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Bristol R.I. USA

Just wondering how everyone got their start Growing Atlantic Giant Pumpkins. I got interested when I had seen Ron Wallace get his 1502 At Freriches Farm in Warren R.I. I was driving by after going to the Mall and saw all the cars at the Farm. I got out and was floored by the size of these Beasts.I saw the biggest Pumpkin ever being weighed. After that year I decided to try my luck. I planted the seeds in the rose bushes and the woodchucks got to it. After that I didn't have the time and let the season go by. This year I tried and made a first year effort and got a 679 pound pumpkin and it was 30% Heavy. Now I'm hooked and won't ever stop. Like I always say. A house without a pumpkin is like a car without an engine.

2/23/2010 12:33:35 PM

Nova Scotia

Grandparents saw paper articals on Howard Dill and got seed and had a competition against me likely around 1979. on and off grower ever since (circumstances)

2/23/2010 12:38:54 PM

Nowhere

saw AGs on display @ local AGway store....bought some seeds

2/23/2010 1:01:01 PM

43.841677 , -79.086692

Picked up Dills AG seeds @ Home Depot last year and planted in a 60 sq' raised garden. Grew a 145 pounder. Started researching like mad during the summer. Joined the GVGO....Spent like 10 grand that my wife does not know about (oops) on preparing the site, equipment and seeds.
I am completely addicited and have not even grown a big one.

C

2/23/2010 1:04:27 PM

Crossett Arkansas

I grew a 72lb pumpkin several years ago and I was telling some friends about it. They told me of a guy that had grown a 120 lb pumpkin and he won a blue ribbon at the county fair.I saw this guy at work one day and told him of my 72 lber. He said " you aint SH!! til you get the blue ribbon " ! When I got home I search for info on big pumpkins and found this site. Bohica Tom was on the chat that day. I told Tom my story and he said "coop I will send you some seeds that will kick that guys a$$"..Tom did and They did.
I did everything wrong that first year but I still grew a 400 lb and 350 lb pumpkin. Needless to say the BLUE RIBBON is at my house!!!!!
Hopefully I will get a bigger prize this year, like the State Record!!
Mike Cooper

2/23/2010 2:00:21 PM

Rhode Island

i was to lazy to run a marathon, to slow to play hand ball. could not jump high enough for basketball, could not play for the buffalo bills soooooooooooooo i figured hey why not try and win at this?

i must be a slow learner cause it took over 10 years to get into the winners circle. but___ once you have been there ? you never want to leave -lol.......pap

2/23/2010 2:39:28 PM

Billerica,Massachusetts

WOW have to really think back, years are a little cloudy.
can remember as a kid when we went to get our Halloween pumpkins also went for the biggest but dad usually corrected me and suggested something more realistic,then in the mid-70's my older sisters boyfriend brought her a pumpkin, it was around 100 pounds i remember them calling it a squmpkin, had that funny little blossom end thing going on, i remember marveling at the picture on the Big-Max seed pack, wow that's big, tried some in my parents back yard, heck i grow tomatoes there no problem why not pumpkins, not realizing that the 2 hours of full sun would not work for pumpkins, spent the early 80's buying some large pumpkins for halloween, usually bought them in NH at farm stands while doing service calls up there, then in 1987 i went to the Topsfield fair saw some big pumpkins in the Fruit/Veggie barn spotted a small basket that said giant pumpkin seeds, sent away for them and in 1988 attempted to grow one, the vines sprawled across the lawn, a pumpkin formed grew to around 15 pounds and then rotted away, hmmm is that it? My mother spotted an ad in all places a Phillip Morris newsletter for the WPC so i joined bought some Dill seeds and tried again in 1989, hooked up a 55 gallon drum with tubing and used to feed Peters plant food to the plants ended up with two pumpkins,i spoke to Hugh Wiberg and then i took the biggest one to Topsfield
it was huge (so i thought) got to the weigh-off 9in those days it was outside in the barnyard) my big pumpkin had done the shrink factor when i got there and put it next to the other ones, looked like a small piece of fruit, when my turn came to weigh it, i skipped the cart,(we used four wheel push carts to move them) and carried my pumpkin to the scale and it weighed a whopping -------------- 109 pounds
but i still remember what Hugh said " He'll be back next year"
and Hugh was correct as i have no missed a weigh-off with or without an entry since then!

2/23/2010 4:07:11 PM

Long Island,New York

Pap...I don't see why you couldn't play for the Buffalo Bills.........?

2/23/2010 4:29:49 PM

[email protected]

And you can't spell GIANTS without G.

2/23/2010 5:46:03 PM

[email protected]

Its my son's fault. I grew some nice PRIZEWINNERS one year but when he saw a real giant the gloves came off. Gee dad, why aren't ours that big???

2/23/2010 5:51:12 PM

I was flipping through the TV channels a while back and I saw some big orange thing. So I stopped on that channel and it turned out to be a giant pumpkin that the Daletas has grow. I wrote to some growers bought some books and 3 years later here I am. To bad I have lost them the past two years..... But theres always next year.

Martin

2/23/2010 6:09:54 PM

Berlin,mi.([email protected])

Got a single seed from Don Vanhoutte, a local grower who has been at it for a long time. Grew 570 lbs. 1st year and was hooked.

2/23/2010 6:42:33 PM

Bloomington, IN

Bought a packet of Prizewinner Hybrids in May of 08 that said they could grow to 300 lbs, then one day in July while researching how to grow them big I saw a video on youtube about growing big pumpkins that mentioned this website. Been here ever since, lol.

Brian

2/23/2010 6:43:34 PM

Columbus,ohio

Pack of seeds from store. Got bit by the bug.

2/23/2010 8:10:17 PM

Claysburg , PA

Seen a article in the local newspaper about Larry and Gerry Checkon a few years ago and decided to give it a try . Rocky Rockwell and Bill Clark sent me my first seeds. My wife still wants to hurt you Rocky for sending me those seeds.

2/23/2010 8:27:52 PM

Woodburn, Indiana

Beachy gave me some seeds and I was hooked.

2/23/2010 8:33:10 PM

Sparta, NC

I went to the NC Mountain State Fair in 2002 and seen one of Wallace Simmons 800 lbers and thought i would like to try to grow one of those. I got book #1 and some seeds from Don Langevin and ended up with 177 lbs my 1st year. The next year I found BP.Com and got seeds from Cary Polka, Bill Clark, Kyle Little and Glen Needham and got a 658 lber and have been hooked ever since. I have been fortunate to be able to travel around the country and meet alot of growers over the years. I have made alot of great friends since I started this hobby.

2/23/2010 8:49:42 PM

Sacramento, Ca

I pretty much have been gardening all my life. In 2008 I ran a service call in Citrus Heights and there in the mans yard was a very, very large patch of dirt. I made the comment about "oh, getting the vegetable garden ready I see". "No" he says, "getting the pumpkin patch ready". We started talking and he explains about how he was going to grow one plant in there and that his pumpkin the year before was 600 plus pounds. He offered me some seeds, I took them home and planted one of them on the side of the house. Plant started wilting really bad, I went on the internet and convinced myself I had just about every pumpkin disease known to man. I ripped the plant up before it set a fruit and that was that. In 2009 I planted some tomatoes in the same spot and found that the previous homeowner had buried a brick walkway there, this was frying the pumpkin roots. That spring I dedicated my entire veggy garden to my AG. I got some seeds from Alan Gibson, grew a 309.5 the first time out and the rest is history. Now if I could only find out the name of that person that gave me the first seed!

2/23/2010 9:43:10 PM

Redmond, Washington; U.S.A.

My Family

2/24/2010 12:33:10 AM

Buffalo, New York

Geez pap, you always need to mention the bills in your posts.......shame on you!!!

2/24/2010 1:24:54 AM

Colorado Springs.Co

Can't speak for pap, My dad was an offensive lineman at Michigan in the fourties and hated sports, but he loved the Bengals because of the uniforms. He also fought with the 101st on D,Day and in Holland but hated hunting.

He taught me how to garden and I guess that's why I love the sport.

2/24/2010 2:32:17 AM

Peru Indiana

whell, if you want the truth, i was lonely, and i wanted my husband to pay atention to me. thats how it all started. it was early spring 5 or 6 years ago. i had it on PBS and there they were. like giant orange beacons. when my hubby got home i was on the computer just typing away. i told him what my plan was, and much like god he laughed. whell i bought big max seeds that year. they died, he made fun of me, bad things happened. the next year i tried agen. this time with some store bought dill seeds. he worked 14 to 16 hour days back then, so he didnt notice the masive vines growing every ware till 2 months into the season. we last all of our back yard that year but i got to rub his nose into a 200lb pumpkin. he caught the bug then. i grew the genarics for a couple more years then i found this web sight. paul tack and others have realy taken me under there wing and all i can do is try to make them proud. my goal now.....dont let them down

2/24/2010 5:48:46 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Much like Pap, we weren't world class athletes, so breaking any WR was out of the question. We saw on the news one night a story about a guy who broke the WR for pumpkins @ 800# or something. (I can't remember the true weight). We really enjoy spending time in our gardens & thought that this might be a way that we could one day grow a WR pumpkin. It took a few years of store bought Dill seeds before we found the Ottawa-St Lawrence club. We joined & they sent us 3 seeds from the top pumpkins weighed in Ottawa the year before, plus an interesting newsletter. From that day on, we've been hooked on this hobby. Our 1st true Atlantic Giant weighed 550#.

Jane & Phil

2/24/2010 7:42:06 AM

Bethlehem CT

As a kid in the 80's I can remember looking at seed catalogs and seeing Howard Dill next to his giant pumpkins. That instilled a yearning or a desire to grow one for myself. For years I grew 'Big Max', 'Big Moon" and the store bought Atlantic Giant seed. I never got any bigger than 150 pounds. Growing the big ones was a mystery to me. I would ask myself, "How do they do that?"
One year at the Bethlehem Fair, I met John D. and he said go to Big pumpkins.com. So I did... and I got hooked up with Matt DeBacco, he explained about bubbles and all the basics that I had questions about. I bought Don Langevin's first and second book. In 2,007 I grew my first true giants.
It has impressed me that so many growers share there seeds and advice. We don't have many secrets anymore. In Don Langevin's books he tells us how we should strive to be gentleman and women as we compete, he tells us how growers are generous and open about knowledge sharing. We are now seeing the results of those seeds that were planted way back then.

2/24/2010 8:37:40 AM

Somers, CT

Ken and John talked me into it one day at work. I talked my wife into it. I took last year off and am taking this season off too so I can concentrate on school and heal from knee surgery. I do miss it.

2/24/2010 11:35:41 AM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

I went to all the weighoffs in Anamosa and was impressed. I had a creek bottom garden with fairly good soil and had been growing Big Max pumpkins up to 100# without fertilizer, watering and very minimal weeding. In 2003 I bought some generic Dill seeds and put them in the garden. By mid June they hadn't sprouted and I tilled over them to kill weeds. By July 4 they were growing. By Labor Day cucumber beetles were going nuts, but I still got one to 176.6#. I entered it and took next to last. The local growers were selling seeds at that weighoff, and I bought some Barlow and Carlson seeds for $1 each. With a little advice from Greg Norlin and a lot of rookie mistakes I managed to get one to 633#. I finished in the top 20 for 2004. After that I was hooked.

2/24/2010 1:12:45 PM

Bethel Ohio

I was visiting the pumpkinshow @ Circleville, Ohio, to watch my daughter's H.S.marching band marchm and play. I say the giant pumpkins on display, bought some seeds but could not get them to germinate. Next year, same story, when no germinations, I contacted Doc Liggett after researching Circleville area, and Doc invited me to his hopuse, showed me how to germinate, and gave me 2 started plants ready to go in the patch. The rest is history, and Doc Liggett is my #1 mentor.

2/24/2010 4:04:19 PM

Topsfield, Ma.

Went down to the local co-op on a Saturday to get some bird seed and Hugh Whiberg was putting on his one-man-solo AG clinic...scribbled down everything he said and I was hooked!
Thanks Hugh!

2/24/2010 8:41:19 PM

Gold Hill, Oregon

saw thad stars picture in the paper (black and white). i thought " look at that old guy if he can do it so can too". lol. thought he was about ready to retire lookin at that picture. come to find out he's the same age as me.
lol. those black and white photos are deciecvious. (hope i spelled it right). dad tought me how to grow a garden. i can grow a biggun and show him up. lol. boy do i have a lot to learn. still can't get over 400lb.

2/26/2010 9:04:55 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

big moon, the last couple lines in yer post, I sorta think is why this sport/hobby has grown so much!!!"he tells us how we should strive to be gentleman and women as we compete, he tells us how growers are generous and open about knowledge sharing" !! Kudo's to Mr. Langevin!! Peace, Wayne

2/27/2010 2:18:10 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

And to you Big Moon, for reminding us!!! Congrats also to Matt & Ken!!! for leading a new one (way back then) in the right direction!!! Peace, Wayne

2/27/2010 2:23:29 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

As kid the biggest halloween pumpkin was an annual ritual... I grew a Big Max 1990 over some landscape rocks and got a 70#... seen some Dill's Atlantic Giant seeds at Victory Seeds in late 2007 and ordered some, and ONE just took off. Thus came the Fat Fred Saga; the bet with Matt-Man... the real seeds and season 1.5, 425#... then 2009 and a record. In it for the ride now come heck, high water, hail, bugs, spiderbites and all the rest. Past hooked.

3/1/2010 3:22:24 AM