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Eastern Pennsylvania

A grower shares a seed from his pumpkin with a good friend who lives just 40 minutes away. They both plant the seed in their patches. They visit each other's patch several times throughout the year. They are neck and neck.

Weighoff day, Doylestown PA: two dark orange beauties show up, they could be twins, are estimated 3rd and 4th biggest, they hit the scale one after the other... 921.5 pounds each exactly! Both of them! Same seed, same weighoff, first year out!!! congrats Tim Rosa (Thetman) the new orange king of Eastern PA!

10/11/2010 12:19:21 PM

Bristol R.I. USA

thats a story of a LIFETIME...

10/11/2010 12:41:00 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

A-men

10/11/2010 1:27:38 PM

Massillon, Ohio

the friends are twins separated at birth!!!!!

10/11/2010 1:48:11 PM

Bemidji Minnesota

That is amazing.

Any link to the pics?

When you think about it, close of genetics as possible, same climate, and likely the same information about growing. - so while AMAZING they came out to the exact same weight, not really an accident.

10/11/2010 1:50:35 PM

British Columbia

It would be interesting to know how these two pumpkins were pollinated.
? Self or x? Carefully by hand or open? What cross?

What I do not know is if the pollination has any determination on the fruit size in that growing year. Subsequent years through the seeds certainly. Are the genetics already in effect for size potential for the current year regardless of the pollinator or can the pollen help determine seed size and thus fruit size? . If these two identical fruits were self pollinated it would not tell us necessarily, but if they were crossed with two different male flowers it would be interesting to know. Although a test sample of two isn't all that scientific I guess.
Great story at any rate!

10/11/2010 2:30:21 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

both pumpkins were pollinated by hand. And I can vouch for Tim we both were very careful.

Tim's pumpkin is: 923 Gerhardt 09 x SELF
My pumpkin is: 923 Gerhardt 09 x 603.5 Muller

There will be plenty of pics up soon. With both in the same picture. You will not be disappointed!

10/11/2010 5:22:44 PM

Linden,PA

I was there to witness the twins. Here is another spin. Tim is a little bigger(taller) than Jim. Tim's pumpkin was slightly larger than Jim's in size. The shape and color were the same, beautiful orange. Both weight the same. Both, Jim and Tim worked their butts off at this weigh off. They did an excellent job at this inaugural event. The day was picture perfect at The Market at Delaware Valley College. Monster Pumpkin Madness is a weigh off that will grow in attendance in years to come.
The only bad thing for me was that the "twins" beat me by 3 pounds! LOL Great job guys!

10/11/2010 5:38:05 PM

Dillsburg, PA

That is really cool.

10/11/2010 6:41:03 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

Yeah, it really was something I'll never forget. My most jaw-dropping moment of the day was seeing the number on the scale when the 2nd one landed. If you tried for your entire life to grow two 900+ pumpkins exactly the same weight you would probably never succeed! Amazing, the stars must've been aligned that day!

10/11/2010 7:14:00 PM

Easton, PA

There is this thing called fate and I for one now have a very strong belief that things happen for a reason. Jim and I had a great season, and although we both would have loved to topped the 1000lb mark, we could not have scripted a conclusion to this season any better than the way it turned out. Just incredible. What are the odds?? I will post some pictures from the patch tomorrow but I wasn't able to take any pictures during the weight-off because I was shoved into the most stressful job possible......LOL...I was the lucky guy who got to tie the lifting straps to each pumpkin. Happy to say that I was 21 for 21!!! No splattered pumpkins. And Jim is correct, my pumpkin was grown from the 923 Gerhardt 09 x Self. The 923 Gerhardt produces one of the best looking pumpkins on the planet. And I aint just saying that because Jim is my good bud.....What an amazing orange!!!!

10/11/2010 9:51:11 PM

[email protected]

That is how Ned Sandercock and I started our rivalry. It was about 8 years ago or so we both grew 805 Pukos seeds, compared notes through out the season. We took them too Altoona and both ended up with 803 pound pumpkins, tied at the weigh off. Ever since then we have been good friends and love to play the game with each other.

10/11/2010 11:54:03 PM

Westford, MA

That story is almost as crazy as someone matching the previous year's World Record, to the pound!!!!

Or the story I heard about someone (from VT) matching their previous year's weight at the Topsfield Weigh-off!!

NEVER HAPPEN!

10/12/2010 11:25:06 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

921.5 Gerhardt (923 Gerhardt x 603.5 Muller) on left, 921.5 Rosa (923 Gerhardt x SELF) on right: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feb31st/5071782640/in/set-72157625015792623/

Tim's pumpkin is elevated by foam and is a bit taller and not as long.

921.5 Gerhardt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feb31st/5071180043/in/set-72157625015792623/

921.5 Rosa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feb31st/5071785988/in/set-72157625015792623/

10/12/2010 12:11:22 PM

Honesdale Pa USA

Jim, Great job at with the weigh-off at Doylestown.My son,Sam,and I enjoyed watching Tim and your pumpkins come in at 921.5 since we were sure they were heavier than Sam's 959! He's a senior in high school and is trying to raise money for a trip to Costa Rica in the spring. It was exciting seeing Mark,Tim and your pumpkins go lighter than Sam's. I probably was happier than Sam because I would have ended up paying that extra 500 bucks anyway!!! Congrats to Tim and you on 2 Dill award caliber pumpkins. Good luck in 2011, Andy

10/12/2010 8:21:47 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Andy, Sam did a great job with that pumpkin! The prize money will be better served by facilitating his trip to Costa Rica rather than handed over to my or Tim's local bartenders.

Thanks for making the trip down. We had 21 pumpkins not including the field pumpkins, and I hope more growers will consider making the trip next year.

Congrats to Kevin with his 1,418 - having it weighed at our weighoff really put the icing on the cake.

I would also like to thank Alex for all of the work he put into making this weighoff happen. Without him there wouldn't have been a place to weigh them at all. Alex also got the results up accurately and quickly on the gpc page.

But now I see I've hijacked my own post. How bout those 921.5's

10/12/2010 10:29:41 PM

@Thetman

realy nice Orange pumpkin you growed this year. Have you already harvested it and how are the seeds ?
Do you've plan to give away seeds or not ?

11/13/2010 4:28:37 PM