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Nottingham, UK

When looking to buy the best seed and in considering the parents characheristics, is it known if more is inherited from the mother over the father or vica versa?

e.g. I saw these seeds on Holland Giants and it got me thinking on what might be the better choice. As a new grower and good seed would be good and I want an orange one but it got me thinking.

1,277-10 Orange 1,400 Holland 1,725 Harp
1,051-10 Orange 1,725 Harp 1,505 Holland

8/4/2011 6:07:45 AM

Germany

In my diary you will notice that the pumpkin on the 1140 Van Rompaey plant (1725 Harp x 1180 Pukos) has an orange skin. Its mother (1140 Van Rompaey) and grandmother (1725 Harp) did not reveal that kind of orange, but the pollinator (1180 Pukos) did. Apparently, the male is able to transfer a large fraction of orange info to the seed. However, the female should be capable of doing the same, as the male can only transfer chromosomal genetic info, and the female does the same (50 percent from male, 50 percent from female). Additional feature of females is, they can transfer some additional info by means of plasma genes, non-chromosomal info. Not sure about the extent of this mechanism with pumpkins. As to the seeds candidates, I would suspect they could go orange as long as one of the parents was an orange one, and probability increases if the orange part had very orange parents (both male and female which produced orange fruits).

8/4/2011 6:34:51 AM

Germany

On http://www.aggc.org/aggc_main.asp you will find heaps of info about various giants. You could also go with the 972-10, as it is a reverse cross of the 1140 Van Rompaey, and the 1180 Pukos part in its mother had revealed good orange potential. The 1725 Harp could still add some orange, it might still bear some hidden orange...you can find some pumpkins off 1725 Harp seeds which went orange.
I wouldn´t worry too much about the weight of the 972. On the above page you find info as to pollination date and harvest, and the 972 had about a month less than the 1277. It might have had the same size potential within the same time frame.

8/4/2011 6:49:34 AM

Germany

Finally, never forget that it´s a lottery. The seeds of one cross could produce such a great variety of shapes and colors, you just cannot predict. This year I make this experience with the 1098 Moretti and the 924 Wittmann, both of which are the same cross (1385 Jutras X 1161 Rodonis).

8/4/2011 6:54:03 AM

Germany

...to increase probability of orange, go with seeds from the years before, find a pumpkin which had proven that most of its seeds produce orange babies.

8/4/2011 6:58:06 AM

Nottingham, UK

You're right in that it is a lottery and your 5-6 plants ( i forget how many) hold you in good stead. Thanks as always for taking the time to further my understanding

8/4/2011 7:12:19 AM

Stanwood, Washington

I'm growing the 1277-10 Holland and the 972-10 Holland right now. I'll let you which one turns to be more orange. :)

Currently the 1277 has a deeper shade of yellow than the 972.

8/4/2011 2:23:18 PM