Oakes Irrigation Research
Site
Carrington Research Extension Center * North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2189, FAX: (701)
742-2700, email: rgreenla@ndsuext.nodak.edu
PUMPKIN VARIETY
PERFORMANCE TRIAL, 1998
Richard Greenland, Leonard Besemann, and Heidi Kerlin
Pumpkins grow well in North Dakota. Early maturing pumpkins are usually best,
but later maturing ones do well in some years.
Table 42. Pumpkin emergence and yields.
Table 43. Pumpkin fruit characteristics.
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
MATERIALS AND METHODS
| Soil: | Maddock sandy loam and Hecla sandy loam; pH=7.0; 2.2% organic matter; soil-P was high; soil-K was very high; soil-S was very low. |
| Previous crops: | 1997 - field corn; 1996 - pepper; 1995 - cabbage. |
| Seedbed preparation: |
Disked on 31 October 1997. Multiweeded (field cultivated) twice on April 13 to smooth seedbed. Drilled barley cover crop on April 14 (1 bu/acre, 6-inch rows) and later killed it with Gramoxone. |
| Planting: | Seeds planted 1 ft apart in rows 9.5 ft apart on May 18. On June 18 thinned to an in-row spacing of one plant every 3 ft. |
| Fertilizer: | On April 13, broadcast 14 lbs N/acre and 70 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0, 16 lbs N/acre and 19 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, and 94 lbs K20/acre as 0-0-60. Sidedressed 66 and 40 lbs N/acre as urea on June 24 and July 24. |
| Pest control: | Sprayed Gramoxone + a nonionic surfactant (3 pt/acre + 1 pt/100 gal on May 20) to kill the barley cover crop and weeds. Also controlled weeds with rototilling and hand weeding. Sprayed Thiodan (2 qts/acre on June 16), Sevin (1 qt/acre on June 26 and July 23), Asana (8 oz/acre on July 1 and July 15), and Ambush (8 oz/acre on July 7) to control cucumber beetles. Sprayed Benlate (2 lb/acre on July 7 and July 23) and Maneb (1.5 lbs/acre on July 14 and July 28) to control disease. |
| Plots: | Plots were 20 ft long by 8 ft (one row) wide. |
| Irrigation: | Underground drip irrigation as needed. |
| Harvest: | Hand harvested September 22 and September 23. |
Sweetie Pie was the best miniature pumpkin. RWS 6260 was the best small pumpkin. Racer was the best medium sized pumpkin. Gold Strike and Tallman were the best large pumpkins in the trial (although neither were really good). Fairytale is an oriental pumpkin with very dark orange flesh and a leather colored exterior. It was much denser than the other pumpkins. It would be great for pumpkin pies but looked marginal as a Halloween pumpkin.
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Table 42. Pumpkin emergence and yields for the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 pumpkin performance trial.
| Name | Seed source† | Plants emerged‡ | Rotten§ | Green¶ | Marketable | |
| number | yield | |||||
| plants/plot | % | % | fruit/acre | tons/acre | ||
| Aspen | HL | 10.3 bcd | 39 a | 14 c-h | 2080 f-i | 18.9 bcd |
| Baby Bear | JS | 11.7 a-d | 6 fgh | 11 e-h | 16630 c | 12.9 d-g |
| Early Autumn | RG | 11.5 abc | 11 e-h | 14 c-h | 4320 ef | 31.5 a |
| Fairytale | ST | 12.5 abc | 28 a-d | 50 a | 800 i | 10.2 fg |
| Gold Strike | RP | 12.3 abc | 34 abc | 17 b-g | 1680 ghi | 17.5 c-f |
| Hybrid 510 | ST | 12.0 abc | 35 abc | 20 b-f | 1200 hi | 12.8 d-g |
| Jack of All Trades | HL | 13.3 a | 16 d-g | 13 d-h | 3840 fg | 23.4 bc |
| Little Lantern | ST | 10.3 bcd | 4 gh | 8 fgh | 8730 d | 10.8 efg |
| Mother Lode | RP | 13.8 a | 37 ab | 27 bc | 1520 ghi | 14.3 d-g |
| Peek-A-Boo | RG | 12.0 abc | 12 e-h | 15 b-h | 6730 de | 12.8 d-g |
| Racer | JS | 12.8 ab | 21 c-f | 14 c-h | 4320 ef | 24.1 abc |
| Rex 38039 | RP | 11.8 abc | 24 b-e | 16 b-g | 3360 fgh | 20.2 bcd |
| Rocket | JS | 12.5 abc | 13 d-h | 7 fgh | 4000 fg | 26.1 ab |
| RWS 6260 | RG | 12.0 abc | 4 gh | 5 gh | 15130 c | 18.1 cde |
| Sweetie Pie | ST | 9.8 cd | 1 h | 24 b-e | 38080 a | 10.0 efg |
| Tallman | ST | 8.5 d | 18 d-g | 26 bcd | 2000 f-i | 19.5 bcd |
| Tom Fox | JS | 13.3 a | 8 fgh | 28 b | 3360 fgh | 22.3 bc |
| Wee-B-Little | RG | 9.8 cd | 3 gh | 3 h | 21940 b | 8.9 g |
| Gold Rush†† | RP | 14.5 | 7 | 32 | 2720 | 32.6 |
| Jumpin Jack†† | RP | 14.0 | 21 | 26 | 3200 | 36.8 |
| Rex 38040†† | RP | 16.0 | 12 | 19 | 4640 | 34.2 |
| CV (%) | 18 | 60 | 53 | 24 | 31 | |
†See appendix A for source codes.
‡Number of plants per 17 ft plot. Plants were later thinned to one plant every three feet.
§Rotten - percent of total pumpkins that were rotten at harvest time.
¶Green - percent of total pumpkins that were immature at harvest time.
††These varieties were not included in the statistical analysis because we had only two plots of each.
Values in the same column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (0.05 level).
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Table 43. Pumpkin fruit characteristics for the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 pumpkin performance trial.
| Name | Seed source† | Fruit size | Handle (stem)‡ | Fruit color§ | Fruit shape¶ | Uniformity | Overall score |
| lbs/fruit | -------------- 1 to 5 --------------- | 1 to 3 | 1 to 10 | ||||
| Aspen | HL | 18.1 c | 2.0 e | 3.3 de | 3.6 bc | 1.5 d | 6.3 fg |
| Baby Bear | JS | 1.3 fg | 4.0 ab | 3.0 e | 2.0 f | 2.1 abc | 7.8 a-d |
| Early Autumn | RG | 14.9 d | 2.9 cd | 3.4 cde | 4.0 ab | 1.5 d | 7.0 def |
| Fairytale | ST | 25.3 a | 2.1 e | 6.0 a | 1.0 g | 1.6 cd | 5.5 g |
| Gold Strike | RP | 21.5 b | 3.6 ab | 3.6 bcd | 4.5 a | 1.6 cd | 7.0 def |
| Hybrid 510 | ST | 20.8 bc | 3.5 abc | 3.8 bc | 4.3 a | 1.5 d | 6.8 ef |
| Jack of All Trades | HL | 12.1 de | 2.9 cd | 3.0 e | 3.5 bcd | 1.8 bcd | 7.3 b-e |
| Little Lantern | ST | 2.5 fg | 4.0 ab | 3.0 e | 2.5 ef | 2.4 a | 8.3 a |
| Mother Lode | RP | 19.1 bc | 2.6 de | 3.0 e | 4.5 a | 1.8 bcd | 6.6 ef |
| Peek-A-Boo | RG | 3.8 f | 3.8 ab | 3.3 de | 3.1 cd | 2.1 ab | 7.8 a-d |
| Racer | JS | 11.3 e | 3.9 ab | 4.0 b | 3.3 cd | 2.3 a | 7.9 a-d |
| Rex 38039 | RP | 12.0 e | 4.0 ab | 3.3 de | 3.3 cd | 1.8 bcd | 7.4 a-e |
| Rocket | JS | 13.2 de | 3.4 bc | 3.4 cde | 4.3 a | 1.6 cd | 7.1 c-f |
| RWS 6260 | RG | 2.4 fg | 3.9 ab | 3.0 e | 3.1 cd | 2.4 a | 8.1 ab |
| Sweetie Pie | ST | 0.2 g | 4.0 ab | 3.0 e | 1.4 g | 2.0 abc | 8.0 abc |
| Tallman | ST | 19.4 bc | 2.3 de | 3.0 e | 4.3 a | 1.8 bcd | 7.0 def |
| Tom Fox | JS | 13.1 de | 4.1 a | 3.8 bc | 3.3 cd | 1.8 bcd | 7.3 b-e |
| Wee-B-Little | RG | 0.8 g | 2.6 de | 3.0 e | 3.0 de | 2.3 a | 7.9 a-d |
| Gold Rush†† | RP | 24.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 7.0 |
| Jumpin Jack†† | RP | 23.0 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| Rex 38040†† | RP | 14.7 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 6.8 |
| CV (%) | 17 | 14 | 8 | 11 | 17 | 9 | |
†See appendix A for source codes.
‡Handle (or stem) - 1 to 5; the longer and thicker the handle in relation to the size of the pumpkin, the higher the score.
§Color - 2 = light orange, 3 = medium orange, 4 = dark orange, 5 = red orange, 6 = medium leather color.
¶Shape - 1 = short, 2 = medium short, 3 = round, 4 = medium tall, 5 = tall.
††These pumpkins were not included in the statistical analysis because there were only two plots of each.
Values in the same column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (0.05 level).
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Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 annual report