Giant pumpkins coming up short

Possible soil issues plague larger gourds

MOSES LAKE — It might be a long cold wait in the patch for the Great Pumpkin in Moses Lake this year.

Some people growing giant pumpkins — those that can reach up to 1,000 pounds — are reporting that they are unable to do so this year.

The news has already resulted in cancellation of the popular pumpkin regatta (see related story).

Regatta participant Dennis Parr has been growing Atlantic Giant pumpkins for about seven years, and growing them for the annual pumpkin regatta for about five, he said.

Parr said he is pretty certain that it might be a bacteria or a virus in the soil. He got seeds from four "heavy hitters," he said, or top-notch seed companies.

"The probablility of having the exact same thing affect all four; it doesn't make any sense unless it's in the soil," he said, noting that it sounds like he and Moses Lake resident Dick Maier encountered similar problems growing the giant gourds this year. "He said his plants were stunted and the leaves were turning yellowish at the ends. That's what mine did."

Maier concurred that he's been unable to grow giant pumpkins this year, although his smaller, field pumpkins — typically used as jack o' lanterns — have grown all right.

Maier has been growing the pumpkins with his son for about four years. He credited Parr with getting them started.

"Every year, they're very temperamental vines, very sensitive to temperatures, soil conditions and whatnot," Maier said. "When you're pushing growth, you're pushing the envelope as far as nutrients."

It's possible to overfertilize and inadvertently damage the plant, he added. noting that his vines are all dead and the weeds have taken over. It's best to set the fruit in early July to ensure good growing time, Maier said.

Another possibility for the lack of growth is the genetics involved in growing a giant pumpkin, Maier said.

"You can't just grow a 1,000-pound pumpkin from any old pumpkin seed," he said. "You have to have the proper genetics."

Field pumpkins tend to be hardier, and don't require as heavy a fertilization process, Maier said. They can almost be neglected, in comparison to the intensive care required to grow giant pumpkins.

"You put a lot of manure on them and let them go," Maier said of field pumpkins. "Giant pumpkins, you're trying to get 20 pounds of weight every day when they're growing rapidly. You're really pushing them."

Parr said that the pumpkins were developed from pumpkins used to feed cattle in Canada. Farmers would grow them to sizes ranging from 80 to 90 pounds, and then turn their livestock loose.

"Cows love them (for their) high sugar content," Parr said.

The Atlantic Giant pumpkins were developed through selective breeding in the late 1970s by Howard Dill, whose operation is based in Windsor, Nova Scotia.

Dill's son Danny works as manager for the Howard Dill Enterprise in Windsor, selling pumpkin seeds worldwide. More than 40 pumpkins were used in the regatta there this year, he noted, adding that problems could also be linked to planting bad seed, or to weather, since the pumpkins require a cool climate.

"If it's too hot, they just don't take," Dill said. He added that some growers in California have to use bags of ice around the plant's flower to make the conditions right.

Dill recommended that growers have their giant pumpkins pollinated by the end of July, and said that the weather delayed planting of his own operation by about two weeks this year, although the plants still grew quite a few pumpkins due to good weather in July and August. He also suggested that growers try to stagger the dates for pumpkin pollination, and pollinate one a week after another.

Parr plans to send soil and tissues samples to be examined by a plant pathologist, he said. Depending on the results, he's either going to grow his pumpkins in a different spot or take the appropriate action to fix what's wrong.

That said, Parr hasn't ruled out one other possibility: He noted wryly that longtime regatta competitor Richard Teals recently visited New Orleans and Algiers, "the voodoo capital of North America."

"I haven't ruled out that it's a curse put on by Captain Teals," he said.