Stockton boy grows monster cabbage
Third-grader wins $1,000 scholarship after diligent work
STOCKTON — A school rally will be held in Tino Bruno’s honor. Officials will hand over a giant ceremonial check for $1,000. Reporters have been calling, and he’s got a date to go on the radio later this month.
“And it’s all over a cabbage,” said the 9-year-old boy’s father, Chris. “You never know what the road to fame is going to be.”
But this is not just any cabbage. The 2-inch-tall seedling that Tino replanted last January eventually grew into a 29-pound monster cabbage. By the time Tino, his father and his brother, Lorenzo, finally cut it down with a kitchen knife and hoisted it into the back of the family pickup last May, the cabbage was as heavy as two bowling balls, with a head the size of a world globe, 38 inches around and 12 inches across.
“It was pretty big,” Tino said modestly.
Big enough, it turns out, to crown Tino as the California champion of a national cabbage growing competition that involves more than 1 million schoolchildren each year.
Alabama-based vegetable and herb provider Bonnie Plants puts on the contest, with the winner in each state receiving a $1,000 scholarship. It’s not necessarily the biggest cabbage that wins; teachers across the country nominate students based on their plants’ appearance and size, and the winners are randomly picked from that pool.
So luck was in Tino’s favor. But make no mistake: He earned this.
Tino’s third-grade class at Annunciation School received the cabbages at one of the county’s regular AgVenture events, his father said. The plant was so small that it came in a cup.
But Tino knows a thing or two about the magic of farming. His father’s company grows peppers. And the Bruno family grew a 200pound pumpkin a couple of years ago.
So Tino set out to grow the biggest cabbage he possibly could. He planted it Jan. 19 in a garden at his father’s workplace in north Stockton.
Every week or so, Tino would visit the garden with his dad. He fertilized the cabbage, he carefully removed bugs and snails, and he built a makeshift cage to protect the plant from rabbits.
Last year’s heavy rains took care of most of the watering. And by late March, it became apparent that Tino had a whopper cabbage on his hands. Bonnie cabbages are supposed to be whoppers — the company provides an oversized variety that occasionally grows up to 60 or even 70 pounds.
“It grew humungous,” Tino said. “We did a lot to it.”
After the harvest on May 15, they trucked the cabbage home, took some pictures of a grinning Tino dwarfed by the expansive green leaves, and then delivered the cabbage to school where it was towed onto campus in a wagon and put on display for the day.
“They were all super surprised,” Tino said.
“Everyone’s looks that morning were hilarious,” his father added. “They said, ‘What on Earth is that?’ He definitely enjoyed growing it, and there was definitely a sense of pride in bringing it to school and showing it off.”
Then the question became, what to do with a cabbage that was larger than a basketball? Tino tried a few bites of it raw, and cooked some of it for soup, but much of the cabbage eventually went to his friend’s goats, Sugar and Cinnamon. The dog might have gotten some too, come to think of it.
The money will go into his college fund, though Tino does intend to buy a “Star Wars” Lego set.
He has moved on to fourth grade, and while it’s still a bit early to make firm career decisions, his skills could very well be useful one day in San Joaquin County’s leading industry: agriculture.
“It’s fun being outside and having fun,” Tino said.
Chris Bruno added, “He has a passion for gardens and gardening, and I think this definitely stoked that fire for him a little bit. You can’t put something in the ground, walk away and expect it to do anything. I think that’s a good life lesson.”