{"id":64088,"date":"2022-10-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=64088"},"modified":"2022-09-26T13:39:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T17:39:31","slug":"how-to-grow-a-giant-pumpkin-like-a-mainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/how-to-grow-a-giant-pumpkin-like-a-mainer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Grow a Giant Pumpkin Like a Mainer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Giant pumpkin growers are a furtive bunch, or so it seems when you\u2019re trying to learn their secrets. First Edwin Pierpont, of Jefferson, who beat his own state record at last year\u2019s Damariscotta Pumpkinfest for his massive 2,121.5 pound fruit, humbly declined to speak on the subject: \u201cGet in touch with Buzz Pinkham. He and Bill Clark taught me everything I know.\u201d Buzz was called, but he kept his cards close, sending us instead to BigPumpkins.com, a helpful resource for sure, but not quite the lowdown we were looking for. Next came Clark, who agreed to spill the beans. \u201cFirst off, you need to be completely and totally insane to do this,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I used to compete, I put in 40 to 60 hours a week between feeding, patching, prepping, pruning, and vine training. It\u2019s a full-time job.\u201d Feeling just crazy enough to try? Clark\u2019s advice is to start now, this fall: \u201cPeople will amend their soil for next year with composted manure, gypsum, lots of calcium, things like that,\u201d he says. \u201cGet that in there and till it, and put in a cover crop, which is what we call a green manure, to replenish the soil with nutrients.\u201d Wintertime is for research. Clark first started with seeds from North Carolina Giants, which yielded five 200-pound pumpkins; he now sources what he calls \u201csome decent seed\u201d for a strain of Atlantic Giants at, you guessed it, the aforementioned website. In March, get the snow off your patch and start warming up the soil. \u201cMost of the big growers will build fairly good-size hoop houses,\u201d says Clark. \u201cThey’ll be running heaters, running ground cables, to try and get that soil warmed up to around 70 degrees.\u201d Next comes vine training. \u201cYou don’t want just like a big mess,\u201d says Clark. \u201cIf you don’t stake them down and train them, a good wind will blow the whole vine over, and then you’ve lost your roots.\u201d Springtime is for the birds and the bees, but don\u2019t rely on them, since you don\u2019t want any question about the genetics of your plant. \u201cCover the males the night before you cover the female,\u201d explains Clark, who sounds like he\u2019s describing colonial bundling practices, \u201cand then cut the males off, strip them down, and paint the pollen onto the female to pollinate it.\u201d How much water does a giant pumpkin need? \u201cSomewhere in the neighborhood of 1,250 gallons for a thousand square feet,\u201d says Clark, who recommends installing an automatic irrigation system. You may, at this point, be wondering about the point of all this. Prize money? Not much. Glory? Sure. But as Clark likes to say, referring to the Pumpkinfest\u2019s legendary regatta, which features numerous 400- to 700-pound pumpkins motored\u2014or paddled\u2014by volunteer captains, \u201cYou can\u2019t make a boat outta a jack-o’-lantern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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