Alameda County Fair Pumpkin

First Place Monstrosity:
At the first of July I entered a 420 lb Atlantic Giant to our local Fair (Alameda County is due East of San Francisco, CA and the fair is in the city of Pleasanton). It was from a 948 Roulst seed, that was started on Christmas day, 2005. The plant had 193 growing days, yet I had to harvest the pumpkin four weeks early. Pumpkin plants grow very slowly in cold conditions. This is my biggest pumpkin yet, and it was grown in a community garden patch that is 300 sq. ft.

The fair is very early in the year, and the challenge is to get a vine to grow while we still have frost and cold weather. It was the only pumpkin entered, and the only classification that it fit was "Monstrosity". But certainly it got a lot of attention from the fair goers, which is why I grow, both the challenge and the attraction that a large pumpkin gives.

For those who attended the Elk Grove pumpkin growers meeting last March, I did add calicum by adding gypsum. (Plant still wasn't very big in March.)

I live and grow in Livermore, and right now it looks like by the end of this week we will have had two solid weeks of days over 900. My present plants wilt everyday and grow very poorly in the heat. (April, May and June were perfect growing weather.) Still holding on to hope that my summer pumpkins can survive the heat.

Brent Bayon

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