Growers strive for size
Forget the kitchen knife.
When Chip and Heidi Brunst carve a pumpkin, they use a chainsaw to penetrate the mammoth crops grown at their home in Clay Township.
Candles also serve no purpose: The Brunsts use a floodlight to illuminate the gourds, which often exceed 1,000 pounds.
"My biggest was 1,238Z\x pounds," said Heidi, who until this year held the distinction of producing the second largest pumpkin grown in the world by a woman.
"That was two years ago — 2005," she noted, adding her ranking dropped after a Wisconsin woman recently raised one 50 pounds larger.
Heidi is also among the top 10 growers in Pennsylvania.
"It's a heck of a hobby," said fellow grower Karen Keck of Saxonburg, who grew her largest pumpkin this year at 826½ pounds. Keck collaborated with her 15-year-old nephew Mark.
Striving each year for a heavier crop, the Kecks and the Brunsts are among a network who share their seeds and growing secrets.
Although growing techniques are key to a pumpkin's size, gardeners must start with the proper seeds.Those seeds are for a variety called Dill's Atlantic Giant, developed in Nova Scotia. The plants are of the species Cucurbita maxima, whose fruits are called a pumpkin when orange and a squash when green.To achieve maximum size in a season, gardeners plant seeds indoors in late April, said Marvin Meisner of Altoona, a member of the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, and site coordinator for the state's only "weigh off," held there.Meisner said in early May, seedlings are transplanted outdoors under temporary greenhouses made of plastic."By June when the frost is over, the houses come off because plants have grown through them," he said.By mid-June, blossoms have formed and are ready for pollination.Since growers harvest their seeds for next year's crops, care is taken to log characteristics of pumpkins from which the seeds are taken. In that way, the growers can selectively pollinate with size, color and weight in mind."(Heidi) looks for orange, and I look for ugly," Chip Brunst said. But both of them ultimately breed for weight.With poundage guessed in advance of weigh-ins based on a plant's circumference, growers often covet seeds from heavier-than-predicted fruit, recording the lineage of harvested seeds."We track these genetics on a Web site," Chip Brunst said. "We have a pedigree on these just like you would for a dog or a cow."
Seeds are labeled with names like "1,090 Meisner 2007." That description identifies the seed as being from a 1,090-pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin grown by Meisner in 2007.To control which male flowers are used to pollinate females, growers learn to recognize when the flowers are ready to open.Since flowers open in the morning, care is taken to cover the flowers at night: Nylon stockings are used to cover the female flowers. Masking tape thwarts access to pollen in males.Instead of allowing bees to randomly pollinate the plants, the growers take a stamen from the chosen male flower and dab pollen onto the female flower's stigma. As a safeguard, the flower is then covered again with the nylon.After the fruit is "set," pumpkins can grow 40 to 50 pounds a day in their peak season."You can almost see it grow," Keck noted. "You'll walk away. You'll go to work. You'll come home and say, 'Whoa!'"With such increasing size, gardeners must reposition the fruit's growing angle, gently bending the vine to allow the pumpkin to swell without popping itself off the plant.Since each plant yields multiple pumpkins, growers must eventually remove all but the most promising specimen, allowing the plant's energy to be spent on one pumpkin instead of several.By late July or early August, much of the plant's green growth has also been pruned, likewise directing growth toward the fruit. The ends of vines — and sometimes the length — are buried to prevent water loss and to encourage root growth instead of foliage."The more roots you have, the more uptake of nutrients," Chip Brunst said.Keck said one of her pumpkin's vines was severed during a hailstorm this year, leaving the fruit with no source of nutrients. As is typically done with severed vines, Mark Keck used the wick for an oil lamp to deliver liquid fertilizer from a water jug to a slit made in the piece of vine still attached to the pumpkin."For 2½ months (my nephew) fed it that way. It came out at 411½ pounds. ... We know it gained a couple hundred pounds just by him doing that," Karen Keck said.Each occupying 500 to 600 square feet of garden, pumpkin plants require constant maintenance to maximize the growing season, which ends in early October.Meisner said daily maintenance can equate to 50 to 100 gallons of water per plant, with fertilization also done daily, adapted around the cycle of growth.Simultaneously, growers treat for pests like cucumber beetles and powdery mildew, the pumpkin's primary predators.
Sand or special cloth is also placed beneath the fruit itself to provide a slippery enough surface for movement during growth. Bed sheets are placed over the fruit to prevent sunburn, which tightens the skin."(The fruit) can't grow if it's tight and leathery," Heidi Brunst said. "When you're growing 45 pounds a day, you need to stretch."Nutrients like chelated calcium help the skin remain supple to also minimize stretch marks and splitting.Although some giant pumpkins are shiny and orange, others are duller in color and sport a cantaloupe-like texture. Meisner said the texture is actually healed scar from surface splits caused by accelerated growth."We don't care what it looks like. But if the crack goes to the center of the pumpkin, it's disqualified," he said. At weigh-off events, pumpkins are also disqualified for sizeable soft spots.For instance, a soft spot disqualified a 1,450-pound pumpkin grown by a North Cambria woman a week before this year's weigh-off in Altoona, held Oct. 6."That pumpkin got cut up and fed to the animals," Meisner said. "(The grower) was seen crying out in the pumpkin patch."Meisner said such spots and splits are constant threats, happening eventually to every grower."(Richard) Nixon said, 'S*** happens.' Pumpkin growers say, 'Split happens.'"
As well as sympathizing with losses, growers offer mutual support through education and research.Many growing clubs exist, more than 50 of them in North America alone.Although the Altoona weigh-off is the only weight competition hosted in Pennsylvania, various events are also held in Ohio and New York.The Brunsts attend three to five each season, hauling the massive fruits on a trailer, where they are cushioned with soft styrofoam, also used in the field.This year, Chip Brunst's 1,124-pound pumpkin finished 15th at the Ohio Valley Pumpkin Grower's Association weigh-off in Canfield, Ohio. His son Andersen, 5, finished 18th with a pumpkin weighing 1,107½ pounds.Although prizes for the heaviest pumpkins can range between $2,000 and $3,000, bragging rights are also sought."We also have a club called the Half-Ton Pumpkin Club," Meisner explained. "If you grow one over 1,000 pounds, you get a really nice T-shirt and a hat and stuff."It's not easy to grow a 1,000-pound pumpkin. ... I base the success of my year on whether I was able to get over 1,000 pounds."Meisner said in 11 years of weigh-offs in Altoona, entries seem to be rising. Last year's 75 entries, for example, were surpassed by this year with 101 entries.Currently, the group includes about 200 members, although for a fee non-members can also enter crops."As it stands now, at our weigh-off we had the new record for green squash in Pennsylvania. It looks like it might be number one in the whole country."As for pumpkin records, the world record was broken this season by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island, whose fruit weighed in at 1,689 pounds. The previous record was 1,502 pounds.Pennsylvania's record was also topped this year by Quinn Werner of Saegertown, whose fruit weighed in at 1,556½.Keck's largest, which she nicknamed Molly, exceeded 800 pounds — but she hopes the future will bring more poundage. "It's not a beauty contest. It's a weight contest," she said. "(The pumpkin grower) is the only girl in the world that wants to gain weight."Apparently, the pumpkins lose mass almost as quickly. Chip Brunst said the giant fruits typically compost in a season, however, the fibrous vines take longer.
