You Grow Girlâ„¢

A guy named Howard Dill gets most of the credit for the size of pumpkin being grown today. He's a Nova Scotia farmer who started growing pumpkins in the fifties and spent 30 years breeding them for size. He held the world record from 1979 to 1982. Today, he sells his own variety of seeds, Dill's Atlantic Giant, by mail order. Pumpkins grown from his seeds are known to grow into the biggest pumpkins of any.

It's supposed to be a hobby, but competition for first prize weigh-off contests is serious. The people who really want to win are always trying to concoct ways of giving their pumpkin the advantage-a special fertilizer mix, a certain way of a training the vines, a custom greenhouse… If it's not money on the line, it's skill and pride. One contest, held by the World Pumpkin Confederation, offers a $50 000 first prize, far more than any other. But there's still cache in growing the biggest pumpkin, even if it's not for the big dough. Other growers respect the skill of winners: they go to them for seeds and advice, and follow their methods of growing (if they are willing to share them) religiously. Howard Dill for example is actually described as the `guru' of big pumpkins by other growers. Some even protect their prize pumpkins with elaborate security systems.

The people who are best at growing pumpkins muster all their human ingenuity and gardening know-how to give nature a winning push. A prize pumpkin doesn't have to be pretty, edible, or even non-toxic. It just has to weigh a ton. The plants are monitored, measured, and treated scientifically but are at the same time coddled and even loved. They are fertilized according to a program, and liberally treated with fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, and anything else in the arsenal of old-fashioned, chemical-heavy style gardening---even before the grower notices a problem! These gourds are not bred to be pest resistant, that's for sure. A site called The Pumpkin Nook pretty much expresses the feeling growers have towards the use of pesticides:

" If you are in search of the behemoth pumpkin, spraying to control insects is unfortunately a must…Fortunately those striving for prize winning pumpkins will not be eating the fruit, so health risks are lower. "

Theoretically, though, one fruit could supply the pumpkin for 900 pies. In "Training and Pruning your Pumpkin Vines" David McCallum tells a story of sacrifice in the quest to keep a giant squash safe from the weather:

" The squash was kept growing in the greenhouse with the aid of a propane furnace until November 4. The greenhouse even made it through a 4" wet snowfall. By setting the alarm clock and getting up every four hours, my brother and I were able to keep the roof clean all night long. "

No wonder pumpkin growers describe their hobby as a sport-and he's probably not the first to miss a good nights' sleep over his pumpkin. One grower describes the nerves that accompany the late season, when the pumpkin is getting huge, as the time to start taking nerve pills. It seems the stress is incredible; the pumpkins grow 15 to 20 pounds a day, a rate of growth that can cause them to split without any warning, the growers' worst fear.