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Buffalo, New York

Just curious, how did everyone start getting involved in this hobby/passion?

7/23/2008 3:38:01 AM

Buffalo, New York

i forgot to tell about myself:

i have always like growing pumpkins when i was a kid around my dads house, we always grew the small field pumpkins that got maybe 40 pounds.

last year, i was'nt gonna grow pumpkins but since i had an area in the yard not being used, i bought a pack of seeds from home depot and planted a seed.
I to this day still dont know what kind fo pumpkins the pack was, maybe big max which only get to 80 pounds or something, but was having fun growing 3 fruit on that plant, going out everyday and measuring them was a HUGE part of my summer. My 3 fruit last year one my 1 plant only got 66, 60, and 50 pounds, but it was fun and addicting.

ever since then, i guess i got "The Pumpkin Bug"!!!!!!!

7/23/2008 4:07:15 AM

[email protected]

It's the cousins fault. My husbands cousins came over one day and gave me some pumpkin seeds from a growers meeting he went to in Oswego. Said try these and if you don't like growing pumpkins you can go back to your garden. He started the monster, LOL! I'm worse than he is now. He has four plants I have two, but my pumpkins are beating his. Watch now that I said that he'll catch me and pass me.

But I started 3 years ago in a different patch site, now I keep expanding my patch. I'm up to 2400 sq foot and looking to expand it to 4000 sq ft next year.

First year I took a pumpkin to Oswego at 256 pounds, last year 275 pounds, I'm hoping to break personal best this year, and try not to have any pumpkin crack on me this year. So far so good. It's all good fun, and thanks to the cousins for some very good addicting fun of growing giant pumpkins.

7/23/2008 8:48:28 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Since being knee high, the biggest halloween pumpkin has been an important part of that season... I grew a Big Max back in '90, partly to see if I could get a bigger one than I could ever buy and partly to cover some ugly landscaping at our rental house. It did 70#.

I wanted to do something here to get some sort of festival going; and ran into giant tomatoes. I can grow a tomato, so I started to organize a Weigh-Off. Then realized quickly I would have to take it from square one including getting people to grow them... And in the first week someones I knew convinced me to add Pumpkins (and the gent with Second Amendment was very nice and very realistic on what it'd cost to have him come down here with it for a demo weekend) I tried and that is out of the budget this year, sending SA to summer camp; but.

Then came the major accident, with the seedsaver place's Dill's Atlantic Giant seeds and the one seedling that got out there with both sharpened elbows and took over. Thus began the saga of Fat Fred and more. This is my 42nd year of gardening, but pumpkins (to do it right) is in the realm of 'extreme gardening' on a giant scale and having a double season means that one poor plant is surviving and giving me notes for the others it shares space with... who are doing much better 4-6 weeks later.

Hubby has settled in with it gives me joy, he has a little bit of 'wow' and we are discussing where the patch will move to next year... (shift that way so far). The hardest part is keeping others here enthused enough to grow next year.

I had a grip on the parameters but when you're in the middle of the season it still stuns you! I plan on two plants next year too....

7/23/2008 9:08:03 AM

San Luis Obispo, Ca.

I made the mistake of visiting this Web Page and the rest is History!

7/23/2008 11:56:11 AM

Ohio

I wrote a children's book about a girl who wants to grow a giant pumpkin to take to Circleville's Pumpkin Show. Did a lot of research in writing the book, but never grew one for myself. This past year I have been traveling and doing author visits at various elementary schools and I finally figured if I was going to talk the talk I needed to walk the walk. So for the first time I have my very own pumpkin patch in my side yard. My family is having a lot of fun with it--we're hooked now!

7/23/2008 12:22:52 PM

Columbus,ohio

I saw a pack of big max at the store ....did some resaerch and got Addicted!!! I got some dills from ebay and now I just talk about pumpkins ALL THE TIME.

7/23/2008 5:00:39 PM

Minnesota

I was walking thru a hardware store tying to find garden seeds, weekseeds had a stand and some of them said, grow giant pumpkins (corn also) and I have been wanting to grow a giant pumpkin for fun ever since.

7/23/2008 5:35:58 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

The Norlin family started the weighoff here in Anamosa, and I seldom missed one. In 2003 I grew some off the shelf seeds and got one around 176#. Greg Norlin gave me some good advice, I got some good seeds at the weighoff and the next year I got a 633, and several around 450. From that point I was hooked.

7/23/2008 5:47:43 PM

Burton, Ohio

In February I saw the book, "Backyard Giants" on the new books rack at the library and it looked interesting so I checked it out. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down and I was hooked. I did lots of research and started two plants, a 1098 Parks and a 1011 Richard. They're both around 100#. I'm having a ball learning a lot and just soaking up the experience.

7/23/2008 5:57:38 PM

Colorado Springs.Co

I have no idea, probably the same reason I took up golf, I guess I just like to be aggravated.

7/23/2008 6:33:06 PM

Central Ca

I was on dialysis and needed something relaxing. Not the best choice but it stuck.

7/23/2008 7:27:30 PM

Massillon, Ohio

a local feed mill gave out free seeds and said to bring the pumpkins back in october on a designated week to be weighed for prizes. i was in 7th grade and got 4th place. i sort of gave up the next year because i had nooooo idea how to improve upon what i had done / get better seeds, etc.

flash to college.

i met nick and it came up that he also tried growing in middle school!!! we decided to resurrect the hobby and have a competition between the 2 of us. we found this website (which at that time gave out free seeds) and the rest is history! we're married now and i've beat him some years and he's beat me some years.

my family is still not on board. yesterday my dad declared that growing pumpkins does nothing "to better mankind". so i said, "and golfing does?!!" (he golfs everyday). oh well!

7/23/2008 7:31:18 PM

Lawrenceville, Illinois

Halloween has always been a favorite "holiday" for us and we love to carve pupmkins. I always thought it would be so neat to grow a large pumpkin. Fast forward button, presently I am going through the divorce from hell and I needed something else to talk about besides that particular hell..........so I decided to grow pumpkins, and thats what I talk about. Love this forum!

7/24/2008 4:21:34 AM

Washington

Jack had grown veggies and entered the fair since he was a kid. We grew our first 159 pounder that amazed our local fair in 1984 or so. We relocated to Western WA and tried again. Jack and our daughter got 18th place with a 528 in 95. He learned more, got the giant bug and now has OCPD (obsessive, compulsive Pumpkin disease). I got pulled into it by him. If I wanted to talk to him from May to Oct. I had to talk to him in the pumpkin patch. I started helping him then started growing my own. Sherry

7/24/2008 11:47:32 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

Just a slight streak of insanity and self deprecation.

7/24/2008 12:37:57 PM