A powderkeg of heavy pumpkins descended on Kyogle showground at the weekend, where keen growers of the giant Atlantic variety compared weight and girth after a long hot summer.
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Knockrow nurseryman Dale Oliver once again topped the scales with a monster weighing 674kg from a variety of '2036 Glasier', the seed coming from Nova Scotia where the global phenomenon of growing ridiculously large pumpkins originated.
His giant gourd grew more than 10kg a day for 64 days to produce the astounding result, but not enough to beat last year’s feat – an Australian record – of 743kg.
Close on his heels was Doubtful Creek cattleman Garry Smith with a whopper weighing 595kg from a single seed sent from Nova Scotia called '1317 Clements', the number referring to the weight in pounds and the name being that of the grower. In Australia the weight is in kilos, which confuses things a bit.
Mr Smith - a relative newcomer to the sport - was also thrilled to have successfully crossed two 'Clements' varieties - 1947 and 1317 to create the biggest orange coloured pumpkin in the Kyogle competition, which sadly split before weigh-off, but tipped the scales back in the paddock at 518kg.
No matter - all the pumpkins get fed to the cows when the fuss is over. And the seeds remain for another year.
Craig Webb traveled all the way from Bundaberg for the weigh-off, but was disappointed he couldn't bring his 250kg prize, bred from Dale Oliver's Australian record last year (743 Oliver) after it collapsed in a heap weeks before the contest.
Fed, like all the giant pumpkins, on a nutrient-rich cocktail with an emphasis on potassium, combined with knee-deep compost, Mr Webb mulched the remains of his prized gourd over his Lady Finger bananas and has never seen such healthy plants.
Citrus grower John Mills, from Brunswick Heads, found his mix of straw, fowl manure and ash helped create some very large watermelons but he rued the fact that he didn't spend enough time tending the plants to achieve better results.
