A Dream of Gigantic Proportions and a Pumpkin?

We all have dreams, aspirations, and goals. For most of us, those dreams are to be expected such as graduate, get a job, buy a home, and raise a family, but a dream of growing a giant pumpkin is rare and intriquing. A rare few have achieved such a goal, but maybe the story I’m going to share will inspire you to grow your own pumpkin or just reach towards that dream you’ve conceived as impossible.

John Mann (my dad) has big dreams and no matter how impossible they may seem to my family, he has great confidence and sees them through to completion. His dream of growing giant pumpkins began after seeing them on display at the NC State Fair. John said, ““I imagined what it would look like to have one of those behemoths growing in my garden.” So, he set off to prepare for this new conquest by setting aside 600 sq. ft. and ordered the pumpkin variety “Atlantic Giant.”

The pumpkin this year quickly took over the garden, but it wasn’t always that way. The first year, the seeds were planted too late that they didn’t take off. This year though, John set himself up for success. He started these in March of this year and because of a mild winter, he was able to prepare the ground and plant the first pumpkin April 2^nd. He built a cold frame and put clear plastic bins on them at night to protect them from the temperatures that were still creeping down to below the 50’s.

John put a lot of care and effort into his pumpkins with about 1 to 2 hours of work a day to make sure they were well fed, watered, pruned, and fertilized. He was dedicated to going and checking on them, measuring them, and carefully recording what he learned to help him with next year. He said, “It's not a large pumpkin compared to the sizes that you see at the fair, but the valuable experience I gained from growing the pumpkins to me could not be measure by the size of the pumpkin.” It was a great success to have his pumpkin reach 150 pounds!

John fully intends to grow his giant pumpkins again next year. His motivation for growing giant pumpkins? To watch the smiles on people’s faces when they see it. His neighbor loved checking on the progress every morning when he went out to care for it. Mann said about the experience, “Although it was a lot of work to grow them, it was fun watching the pumpkins grow and measuring the progress daily. I could literally see the changes every day when the pumpkin was at peak growth. Some days, growth was as much as four additional inches in circumference!” Now that is a story worth sharing.