Is Your Pumpkin Big Enough for a Pumpkin Weigh-off?

I'm often asked at this time of year if a pumpkin is big enough to take to a weigh-off.  The answer is always YES.  You may not win but any pumpkin is worthy of being entered into a weigh-off.  

I remember Pap telling the story of his first weigh-off.  He proudly brought his pumpkin to the weigh-off and saw a group of pumpkins that were smaller than his when he arrived and he thought "maybe I have a chance at winning."  As he sat his pumpkin down next to the others someone asked what he was doing.  It was then explained to him that those pumpkins were the pumpkins that were set out for the kids to play on and then he was pointed to where the competition pumpkins were being unloaded.  The big ones.  Pap wanted to hide his pumpkin.  I think he said he left his pumpkin at the weigh-off rather than to be seen carrying it.  Last year pap grew a 1,623 pound pumpkin and his son grew the world-record 2,009 pounder in the same pumpkin patch.

The reason you want to take your pumpkin to the weigh-off is because you will get the chance to talk with some of the best growers in your community.  Most all of them don't mind you asking them questions about how they grow as long as your are considerate of their time and half of them will talk your ear off about pumpkins if you give them half a chance.  If you see a pumpkin that you would like a seed from to grow next year ask the grower if you can get their address and send them a self-addressed bubble envelope in November requesting that seed.  That is typically how it is done and most growers will fulfill that request if they have seeds available.  There are no real secrets in pumpkin growing.  Just lots to learn.

My first year was kind of like Pap's but I got lucky.  My first season kind of happened by accident and I didn't have any intent of going to a competition pumpkin.  At the end of summer I thought my prize winner pumpkin was pretty big so I entered it in a community weigh-off.  I entered it in the competition and won with a 141 pound pumpkin.  I thought that was kind of fun but I wondered how those growers grew the 1,000 pound pumpkins.  That winter I researched a ton only, joined the RMGVG and got myself some Atlantic Giant seeds.  The next year I grew a 755 pounder and I've been hooked ever since.

A New Personal Best Pumpkin for the Kids

My children set a new personal best at the Arvada Festival of Scarecrows yesterday with a pumpkin the weighed in at 85.5 pounds. That beat last years pumpkin by 1/2 pound. They got a nice 2nd place ribbon, award certificate and $30 gift card for their pumpkin. It was a really cold day but we had a good time.

Congrats to My Kids on their Pumpkin

My two kids grow a pumpkin this year together. This is Bode's first year. Their plant didn't have a leaf on it after the hail storm and even though it didn't get wattered for a week it rebounded over the course of a month and on August 31st they finally got a pollination. To look at the plant the end of August you wouldn't have known there ever was a problem until you took a hard look and saw a quarter of the main vine gone in a couple of places and some remnant thrashed leaves grouped in with the new leaves. In all the kids did very well. After growing just 40 days on only 100 square feet and only a couple of weeks of descent weather they have a pumpkin that tapes about 90 pounds. We will put it on the scale tomorrow at the Arvada Festival of Scarcrows weigh-off in Olde Town Arvada. Good luck kids!

The pumpkin may be used by a professional carver at the Food Network's competition in Denver next week.

Pumpkin Contests Round 2

Congrats to my daughter and dad on both getting 3rd place in the Arvada Festival of Scarecrows pumpkin competition in the adult and junior divisions! Dad's came in at 183 pounds and my daughter's came in at 82 pounds.

755 Pound Pumpkin!

The pumpkin went heavy and we ended up with a 755 pound pumpkin. I was thrilled. I didn't expect it to go heavy and was slightly suprised with the outcome. I exceeded all my pre-season goals by hundreds of pounds and also won 2nd place for the prettiest pumpkin (the Howard Dill Award). The event was a lot of fun with great crowds and great weather. Haddie's pumpkin took 3rd in the Junior division so we are very proud of her too.  I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with growing this year and I'm looking forward to next year.

24 Hours in the Life of a Pumpkin:

Family Pumpkin Competition

Haddie has been talking some smack with grandpa lately. She says her pumpkin is bigger. My dad's pumpkin didn't get pollinated until the first week of August after a string of aborts earlier in the season. The last two weeks it has started to add some good pounds but it looks like Haddie (my 4-year-old) has got grandpa by about 20 pounds right now. The Arvada Festival of Scarecrows isn't until October 11th so it will be interesting to see if his Dill's Atlantic Giant can catch Haddie's Prize Winner by that time.

It will also be interesting to see if either of them can catch my pumpkin from last year. I think they both have a good shot. Haddie is growing from a seed from last year's pumpkin and it has gotten a little more TLC from her and better soil than my pumpkin had. If the weather will be kind they have a month still to grow so there is a lot of time to add some pounds. Right now they will need to add about 50 pounds to equal last years pumpkin.

Wanted: Pallet to Transport My Pumpkin

I noticed this week that the pallet I was going to use to transport my pumpkin to the weigh-off next month at Jared's Nursery has a crack in it. If you are in the Arvada, Wheat Ridge or Englewood areas and have a pallet you would be willing to donate I would be very grateful. Just leave a comment below and I'll get in contact with you. Thanks!

My 4-year-old's Pumpkin Plant

Pumpkins are a family business at our house. This picture is of my daughter's pumpkin plant. She has been doing a pretty good job of taking care of it (although sometimes she doesn't want to water it when a good TV show is on). She has her fruit set now and she is hoping to win first prize at the festival of scarecrows this October. Not the best growing location but it was good enough for me to win first prize last year.

The Great Pumpkin

This post was originally written in October of 2007 after my first pumpkin contest (the Arvada Festival of Scarecrows)...

Remember the Charlie Brown Halloween special where Linus was waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise out of the pumpkin patch? I always kind of considered Linus a woosy for it. You just knew the kid was wasting his time. You wanted to just scream, "Wait until Christmas you idiot and Santa will take care of you! Great Pumpkin? Stupid!"

I am now a believer in the Great Pumpkin. My conversion came swift and almost unexpected. There I was minding my own business and a thought came to my head. "I wonder if there are any giant pumpkin competitions here in Arvada" I said to myself one afternoon. After a couple of quick searches on YourHub.com I found what I was looking for. A giant pumpkin competition that was part of the Festival of Scarecrows here in Arvada. I instantly decided I was in.

You see I've been growing a giant pumpkin since early spring of this year in my own backyard. A few times a week I would water it and tend to the flowers to make sure the perfect pumpkin would get a good start. At first it wasn't much to look at. As of July it was just a mass of vines and a few flowers with just a start of a pumpkin. I was actually kind of concerned that it would have enough time to grow before the first frost hit so I would at least have some kind of a pumpkin for halloween. Come August however it exploded. You could literally watch the small yellow, round bulb grow and slowly turn into a bright orange pumpkin. In October I knew I had something special. What started as my usual obsession to have the biggest pumpkin on the street turned into a desire to see if I could have the biggest pumpkin in Arvada. I saw that last year's winner in the YourHub article was about 200 lbs and although I had no idea how much my pumpkin weighed, I thought from the pictures that maybe my pumpkin had a chance.

As the competition came closer my faith wavered however. I considered entering the pumpkin under Haddie's name thinking there might be a better chance of winning in the kids division. After all, Haddie had spent a number of hours watering the pumpkin this summer as well as spraying daddy in the process.

At 6:30am in the morning of the big show my good neighbor Darrin was kind enough to come over to help me load the pumpkin in the car. The pumpkin was heavy. Really heavy. I thought maybe I could win the overall competition but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and kept to my origional plan of entering it under Haddie's name. Certainly someone else must have a bigger pumpkin I reasoned and it was better to play it safe. When I arrived at the show and parked in the pumpkin unloading area one of the two men who assisted me with the unloading said, "Oh this is a big one. I think we've got the winner right here." My faith then gained strength and I put the pumpkin in the adult category.

After going to lunch we returned to the competition for the big weigh in. Nearly a dozen big pumpkins were entered in the contest. After scanning the field I could tell there were two clear favorites and mine was one of them. The second big one was really big, perfectly shaped and a fine specimen. I had to lean over to Amber and say "I think that one is the winner" and I began to regret that I didn't put the pumpkin in the children's competition.

Soon they began to weigh in the pumpkins starting with the Children's division. After the children's pumpkins were weighed and the prizes awarded the adult competition began. They started by weighing in the smaller pumpkins. One by one they weighed them and the top weight increased each time.

Finally they got to my pumpkin and the other pumpkin. To my surprise they weighed in the other big pumpkin before mine and since they had been going in order by size I thought maybe mine had a shot. The other pumpkin came in at a whopping 40lbs above the next biggest pumpkin! My heart sank. They then began to load up my pumpkin. The three guys strained as they lifted the pumpkin to the scale. One commented, "This is a heavy pumpkin." Again my heart took strength.

After placing it on the scale the official weigher started sliding the scale back and forth. I knew it was close but I couldn't see from my position how close. The weigher then asked for someone to give an official check of the weight and then the announcement came. 141.5 lbs! One pound more than the other big pumpkin. My pumpkin was the winner! After pictures, awards and prizes I was given a moment to think a little bit about it all and realized that the blanket toting kid was right. The Great Pumpkin does rise out of the pumpkin patch and bring gifts to all of the good girls and boys. He really does!