Giant Pumpkin and Squash Projects
at Indiana Biolab during 1999

All my 1999 projects were made possible by folks who saw interesting research potential in certain seeds and made them available to me. They have provided exciting sets of seeds. I expect to plant in the garden about May 15. All these pages are in early design phase. The experiments are still being planned. In many instances the seed is still being selected. I do not plan to enter any contests, but I am looking forward to eating plenty of pumpkin. My interests are primarily genetics and good food.

Diaries of Pumpkin and Squash Projects at Indiana Biolab

Each of these pages gives the background and design of the project. Regular diary entries will keep you advised of the progress and problems as they evolve. Please send your advice and comments on any project at any time. One purpose of these pages it to stimulate student science projects by pointing out the possibilities.

• 701 - Background and "Thinking out loud" remarks by Harold Eddleman
• 702 - Weather and crop progress at Indiana Biolab
• 704 - Seed mutations in Atlantic Giant. None known at this time. See 707 for seed color.
• 705 - Seedling mutations. yellow seedling, leaf shapes, enzymes. Useful markers.
• 706 - Vine and Flower traits. Watch for these in your plants.
• 707 - Alantic Giant fruit genetics: skin color, rind, shape, seed coat color,Ribs, cantaloupe surface, fruit shape. Maternal traits.
• 708 - Bonsai attempts with AG to get more plants in limited space for genetics
• 709 - Study of white seed vs tan seed genetics - have you seen other seed traits?
• 711 - Selfed seeds from Nic Welty; big squash and pumpkin selected by Nic for food use.
• 712 - C. pepo seeds from Barb Kincaid and Eddleman; mutant search and crosses
• 713 - Selfed seeds from 133 Rivard 1998 for seedling traits.
• 714 - Selfed seeds from Scott_Armstrong; seed colors, fruit color, ribs, cantalouping
• 715 - Seeds from Troy Naylor; early Dill seeds; Lloyd 935 x Anderson 977
• 716 - Seeds from Larry Checkon; independent sibbling cross - compare to Naylor's cross
• 717 - Seeds from Roger's independent strain of Atlantic Giant.
• 718 - Seeds from Doug Keel - inheritance of white seed, etc - all to be planned.
• 721 - Planned mating 690 Sproule 1997 x 750 McIntyre 1998 - designed by Barb Kincaid
• 722 - Crosses with seed from Barb Kincaid (prob carries Rd allele)

Seeds and Information Needed

By working cooperatively, it seems likely we could work out some of the genetics of Atlantic Giant pumpkin and squash genetics. There are two catergories of traits we are interested in:

• Simple Mendelian traits which segregate as 3:1, 1:1, 9:3:3:1 such as seed color, seedling traits (color, stripes, cotyledon), leaf shapes, flower colors, number of ovary sections (4, 5, or 6), stripes on fruit, rind hard vs soft, fruit stem color, blue fruit, disease resistance, disease or virus resistance,
• Quantitative traits (much more difficult to study, but far more important) such as fruit weight, eating quality of fruit, squash vs pumpking, some traits listed above may infact be quantitative.

Simple traits involve one genetic locus. For example yellow seedling, symbol = ys, is known in C. maxima. The yellow seedlings die because of some defect in the photosynthesis machinery.

Getting Started

Big pumpkin contestants see many things during the season and no two plants and fruits are identical. There is a modest probability that you have seen or will see evidence of a mutant for which the genetics is unreported. Since contestants look at their plants so carefully they are likely to see things ordinary people would not recognize.

• When you see something different, please send an e-mail to Harold Eddleman or genetics@onelist.com and we will then decide what action, if anything, we should undertake.
• Write down a simple description of the unusual trait.
• Record the fruit the seed came from. If that fruit was selfed then 3/4 of the seeds in that fruit probably carry the mutant and 1/4 will display the mutant phenotype.
• Do not send any seeds to Eddleman immediately, first we should consider the facts via e-mail to avoid postage, effort, and waste of valuable seeds.

Most Likely Action We Would Take

• Determine the fruit the mutant seed came from
• Draw a pedigree for that fruit and try to learn whether the mutant had been seen before in each ancestor fruit.
• Collect seed from a selfed flower of the mutant plant if possilbe, seeds from a cross can also be used but they will have the mutant at lower frequency.
• Try to develop lines for a testcross = cross a rr plant to an rR plant. r = rescessive allele.

Genetic Terms

It is important we use these terms correctly:

• selfed = pollen used on female of same plant
• sibbed = pollen and female are from different plants out of the same fruit
• cross = pollen and female are from different fruits (also usually different vines)
• testcross = homozygous (pure) recessive is crossed to the plant in question
• open = nature did the pollination
• uncertain = not sure flower was virgin or pollen source is unknown.

Other pages and books explain the methods in greater detail. Never hesitate to send an e-mail to Harold Eddleman about possible mutants, methods, or doubtful instances.

You may send private e-messages to Dr. Eddleman and he will reply, usually within 24 hours.