Giant-pumpkin growing brothers prepare for family-friendly festival and weigh-off

With several growing days left until the X Games of giant vegetable growing begin, the tension is gnarly in the gardens of big-pumpkin farmers Gary Grande and his younger brother, Jim.

“They’re extreme pumpkins,” said Gary “The Wiz” Grande, a big-deal grower in the humongous-horticulture scene that stretches from the U.S. to Europe, Canada and Japan, drawing crowds of thousands.

The pressure is huge for guys like Jim “The Biz” Grande, who last year set the state record with a 1,283-pound pumpkin.

“It’s fun,” said Jim, “but it’s almost like an anchor around your neck. It’s one thing to beat your personal best. But 1,283 pounds? That’s 150 pounds more than the state record the year before.

“Everyone says, ‘You raised the bar so high.’ I don’t know if I can do it again.”

A new world record was set last year by Christy Harp of the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers: 1,725 pounds.

Until five years ago, Colorado didn’t even have a local club where people could trade growing secrets.

So in 2005, Gary started a club called the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers, which will hold its fifth annual weigh-off Sept. 25 at Jared’s Nursery and Garden Center in Jefferson County.

Goliath growers are at a slight disadvantage in Colorado, which is far from what experts call “The Great Pumpkin Belt,” a group of Eastern states, including Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, where summer’s temperature swings between night and day aren’t so drastic.

“We’ll never set a world record out of here,” Jim said. “But we’re getting on their tail.”

Gary, however, is quick to debate that point. “It is possible,” he argues. “There is enough variety in the seed, even out of the same pumpkin, that you try to do everything you can to get the pounds out of it. But a lot of it is that lucky seed.”

Invariably, such a seed is some form of the “Atlantic Giant” seed, first created in 1979 by Canadian farmer Howard Dill, who that year won the world record with a 438-pound pumpkin.

In three decades, competitive growers have nearly quadrupled that weight. They’ve tinkered with pumpkin genetics, cloned plants and studied lineage — you know, those prize-winning daddy and granddaddy pumpkins — with the avidity of horse breeders. At auctions, prime seeds can sell for as much as $500 each, Gary said.

Because it’s the weight — not girth — that brings home big prize money, crossbreeding has focused on squash to capitalize on heavy, dense qualities. Monster pumpkins are often ugly, more oddly shaped beige warts than jack-o’-lanterns.

Orange has been bred out of giant pumpkins because orange pumpkins tend to be less heavy.

Gary loves to grow huge jack-o’-lanterns, too, and there’s a “Howard Dill Award” for the prettiest orange pumpkin, which he hopes to win this year.

Gary’s giant jack-o’-lantern — growing on the side of his house in Littleton — appears to be about 850 pounds.

“My biggest challenge this year will be getting it moved,” he said.

He’ll start with “eight or nine thirsty neighbors,” who will hoist it with a special lifting tarp he bought from the Amish in New York.

“We’ll put it on a pallet, and then we can roll it out on little rolling pins, like they did with the Trojan horse,” he said.

Once they get it to the forklift, they’re home free.

“But it’s a pain in the butt to move these things. I need a bigger truck. Mine is only rated for 1,000 pounds,” said Jim, a King Soopers produce manager who hopes his great gourd will reach 1,300 pounds by the time it’s cut from the vine Friday. “I wouldn’t dare put it in there.”

The weight makes judging these behemoths somewhat precarious.

They have to be lifted so the bottom can be checked to make sure there are no holes or crevices — because cheaters have been known to fill their pumpkins with water.

“But you have to lift it quick,” said Jim. “With something like this, you don’t want to stick your head underneath, because if it falls off, you’re dead.”

To become champions, the Grande brothers taught themselves to crossbreed for characteristics that win contests: long and tall, with very thick walls.

“Concrete pumpkins,” said Gary, thumping one of the pumpkins in the brothers’ secluded patch, trying to judge from the vibrations the hollowness of its cavity and thickness of its walls.

They start their seeds inside in April, transplant them into hoop-houses in early May and try to hand-pollinate the first week of July, the month that pumpkins start to pork on the pounds.

“If you’re going to have a serious competition pumpkin, you need to have that 30 to 35 pounds of growth a day,” Gary said.

For that to happen, the gourds need to be tweaked just right.

“We got a program where we do fish, seaweed and compost teas,” Gary said. “We’re trying all the latest growth hormones to push them to the next level.”

For the Grande brothers, competitive pumpkin growing is both passion and obsession.

“It’s like NASCAR,” Gary said. “We go crazy. We’re researching all the latest stuff, then come March, we’ll be at the International Giant Vegetable Growers Convention in Niagara Falls. The scientists give seminars, we learn from all the other growers and everyone shares.

“Seeds, camaraderie,” he said. “I think that’s what life’s all about, really.”

Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or [email protected]

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Good gourd!

Catch the pumpkin weigh-off at Jared’s Nursery and Garden Center, 10500 W. Bowles Ave. in Jefferson County, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 25. This is a child-friendly event. If your little ones are not impressed by the 1,000+-pound gourds, they will love the straw maze and obstacle course, doggy costume contest, Galleria of the Ghouls, bouncy castle, face painting and more.

If you think you have a contender — last year’s junior-division winner tipped the scales at 185 pounds — contact the garden center for entry information. The event also includes competitions for biggest tomato, sunflower and green squash, and longest gourd. Registrations are due Friday. More information: 303-979-6022.

Also, guess the weight of The Great Pumpkin and win 10 Fright Fest passes to Elitch Gardens. Go here to enter. Contest deadline is September 24 at midnight.

Author: Amber Johnson

Amber is the founder and editor of Mile High Mamas, travel writer and former columnist for The Denver Post. She is a passionate community builder and loves the outdoors. She has two awesome teens and is happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin.