Re: HMB
Greg:
I wish I had another seed. I was thinking about calling Rocky and asking
for another one next year. Maybe.
Here's what a local newspaper had to say about him:
connie
----------------------------
BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
I had originally totally discounted this story because of the bazaar nature
of the information that I had received. And as luck would have it for this
individual, on both occasions that he called me, he did not have my total,
undivided attention. Both conversations were held long after my normal
bedtime (I am an early retiree), and the story told was so hard to believe,
my attention just naturally wandered.
I thought nothing of his first call in November, and not much more to a
conversation in late February, but soon after our last conversation, I was
overcome by a wanton curiosity (certainly manifested by the fact that all I
had bothered to gather for facts on this individual was that his name was
Rocky). Since, through the never failing help of the giant pumpkin message
board on the internet, I was able to determine this man's name and address,
and further conversations with him revealed still more staggering facts.
But, I am still left with this incredible story that belies truth, but could
be in fact, a story about the first 1400 pound pumpkin.
Rocky, who I discovered is actually James Pacilli of Streamwood, IL, had an
incredible giant pumpkin growing season in 1998. By his accounts, he had a
fruit that he estimated to be 1400 pounds, and was by his measurements, over
422" using the over-the-top method. If you look for 422" on the estimating
table provided by Bob Marcellus in my second book, you'll find that they end
at 400.5" and 1212 pounds.
The first thing I assumed was that he had measured this fruit incorrectly.
Then I asked him how he had performed the measurements and he gave me a text
book answer describing the proper method. He then asked me what the biggest
circumference pumpkin ever grown was, and I replied, taking a stab, that it
was Barry DeJong's 1994, 945.5 pounder that measured 176". He immediately
reported that the circumference of his pumpkin was 180" and that his
over-the-top side-to-side measurement was an unbelievable 132", and the
over-the-top, end-to-end measurement was 110".
Why on earth wold anyone who had a 1400 pound pumpkin fail to get it
officially weighted somewhere? His answer to this question was vague but
centered around the fact that he had recently, after a two year application
period, been designated by the Audubon Society as having a nature's habitat
in his yard. Since moving the pumpkin to get it weighed would have meant
moving a tree (and perhaps rescinding his designation), he opted to leave it
in his patch, and invited, as he describes, various local witnesses to
authenticate the fruit and its measurements.
Why this story did not get regional or national attention is beyond
comprehension since my perceptions of Rocky are that he is not one to let
something be swept under the rug. Why else would he have bothered to find
me and make two phone calls to me over a three month period? Is this just a
hoax, or has someone already proven that in fact 1200 pounds is obtainable,
and for that matter, 1300 and 1400 pounds as well. Rocky's story does not
end there, because he also states that two other pumpkins on the same plant
as the 1400 pounder, weighed 1226 pounds and 630 pounds respectively. This
plant was grown from a 1996, Zehr 1061 seed (the first pumpkin to break 1000
pounds and the world record up until Gary Burke broke it with a 1092 pounder
last October).
What is in this soil? Or, have we finally found an Einstein of pumpkin
growing, a genius gardener, a prodigy with enormous intuition and skill born
from the blessed gifts of Almighty God? I leave you all to do the research
and verify the data because my curiosity will not rest until all the facts
have been obtained and others have also concluded that this was the largest
pumpkin ever grown by man.
Until then, believe it or not!
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