Pumping up pumpkin potential

certainly it’s not the humid climate – they tend to ply their trade on the North Coast.

Men like Bangalow’s Tidge Knight, Rukenvale dairyfarmer John Leadbeatter, and Knockrow nursery owner Dale Oliver each summer live in unique world of scientific data, constant monitoring of the weather, heartbreak and exhilaration.

For the months during the summer, they are joined at the hip to their babies, Giant Atlantic pumpkins, in the hope of bringing one to fruition and making the weigh-in on the show circuit, with the Sydney Royal Show the ultimate aim.

Such is the temperamental nature of the giant pumpkins, and the intricate know-how required to grow them, that nine out of 10 of the Giant Atlantics they plant are lost before

show day.

Tidge Knight, who heads up the Godfather Gang, still has one on track for Sydney 2014 – at 55 days when the above photo of Tidge and the giant was taken last month it weighed

310 kilograms and was still putting on weight daily.

It won’t, however, break the Australian record which is held by Dale for a 619kg pumpkin weighed in at Sydney show several years ago, but clearly just getting a giant

pumpkin to show is an achievement.

The three men generally grow four to six giant pumpkins a season and all but Tidge’s have been ruined by disease, suffered a split shell or peaked too early for Homebush this year.

At 78, and with more than three decades of growing Giant Atlantics under his belt, Tidge said that was part and parcel of the art of pumpkin growing.

Tidge, whose working life was spent on the local Byron Bay council driving machinery, has lived on his quarter acre town block all his life.

At one time it was surrounded by dairy farms; today it’s in the middle of some of the State’s more expensive residential housing.

“I’ve always had a big vege garden – when I was young it fed half the town,” he said.

“I first saw adverts for seeds for Atlantic Giants 30 years ago and when I chased down information about them and found that in America they grow to more than a tonne I

thought I’ll give that a go.”

It was 10 years before he got one to a weigh-off.

Every year, Tidge plants his seeds in November and enters in whatever North Coast or South East Queensland show coincides with when a pumpkin is ready, but the main game is always the Sydney Royal Show.

He has won plenty of prize money but says he has spent much more on failed attempts.

“This baby has cost me $150 so far and that’s very good – the dry season has reallycut down the threat of mildew and disease so it’s just been feed and water,” he said.

The pumpkin is currently being watered twice a day, plus whenever Tidge spots the

slightest wilting of a leaf.

That means constant monitoring so there is no going away for a few days during pumpkin growing season.

“You have to live with them,” he said. “Rearing a baby is probably easier than rearing one of these – you have to constantly look for little cracks in vines and treat it immediately with a paste.

“And you have to be prepared for heartbreak.

“I had a beauty once two days off being weighed in at Sydney Show and he busted.”

A 456kg pumpkin is Tidge’s record, and he says success all comes down to genetics.

“It’s the shape that determines how big it will grow – it needs to have length, height and width,” he said.

“It’s the pumpkin it was always going to be, my job is just to see it reach that potential.”

The growing giants do need protection, especially on the North Coast where hail is a

constant threat, and both Tidge and Dale grow their pumpkins in greenhouses, fed with

a bought-in mix high in nitrogen and potassium, and planted in improved soil.

“They are so temperamental – I’m well aware I could go down tomorrow morning and he’ll be in a heap,” Tidge said.

“Some go flat strap from day one, others just steadily gain a bit a day.

“I’ve known pumpkins to put on 15 pounds a day in their peak growing time, some have done 100kg in three weeks.

“I’d put a stick next to them in the afternoon and by morning they’d have pushed it over.”

Come show day, a forklift is hired and after the awards are handed out, the pumpkin goes to the cows.

“They are too stringy for us,” Tidge said. “They’re bred for size not taste.”

This season Dale had one on track to better his record – it was 684kg when its shell

split in January.

The Godfathers are generous with their knowledge and their tools.

In fact, Tidge sends seeds across the country to people wanting to try their hand at the art.

The growers have been instrumental in getting the Summerland Pumpkin Competition at

Kyogle up and running.

Now in its third year, the 2014 competition, held in February, attracted 25 Atlantic Giant entries hailing from throughout the North Coast.

John Leadbeatter won the event with a 367kg pumpkin.

Organiser of the Kyogle event Chris Pike, a small area vegetable grower whose biggest pumpkin grew to 256kg, said it’s a not an easy hobby but once giant pumpkins grab you, there is no looking back.