Is it the Great Pumpkin? Or the greatest pumpkin?
Using his official Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weight estimation tape measure, Jeff Pelletier sprawls across his giant backyard pumpkin to take its measurements.
“It looks like it gained a few pounds last night,” he says, pulling back the tarps and blankets used to hold as much heat in as possible.
He estimates it could top 1,200 pounds, although, the green hue on the skin could indicate thick sidewalls, which would make the gourd even heavier. That would be his personal best but he’s hoping to have the most gargantuan gourd in B.C.
Pelletier won’t know for sure until Saturday morning when the pumpkin, which he’s named Grawp, is hoisted up by a crane so it can be weighed for the official competition. (Harry Potter superfans will recognize Grawp as the name of Hagrid’s giant brother.)
In 2015, an Alaskan contender for the largest pumpkin was being moved from its greenhouse by a crane when the cable snapped, splitting the possible record-breaker in half.
“Fingers crossed that nothing happens. That’s the part that’s fraught with worry,” says Pelletier, whose day job is house flautist for the Rocky Mountaineer.
Pelletier germinated the seed indoors in late April and planted it on May 1, meaning the pumpkin will be about 100 days old at its official weigh-in.
“That’s an average of 12 pounds a day,” he said. “Its biggest one-day gain was 47 pounds.”
It nearly didn’t reach maturity, thanks to marauding squirrels.
Pelletier was inspired to get into the competitive pumpkin game by his childhood viewings of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Later, his mentor was Glenn Dixon, a record pumpkin grower and former North Vancouver resident.
“I was kind of hooked from there,” he said.
Once the official records are taken, Grawp will be shipped off to Burnaby, along with two other 500-plus-pounders Pelletier has grown, where, on Oct. 21, professional carvers will make them into works of art.
Last year’s pumpkin was carved into a “Trumpkin,” a play on the scary thought of Donald Trump becoming president in the upcoming election.
Sadly, Grawp’s final days will be spent as pig slop at a farm in Richmond.
“It’s always kind of sad when, the next day, you look out in the yard and there’s nothing,” Pelletier said.
But Pelletier will harvest Grawp’s seeds, which can become a hot commodity if the giant gourd manages to become a record breaker.
Grawp is of the same pedigree as Pelletier’s 2015 1,018-pounder Fridwulfa. Great Pumpkin Commonwealth growers have been known to pay up to $585 for a single seed.
“There’s no guarantee. If it doesn’t germinate, you’re hooped,” he said with a laugh.
Even if he manages to wrest the biggest pumpkin title away from a famed grower in Langley, Pelletier and Grawp will still be nowhere near the world record of 2,624 pounds. Pelletier speaks reverently of other celebrities in the competitive pumpkin arena like an artist talks about the muses who inspire them, or like a chess master speaks of Bobby Fischer.
“The Belgians and the Austrians are leading the way right now because they grow primarily in greenhouses. They do everything from alter the air mixture in the greenhouse, pump in more CO2, use a computerized fertilization program,” he said. “They use the really chemical-heavy fertilizers and I’m all organic.”
The neighbourhood kids get a kick out of Pelletier’s hobby, he said, although it does have its drawbacks, namely the Alaska fish fertilizer he uses to spur Grawp’s growth.
“That’s probably the only thing the neighbours don’t really like,” he said.
