Giant Pumpkins for 2013!

[Schnazleberry]

Wow! that thing is swelling up for sure
Great work and thanks for the time lapse that was fun to watch.

[TheWaterbug]

I'll post more info later in the week when I have some free time, but the pumpkin party was a smashing success, and the Atlantic Giants were a huge part of it. Here's how we weighed them--we ran two lifting straps underneath at put the hooks from the hanging scale through the arm loops. Then I ran a steel pipe through the top hook, and 4 of us lifted the pole on our shoulders (that's me in the orange):



The first one (the one from the time lapse) weighed in at 261 lbs:



and the second one was 305 lbs:



The scale is good up to 550 lbs. and my guess is the 4 of us would be good up to about that weight as well, as would the pipe. So I'm covered for next year, unless I do something drastically different.

I was quite pleased with the size, but very slightly disappointed with the weight. I though they'd be heavier. But my goal was for the pumpkins to weigh more than me, and they did!

[rainbowgardener]

You grew a 300 pound pumpkin and you were disappointed !? That's setting the bar pretty high!

So do the giant pumpkins at least get composted?

[TheWaterbug]

They'll get composted, but they need to be reduced in size first.

So what do you do with a pumpkin that's already served its purpose in life, is too big to move, and no good for eating?

Give away the seeds! But first you have to extract the seeds:



The kids ran in like I'd just opened a piñata; it was great! Everyone took seeds, though I'll be surprised if more than 2-3 families actually get around to planting them.

[applestar]

Fantastic job growing those giant pumpkins! Kudos to the weight lifters (are you sure you can go to 550?) Approximately how many seeds were in there?

For future seed sharing, in Japan they have a traditional summer game exactly like piñata using watermelon and a slender stick like a broom handle. If giant pumpkin will crack with a bat, it might be a viable option? (I don't think this is a game to be played with an axe though....). If they are too tough, you may need to prep the pumpkin for cracking with a firewood wedge or something... Regular pumpkins do sort of open themselves as soon as you get a knife in.

Look for "suikawari" on YouTube. For illustrative purposes, I found this one, but it is actually just like piñata in that participants take turns until the melon splits open.


...speaking of watermelons, how is the molded watermelon project coming along?

...oh while we are at it, did you know they have giant pumpkin boat races?

[TheWaterbug]

You grew a 300 pound pumpkin and you were disappointed !? That's setting the bar pretty high!?

I guess "disappointed" isn't quite the right word. I was thrilled with the size, and that led me to believe that I'd have something near 400 lbs. I didn't realize how non-dense they'd be, although I had last year's pumpkins as example.

But the seeds came from an 800 lb. monster, and I thought I'd done good soil prep, so I really was aiming high. Next year will be even better!!

[TheWaterbug]

Fantastic job growing those giant pumpkins! Kudos to the weight lifters (are you sure you can go to 550?) Approximately how many seeds were in there?

I didn't get a chance to count, with all the kids racing in and taking them, but I'm guessing/assuming that it was comparable to the number of seeds in a normal pumpkin. It just looked empty because the seeds are only 2x normal size while the pumpkin is 20x.

For future seed sharing, in Japan they have a traditional summer game exactly like piñata using watermelon and a slender stick like a broom handle. If giant pumpkin will crack with a bat, it might be a viable option? (I don't think this is a game to be played with an axe though....). If they are too tough, you may need to prep the pumpkin for cracking with a firewood wedge or something... Regular pumpkins do sort of open themselves as soon as you get a knife in.

If we're going Japanese, I'm going full Japanese! Last year I had to use my brother's ancient WWII bayonet:



but this year I'm going to use my $50 katana from Amazon:

...speaking of watermelons, how is the molded watermelon project coming along?

Not so well

Since I planted so late, the pumpkin hasn't reached a size to even reach all sides of the box yet. Oh well; there's always next year.