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Eastern Pennsylvania

For example if you were to say pumpkin plant1, day 14. Would that be 14 days from planting in the soil, or 14 days from when it emerges from the soil, or 14 days from transplant to patch, etc? I want to keep accurate logs of leaf development and vine length. Thanks,
Jim

5/17/2006 12:44:22 PM

I asked the other nite in chat and was told you start counting at emergence from the container when germinating

5/17/2006 1:52:54 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Good question.
What about pre-spouted seeds? Is it at emergence as well?

5/17/2006 2:17:39 PM

Ohio

Doug, I think they count when ever a pre-spout is out of the soil also, so if you planted a pre spouted seed and left the growth part out of the soil, count that as one day,,,I think.

Brooks

5/17/2006 4:02:22 PM

Utah

I use Al Eatons Milestones Chart ....
It compares dates from one year to the next ... not how many days old the plant is... basically it's the same thing though... a way to track events.

it has "seed started", "breakthrough" and other events.
so it estentially uses seed starting as the begining.

but typically I think most growers switch to how old the fruit is once they have fruit pollinated.

5/17/2006 5:44:18 PM

Rhode Island

the age of a pumpkin plant is not a significant issue what so ever.
in the right climate the plant would grow for many many many months

the only thing we are concerned about is the pollination dates. thats where our charting starts. thats the date the pumpkin breaks out of the starting gate.thats the date your 90 + day window is opened.

over the years we have come to the realization that the best way for us to track and compair our progress is to have our charts set up at days 20-30-40-50-60-70-80-90

each pumpkin we want to compair against, plus this years pumpkins are on this chart

we use a circumferance measurement for the most important 20 day measurenment( we include tape est also )dave hampton turned ron and i on to this method several years back.

then, from day 30 on out to day 90 at ten day intervals we record a three way and weight estimate, then compair to previous years best pumpkins.

no guess work , no rose colored glasses, just the facts

pap

5/17/2006 6:38:20 PM

[email protected]

Personally I consider the "born on date" to be the date I see the root busting through the cover. However like Dick said, this is irrelevant. We've grown genetic fruit on 2 year old plants.

5/17/2006 7:09:57 PM

Hamburg, NY

Wrote this 20 years ago - it may still help! Ray Waterman

TARGETING SEED PLANTING - to set a seed planting date, one must review the plant's stages of growth, day length and the date of the competition (harvest). An understanding of local weather patterns may also be an influential factor for determining when to plant the seed or better to say, when to mature the seedling to the three (3) leaf stage for transplanting. Let's say there are three stages of the plants development to consider when targeting the seed planting date:
1. Seedling stage - seed planting to 3 leaf stage (9-10 days).
2. Plant growth stage - 3 leaf to fruit set date (60-70 days).
3. Fruiting stage - fruit set to harvest date (last 70-80+ days - fruit development)
To capsulate the all this targeting by example, we will say that the target date for competition is October 12. Count back 70-80+ days to the fruit set date of July 24 to August 3. Then count back 60-70 days to the planting date of May 15-25 and 9-10 back to the seed planting date (May 5-10). In reverse - 9-10 days to 3 leaf, +60-70 days to fruit set and +70-80 days to harvest (total days seed to harvest 130-150). Too often growers start too early!

5/18/2006 7:24:22 AM

[email protected]

Good words Ray. I'm counting on your theory this year. Now if the pollination period temps cooperate we might still have a good year!

5/18/2006 7:43:56 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Thanks everyone. Some people's at day 20 look absolutely enormous compared to mine, but I have been counting since planting in the pots, not from emergence. So that's another 4-7 days maybe. My plants are slow, but so goes the weather. I'm sure they will take off next week when it gets up to 80° finally!
Jim

5/18/2006 9:50:45 AM