Web Alert: Porky Pumpkins Tip Scales at 1000-Plus Pounds
To the four - minute mile and the eight - human foot high leap , lend yet another fabled carrying into action barrier , shattered just last Saturday : the 1,000 - Cypriot pound pumpkin .
Paula and Nathan Zehr from Lowville ,
N.Y. , set a new record last weekend with their 1,061 pound
pumpkin .
Credit : Associated Press
For fans of gargantuan gourds , the wonder is that it take so long . In 1994 , when Herman Bax of Lyn , Ontario , grow a prize - winning 990 - pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin , it seemed likely that the 1,000 - hammer mark would fall quickly — especially since criminal record - sized yield of this hybridized plant life had nearly doubled in weight during the previous 10 . But then in 1995 , Paula Zehr of upstate New York acquire top the year ’s honor with a mere 963- pounder . When would improvement in seed and growing techniques result in the half - ton triumph ?
Befitting such a blend of nature and technology , the news that not one but two giant pumpkin had tipped the scales above the magic 1,000 stage was circulate first via Web sites created and maintained by enthusiastic raiser attracted to this weighty pastime .
“ The captivation is in the experience of watching a plant grow so tight — 20 to 30 pounds a day , ” say Dan Gardner , whoseWorld Class Giant Pumpkins internet site is accurately billed as “ the Internet starting point for instruct about World Class Giant Pumpkins . ” On Saturday evening , from weigh - off data posted on his site for one of the competitive association , the dandy Pumpkin Commonwealth Results Thomas Nelson Page , the world study of the 1,006 - pound autumn pumpkin , as big as a kitchen stove , grown by a 64 - year - old retired nurseryman , Bill Greer of Picton , Ont .
To fully appreciate the hard study and high stake ask in the competitory existence of giant pumpkin growing , web browser app may want to linger at Gardner ’s site , which the Appleton , Wis. , electrical railroad engineer created a twelvemonth ago to provide pumpkin entropy on the net . Here he offers a lengthy news feature article from the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine , style 1,000 Pounds or Pie , by Michael Vitez ; links to The Travels of a Pumpkin , a abbreviated tale of Herman Bax ’s 990 - pounder ; and to Barry DeJong ’s ’ 94 Diary , the epic struggle to enhance a 945 - muller — as well as to Gardner ’s own online journal complete with exposure of Dan ’s Pumpkin , which weigh in on Saturday at 291.5 pounds .
“ A jackanapes , it barely escaped being the peewee of the show , ” Gardner say .
Howard Dill with his 1981 world phonograph record
pumpkin vine . This 493.5 pounder held the man record for 4 year while Howard won
an unprecedented 4 back-to-back World Championships .
Shortly after midnight on Sunday , East Coast time , word was post on theAtlantic Giant PumpkinsWeb land site : “ Paula and Nathan Zehr from Lowville , N.Y. , entered a pumpkin vine which librate 1,061 pounds . ”
The new disk holder win its thirtysomething growers a $ 50,000 prize at the Great Pumpkin Farm , near Buffalo , where it will remain on display until Halloween . Meanwhile , the 1,006 - pound Canadian pumpkin is being ship to California for a fall fete celebration . ( Mainstream medium lagged on this tight - breaking news ; for representative , CNN Interactive ’s World Wide Web site did n’t post its story Half ton pumpkin gain competition until late Sunday afternoon ) .
The Atlantic Giant Pumpkin site , chock full of selective information for lover of the orange pachyderm , includesFrequentlyAsked dubiousness on Atlantic Giant Pumpkins and secrets ofAtlantic Giant Growing Techniques , detailing the sprouting , pollination , dressing , give care and watering ( pumpkins are 95 % water ) needed for a barrier - shattering colossus . The site is exert by Duncan McAlpine of Seattle , a Boeing engineer whose own Atlantic Giant press a mere 208 * on Saturday , but was nevertheless honored with the rubric of “ ugliest pumpkin ” in Washington State .
McAlpine ’s pumpkin pages are actually part of a larger gardening land site seeded by his original nursing home Thomas Nelson Page , which was produced to promote the Mt. Tahoma Rock Garden Society . Now his Web Page are organized harmonize to the divisions of his home garden , diagrammed onThe Pacific Northwest Climate Gardenpage . Still , gargantuan autumn pumpkin are clearly his favorite flora ; just look at his page ofAtlantic Giant Pumpkins Clipart , with 47 downloadable files of colorful Cucurbita pepo art collected from around the Net . Potential convert to the giant pumpkin way can even view Giant Pumpkin Trading Cards commemorate ace of preceding twelvemonth , posted by an Ontario agriculturalist , Gus Saunders , whose Farmer Gus ’ Ottowa - St. Lawrence Pumpkin Growers Home Page include his picture , with the caption : “ Farmer Gus say ‘ I never met a autumn pumpkin I did n’t like ! ”
Anyone sharing that sentiment should go directly toHoward Dill ’s Giant Pumpkinspage where Dill , “ The Pumpkin King ” who has been hybridize Giant Atlantics for the last 16 years , offers his prize - gain ground seeds for sale .
The Pumpkin King ’s connection site is festooned with a cartoon of a trivial boy surrounded by slews of pie Pan , cry : “ Oh mummy ! not pumpkin Proto-Indo European again ! ” While many jumbo pumpkins grow for the competition will end up as compost , growers looking to practice the fruit of their labors in something other than Proto-Indo European can also happen alternative on the cyberspace on a varlet devoted to 45 Fun Recipes for Pumpkin .
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right of first publication 1996 The New York Times Company
