Backyard Giants Read online

  Ron stood next to his pumpkin and his chin fell to his chest. He suddenly seemed overcome with the realization of what had happened. "I did it," he said. "The world record." Tears ran down his face.

  "I sacrificed a lot for this," he said. "I sacrificed everything. I dreamed about it." He rested his fist on the pumpkin. Pounded it for emphasis. "Now I don't have to do it anymore. I don't have to win nuthin'. Now I can move on to something else."

  The other growers—Joe, Peter, Steve—drifted over to him. Evening was settling over the weigh-off site. Most of the crowd had left. The pumpkins where throwing the long, rounded shadows of evening. It was time to think about dinner.

  "I tell you what," Ron said to his friends. "I'm not going out tonight. I'm staying right here with this pumpkin."

  Epilogue

  RON HAD TO WAIT another couple of weeks before he could be sure he'd clinched the 2006 world record. There were still a few more weigh-offs to be held, most notably on the West Coast. And word had gone around that Jack LaRue was being mighty mysterious about a big pumpkin he had growing in his patch. In fact, when it came time for the October 9 weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, California, the most prestigious weigh-off on the West Coast, Jack decided to wait and let his pumpkin grow another week. Instead, Sherry LaRue entered her 1068, and placed fourth with a 1,116pounder. Jack finally cut his biggest pumpkin off the vine and took first place at the Uesugi Farms weigh-off south of San Francisco. His pumpkin weighed 1,315 pounds—the largest pumpkin west of the Mississippi.

  Once again, Jack and Sherry came in short of a world record, but the LaRues grew nine pumpkins weighing more than 1,000 pounds in 2006. With that, Jack retained his title as the most successful pumpkin grower in the world, based on the combined weights of his ten biggest efforts that year.

  In Pennsylvania, Gerry Checkon wasn't complaining about her and Larry's less-than-stellar year. Gerry's 1,125.5-pound pumpkin was lighter than its measurements indicated, but it was still good enough to win first place at the state weigh-off in Altoona. She later sold her pumpkin for $1,100 to a farmers' market, where it was carved and put on display. Because of the lousy weather, Larry Checkon labeled 2006 as one of their worst-ever years in the garden. "Even our watermelon and tomatoes were small," he said. For 2007, the Checkons were thinking about growing five plants, up from their usual four. "I might even grow a 1068," Larry said.

  Dave Stelts came in ninth at the Ohio Valley weigh-off with a 1,062.5-pound pumpkin—still well shy of his 2000 world record. Looking back, he could see all the mistakes he'd made. The foaming stump slime hit him hard. But he wasn't making excuses. "I don't sit here crying," he said. "I've never given up in my life and I won't give up now. Six years of setbacks is kind of hard, but I'll figure it out."

  For the second year in a row, Steve Connolly gave his biggest pumpkin to David Letterman, who packed it with explosives and blew it up on his Late Night show.

  Ron Wallace appeared with his 1,502-pound pumpkin on The Martha Stewart Show October 18, along with Joe Jutras, who brought his 10-foot, 6.5-inch-long gourd. A representative from the Guinness Book of World Records appeared to officially certify Ron and Joe as new world-record holders.

  "I've always said, you need a little luck along the way. And the Wallaces finally got some luck," Ron said. After appearing on Martha's show, the 1,502-pounder was carved and put on display for a week in New York City's Central Park. Ron harvested the seeds—about 700 of them.

  On November 18, the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association held its seed auction to raise money for the 2007 season. There was the usual roster of royal pumpkin blood: Calai and Bobier and Jutras and Pukos and Daletas. But the seeds most in demand carried the Wallace name. A 1502 Wallace fetched $205—more than respectable for a brand-new, unproven seed. And a 1068 fetched an astounding $850—yet another record for the most money ever paid for a single seed.

  Ron got his Grower of the Year award; his top three pumpkins weighed at GPC sites totaled 3,989.5 pounds. The Wallaces went down in history as the number-one and number-two giant-pumpkin growers in the 2006 season, the first father and son to win that distinction. Both men reveled in their new status as champions. Ron made it a point to respond to every congratulatory e-mail he received. Before October was over, he had 15 soil reports sitting on his desk from pumpkin growers seeking his advice. With newspaper and television reports chronicling his win, Ron became something of a local celebrity.

  "Everybody loves a pumpkin," Ron noted with satisfaction.

  The Wallaces quickly forgot their resolution to cut back to just five plants in 2007. By Christmas, Ron was laying plans to grow eight.

  "I heard somebody say, 'He'll never be able to repeat that kind of success.' So now I'm going to come back next year and I'm going to be the first person to grow sixteen hundred pounds," Ron said. "I'm coming back. I'm coming back hard."

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks are due to the uncountable many who endured my endless questions and pumpkin prattle for the year and a half I spent learning about enormous fruit and the people who grow them. The Wallaces opened their lives to me, smoothed my way with other growers, and were gracious and helpful even after they were thoroughly sick of me; I am indebted to them for that. J. D. Megchelsen amazed me with tales of growing giants in Alaska's snowbanks; Bennett Buchsieb shared the details of his experiments in the Arizona desert. Though these and other stories did not find space in the book, their spirit fills every chapter.

  Randy Maniloff and David G. Hunter gave me encouragement and guidance when I needed it most. Colin Dickerman provided clear vision. Nick Trautwein scoured these pages with graceful precision and a ruthless intolerance for mixed metaphors. My agent, Joe Veltre, first saw the potential in this story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

  Thank you, Christina and Amy, for your enthusiasm, and Tony, for all the burdens you took on to make mine lighter.

  Selected Bibliography

  This account of a season in the life of giant-pumpkin growers is based primarily on hundreds of hours of interviews, garden tours, e-mails, and phone calls with growers throughout the year. I have cited many of my sources within the body of the text. However, I also relied on other written works as I researched the background, history, and science of pumpkins and competitive gardening. The following books and articles provided me with information and inspiration.

  Beauchemin, Jim. The Secrets of Growing Champion Giant Pumpkins, DVD. New Hampshire: Custom Flix, 2006.

  Black & Decker, Vegetable Gardening: Your Ultimate Guide. Min-netonka, MN: Creative Publishing International, 2000.

  Connolly, Steve. "Dill's AG Giant Pumpkin Roots: Is the Mammoth Really Extinct?" Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Newsletter, April 2006.

  Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

  Damerow, Gail. The Perfect Pumpkin: Growing, Cooking, Carving. Pownal, VT: Storey Publishing, 1997.

  Dempsey, D'Maris Amick, Jyoti Shah, and Daniel F. Klessig. "Salicylic Acid and Disease Resistance in Plants." Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, vol. 18, no. 4. Waksman Institute and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, 1999.

  Deppe, Carol. Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2000.

  Fairbairn, Neil. A Brief History of Gardening. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2001.

  Goldman, Amy. The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower's Guide to Pumpkins, Squash, and Gourds. New York: Artisan Books, 2004.

  Heiser, Charles B. Jr. Seed to Civilization: The Story of Food. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

  Kingsbury, Al. The Pumpkin King: Four-Time World Champion Howard Dill and the Atlantic Giant. Kentville, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Giant Book Distributing, 1992.

  Langevin, Don. How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins, 3 vols. Norton, MA: Annedawn Publ
ishing, 1993-2003.

  Lavery, Bernard. How to Grow Giant Vegetables. Hampton, Middlesex, UK: HarperPerennial, 1995.

  Opperman, Chris. Allotment Folk. UK: New Holland Publishers, 2004.

  The Ortho Home Gardener's Problem Solver. San Ramon, CA: Ortho Books, the Solaris Group, 1993.

  Royte, Elizabeth. "Pumpkin v. Pumpkin." Outside Magazine, February 1997.

  Smith, Edward C. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2000.

  Storl, Wolf D. Culture and Horticulture: A Philosophy of Gardening. San Francisco: Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1979,2000.

  Sucher, Dorothy. The Invisible Garden: A Meditation on the Essence of Memory and the Healing Grace a Garden Can Bestow. New York: Counterpoint, 2001.

  SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Soil pH: What it Means." Prepared by Donald Bickelhaupt, Instructional Support Specialist, www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/soilph/soilph.htm.

  University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass Extension Vegetable Program, Soils and Nutrient Management Fact Sheet, www.umassveg etable.org/soil_crop_pest_mgt/soil_nutrient_mgt/soil_basics_I.html.etable.org/soil_crop_pest_mgt/soil_nutrient_mgt/soil_basics_I.html.

  Uglow, Jenny. A Little History of British Gardening. London: Pimlico, 2005.

  Vitez, Michael. "1,000 Pounds or Pie." Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, October 29, 1995.

  Whaley, Emily. Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden: Emily Whaley in Conversation with William Baldwin. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1997.

  Zabar, Abbie. A Growing Gardener. New York: Universe Publishing, 1996.

  A Note on the Author

  Susan Warren is the deputy bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Dallas, Texas. A native Texan, she lives with her husband and two daughters in Arlington, where she first got hooked on backyard gardening. Her biggest pumpkin so far is 240 pounds. This is her first book.