Along the forty-third parallel in North America , raising pumpkins is n’t just a sleepy-eyed backyard pursuit – it ’s an extreme sport . And nowhere are the stakes higher , or the intrigue thick , than at the one-year weigh - off of the World Pumpkin Confederation , the Olympics of garden - patch gigantism . By Elizabeth Royte
“ Most people believe I ’m an imbecile . ”
That ’s Ray Waterman , giant pumpkin impresario , lecture to the media from ground zero in Collins , New York , just south of Buffalo . While it ’s true that Waterman ’s full life revolves around what he call the “ sport rocking horse ” of growing record - breaking specimens ofCucurbita maxima , he is n’t exactly an idiot . Waterman ’s a wily manipulator , and tomorrow , October 5 , 1996 , is his World Pumpkin Confederation ’s yearly weigh - off . He ’s got CNN on the line andUSA Todayon take while theTodaypeople book the live feed . Tomorrow , Waterman go for to present a $ 50,000 tab to the raiser who farm a pumpkin that hits or exceed the mythical 1,000 - hammering scrape . It ’s a Sangraal that pumpkin green pollex have been talking and dreaming about for over a decade , a Holy Grail that now actually seems within reaching . ( Two years ago , in fact , Herman Bax of Brockville , Ontario , stunned the pumpkin establishment with a leviathan that weighed in at 990 pound . ) Waterman ’s expectation , and his knack for cultivating the media , have been building for year : Tomorrow ’s weigh - off , should it yield a giant fruit , will be an exaltation of sorts .
It will also be an social function requiring considerable diplomatic negotiations on Waterman ’s part . For as it turns out , there is fuss in the ranks of the pumpkin humanity – schism and petty jealousies and internecine conflict . And not everyone is on Ray Waterman ’s side .
In the democratic imagination , the man of pumpkin growing is a happy one , peopled with agrestic Farmer and emphasize with intimate orangish orbs that bring smiles to the face of children . What could these growers possibly reason about ? The proper proportion of cow manure to hog manure ? A better way to cut up a labourer - o’-lantern ’s nozzle ? No . Unfortunately , competitive pumpkin cultivator , worldly concern - course growers , argue about things like hypodermic needles and silicone polymer gel . They impeach one another of cheating , lying , hoard prize seed . They scheme and spread rumor . They lodge lawsuits .
You would n’t feel any of this upon first meeting Ray Waterman . Initially he comes across as nice , fastidious , balmy - spoken , perhaps a picayune stern . He wears blue jeans and a farmer ’s plaid shirt . He keep his grey blonde hair neatly trimmed . The day before the weigh - off , I drink a cup of coffee with him in the dining room of Waterman ’s , the family
Waterman drop off his goliath fruit eating house he own and runs in Collins . It ’s a Naugahyde - stool - and - Formica - mesa sort of joint where the dessert special is – what else?–pumpkin pie . Next door is Waterman ’s party sofa , The Pumpkin Room .
Waterman seems bored with our conversation until I bring up the spoilt blood between his World Pumpkin Confederation and its dreaded rival , the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth . Then he incline forward , and a trace of a grinning stretch across his thin lip . Suddenly Waterman has twist into something colored and strangely hieratical , a master of esoteric intrigues : the Archdruid of the vine .
thumping Cucurbita pepo , really , really , reallyhumongous pumpkins , pumpkins with the variety of heft and girth and pleasant rind - thumping tonalities that will ferment the head of a gentleman’s gentleman like Ray Waterman , are freaks of nature . about all of the champs have come from extremely prize , highly specialised seeds – most notably the Atlantic Giant , a breed that a Nova Scotia dairy farmer key Howard Dill hybridized back in the 1970s with an eye toward the record books .
Giant pumpkins are nurse on a rarefied dieting of manure , compost veggie topic , and vast quantity of pee . For works that seem to advertise their own robustness , giant pumpkin vine can be amazingly slight . If exposed to the summertime sun , their cutis burn and blisters . If they go thirsty , they wilt . Neglect to remove a Isidor Feinstein Stone from the soil under the fruit , and you lose five Cypriot pound as the pumpkin grows around it . A thumbnail dent can cost several ounces .
Giant pumpkin opt long , sunny days and coolheaded nights , which is precisely why most of the reality virtuoso have been grow along the 43d parallel – especially around upstate New York and southern Ontario . Here in the Great Pumpkin Belt , it take just 70 days for a Dill ’s Atlantic Giant to grow from the size of a handball to the size of a doghouse . At the visor of their growing time of year – in July and August – backup pumpkins can take on 35 pounds a day . Some masses say you may even hear them get .
I use up my first destitute step into the world of competitive pumpkin husbandry on a crisp October good afternoon , just a few days before Waterman ’s big event . The aroma of mash grapes filled the breeze as Craig Lembke , of Forestville , New York , extend me past his vinyl radical - sided farmhouse , through his vineyard , and on toward his pride and delight : a vaguely ominous - looking patch of vegetation , some 3,600 square metrical foot in all , with leaves as big as Camellia sinensis tray curtsy a foot above the ground . vine as thick as my forearm snake through the grease .
In the middle of it all slumbered the colossus itself . Like a pampered celebrity , it had its own personal shelterbelt , and a sunshade too . As I drew closer to the orange mound , however , I discover the object of Lembke ’s devotion a distressing spectacle indeed .
If the perceptual experience of the jumbo Cucurbita pepo is something out ofPlayboy , pneumatically plump and round off , the reality is more along the lines ofNational Geographic , where gravity and fourth dimension ’s adamant march have left their mug . Lembke ’s fruit appear wrinkled , flabby . The pocked and dimpled skin conspicuously swag . Superficial wound and soft spots added further insult .
I taste to hide my dashing hopes , for love had obviously blinded Lembke . His eye gleam as he point out the thickness of his Cucurbita pepo ’s rind . “ She took a thousand gallons of piddle a day in August , ” he said , beaming with pride .
Lembke figured his Cucurbita pepo for about 650 pounds – not enough to win him first topographic point , though likely good enough to make the top ten . But he had something that excited him even more , in the next plot over . We waded through the tall leave and carefully lifted a racy tarpaulin . There , at the conclusion of the vine , lay a giant immature squash rackets .
The squash , he explained , comes from the same seed as the pumpkin . If the cistron for color verbalize itself as orangish , the fruit gets called a Cucurbita pepo and starts down a itinerary toward glory that could climax in an show on David Letterman and a cross - country tour , hitting DoS fairs and gambling casino in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and bringing K more one dollar bill to the lofty proprietor . If the fruit grows up unripe , on the other hand , its fate is more circumscribed . It compete with other green squash vine for paltry award substance , and its chances of ever going on a triumph tour are slim to none .
Lembke thought his green prodigy weighed about 750 pound – quite peradventure the next squash champion of the human beings . The only question was where to take it . The closest weigh - off was Waterman ’s outcome , the WPC contest over in Clarence , a simple 30 - minute drive nor'-east from here . But over the last few years Lembke had turn off-key on the WPC . He believed that WPC members hoarded dirty money seeds . He charge Waterman of cloud the hobby with his $ 50,000 payout offer . Lembke allege he really did n’t require to mouth about the WPC , but the whole issue was like a rat he could n’t block pick . At any pace , his brain was all made up : Tomorrow good morning he planned to force all the way over to Oswego , a four - hour trek , to get in a contest held by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth . If his squash were to win there , he ’d fetch $ 200 – and a ribbon .
Lembke showed me his squash ’s stem , which was about nine inch in perimeter . “ Long , big , thick , ” he said , nod . “ That ’s an ideal stem . ” Then he go through a momentary reality check , adding , “ But who wants to see a heavyweight squash ? ”
Craig Lembke planted his first Cucurbita pepo patch in 1981 , purely to divert his new daughter , Angela . Right off the bat he got a 50 - pounder and was hooked . In the 15 years since , through a regimen of hard science and punctilious care , he ’d managed to increase his best pumpkins ’ weight by more than 650 pounds . Last year , he took two 700 - plus pounders to a weigh - off in Canfield , Ohio , and came home with third prize–$250 and a “ actual nice plaque . ”
The time of year get down in other April , when Lembke pry ten seeds into small cup of soil in his greenhouse . Within a few days , the sprouts come forth . He inspect them day by day , tender them encourage news . Around the first or 2nd workweek of May , he transplant the sprout into the land . The female parent vine begins to lengthen , about a ft a day . When the plant blossoms , Lembke transfers pollen from a male flower into a female . To forestall bee from horning in on this private transmitted experimentation , he covers the blossoms with plastic bags .
If Lembke ’s handcraft is successful , the tiny yield that ’s present under every distaff blossom “ takes off . ” He ’ll entomb each vine so it will cast down a taproot and bestow up more nutrient . To get maximal nourishment and water into the possible prizewinners , he ’ll bit by bit cull out the number of fruits on the plant to five or six and then , after about 30 days , to one .
This last fruit , known among horticulturists as a “ sump , ” will be the donee of the intact plant ’s photosynthates . Some vine and leafage will also be cautiously pruned . “ You want the nutrition lead into the pumpkin , not those other parts , ” Lembke enunciate .
While Lembke ’s methods are certainly task - intensive , they seem middling straightforward when compared to those of cultivator like Leonard Stellpflug , of Nunda , New York , who is known to expend a divine rod cell to rule pee caches and zip field . Other growers have installed 1,000 - watt uprise light or heated their irrigation weewee to avoid offend the origin . In Pennsylvania , a humanity chopped down a XII oak trees just to get another half - 60 minutes of sunlight on his spell . Some top agriculturalist , wary of vandals who might slice up their pumpkin vine and abscond with the seeds , set up stray security cameras .
The bigger a pumpkin is , the more likely it is to split and the more susceptible it is to disease . Every ten days , Lembke sprays his pumpkins with insect powder . He dusts small contusion with captan , a antimycotic . He fecundate with a compost of rice hulls and grape . He spreads moo-cow manure . He plucks off insects and frets when the hint comes up . “ A windstorm could flip the whole vine over ! ” he told me . When the pumpkin achieves “ propane tank ” size – that ’s well after lemon , baseball , and hoops size – Lembke erects the plastic sunblind , and the coddling commence in sincere .
By September , Lembke is a nervous crash , check his patch three or four time a day . September is the do - or - die month . It was in September , just a few hebdomad ago , that three of his most promising young beasts had split on him . “ You get cold nighttime and the skin toughens , ” he say . “ Then you get a hot Clarence Day and - boom . ”
At about five o’clock , two newsperson from the Syracuse University TV station get to interview a very excited Lembke . His eyes were shining , and he smiled while he talked . What are you palpate the right way now ? they asked . “ I palpate a little shaky . It ’s five months of hard work . All the worrying about bugs and weather and vandalism . I wo n’t sleep Friday night . ”
A little later , as the sun oozed behind Lake Erie , Lembke solemnly postulate if I ’d care to cut the pumpkin from its vine . He remove a penknife from his pocket and point to a berth two inches from the yield . I knelt and make myself for the keen bit – a flush of umbilical fluid , perhaps , a faintly hearable death rattling as the spirit force receded . But the knife bite easily into the stem , and in two dry strokes , I was through .
citizenry have been work pumpkins for 10,000 years , and pumpkin weigh - offs have been a basic of county funfair and harvest exhibitions since the early 1800s . But competitive growing did n’t attain external stature until 1900 , when William Warnock , of Goderich , Ontario , sent a 400 - pound specimen to the Paris World ’s Fair . In 1903 he bettered his record by three Sudanese pound . That record control until 1976 , when a Pennsylvania man exhibited a 451 - pounder at the U.S. Pumpkin Contest in Churchville , Pennsylvania .
From then on , the numbers steady climbed . Starting in the late seventies , Howard Dill coax his Atlantic Giant seeds into world - backup Cucurbita pepo for four long time black market . Ray Waterman was duly impressed . In 1982 he contacted Dill , and together they founded the World Pumpkin Confederation . “ A lot of county fairs were weigh off , ” explain Waterman , “ and they needed credibility and standardization . ”
shortly the pattern were codified and competition grew immeasurably strong . Quantum advances in seed genetic science led to systematically larger pumpkin vine : in the 700 - pound range , then up to 800 . As the swag money edge upwards , competition became bowelless and cheating more rough-cut . People doctored quip in their pumpkins with self-propelled physical structure filler . They injected water into the caries with a hypodermic needle . Then there was the guy wire who razored off the stem of his pumpkin , filled it with water , and seal the whole thing with superglue . He got charm when a judge jabbed a knife into the substructure and orange water poured out by the congius .
In 1993 , a number of disenchanted WPC officials , including the celebrated pumpkin seed learned person himself , Howard Dill , bolt out from Waterman ’s radical and make their own , the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth . From the jump , there was risky rake between the two organizations . Dill ’s chemical group claimed that most of the WPC site did n’t pay out and that Waterman cared more about publicity than the agriculturalist themselves . WPC stalwart , on the other hand , contend that the newbie GPC suffer cheaters and the rigging of contest .
In the free fall of 1993 , the year that a Winthrop , New York , cultivator named Don Black raised an enormous autumn pumpkin , the infighting took a turn for the worse . On October 1 , Black placed his pumpkin vine , along with the big tarp in which it was wrap , on the shell at a GPC internet site in Nova Scotia . Afterward , officials weigh the tarp alone and deduct the six - Irish pound difference . Black’spumpkin weighed 884 pounds - easily the large autumn pumpkin in the worldat that time .
Meanwhile , Norm Craven , a realtor from Stouffville , Ontario , won a WPC competition near his home base with a pumpkin that press a mere 836 quid . disregard Brown ’s criminal record altogether , Waterman reported Craven ’s less pumpkin to theGuinness Book of Records .
When Black saw the 1994 edition ofGuinness , he went ballistic , as did Howard Dill . Not only did they charge Waterman with willfully misreporting the record ; they also impeach Craven of chisel – of energize a tear stem with silicone .
To this sidereal day , however , Ray Waterman defend the Craven fruit and maintain that Black ’s pumpkin was improperly weighed . Waterman , it seems , is a strict constructionist . “ WPC rules state thatyou can not weigh the tarp ! ” he says .
“ Yeah , but then they take off the tarpaulin , ” I say .
Waterman only shrugs . rule are rule . There ’s nothing that can be done . But when I press Waterman further , I cumulate that all this to - the - varsity letter quibbling over tarps is really orthogonal . “ We would n’t be inclined to recognize any GPC disk , ” Waterman finally take . “ Because if you take that radical , they reallyhaveno rules ! We ’re not going to put the credibleness of the whole Confederation on the line . ”
The dawning of the years of the kilo - pounder : World Pumpkin Confederation president Ray Waterman congratulate Paula and Nathan Zehr on their winning ball , The Great Can DoI ask Waterman where Paula and Nathan Zehr of Lowville , New York , are blend in to weigh off this year . He claims he does n’t have intercourse . Last year , the Zehrs won at a GPC internet site with a pumpkin that weighed 968 pounds . It was certainly the largest Cucurbita pepo in the estate that year , but of course Waterman go down to recognize it . This year , the Zehrs are refusing to announce where they ’ll weigh off . Apparently they ’re afraid of sabotage . Rumor has it their pumpkin is vainglorious . rattling expectant . But to claim the $ 50,000 prize money , there ’s only one post they can take it : Waterman ’s gig in Clarence .
Waterman does n’t know where Craig Lembke is going to weigh off either , and this clearly bugs him . So I spill the beans : Lembke is going to Oswego . Waterman shake his head in dismay . “ That ’s a long agency to drive to win very piddling money . ” Well , I reply , he ’s get a okay squash vine this twelvemonth , and he think it will post in Oswego . Waterman is positively incredulous . It ’s hard for him to understand why anyone would intentionally overlook out on history in the making , the chance to see the humans ’s very first kilopounder . “ He ’s going all the means to Oswego with a stupid squash ? ” he asks , squinting .
It ’s just above freeze as the first specimens arrive at the Great Pumpkin Farm , a sprawling wayside patch in Clarence , New York . Steve Baldo Chevrolet has a half - dozen newfangled pickups parked out behind the candy orchard apple tree and fried dough stands . From their antennas , red , white , and blue flag snap in the picnic . A hundred normal - sizing pumpkins – break up Your Own!–dot a dry , brown field .
WPC officials wearing orangish jackets read each behemoth , El Markoing a four - digit number onto the pelt . Waterman is in operations mode , bark bidding into a walkie - talking picture , directing pickups , and telling the gentleman from Fairbanks Scales where to park it . By nine o’clock , about 75 mass are milling around . Twenty giant pumpkins are line up and hold off . ”That look like a squash to me , ” a man whispers to his wife .
Paula and Nathan Zehr get in in a pickup pulling a horse trailer . WPC functionary slay the first of three pumpkins with a forklift . “ Whoa , ” says the crew . All three are grievous . Paula is inside the hand truck floss her tooth , and she wo n’t say a word to anyone until she ’s done .
The Zehrs look like the form of people you might see in a Publisher ’s Clearinghouse commercial . She has a light brown bob and tire pinkish lipstick and a pink windcheater . Her snowy blouse is buttoned to her pharynx . Nathan has bristling brown hair and looks sportif in a white Cardigan Welsh corgi and Top - Siders . Nutrition consultants by trade , the Zehrs began growing pumpkins as a sideline ten age ago . When Waterman issued the 1,000 - pound challenge , they take up the call , devoting five hours a day for six months to three hopeful - appear pumpkins , which they named My Secret Prayer , The Great Can Do , and Do It Again . Last night the fear of a last - minute disaster compelled Nathan to catch some Z’s , Linus - like , in his speckle .
Giant pumpkin growers talk like fun mavin . The Zehrs are no exception . What do you mean of the competition ? “ I opine we ’ve got a real full pumpkin here today , and we just fare out here to have some merriment . ” ( That ’s Nathan . ) How do you explain your success ? “ We never give up believing that we could go for it . God ’s blessed us . We ’re just the caretaker . ” ( That ’s Paula . )
Earlier , I asked Paula if the animosity between the WPC and the GPC bothered her . Then she sound less like a sport star and more like a schoolteacher . “ If you want to verbalise dirt with other people , you do that , but we ’re just trying to grow pumpkins . ”
Plant physiologist and university extension services have slight to teach mass like the Zehrs , who represent the cutting edge of gigantism . develop these things is for the most part a mystical process . Because you ca n’t interrupt a giant star ’s growth , you ca n’t completely assess its wellness until you cut it from the vine , at which point it ’s too late to make corrections . Although they keep punctilious logs of each pumpkin ’s genetic lineage and the accurate amount of food , piss , and other stuff each pumpkin ware on any reach day , growers like the Zehrs do n’t altogether read what make one so much larger than another .
With the crowd teem around him , Nathan Zehr cuts a slicing from Can Do ’s stem turn and points at a few rust - colored spots in the woody - looking conductive tissue . What are the spots from ? I ask him . “ We do n’t live , but it may be some kind of bacteria , ” Nathan enunciate . Could n’t the local ag experts tell you ? He turn out me a look . “ We ’ll listen to them when they get a pumpkin as giving as ours . ”
The weighing commences at 10:30 . We get some 500 - pounders , some sixes and sevens . It quickly becomes apparent that the host , a man named Kelly Schultz who is the proprietor of the Great Pumpkin Farm , plan to drag out the ceremony as long as possible . Weights over 700 pounds eviscerate genteel rounds of applause . I ’ll before long find out that the visual difference between a 600 - Sudanese pound Cucurbita pepo and a 700 - pound pumpkin is negligible . Most of the weight is in the rind , which can grow up to 14 inch thick .
A carrousel spins nearby ; the essence of corndog bathes the crew . I wander over to some tables cover with giant helianthus , gargantuan rutabagas , gargantuan gourds , giant Brassica oleracea gongylodes , giant cornstalks , and giant radishes . This is the grand domain for Waterman ’s Olympics of Gardening , the green hall of fame . Prizes will be award in each of these categories , but so far these attractions have suck up petty notice .
With the bombastic pumpkins , Schultz heightens the drama by cover the readout of the digital scales until he can pore the crowd ’s attention . It ’s one o’clock by the time the first of the Zehrs ’ pumpkin vine make water it to the scale . Do It Again , an exhibition - only pumpkin vine , count in at 845 . “ phratry , I have to ask ya to please stand back and make way for the forklift , ” Waterman urge on the crowd , now eight masses deep . My Secret Prayer , also exhibition only , weigh 917 pound .
The Zehrs are beaming . Paula has shed her anorak and freshened her lipstick . She holds Nathan ’s hand as the forklift delivers The Great Can Do to the scales . The pumpkin is knobbly and off - kilter , and looks like the fore of a sinking ship . The forklift backs away . An assistant shades the digital read-out . It ’s a nail - nipping moment .
“ If we get a thousand - pounder , ” shouts Waterman , “ we got ta let the sept in the next county get a line it . ” Oswego is in the next county , where at this very consequence Craig Lembke is winning $ 100 for his second - place squash .
Finally , the suspense is unbearable . The specter comes off the ordered series and Waterman pronounces the weight : “ One thousand and 61 pound ! ” The crowd roar . Nathan and Paula hug conservatively and then call forth their weapon system in champion salute . The big barrier has been shattered at last , the Mach One of the vegetable domain , and the Zehrs are $ 50,000 richer .
Waterman passes Paula the microphone . “ We ’d like to give thanks God , our community , our friends , and our church . ” Waterman present the Zehrs with their check . Then he pray the gang , “ Folks , when you get your photographs of the pumpkin vine , do not let the kid sit on it . ” He step back a little and lets the TV gang swarm . Waterman is in heaven . It ’s everything he ever dreamed of . He lets the moment percolate , lets the reporters have their way . Then the forklift returns the kilo - muller to its pallet , and citizenry begin drifting toward their railcar .
Waterman gets right back in front of the microphone . “ Do n’t go away folks , ” he plead . “ We ’ve got a lot more things to consider . ”
Correspondent Elizabeth Royte wrote about the Iditarod sleigh dog race in the December 1996 progeny .
Outside cartridge clip ,
Sunday , May 02 , 2004
Pumpkin v. Pumpkin
