The 2010/11 pumpkin growing season has been a very challenging one for growers to say the least, with drought conditions in early summer and torrential rain in mid-summer. Lefroy Valley’s pumpkin varieties have had the ability to cope with most of the extreme climatic conditions thrown at them.
Tudor Prince has shown to be a superior pumpkin. Tudor Prince is a medium dark battle ship grey with vibrant orange coloured flesh. Tudor Prince is showing great potential to be a market leader. Tudor Prince has been commercial for 2 years now and many growers are impressed with the consistent above average yields and excellent storage potential of the variety.
Brendon O’Connor of Opiki had this to say: “I have been growing Tudor Prince for a couple of years now and have been impressed with the inside and outside colour of the fruit. The other key attributes of Tudor Prince would be the high yields and keeping qualities of this pumpkin.” Tudor Prince is a main season variety and is almost always up to 7 days longer than its early maturing cousin Pacific King.
Pacific King is one of the first pumpkins to hit the market in early December proving its ability as an early maturating pumpkin. Pacific King continues to offer consistency and uniformity in all major growing areas of New Zealand.
The new commercial pumpkin variety from our breeders is called Windsor. Windsor is a variety producing large fruit from 3.5-7kg. Windsor has been trialed over the last two seasons and has shown promising results for the cutting market. Brendon remarks “I also grew a trial block of Windsor (HSC 149) pumpkin this past season, which I think has potential in the cut pumpkin market. A very large ribbed pumpkin with deep flesh on the shoulder and good internal colour.” Windsor has a small seed cavity and high a shoulder which results in great flesh recovery. Windsor has a distinctive deep rib and scallop shape with excellent internal colour. Commercial seed is available for the 2011/12 season.
