Page 31 - ATD 31OCT2015
P. 31
PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Saturday 31 October 2015
How do you grow a pumpkin the size of car? It’s complicated
MICHELLE R. SMITH lace said. “Most competi-
Associated Press tive giant pumpkin grow-
COVENTRY, Rhode Is- ers aren’t taking summer
land (AP) — Ron Wallace vacations.”
grows pumpkins nearly the Wallace, who’s single,
size of a Fiat. works up to 40 hours a
From the pumpkin patch in week on his hobby, check-
his Rhode Island backyard, ing for mice and disease
Wallace has become the and burying vines, keep-
rock star of giant pump- ing pumpkins covered in
kin-growing. He was the sheets to protect the skin.
first person in the world to Most growers end up
break the 2,000-pound, spending hundreds or
or 1-ton, barrier when thousands of dollars per
he grew a 2,009-pound year. If they’re lucky, they
(911-kilogram) pumpkin in can sell what they grow for
2012, and he previously a holiday display for $1 a
broke the world record in pound, maybe more for a
2006. A friend calls him a state record, but they say
“mainstreamer,” someone they rarely make money or
whose passion for the hob- A judge takes a look under the pumpkin entry, grown by Ron Wallace, during the giant pumpkin break even.
by has spread word to the contest weigh-off at the Rochester Fair in Rochester, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. One place these pump-
broader public. kins won’t end up: pump-
Wallace, a country club Associated Press kin pie. They’re too big to
manager, has spent 27 2,009-pound pump- lobby top growers to use bumper crop. be tasty.
years at the hobby, swap- a seed they think is promis- Standing in Wallace’s The weigh-off is the mo-
ping ideas with growers kin have sold for more than ing. fields, a person feels small- ment of truth. Crews check
Like most serious growers, er. Around the edges for holes, cracks and rot,
$1,000 in a charity auction. Wallace ties plants’ blos- where he grows flowers which would disqualify the
soms closed and hand- and vegetables, his sun- entry, before putting it on
pollinates them so he can flowers have reached 18 the scale.
be sure of the mother (the feet (5.5 meters). A tomato “You can do anything. You
seed) and the father (the plant produced a 5-pound can tinker with professional
pollinator) and protect (2.3-kilograms) tomato. plant hormones or what-
them from bees carrying Wallace has spent more ever fertilizer you think’s
pollen from a neighbor’s than two decades pains- going to give you an ad-
squash.
The vines can grow 1
foot (30 centimeters) or
more per day, and pump-
kins can put on 45 pounds
(20 kilograms) per day,
Giant-pumpkin grower Ron Wallace holds a single seed at the mostly from water. The
pumpkin patch in his garden outside his home in Greene, R.I., best pumpkins every year
Aug. 18, 2015. follow the weather. If
conditions were right in
Associated Press the Ohio Valley, growers
worldwide. A greenhouse Wallace has seen coun- there might see a string Ron Wallace points to one of his giant-pumpkin-contest winning
grower in Switzerland holds terfeits sold on eBay. Still, of huge pumpkins. When ribbons in a trophy room of a garden shed near the pumpkin
the current world record: many growers freely swap there’s a drought, as in patch of his garden outside his home in Greene, R.I., Tuesday,
2,323 pounds (1,054 kilo- seeds with each other or California, don’t expect a Aug. 18, 2015.
grams), grown from a Wal-
lace seed. Associated Press
About 30,000 people grow
giant fruits and vegetables Judges measure as volunteers examine the entries prior to the takingly researching soil vantage,” Wolf said. “The
competitively, and pump- giant pumpkin contest weigh-off at the Rochester Fair in Roch- science and experiment- only thing you can’t do is
kins are most popular, said ester, N.H., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. ing. This year, he launched somehow doctor the ac-
Andy Wolf, president of the a product based on his tual fruit.”
Great Pumpkin Common- Associated Press growing program, Wal- Wallace took the big-
wealth.” lace Organic Wonder. It gest pumpkin he grew this
“All walks of life. Doctors, includes among its ingredi- season to a weigh-off on
lawyers, farmers,” Wal- ents mycorrhizal fungi. He Oct. 10. He won top prize
lace says. “The bond is gi- calls it a superfungus that weeks earlier at the Roch-
ant pumpkins.” helps deliver water and ester Fair in New Hamp-
It all starts with the seed. Top nutrients. shire, with a 1,975-pound
growers know their pump- “For growers who are com- (896-kilogram) gourd. Wal-
kins’ lineage back genera- petitive, it’s year-round. lace estimates disease
tions, and the GreatPump- They’re studying, they’re cost his Warren pumpkin as
kin Commonwealth keeps researching, they’re build- much as 150 pounds (68 ki-
records. ing greenhouses, they’re lograms), and he was wary
Seeds from Wallace’s looking at genetics,” Wal- before the weigh-in.q
