Giant Pumpkin Patch wrap up

‘Orange Crush’

Let’s catch up with the GIANT PUMPKIN patch!

My giant pumpkin patch produced 1298 pounds of pumpkins this year but there were no recordbreakers for 2012. My biggest ‘Orange Crush’, weighed in at 385 lbs (which is on display at our glass studio-Liquid Light Glass at 926 Baca Street in Santa Fe) was picked up and transported by my 8 strong buds which I affectionately call my ‘pumpkin crew’. Not as big as my 2012 NM State Record of 448 lbs. ‘Orange Crush’ will be the star of this year’s ‘4th Annual Pumpkin Bash’ on Nov 10th.

pumpkin crew 2012

pumpkin patch with ‘Hugo’ in foreground

‘Hugo’ came in at 262 lbs (already went to The Food Depot to feed people).

‘Casper’, 208 lbs-carved by Erika Wanemacher

‘Casper’ came in at 208 ( carved into the biggest jack o’ lantern in Santa Fe by Erika Wanenmacher), ‘Beautiful Baby’ came in at 190 lbs (on display at Prairie Dog Glass), two smaller ones for the State fair came in at 100 and 153 lbs.

And this year a young man from Albuquerque named Olin, broke my NM State Record, growing a pumpkin (named Shelia) that weighed 530 lbs! He started the seed on St. Patrick’s Day and had it in the ground on April 1! WOW! Putting them in the ground in April would be impossible up here at 7000 ft high with our short growing season. Great to have some competition in this state. Congrats Olin but look out next year!

Giant Pumpkins

Sep10

Closeup of pumpkin in back of car

This year I haven’t posted much about my giant pumpkins but I do have some growing. My biggest is named ‘Orange Crush’ because it’s coloring is more orange than any other that I’ve grown before (most have been salmon colored). It is also the bumpiest one I’ve ever grown-not the prettiest-but pretty doesn’t count in giant pumpkin contests-weight does. Gnarly dude! It’s weight measured approximately 289 lbs yesterday and averaging 8.6 lbs a day and should hit 300 lbs tomorrow. It’s seed came from the NM state winner that I grew last year. It is behind last year’s record setter but ahead of the previous year’s winner I grew, so I don’t know what to make of it. Will it get bigger than last year or not? Only time will tell. Still have this month and a week of October for it to grow. A lot will depend on the weather-if it gets cold all of them will slow down to a crawl but if it stays warm and doesn’t freeze at night, it has a chance.

My second biggest is ‘Hugo’ which is flat and oval shaped and on a different plant. Rather beautiful, smooth skinned but doesn’t weigh as much coming in at 182 lbs averaging 5 lbs a day so far. I will leave it to see how big it will get.

I also have three smaller ones-2 on one plant and one on a fourth. I weighed them all and decided to take one that weighed 153 lbs (shown above-I love the glow) and another one that was 100 lbs to the State fair today. I cull some of them to take to the fair but of course leave the biggest ones to keep growing for the contest in Colorado.

I also took my two biggest zucchini (so far) to the fair as they don’t give ribbons for them at the national contests. One was 38.5 lbs and the other was 33 lbs. Last year’s record I set came in at 62 lbs. at the Colorado weigh off. I still have more zucchini growing that I hope will get bigger than last year.