Pumpkins primed for prize time

With a special crane ready to lift his pumpkins off the ground, Jay Bischoff is part of the group of people who have a fascination with growing gargantuan gourds.

How big? Bischoff hasn’t had a pumpkin cross the 1,000-pound barrier yet, but he says that’s a possibility this year.

Spokane Valley’s warm weather works to his disadvantage; most giant pumpkin growers live on the coast.

“They’re temperamental on the heat,” Bischoff said. “They don’t like it over 85 degrees.”

Bischoff grows fruits and vegetables on about three-fourths of an acre at the corner of Sullivan Road and 24th Avenue, where he and his wife, Merilyn, sell them every Wednesday and Saturday. He took up the giant pumpkin hobby five or six years ago.

With fair season beginning, growers like Bischoff are eyeing their pumpkins with pride.

Bonners Ferry resident Rick Maggi harvested a 643-pounder this week for entry into the Boundary County Fair, which opened Wednesday and continues through Saturday. It has a circumference of 13 feet.

Maggi is a third-year grower who uses Dill’s Atlantic Giant seeds and massive doses of fertilizer.

“I used 1,500 pounds of manure on this pumpkin,” he said.

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.

“Pumpkins easily grow over 100 pounds a week,” he said. “If this fair was next week, it would be over 700 pounds.”

Bischoff doesn’t plan to enter his pumpkins in any local fairs. Instead, he’ll take them to contests on the other side of the state, but only if they’re big enough.

There’s motivation for growing a big pumpkin, including $4,000 in prize money at some festivals and fairs across the Cascades.

“It’s kind of worth playing around with,” Bischoff said.

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.

Last year, after harvesting his 521-pound vegetable, Maggi hollowed it out and floated it onto Smith Lake in Bonners Ferry.

“In some parts of the country they actually put motors on them and have races,” Maggi said.