Rick's Nicest Fruit, 1999
Ricks' Nicest Fruit

Rick's Pumpkins, 1999

I'm growing Atlantic Giant (AG) Pumpkins near Rochester, NY.   This was my first real year growing- I'd done a lot of reading on the Internet, and learned what I needed to change over last year.

This year, I got some really great known-genetics seeds- 608 Hester 98, 771 Fortin 98 (won the Oswego weighoff), and 771 Rockwell 98 (green).  And a lot more cow manure.  I succeeded in growing 4 giant pumpkins totaling 770 pounds of pumpkins on two plants.

 

Last year (let's just call that"Year 0"), I planted giant pumpkin seeds in the garden that was layed out by the house's previous owner.  Little did I realize it was the worst spot for a garden in the whole yard!  After the results of last year, I knew I needed a spot that gets much more sun.   Well, this new spot on the back lawn is it- it gets direct sun from about 8:30 AM to 7:30 PM.   This is the best spot for sun on my whole property.   Tall trees on the east side throw shadows across most of the back yard.  I rented a 5 hp Merry Tiller for about $28 and turned turf into pumpkin garden.

 

Here's favorite my rototilling partner, my Dad.  He arrived just as I was part way through the job, and luckily had brought his work clothes!!  It was very hard work breaking up the grass sod.  We dug out a garden about 10x36 feet, tilling in 25 forty-pound bags of composted cow manure along the way.  Without a pickup truck, I'd brought them back home 6 at a time in my car.

 

Here's how I sprouted the seeds- on top if the computer monitor.  I took a thermometer and tried  various spots until I found one that was just right, not too hot or cold.  A day and a half later, I had sprouts!   I had really wanted to grow a green fruit, but the 771 never germinated.

 

After the seeds sprouted on April 30th, I put them in 4" peat pots, and kept them in the "rolling greenhouse"- buckled into the back seat of my car!  I would leave the plants out in the parking lot at work all day, with the windows cracked.  I'd go out at lunchtime and check on the temp to be sure they weren't cooking.  I'd run out again at about 4pm to roll up the windows as the sun got low.  Hester 608 on the left, 771 Fortin on the right.

 

 

 I knew I was making good progress when my leaves got to be 22" across!  This is the 771 Fortin plant on 6/9/99.  The vine hasn't yet started to run, but very soon it will.

 

More evidence that I'm doing something right- waist-deep pumpkin leaves!  This is the same 771 plant as above, taken on 7/16/99, only 6 weeks after the picture above.  The growth rate of these plants is just amazing.  You can see the chicken wire I had to put all around the garden to keep out the wabbits- they would come in the day before a female flower was to open and chew it, ruining it.

 

 Here you can see the difference in plant characteristics between the Hester and Fortin plants.  They are getting exactly the same fertilizer, water, and sun.  I've got them planted at opposite ends of the garden, growing towards each other.  Despite appearances, the Hester plant produced the biggest fruit in the end.

 

If you take your time and look closely, there's plenty of interesting nature things going on in the garden.  Here's the tip of a growing vine, packed with leaves and tendrils.  The tendrils unfurl and grab onto anything they can to anchor the plant.

 

 Here's what a pollinated blossom looks like, before I even learned how to spell "pollinated".  :-)  Before the flower opened, I protected the female and all the males with plastic Ziploc bags to keep the bees out.  That way, I know FOR SURE what the parentage is.  It also prevents the bees from stealing all the pollen- by 7:30 the males are usually pretty empty.  Unfortunately, this particular fruit aborted later on.  Once they turn dull colored (as opposed to staying shiney), you know they've stopped growing.

 

As luck would have it, all my successfully pollinated fruit wound up in a line across the garden, so I made one big shade tent to cover them all.  The tent is to keep the direct sun off the fruit.  With shade, the skin stays relatively soft, and thus the fruit will grow bigger.  This is August 12th.

 

 I was amazed at the thickness of the pumpkin stem, shown here next to an ordinary soda can. 

 

I really like this picture- it shows the nice shape and position of the fruit.  This is the third fruit pollinated on the Fortin plant, thus the fruit's name: F-3.  It's neat how such a thin vine transitions into a big thick stem.

 

 The Hester fruit started to "cantaloupe" (lightly crack) on the skin all over the top.   This wasn't too bad until the stem split too.  I was afraid that the split would go into the pumpkin cavity and rot it.  I saved the fruit by putting a metal hose clamp and bicycle inner tube on it.  I would loosen it every couple of days as the fruit grew, but it kept the split from getting bigger.  The white paste is Captan, a fungicide I applied to prevent it from rotting.  This all worked.  When I took this fruit to the weighoff (with the clamp removed), everybody was amazed at what I'd done- you could clearly see the indentation from where it had been all season.

 

Both of my plants had this mysterious brown leaf edge problem in August.  The oldest leaves just started to look, well, old and dry.  Curiously, another local grower did NOT have this- his leaves were green and vibrant at the same time as this picture.  While some of it is just old age, it's been suggested that this is a symptom of overwatering.  I still don't know for sure and welcome your opinion or advice.

 

 We can finally go in!  All summer long, the kids had been forbidden from setting foot in the garden- I had been using pesticide and fungicide, plus I didn't want anybody to snap off any vines or fruit.  Now at the end of the season, the rain has washed off everything a few times, and it's time to harvest!  The shade tent came down, and the kids are thrilled with the results.  Until I grew pumpkins myself, I thought they grew up until Halloween.  In fact, the fruit is fully mature, and the plants are nearly dead by the end of September.

 

Yep, this is what it's all about- REALLY happy and proud kids, with their nicely shaped giant pumpkin!

 

 Here's the fruit that I grew on the Hester plant- a whole wheelbarrow full!  This was the heaviest pumpkin I grew this year.  Beneath it is a yellow nylon canvas carrying tarp that I made myself.  A redesign is in order as my handle idea was a bit weak- some tearing occurred.  You can buy tarps, but they're $80 or so.  Mine cost a lot less to make myself.

 

Here's the the same fruit on the way to the weighoff- I'm lucky I have a van!  

 

 I wound up growing 4 giant pumpkins this year- 110, 245, 175 are pictured here; my nice 240 is at the very top of the page.

 

Here's B.O.B. (the "Big Orange Ball"), being officially weighed at the Clarence, NY weighoff.  It weighed 245.9 pounds- I was proud that it was NOT the smallest fruit entered there!!  I got a nice orange award ribbon for entering.

 

 All the neighbors turn out when it's time to carve up the big ones, which is good as this is a BIG project, taking over 3 hours total.  I carved only 3 of the 4 that I grew- the 240 was so pretty I couldn't bring myself to carve it- I just left it on display on the front porch. 

 

Here they are, all carved up.  

 

  I saved seeds from the 245 and 240 to pass on to other growers.  I now use a screen tray to dry them out (rather than the cookie sheets here), and it works much better.

 

THE END.  

This is the season end result- I felt sorry for the garbage men and got up at 6:15 to help them throw it all in the truck.  I'm glad I did, as they wouldn't have taken it if I hadn't been there.  And this is only 3 of the 4 pumpkins.

 
 
--All images, text, copyright 1999-2002 by the author---