Howard Dill

You know, Chris mentioned a really interesting method of naming some of these seed lines, the giants, the record breakers that we've been talking about.

Almost all of these giant pumpkin seeds trace back to the Howard Dill Atlantic Giant variety patented in 1979.

This remarkable response to decades of selective breeding raises a fundamental question.

What genetic changes have allowed for the remarkable increase increase in fruit size.

If you look at the graph, it is just a hockey stick going straight up after this Howard Dill Atlantic Giant.

That's what Chris has to say about this project.

Growers have been saving seed from basically the 1980s until now.