The Secret to Growing a Thousand Pound Pumpkin
If you feel like breaking last year's Idaho record for the biggest pumpkin that topped 1400 pounds, we've got some tips on how to grow a monster. Record-setting pumpkins can weigh up to 2000 pounds, and this is how they do it.
The record-setters are the ones that you won't see sitting in that pile of pumpkins for sale on your way into the grocery store. If you did, each one would probably cost as much as a small car.
Some pumpkin growers in Comfort, Texas grew a 745 pounder to set the record there.
In New Hampshire, a man just grew a whopper that weighed in at 2,027 pounds to set that state's record.
Last year in Idaho, a 1400-pound pumpkin set a new state record here and it was on display at Farmstead for much of the season so maybe you got to touch it. The world record is 2,624 pounds and that came from Nampa a few years back.
So how in the world do these folks grow the big ones?
They're not revealing everything about their pumpkin-growing secrets, but we've gathered quite a bit. The record-setter in Texas came after fifteen pumpkins sprouted from one seed and the owners cut off the weaker fruits to grow the big one. All of the energy on the vine was pumped into the grand champion. Of course, it all starts with the seed. The seeds come from places like Howard Dill Enterprises, and that's a Nova Scotia-based farm that sells premium seeds capable of producing pumpkins bigger than most rocking chairs.
Other tips for growing a giant pumpkin include covering them during rains and freezes, watering them with 15 or 20 gallons twice a week in the evening, and fertilizing them with cow manure. Suddenly the pumpkin spice movement is getting a lot less sexy.
The monster pumpkins are rarely perfectly round. Instead, they end up bulging out more to one side of the other or they get flat on the bottom just like we do after a long day in an uncomfortable office chair. Enormous pumpkins may not win a shape contest, but they are big and in that, they have accomplished their mission.
If you get started with the planning process now and plant in the spring, by this time next year you could have a new Idaho pumpkin record on your hands. And more seeds than you know what to do with. Good luck!