This pumpkin on display in Allentown actually weighs more than a brown bear
“A lot of people think you can throw a seed in the ground and walk away,” says Nathaniel Hoffner, grower of the Bloomsburg Fair’s champion pumpkin. “It ain’t that easy.”
Hoffner, 55, carefully tended the seed that led to the 1,341pound champion pumpkin, which weighs more than an average brown bear and is now on display at the Dan Schantz Greenhouse and Cut Flower Outlet in Allentown. Hoffner raised the pumpkin on a former horse farm in New Smithville, Weisenberg Township, Lehigh County. Its circumference is 15.5 feet.
At its fastest, Hoffner said the pumpkin grew 53 pounds in 24 hours. How did he know? He had a chart that estimates weight by circumference. Yes, he measured it daily, just part of the regimen to coax the plant to grow into a giant pumpkin.
Hoffner is part of a group of pumpkin growers in pursuit of size. In 2015, Hoffner grew a pumpkin that took third place at Bloomsburg Fair. He’s been growing pumpkins that he’s selfseeded from that one.
The cultivation includes manually pollinating as well as warding off cucumber beetles and squash vine bores, which can take out a potential champion. Squash vine bores are sneaky, too. They can lay one egg, and that egg will hatch and start eating from inside the vine on out.
“They can devastate a plant before you know it,” Hoffner said.
Growing such a big pumpkin takes a mix of perfect weather.
“It was a weird summer; when it was hot, it was hot,” he said. “I had to shade the plant sometimes because it was just too much heat.”
The pumpkin was 77 days old on July 10 when it was pollinated.
“She went from a golf-ball size to what she is now,” he said. “The nice days when we did get rain, she really enjoyed that. It was refreshing.”
Hoffner has an irrigation system on the ground and drip lines.
“They want a couple of inches of water a week,” Hoffner said. “Pumpkins are 85-90% water. You got to give her what she wants.”
The fair was Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. It attracted a lot of attention. People said they had never seen one so big. It is solid, like concrete, he said.
He said he’s not sure what he will do with the pumpkin. It’s not edible. He said he’s tried that. It’s too woody and not very tasty — even with lots of sugar. It has become an attraction for a while, then it will decompose.
One thing is for sure, Hoffner said; he will be saving seeds.