amid chaos
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2000
- Messages
- 3,893
Several years ago we bought big pumpkins from this guy..they were so much fun. Here is Abigail when she was 2 inside our pumpkin after is was carved out.
<img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid34/p6a8a6a4703af6873f5b18868b85ebe43/fd35c9da.jpg">
Here he is in the news paper today.
<img src="http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/images/pumpkin4.jpg">
HEFTY HARVEST: Was it Dixie Chicks music or seaweed treatments that helped grow a 1,015-pound pumpkin? Actually, its owner, Dave Hamptonof Waquoit, says it's the seed that is key. Cyrus Santiago of Falmouth, far right, and Don Langevin of Norton, second from right, help push the great gourd onto a scale.
Farmer realizes a big dream
1,015-pound pumpkin is bound for Topsfield Fair
By PAULA PETERS
STAFF WRITER
WAQUOIT - From a tiny seed a great pumpkin may grow, and grow, and grow.
Just ask Dave Hampton, whose dream of growing a 1,000-pound pumpkin was realized last night.
It took 10 people to lift the giant gourd in a canvas sling onto a scale just outside of his Waquoit patch. When the bodies moved away, the digital numbers revealed what Hampton had prayed for.
"Yes! Yes!" the otherwise reserved farmer exclaimed, having trouble containing his excitement. "With 15 pounds to spare, brother!"
Last spring Hampton began cultivating six plants in a 5,000-square-foot garden next to his home. His goal was to beat his own personal best, an 886-pounder grown last year, and to join the exclusive "Club 1000" of growers whose produce tips the scale at 1,000 pounds or more.
An early leader self-destructed before it reached its full potential. Based on the measurements Hampton was taking, he said the gourd was growing at a rate of 30 pounds a day. But, he added, the pressure turned out to be too much. "That blossom was growing so fast it cracked, on the 36th day it blew up."
In August, he harvested one that had stopped growing for a weigh-in at the Marshfield Fair. The 493-pound pumpkin took second prize.
Hampton, who at 6-feet-6 is as imposing as his pumpkins, developed his passion for pumpkins about 10 years ago. He joined the New England Pumpkin Grower's Association and became a director of the organization this year.
Hampton's wife, Asta, said their world revolves around pumpkins. When he isn't growing them, he is planning to grow them, meeting with other growers, trading seeds and stories.
In the summer, she said, "we don't do vacations, we have to stay home with the pumpkins."
Is she a pumpkin widow?
"Yes, I guess I am," she said smiling, "do I sound resentful?"
Surprisingly, Hampton said there is no secret to growing gargantuan gourds.
"The seed is the most important thing," he said. "Then you want to give the plant everything it needs, soil, full sun, water."
Hampton enhances his soil with compost including cow manure; a nitrogen, phosphorous and calcium fertilizer; and seaweed.
"Pumpkins like seaweed," he said.
They also apparently like country music, which Hampton has piped into his garden over a speaker mounted to his garage. He isn't aware of any positive influence the Dixie Chicks might have on gourd growth, but he said "some people say it helps."
He'll bring the pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair today, where it will compete in an official weigh-in.
Hampton is a confident but cautious contender, "I hear there are some monster pumpkins out there."
The world record is held by an Oregon woman who produced a 1,262-pound pumpkin Oct. 6, 2001, edging a Salisbury man out of the title he held for only a week after taking top honors in Topsfield on Sept. 29 for a 1,260-pound gourd.
When the show is over, Hampton said he will harvest the seeds, which can sell for up to $1,000 each on the Internet, and probably carve a giant jack-o-lantern. But there will be no pie. The use of a systemic insecticide makes the meat of the mega-pumpkin unsafe to eat.
<img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid34/p6a8a6a4703af6873f5b18868b85ebe43/fd35c9da.jpg">
Here he is in the news paper today.
<img src="http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/images/pumpkin4.jpg">
HEFTY HARVEST: Was it Dixie Chicks music or seaweed treatments that helped grow a 1,015-pound pumpkin? Actually, its owner, Dave Hamptonof Waquoit, says it's the seed that is key. Cyrus Santiago of Falmouth, far right, and Don Langevin of Norton, second from right, help push the great gourd onto a scale.
Farmer realizes a big dream
1,015-pound pumpkin is bound for Topsfield Fair
By PAULA PETERS
STAFF WRITER
WAQUOIT - From a tiny seed a great pumpkin may grow, and grow, and grow.
Just ask Dave Hampton, whose dream of growing a 1,000-pound pumpkin was realized last night.
It took 10 people to lift the giant gourd in a canvas sling onto a scale just outside of his Waquoit patch. When the bodies moved away, the digital numbers revealed what Hampton had prayed for.
"Yes! Yes!" the otherwise reserved farmer exclaimed, having trouble containing his excitement. "With 15 pounds to spare, brother!"
Last spring Hampton began cultivating six plants in a 5,000-square-foot garden next to his home. His goal was to beat his own personal best, an 886-pounder grown last year, and to join the exclusive "Club 1000" of growers whose produce tips the scale at 1,000 pounds or more.
An early leader self-destructed before it reached its full potential. Based on the measurements Hampton was taking, he said the gourd was growing at a rate of 30 pounds a day. But, he added, the pressure turned out to be too much. "That blossom was growing so fast it cracked, on the 36th day it blew up."
In August, he harvested one that had stopped growing for a weigh-in at the Marshfield Fair. The 493-pound pumpkin took second prize.
Hampton, who at 6-feet-6 is as imposing as his pumpkins, developed his passion for pumpkins about 10 years ago. He joined the New England Pumpkin Grower's Association and became a director of the organization this year.
Hampton's wife, Asta, said their world revolves around pumpkins. When he isn't growing them, he is planning to grow them, meeting with other growers, trading seeds and stories.
In the summer, she said, "we don't do vacations, we have to stay home with the pumpkins."
Is she a pumpkin widow?
"Yes, I guess I am," she said smiling, "do I sound resentful?"
Surprisingly, Hampton said there is no secret to growing gargantuan gourds.
"The seed is the most important thing," he said. "Then you want to give the plant everything it needs, soil, full sun, water."
Hampton enhances his soil with compost including cow manure; a nitrogen, phosphorous and calcium fertilizer; and seaweed.
"Pumpkins like seaweed," he said.
They also apparently like country music, which Hampton has piped into his garden over a speaker mounted to his garage. He isn't aware of any positive influence the Dixie Chicks might have on gourd growth, but he said "some people say it helps."
He'll bring the pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair today, where it will compete in an official weigh-in.
Hampton is a confident but cautious contender, "I hear there are some monster pumpkins out there."
The world record is held by an Oregon woman who produced a 1,262-pound pumpkin Oct. 6, 2001, edging a Salisbury man out of the title he held for only a week after taking top honors in Topsfield on Sept. 29 for a 1,260-pound gourd.
When the show is over, Hampton said he will harvest the seeds, which can sell for up to $1,000 each on the Internet, and probably carve a giant jack-o-lantern. But there will be no pie. The use of a systemic insecticide makes the meat of the mega-pumpkin unsafe to eat.
W!!!! Talk about Mother Nature on steroids! LOL LOL LOL
