Going for a Pumpkin Record

Many of you followed along last year as I grew an Atlantic Giant pumpkin. It was fun to get my kids involved and learning as the season progressed while finishing the season close to 800lbs with decent seeds and only vine burying, I was extremely happy and I didn't even touch fertilizer!

This year I'm on a whole new level. Starting with sending soil samples to Nebraska and correcting the imbalance of nutrients and minerals. I got a hold of way better seeds this year including seeds directly from the current state record pumpkin at 1918.5lbs and few others over 2,000lbs.

Thanks to Dankyield fertilizer, for supplying me with all the necessary fertilizer this season to hopefully grow my biggest pumpkin yet. I have 4 plants and I'm hoping one of them closes in on the current state record!

I started my seeds around April 15th indoors with growing lights. I transferred them outdoors a few weeks later and built mini greenhouses with heat lamps to keep them warm and the plants growing.

The greenhouses were another thing I did differently this year and because of that I was able to hand pollinate my first pumpkin on June 24th compared to July 1st with a much larger plant. I now have 2 pumpkins way ahead of where I was last year.

The other 2 plants have pumpkins growing as well but I'm a little behind because of experimenting with some cross pollination and letting the plant get huge before I let the pumpkins set.

More leaves equals more pumpkin weight due to more root growth. I actually think these two plants will at some point surpass the two that are so far ahead of them now. Only time will tell.

So many probabilities, such as damaging wind, hail, insects, fungus, and the pumpkins growing so fast they explode! Keep following HSM Outdoors for reports and updates on this year’s pumpkin progress. Who knows there may be a contest along the way and a guess the weight towards the end for some fantastic prizes!