Owens Corning

National Gardening Association How to Grow a Huge Pumpkin

My largest pumpkin so far is a 400 Lb. specimen grown in 1992, well shy of the current record, but still pretty impressive. Planting time in the Northern Hemisphere is 3-4 months away, but now is the time to begin planning for your giant. I used advice from the World Pumpkin Confederation and from various gardening books and will relate the techniques to you. Most of what I know, I learned from an article written by a man named, (I think) Leonard Stelpflug, who I believe held the world record for a while. I will write these instructions for beginning gardeners, since growing giant pumpkins is what got me started in gardening.

First a few points to let you know what you're getting into:

1. The vines may cover an area of 30x30', (That's 900 Sq. Ft.!).

2. The growing time is at least 125 days, (That's over 4 months!)

3. You will need about 20 wheelbarrow's full of composted cow or horse manure. Buying it by the bag could be expensive. Better have a truckload delivered.

4. The pumpkin will require 30 minutes of care at least 3 times a week for weeding, watering and pruning. Still interested? Here goes...

If you want to challenge the record, you will need Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds. All the world record holders have used these seeds developed by Canadian Howard Dill. These seeds can be found in most hardware stores or garden supply stores.

Pumpkins must be planted AFTER last frost. The seed should be started indoors. Use 3" peat pots filled with potting mixture. Place the seed about 1" below the surface of the mixture and saturate with water. Place the peat pot in a plastic bag and put it in a dark, warm area. On top of the refrigerator, under a shoe box is a good place. I suggest starting three seeds for each plant you hope to grow. Open the plastic bag daily to allow air into the bag and give you a chance to make sure the potting soil is still moist. Add water if necessary to keep the soil moist, but don't saturate it.

At this time you should prepare your planting site. Clear an area of 30x30 feet of rocks. Till or dig the ground to accomplish this and break up the hard soil. If you are a beginning gardener, please take special care here... If you don't do a good job of soil preparation, your pumpkin will die and you will have wasted your time. My first try at growing giant pumpkins failed miserably because I did not heed this warning. This WILL cost you some extra time. It is a pain getting the soil ready. But you can't take short cuts here or your pumpkin will die. Doing this right is the MOST important step. Okay, I'll stop nagging here. Till or dig the soil to a depth of at least 8". Now spread the manure over an area of about 15X15' in the center of the patch and dig it in deeply. Add 20Lbs of 5-10-5 fertilizer over top of the manure and dig it in deeply. The hardest part is over!

When your pumpkin plant pokes its head out of the soil, it's time to plant. The day of planting, dig another 2-3 wheelbarrows of manure in a 6' circle at the center of the planting site. Place three seedlings, (Don't remove them from their peat pots) in the center of the planing site, separating them from each other by about a foot. After about 5-7 days remove the two weakest plants by snipping them off with scissors at ground level. Do not pull them out because this could disturb the roots of the best plant.

Your planting site is super fertile which is great for your pumpkin, but also for weeds. You will need to weed about every third day taking care not to hoe too deeply and thus disturb the roots of the pumpkin. I prefer a scuffle hoe for this job. You should water your pumpkin if it's not getting an inch of water per week. I prefer to place the end of a hose on a board at least 3 feet from the center of the pumpkin plant and turn the water on at a rate of about 2-3 gallons per minute. The water runs over the board and doesn't dig into the soil. Let the water run until the soil is watered deeply.

When flowers begin to appear on your plant, you will need to keep an eye on things. Here's the nifty secret of growing a big pumpkin... every time a small pumpkin begins to grow on the plant, I never seem to notice them until they are the size of tennis balls, you must remove it. Cut the small pumpkin off with a knife. You want your pumpkin plant to be large and robust before you allow it to grow a pumpkin. You may have to remove a dozen pumpkins before you let the plant grow one. Don't fret about this, that plant will keep setting fruit. It wants to reproduce!

When the plant is large enough, usually after it has 150 leaves, you can let it set three pumpkins. After the fruit has set, bend the runner gently away form the small pumpkin and stake it so that it can't spring back. do not allow any of the other runners within three feet of the pumpkins. The reason for this is that the pumpkin will soon be very large will choke off any runners under it. When the three pumpkins are about volley ball size, choose the best one and cut the other two off. It will begin growing surprisingly fast! Remove any other pumpkins that form on the plant later.

Pumpkins put down auxiliary roots off their vines which help nourish the plant. Unfortunately, these can cause a problem known as "stem stress" which can spoil an otherwise terrific pumpkin. As the pumpkin grows, it will pull on the vine which is being held to the ground by these auxiliary roots. This could pull the pumpkin off the vine! To keep this from happening, sever the auxiliary roots from the vine about 3 feet before and after your pumpkin.

Keep up with your weeding and watering. 'Round about August, it's a good idea to foliar feed your plant. I use Miracle Grow, at least double the normal strength, to keep the plant growing. Spray the plant with Miracle Gro at least once a week.

Pests I don't consider the Atlantic Giant to be a pumpkin for eating. If I wanted to make pumpkin pie, I'd plant another variety. Therefore, I spray the heck out of my pumpkin plants. I use Rotenone, Diazinon, whatever is recommended for whatever beastie shows up on the plant. Use the poisons as directed, but don't be shy. Any stress on your plant will result in a smaller pumpkin.

When picking time comes, (It seems funny to say "pick" when the fruit is several hundred pounds.), cut away and clear the vines from the area. Remove any stones, even small ones from the immediate area of the fruit since they will cut into the skin when you roll the pumpkin. Place some heavy canvass on the ground next to the pumpkin and roll it onto the canvass. It took six of us to move my 400pounder, so make sure you have enough helpers on hand.

Extra credit Have someone take a black and white picture of you standing behind your pumpkin, (A low camera angle will make the pumpkin look even more massive.), and send the picture to your hometown newspaper. They usually can't resist putting giant pumpkin picture in the Halloween issue. They may ask for the negative. I offered to give away seeds from my giant and this offer was printed in the local paper. I got over 150 requests! I was only able to send seeds to about 95 of the people who asked for them. If you decide to do this, have them send a SASE with TWO first class stamps.

I hope you find these instructions useful. I would love to hear from people who grow giant pumpkins and look forward to trading tips on growing the big ones! -Don Patterson

The address for the World Pumpkin Confederation is 10450 Gowanda State Road Collins, New York USA 14034 Phone: 716-532-5995

They have a newsletter which has tips on growing the big ones, and they also sell seeds from really huge pumpkins.

Copyright NGA

Reprinted with permission HouseNet, Inc.

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