Giant pumpkins a credit to growers in a tricky season

They're rare as a North Coast dry finish, judging by the jam-packed village of Kyogle on Saturday, where cars drove in circles looking for a park and the crowds thronged Stratheden Street, closed to traffic and dressed up for the Summerland Giant Pumpkin and Watermelon Festival.

The heaviest Atlantic variety giant cattle pumpkin was grown by Tony and Ann-Marie Frohloff, Mindon, Qld, flashing 358.5 kilograms on the digital weighing scale, as the orange-fleshed giant slung from a forklift.

The beast set a new Queensland record on Tuesday when she weighed 365kg. Since the fruit was picked from its woody vine one week ago the specimen has lost a full 10kg.

The winning seed came from Tony's father Geoff who grew one weighing 288kg in 2021 and would have set a new Ekka record had the pandemic not closed in.

Originally the seed came from Gary Smith at Sextonville, who imported the genetics from the US to grow one 374kg in 2019. That import option no longer exists, due to biosecurity restrictions, so Aussie growers have to grow it alone.

This year's champion, planted on August 29, dealt with cold mornings at the start while dry, hot conditions prior to November burnt leaves and growing tips.

"The back half of the growing season was when the rains came," Mr Frohloff said.

"I need a plant to hold up in our climate," and he emphasised the need to feed the growing beast "lots of goodies, but not too much".

Best pumpkin of the show and featured in a guess-the-weight competition was John Leadbeatter's handsome Atlantic, coming second at 327kg.

The Rukenvale dairyman has done better before, but with uglier specimens, setting his personal best with a 585kg monster.

With this year's fruits, from seed out of last year's best, he was well pleased none-the-less, considering the early dry and late humidity. As always the effort was all-consuming with no part of the house yard unused in his quest to grow the biggest.

"I planted two seeds on August 25 - two weeks early - just to be silly," he recalled. "When they came up I said bugger it I'll put them in and I'm glad I did."

Like the champion these seeds originally came from Mr Smith at Sextonville.

"Fortunately I've missed a lot of the heavy rain," he said. "But its main runner rotted 1.5m out and its only support towards the finish were a few side-shoots.

"Now these pumpkins will get cut up for their seed and then I'll feed them to the cows."

The godfather of the giant pumpkin movement on the far North Coast is Knockrow nurseryman Dale Oliver, who set a southern hemisphere record in 2021 with his own-bred cucurbit, donning a colour like squash and tipping the scales at an incredible 867kg.

For this year he was content to stand back and marvel at others' enthusiasm, with nothing to show for himself.

A cool spring and cold soil rendered his plants traumatised and on day 20 he made the decision to pull them out completely..

"I want to take a break from the competition," he said. "And I need to renovate my beds. I'll add sand for drainage, and coal ash, and I will widen them.

New competitors Lillian and Murray Cox, who make a living growing salad herbs in the Tweed Valley, used their own secret sauce to deliver 300.5kg of mass applying genetics crossed with Mr Oliver's 867kg specimen and a 2252 Patton, with the number indicating pounds or more than a metric tonne.

"I am blown away by our result," Mrs Cox said. "Our goal was 200kg."

She said some of the fertiliser mix she used included kelp extract, calcium, potash, magnesium, with trace elements like iron and copper.

Beginning cultivars Christian and his young daughter Torvi Hamlon, Nimbin, were excited to show off their 126.5 pumpkin, with seed supplied by leading local growers and purchased at the chain saw shop in town.

"We grew it organically and watered it with compost tea that included guano," said Mr Hamlon.

"I used a big compost bin and diluted the tea to 10 per cent with water. I added kelp meal.

"We planted it in September on a blue moon and it was in a pot for ages before we put it out."