C. pepo or C. maxima?
A best edible C. pepo with halloween qualities is in my mind 'Gold Gem'. For this variety we have very good yielding in industrialized farming.
C. maxima I love 'New England Blue' (NEB) with many big hubbard fruits on very long vines.
In 2014 I bred a new variety out of this hubbard, which is no hubbard (not fusiform) but a flat blue fruit with deeper ribbing. Theese ribs are from my new superflat orange fruit similar to C. maxima 'turtle' but a bright and deep orange.
And I bred another best edible pumpkin for industrialized farming, which I keep secret in the western world and only will grow in Uganda and Russia next year: the superflat white and shiny boer ford C. maxima 'Nadym' with and average weight of 30 to 36 kg and a biggest fruit of 46 kg this year. This climbing variety makes the highest possible yield and very dense and deep orange flesh of best quality to produce pumpkin fries - courge fri...or to can it.

not sure what the point is of telling me about varieties i don't have access to.

anyway, the largest edible pumpkin i found online was the "Georgia Candy Roaster" which has a yield range of 30-80lbs per plant.

This post was edited by nuthen on Fri, Oct 3, 14 at 1:34

Oh, you might do crosses with boer ford pumpkins too and have 80# per fruit or averaged 200 lbs. per plant with a space of 50 squarefeet.
You only have to enlarge the best genetical source of heavy C. maxima to gain 150000 lbs./acre.
A very dense and heavy base for breeding high-yielders is C. maxima 'Triamble/tristar'.
You can so easily play with cucurbitaceae: breed for your own wishes.
I do not collaborate with growers from North America further on, because they mostly are not reliable partners. Thatôs my experience after getting Pectobacterium carotovorum with 80% of the seed from there and they wanted to intermingle genetics of my edible pumpkins with bryony.
Georgia Candy Roaster does not produce the best flesh quality, but devil up: you might grow it for joy.

Nuthen, where to you live? That's the first question I'd ask, as it make a huge difference in what will grow well for you.

George
Tahlequah, OK

staunton va

also, i forgot to say i would accept any squash that tastes like pumpkin as well.

This post was edited by nuthen on Fri, Oct 3, 14 at 15:35

Nuthin, pumpkin is just a "style" of winter squash. There's almost no difference between the terms other than that they come from different language roots.

You live in a very nice place for raising squash/pumpkins! But you do have borers and I'm sure you have squash bugs. Here's what I'd recommend. I know there are more good ones out there.

I'd recommend that you try Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin (one which I grow) or Seminole. I have not grown Seminole. But I have it on very good authority that it is right up there with the best, most hardy and productive of them. I'll give a link for Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. Presently, about a quarter of my front yard is over run with this one!

You want a variety from the c. moschata family. These have the best combination of insect resistance and eating quality for your area.

Other really good ones, from this family are:

Pennsylvania Neck Pumpkin
Long Island Cheese
Dickinsen
Tahitian Melon

I have grown Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin, which is also a c. moschata, since 1985. It has outstanding eating quality. But it doesn't hold up, so well, to our rugged Oklahoma summers. WBPP, as I sometimes call it, is just a variable shaped form of butternut.

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin

Sandhill Preservation is one of my favorites for finding good seed, of sometimes hard to find varieties. Here's a link to their squash page. They also list pumpkins, based on shape.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandhill Preservation Squash

I just came across this field test from the University of Maine. Pumpkins included in this test are:
Small Sugar
Baby Pam
Mystic Plus
Field Trip
Chucky
Fall Splendor
Winter Luxury

"Three replications of seven pumpkin varieties were direct-seeded in a randomized complete block design on 18 June. Plots were 18 feet long with three feet between plants (6 plants/plot) and six feet between rows..." Check the link for more details, including cooked appearance.

I don't feel so bad about my low yield on my winter luxury pumpkin plants now. However, i disagree with the ranking system, though it is for commercial growers, not pie eaters. Personally, i love the white webbing of winter luxury, but it ranked the lowest because of appearance (Nothing about taste on this rating scale). Check the link for details.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://umaine.edu/highmoor/research/performance-of-small-fruited-pumpkin-cultivars-in-maine/

I'm just getting into pumpkins and squash so that was an interesting article. The picture comparisons really helped.

green stripe crook neck ------> Cushaw Pumpkin

avg. size about 12 to 15 lbs.

get about 5 to 8 per vine

This post was edited by nine9 on Mon, Oct 20, 14 at 20:35

I grew Naples Long (c. moschata) for the first time this year, 6 hills with a max of two plants per hill. I got 12 pumpkins ripe with 5 still green when I harvested (late start this year). One was about 70#, one about 50# and ranging down to about 10#.

They have very small seed pockets and are very meaty and have an outstanding flavor. I've grown 5 varieties of c. moschata and these produce far and away more pounds of pumpkin per area than anything I've tried.