| Scare your
neighbours and impress your friends this Halloween -
grow your own monster! It's not as hard as you
may think and its also great fun for kids. Firstly
size matters, don't expect a big pumpkin from normal
varieties, choose the right pumpkin cultivar, there are a number of
giants see list below, the biggest being
'Dills Atlantic Giant'.
1) Sow your seeds early for
a good start. Sow your seeds indoors early to mid spring
and harden off mid to late spring.
2) Choose your best
seedling or seedlings and plant out in a well worked
bed. Don't be tempted to fertilise your giant pumpkin
just yet or you could end up with lots of foliage and no
fruit.
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| 3) Once the plant has set
fruit select the largest and healthiest and prune off
the rest. Like tomatoes pinch out the growing tips two
or three leaves beyond the fruit and remove all other
shoots and sideshoots. Earth up soil at several leaf
axils to stabilize plant and to encourage secondary
rooting.
4) Keep
weeds out of your bed as these compete for water and
nutrients. Get your
pumpkin swelling by feeding it weekly with a high potash fertiliser such as tomato feed. Keep
the bottom of your pumpkin dry by placing a pile of straw
under the fruit to prevent it touching the soil.
You may need to provide your
fruit with some shading if its starts outgrowing its foliage.
You
may get new growth on the foliage, this is normal simply prune
out. If there is a danger of frost in the autumn wrap your
fruits in fleece until harvest.
Don't forget to give it lots
and lots of feed and water! Good
luck! |
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Current
World Record |
| 782.4kg (Converts
to: 1,725
pounds
or 123.2 stone!) |
| A pumpkin
grown by Christy Harp weighed a massive 782.4kg. |
| This record
breaker was seen at the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin
Growers - Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Saturday, October
3rd, 2009. |
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| Get
your giant pumpkin seeds.... |
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Pumpkin 'Paton Twins Giant' |
| Cucurbita maxima |
| Beat the
records! With seed taken from a record-breaking
pumpkin weighing over 1200lb, you’ll be in with a
chance. Ian Paton and his twin brother Stuart
currently hold the record for the heaviest pumpkin
grown in the UK with a fruit weighing in at an amazing
1,504lb. |
| So why not try and grow a whopper with these
special seeds? Maybe you’ll smash the British,
European or even the World record! |
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Dill's Atlantic Giant'
Seeds |
| 'Using Atlantic
Giant growers have produced monster pumpkins weighing
over 600 lbs, and it holds the Canadian and American
records for size and weight. |
| Even if you don't want to
produce a 'record breaker', it is excellent for
delicious long standing pumpkins for pies, carving Jack
O'Lanterns, etc. |
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Guinness
World Records - Official site of Guinness
World Records.
New
York Times Giant Pumpkin Record - The Joe Jutras Story
Howard Dill
- Home of the giant pumpkin 'Atlantic Giant'
Mere
Brow - All about their giant pumpkin
competition.
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