Pumpkin for prime time
BONNERS FERRY – For those who plan to search for the Great Pumpkin this fall, the hunt may be over before it even begins.
In just his third year of raising pumpkins, Bonners Ferry resident Rick Maggi harvested a 643-pound pumpkin this week for entry into the Boundary County Fair, which opened Wednesday and continues through Saturday.
“There aren’t a lot of pumpkins like this around here,” Maggi said. “It’s a lot of fun for people to see.”
A program specialist for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Maggi said he became intrigued with the challenge of growing giant pumpkins a few years ago after reading an article about another local resident who harvested one exceeding 300 pounds. He contacted her, made additional inquiries, researched the subject some more and soon launched his pumpkin-growing hobby.
To achieve the goal of the perfect pumpkin, Maggi enlisted the help of his wife, Linda, and their 11-year-old daughter, Amy.
“I start them in the greenhouse, and while I am at work my wife and daughter monitor them,” Maggi said. “I have 30 different types of seeds with different genetic backgrounds, and the most important thing is to get just the right seed.”
Maggi said his entry this year could have grown much heavier, but the Boundary County Fair falls before the typical harvest time of mid-September, so he had to cut the vine.
“Pumpkins easily grow over 100 pounds a week,” he said. “If this fair was next week, it would be over 700 pounds.”
The goal is to harvest as close to judging time as possible because the pumpkin begins to lose weight quickly once harvested. Some farmers even put the severed vine in water so the pumpkin continues to keep the weight on, but Maggi stops short of that.
While this year’s pumpkin is not as tall as he was hoping for, the circumference is about 13 feet.
Maggi uses Dill’s Atlantic Giant seeds, which he said are the only type that will grow to more than 500 pounds.
In creating what he hopes will be a prize-winning entry, Maggi crossed two pumpkins he had last year, pollinating one with the other, making it genetically unique. The two pumpkins he crossed grew to be 637 pounds and 696 pounds at the time of harvest last fall.
The record for the largest pumpkin harvested in Idaho is 847 ½ pounds, recorded by Brian Christensen of Rexburg.
“Brian held the record for the top 10 pumpkins,” Maggi said.
But in his second year of farming, Maggi took over the third, fifth and seventh places. “My goal is to try to break his record,” he said.
Pumpkins in different regions of the world top 1,000 pounds, with the record – 1,469 pounds – claimed by Larry Checkon of Pennsylvania last year. Maggi said the cooler temperatures of the Inland Northwest make it difficult to grow a pumpkin that large.
In addition to watering and monitoring the pumpkin’s growth, growing these giants requires a massive amount of fertilizer and a large space to allow the pumpkin to grow, Maggi said.
“I used 1,500 pounds of manure on this pumpkin,” he said.
It’s not unusual to use up to 2 tons on one plant in a season, he added.
The plant needs 500 to 600 square feet to accommodate the massive root system, which can spread out 25 feet.
In addition to watering and fertilizing, Maggi and his family remove any new growth on the vine to ensure that all nutrients go directly to the one pumpkin.
While Maggi enjoys the process of growing big pumpkins, his work doesn’t stop at harvest time. Last year, after harvesting his 521-pound vegetable, he hollowed it out, put it on a boat trailer and floated it out in the middle of Smith Lake in Bonners Ferry.
“In some parts of the country they actually put motors on them and have races,” Maggi said.