It’s not just pumpkins!

Listener Rod Raunig, who welcomed us to the world of growing giant vegetables, was on hand Saturday to help with the Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Bauman Farms. Rod was wonderfully cheerful though his own pumpkins had split several weeks ago, and he was not able to enter.

Many of the folks from the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers group spent the day helping move and show off an array of vegetable gardening achievements. There were 105 pumpkins entered and, when the last entry was taken off the scale, the prize went to Thad Starr with a 1,462.5 pound pumpkin. The competition was tough, too. Saturday saw eleven pumpkins over 1,000 pounds. That’s a lot of pie!!

Many young gardeners worked hard all summer for this event, too. The Youth Division prize went to Lawson Carter for his 662 pound winner. And it wasn’t just pumpkins. I saw a 95 pound watermelon, sunflowers close to two feet across, and a gourd that had to be a over six feet long!
Now, if you are intrigued by these marvels of the garden, mark your calendars and get started early next year. You can check local nurseries or the internet for competition-sized seed varieties. Members of the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers have access to seeds from past winners. And Bauman Farms will be helping out, too. Next spring you will be able to purchase pre-started giant pumpkin plants.

Generally the Willamette Valley has too short a season for a pumpkin to get prize-winning size, if you start them at the regular time (May – June). So, getting a jump on the season with starts will get you going fast.

I look forward to even bigger entries in 2010!