Giant Pumpkins
Current Weather in the Pumpkin Patch
2009 Pumpkin Journal
2008 Pumpkin Journal
2007 Pumpkin Journal
2006 Pumpkin Journal
2005 Pumpkin Journal
2004 Pumpkin Journal
2008 Pumpkin Pickin Party Results
2007 Pumpkin Pickin Party Results
2006 Pumpkin Pickin Party Results
2005 Pumpkin Pickin Party Results
2004 Pumpkin Pickin Party Results
How to grow giant pumpkin instructions
Idaho's top ten list
How I build my greenhouses
My Hiking Web Page
My Hunting Web Page
Brian Christensen
20 Madison Professional Park
Rexburg, Idaho 83440
Email:
BrianChristensenMD@gmail.com
Phone Day (208) 656-9008
Evening (208) 359-2954
a small but growing club.
I added to this club significantly this year. I guess I will keep it but another year like this one and I will have to limit its size to 1000 pound club.
BigPumpkins.com
Cliff Warren's Pumpkin Page
Hort.net Pumpkin Archives
How to estimate the weight of your pumpkin
What to do with your pumpkin
I started growing giant pumpkins for size in 1999. I ordered Atlantic Giant seeds from Gurney's and began reading. I found great information in How to Grow Giant Pumpkins Volume I. That year I ended up with a 110 pound pumpkin and I was hooked.
In 2000, I set a new Idaho state record at 487 pounds. My third season I broke my own state record with a pumpkin that weighed 847.5 pounds.
2002, my fourth season was marked with splits. I was able to take two pumpkins to Thanksgiving Point in Utah. One weighed 811 and the other weighed 710 pounds. Both were damaged pumpkins as they developed splits in the weeks before the wieghoffs.
2003 proved to be an off year with my biggest pumpkin weighing in at 666. The highlight of this season was our trip to Canby, Oregon for the Weighoff. We got to see firsthand the world record, grown by Steve Daletas, at a whooping 1385 pounds.
2004 ended up with my second biggest official pumpkins. The largest was 777.
2005 was the year that I moved to a new patch. I predicted the year before that it would be an off year and indeed it was. I did manage to take first at both my wieghoff and the Eastern Idaho State Fair. We had planned on going to a weighoff in Oregon this year but plans changed because both Karlie and I drew elk tags in Wyoming and because our pumpkins were so small.
2006 was my best year to that point. It could have been significantly better but had two early frosts on August 19th and again on August 30 that really put a brake on the growth. A new personal best was set at 857 pounds. I also grew another pumpkin that weighed in at 833 pounds.
2007 is just a memory at this point. What an incredible year it was! I ended up with three pumpkins over 1000 pounds (a goal of mine since I started growing pumpkins). Two more (three if you count my wife's) over 800 pounds. In 8 years of growing pumpkins I had only managed to grow 4 over the 800 pound mark and this I grew 6! I'm not sure I can take all the credit as the weather was fabulous. Who says global warming is bad. My goal next year will be to hit 1100 pounds. The 1071 if it had all its lobes develop may well have hit the mark.
2008 is now over. It is time to start the patch prep for the next season. Ended up with 1003# pumpkin. Not bad by most standards but it went 80# under the charts. One of these days I'll get one that grow over the charts. Next year will mark a change in my focus in pumpkin growing. Until now I have focused on color but color typically weighs light. One half of my plants will be for size/weight from seeds that are know to grow big over the chart pumpkins.
2009 is long gone and 2010 is underway. I have been unable to update my webpage for about 6 months so there have been no new entries until now (June 2010). My interest seems to be waning abit. I have not been nearly as active in searching the pumpkin boards and collecting seeds, but the plants are in and considering the weather we have had are doing quite well.
I love to talk pumpkins and would be glad to help get you going in any way I can. I have plenty of seeds from my past pumpkins that have excellent genetics and they are free for the asking. Click on the free pumpkin seeds link abovet.
Technically not my pumpkin but it came from my patch with some help form me. Likewise most of my pumpkins are grown with much helpfrom her.
