the true ambassadors
The past three world champions have come from people on this list,
Starting in 1997 with Chris Andersen and his Jabba (977), 1998 with Gary
Burke and his wonderful 1092 beauty that held the world record for the
year until this Checkon lady brought it back to the US from Gary's
native land of Canada with her moonie that tipped the scales at 1131
pounds.
The spirit of this list has been one of generosity, one of sharing
knowledge, as well as a forum to promote the hobby. The packages of
977's that Chris sent out in 1997 not only came with the world champ
jabba seeds, but Chris also threw in some of this "oh by the way" seed
from his 815 and some of his 634 pound seeds from a fruit that was 40
percent green. Most people only hoped to get "a" seed from the biggie,
but alot got 2, alot got 2 or 3 of the 815, and the same with the 634. I
personally can not thank Chris enough for the seeds, as I grew his 815
seed, which in turn produced my 879 pounds squash in 1998.
Gary Burke, same story.... Gary gave out, pretty much to anyone with a
self addressed postage paid bubble pack, a seed from his beautiful 1092,
no questions asked, no second thoughts.. A second case of a true
ambassador for the sport of pumpkin growing..
Both of these fellas handed out endless knowledge in a written state
of the hobby type address at season's end, stating what they did, and
expressing their little tweaks to the hobbies fundamentals. Chris
invented the icehouse pollination theory, awesome soil preparation
(taught us levels of organic matter in the soil does matter) and also
used a misting system that west coasters had been using for a while but
was really thrown to the front of the hobbies interests by the world
champs setup. Gary taught us that it isn't necessary to have 1200 sq. ft
of patch per plant to grow a monster, as he grew his on just barely over
600 sq. ft of patch, thereby dispensing the age old 1200 sq. ft per
plant minimum.. Lots of pumpkins came from small patches last year, all
with the ambassadorship of Gary Burke.
Then along came Gerry and Larry... The 1190 that didn't make it had us
all wrapped up for the season, as we tracked its progress, only to be
saddened by its blow out on August 26th. Larry and Gerry taught us that
you can patch a monster that splits if you catch it early and soon
enough before too much bacterial matter gets into the cavity. The patch
job was done with some tree repair tar of some sort, and while he knew
it wasn't contest worthy, Larry wanted to get some more pounds out of
Womper, and he left it until September 13th, when he culled it and had
it weighed .... The surprise to the world was when we learned that the
Checkon patches had another monster hiding in the back, one that would,
on OCtober 2nd become the world champion weighing in at an amazing 1131
pounds.. Within the next 2 months, the big one was carved, and gutted,
only to be saddened that there were no mature seeds inside.. With tons
of seed packets sitting there wanting some of the big seeds, the
CHeckons did what a true great ambassador of the hobby would do to make
their fellow growers and list members loving the sport.. They
substituted with some of their 815s, and some of the 815's sister from
the same plant , the 700. They didn't have to do this, but the King and
Queen of Pumpkin land wanted to please the crowds, so they gave them the
next best thing..
I am writing this little history lesson for one reason.. If the big one
comes from this list, I do hope whomever it is will be as worthy as an
ambassador as the past three world champs have been. Of course, if it is
the WPC, then Ray gets the seeds, but if it isn't, then lets try and be
good ambassadors and promote this hobby, not profit from it's wonderful
fruit...Yeah.. I hope everyone has the luck of selling a few to a local
festival, or mall, but when it comes to highly sought after seeds, lets
try and uphold the past champions idealisms, and do this thing in a
concerted effort, and not in a fashion that will take us back in time..
--
Rocky Rockwell
http://www.PGPGA.com
http://home.cyber-quest.com/rocky.r
"No matter where you go, you will always be there....."
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