Giant pumpkin breaks American record

“They were talking about $7 per pound for the winner,” he said after his winning weight was announced. “I’m afraid it’s going to hurt.”

Gingerly cushioning their beloved pumpkins with blankets and pads and carefully trimming their stems, the growers behind this year’s field of orange orbs drove many miles see the fruit of their labor get fork-lifted onto an appropriately large scale. The heaviest four pumpkins traveled from Washington and Oregon to seek this year’s title, with several others joining them from Half Moon Bay, Pescadero and Aptos, among other cities and towns.

Though they posed proudly next to their pumpkins Monday, growers near and far admitted taking them from a seed to giant pumpkin in less than six months is no small task. After eight years of growing giant pumpkins, Jeff Uhlmeyer of Tumwater, Washington, knows that luck can sometimes be the biggest factor at play. Between bad weather, pests and many other factors outside a grower’s control, whether a pumpkin is a contender at the weigh-off competitions Uhlmeyer enters each year is a question in his mind until the moment it’s weighed.

“You can invent ways to mess it up,” he said.

Hard work pays off

Applying his background as a civil engineer, Uhlmeyer has tested myriad strategies — everything from heating underground cables to building a structure around his pumpkins — to keep the conditions around his pumpkins nearing perfect in the weeks leading up to weigh-off competitions. Though giant pumpkins can grow at rates of 40 to 50 pounds a day, Uhlmeyer said it’s tough for him at times to appreciate their rapid growth after spending hours each day with them.

“It’s like watching kids grow,” he said.

Uhlmeyer’s hard work paid off this year — his pumpkin weighed 1,927 pounds and earned him the Washington state record for a few minutes until Olympia resident Cindy Tobek’s “Death Star” pumpkin hit the scale at 2,002 pounds. Last year, Tobek won the competition with a 1,910-pound pumpkin.

For Uhlmeyer and many other growers gathered at Half Moon Bay’s weigh-off this year, the community surrounding the giant pumpkin growing is their biggest boon against the many obstacles they face.

After several hours of waiting for his pumpkin to be weighed next to Holland’s, Lupe Carrillo discovered he purchased the seeds for his 883-pound pumpkin from Hollard earlier this year. An agricultural pest control advisor in Aptos, Carrillo has been growing giant pumpkins for four years and said he enjoyed his first run at the Half Moon Bay weigh-off this year. Acknowledging the challenges that cooler coastal weather presents for growing large pumpkins, Carrillo said his preparation for next year’s competition will start imminently.

“Tomorrow, when I clean up all the mess from this one,” he said.

A variety of challenges

Some watching the largest pumpkins get weighed knew the difficulties of growing them from experience. The pumpkin John Szabo, a 52-year Half Moon Bay resident, entered in this year’s contest clocked in at 200 pounds and was weighed earlier in the morning. Szabo said he was inspired to try his hand at growing large pumpkins as a spectator, having attended almost every Half Moon Bay weigh-off for as long as he can remember. But he soon found out how difficult it was for himself.

The pumpkin Szabo was growing last fall was set to be his largest pumpkin in some seven years, but in August developed a gaping hole, a sign of rot, just weeks before last year’s competition.

“That was the end of my pumpkin,” he said.

The odds against giant pumpkin growers doesn’t stop Holland, a former firefighter, from driving some 810 miles from his home in Washington to Half Moon Bay each year since 1992. Even the trip is sensitive, he explained, as pumpkins start losing moisture, and weight, from the moment they are cut from their stems. So Holland wraps his pumpkins in damp blankets and keeps the stems in buckets of water so they retain as much moisture as possible before they are weighed.

Though Holland’s winning pumpkin will stay in Half Moon Bay for a few more days on display at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival this weekend, he plans to bring it back to Washington to be carved and displayed there. No end to growing and entering giant pumpkin contests is in sight for Holland, who said his last step of gathering the seeds from this year’s pumpkins already tees him up for next year.

“That’s good motivation to stay involved,” he said.

The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 on Main Street between Miramontes Street and Spruce Street. Visit pumpkinfest.miramarevents.com for more information.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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