I understand the sentiment, Glib. I'm a low-input gardener myself. However... I speak as a gardener who is, at this very moment, growing short-season varieties of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and corn out in the open, in our native soil - something you're saying is impossible. I don't own a greenhouse. I don't use row covers. I don't use high or low tunnels. The only things I have outside are some cold frames for transitioning starts in the spring. I have a handful of ordinary 4' fluorescents that I use to start a handful of things indoors, but most of my crops are still direct-sown. Just because you "don't see tomatoes ripening in 50F temperatures" doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It does. They do. The original poster knows exactly what they're doing asking about the best varieties for cold, northern climates. The varieties we grow *are* indeed different. You can't keep making such grand assumptions. You don't garden here. That said, maybe I shouldn't have responded either, given that I don't garden in Iceland. (Slimy_Okra is right - our summers at least have *some* heat to them for a little while.) How many GardenWebers do, though? Which reminds me... thanks for chiming in, tigrikt. Good stuff to know! I think florauk has great advice... "You might look at seed catalogues from the UK with cultivars suited to N. Scotland." Lots of life-long gardeners over in the UK if my extended family is anything to judge by. :) I'm sure their cold-hardy varieties would be better suited for you than even ours here in Canada. All the best!

Snow, to presprout the seeds, I just rolled them up in damp paper towel and tucked it in a Ziploc sandwich baggie. Checked every day for little roots. As soon as they barely appeared (just a few days), I planted them in tall peat pots at the depth I would have planted a dry, unsprouted seed. I like to presprout some things because I hate waiting for seeds that will never come up, especially when I'm using peat pots because I don't reuse them so it saves $$. Lilacs, VERY short season here, too (see my zone). This is the very FIRST time I've ever had a pumpkin mature outside on the vine before frost even, never mind in August. That's why I was so impressed and had to post the pic. :) My previous standby has been Connecticut Field. It gives you lovely large pumpkins that are good for baking or carving and it's an heirloom to boot. We always had to take them off the vines before frost, though, and they had to ripen indoors. We'd lose some, but many would ripen by Halloween. James, I'll let you know about flavour when I cut into the Racers. Right now my hubby has this one at work on his filing cabinet (giving him garden bragging rights at the office, lol). There should be another 2 or 3 ripe this week. What I've really liked about the Racers so far has been the lovely contrast of the bright orange and deep, dark green vine.

Thank you for all insightful comments. Couple of thing: 1. The curbing you see is mere a cement boundary between the portion of the yard with soil and desert soil (fine rocks, sand) and desert plants. 2. Fertilized again with a 10-10-10 about 3 weeks ago. 3. It is possible that it is getting too much water as I water every other day and drip water for about 6 hours. The clayish soil down here makes it difficult to deep water and during the summer months the rule of thumb is "when you think the plant has gotten enough, keep watering". this is esp true for pumpkins growing when it's 115 degrees. I will cut back on the watering and see how the healthy leaves respond. Again, Thanks for all the good feedback. I will post another pic in about a month for an update. -Mark

Maxima pumpkins like 'prizewinner', 'bix max' and 'atlantic giant' can have a lot (~800) of very large seeds. But the seed count is variable and sometimes you will get no seeds at all in the pumpkins. Also the large maxima pumpkins take up a lot of space, as much as 2500 square feet. I know you want to know which pumpkins have the most seeds but there are pumpkins that have been bred for their seeds. They are known as naked seed pumpkins. They don't have the most seeds of any pumpkin, but the seeds are hulless. Some of the varieties include 'Lady Godiva', 'Naked Seed', 'Snackjack' and 'Triple treat'.