Latest / Hydroponics Daily / Meet 'Thriller' — The Pumpkin That Looks Like It's Ripped Open

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Meet 'Thriller' — The Pumpkin That Looks Like It's Ripped Open · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I am your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Ltd.
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  We manufacture interesting fertilisers, novel biostimulants and organic biopesticides.
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  And I follow the horticultural press
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  on an almost daily basis and you often
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  get reports of a new variety of plants being
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  produced whether that's an ornamental plant or an edible
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  crop and sometimes the the
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  new variety is really interesting and other times it's like oh why are you even
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  bothering and I feel like sometimes plant breeders release new varieties or
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  new strains or new cultivars just because they have to be seen to be creating
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  press releases and news and have to be seen to be innovating.
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  Then other times it look there's there's
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  like a really innovative new jump and
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  a new variety is amazing and has amazing characteristics and
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  sometimes if you're a bit of a nerd or in the
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  industry then something like a resistance to
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  a specific pest or disease like a
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  virus could be really really massive or you
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  know being able to harvest it five days earlier could be
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  really interesting but if you're a member of the general public then that's
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  not really interesting a cherry tomato that's slightly a
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  different shape and it can fit in a box differently or has
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  a slightly longer shelf life really is
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  of no interest but sometimes things like the
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  chelsea flower show they'll have the top 10 new
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  varieties and it'll be a really cool looking variety
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  of a plant that's not been grown before i've got
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  an oregon grape plant in my garden it's
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  a really unusual shape and that was
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  i saw that one at the chelsea flower show and things like
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  that and then i've come across one today and it's a
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  new pumpkin variety which is timely because
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  it's just been halloween two nights ago and so.
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  There's a whole new squash and pumpkin
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  varieties ones that are better for making into pumpkin
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  pies some that are you know squashes that
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  are slightly longer in a what is
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  it this one disease the orange
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  virus is better disease package compared to the
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  varieties currently available but the one that really stands out is a new pumpkin
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  variety called thriller and as you can imagine thriller it's a halloween based
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  pumpkin and it looks unbelievable so thriller has in the inside the grooves of the pumpkin.
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  They it's standard orange and then on
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  the outside of the grooves is yellow or
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  almost cream i'd say cream and dark
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  green so it looks like it's being ripped apart
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  and you're seeing the insides of the
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  pumpkin with the bright orange it could only be
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  better if it was red on the inside but pumpkins are very very
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  rarely red i don't think and then they've got a big green stem so it looks amazing
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  so it's from cicata seeds so if you know anyone from the cicata seed company
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  it's a variety for the u.s market if it's conventionally bred i would love to
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  have some seeds get some seeds to grow it,
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  in our grow rooms or outdoors in soil and and
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  and showcase this one in the uk because i think
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  this is going to be an absolute banger of a variety i've never seen anything
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  like it so check out the new pumpkin seed thriller so if you've come across
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  any new varieties that you think are interesting then let me know as i say often
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  you'll see them advertised and and marketed.
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  On places like horsey daily and things like
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  that that's the best place to find them and yeah if
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  you're a horticultural grower then always keep on top of
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  the best new varieties and things like that we often talk about heirloom varieties
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  and things like that and i've said in the past that often they
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  have very very poor pest and disease resistance compared
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  to new varieties it's very different that to the um
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  obviously we should um you know someone's got to look after them have them in
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  a seed bank somewhere but it's not like storing wild relatives that are good
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  sources of genetic material for breeding and like tomatoes and potatoes and
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  like this and it's not like um preserving the,
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  whole rare species of plants
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  species of plants and varieties are very different this one
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  this this new variety thriller will
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  probably have been a a mutant or a
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  cross of another another variety
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  what else do they say about thriller here so it's the
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  description is it's variable orange and dark green psychedelic
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  stripes on a cranial background create consumer
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  appeal the colours appear early and hold well after harvest it's going to be
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  commercially available in 2026 and it's a dual purpose edible squash and decorative
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  cucumber at the same time so you don't need to carve this it would look rubbish
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  carved it's a decorative pumpkin that looks.
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  Horrific but you can actually eat so check out
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  thriller from cicata seeds i'll definitely be
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  trying to get hold of some seeds that's been hydroponics daily
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  today been very short one today because i have
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  been traveling for four hours with my
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  kids to take them down a mine in the peak district we've been
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  to the blue the blue john blue john mine
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  in the peak district and it was really interesting
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  it's the biggest mine deepest mine in the uk and
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  all it's been open to the public since about the 1960s
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  and all around the lights are all these ferns and
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  mosses that have managed to the spores have managed to
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  go down and colonize the cave
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  where normally there would be no plant life at all because there's no light and
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  obviously no seed plants down there because no seeds have managed to
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  get their way down there but the spores have so that's one
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  of the main many advantages of ferns when
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  we talked about previous episode about fern growth and
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  how they have a very different life cycle being able to
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  transport your genetic material in a spore rather than
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  a seed and then produce that gametophyte and then
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  that gametophyte turned into a sporophyte means that you.
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  Can colonize deep and dark recesses
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  like caves and also ferns tolerate low light levels
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  that will be occurring in caves like
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  that so yeah my kids are now
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  obsessed with going down going caving but i'm not
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  going to take them potholing because that is seeing some horrible
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  youtube videos about that all right that's been hydroponics daily
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  for today if you found it of any use please do leave
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  tremendously if you're not listening on apple podcasts don't bother
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  leaving a review because it doesn't help but please do check out utreema.co.uk
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  where you'll find all really interesting blog posts three podcasts that we do
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  and loads of interesting products we are experts in getting things into a solution
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  that conventional chemistry sets you can't get into a solution so loads of interesting,
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  fertilizers and biostimulants thank you very much for listening and until next time goodbye.