, and Ben has most of them. Need more data to know for sure

9/17/2023 12:20:43 PM