Joe Morgan was looking for something to do during the pandemic and decided raising a big pumpkin would be interesting. He tried it last year but had problem with the ground soil destroying the pumpkin. This year he put a foam block under it with some manure fertilizer. It grew beautifully in his yard on Roosevelt Street. The pumpkin plants usually grow lots of smaller pumpkins so he clipped off all but one pair of the male and female buds. He planted the seeds the end of May and pollinated them on July 21.
Stillwater has a Harvest Fest pumpkin contest which had 400 entries this year; most of the entries came from farmers. When Morgan took his pumpkin to be weighed on Oct. 8, it was 80 days old, weighed 622 pounds, was 50 inches long and 48 inches wide. The heaviest was a pumpkin named Elsa belonging to Jake Johnson from Benson, Minn., which weighed 1966.5 pounds. The contest asked for nicknames of the pumpkins so Morgan named his Sharon.
Morgan had his pumpkin in his front yard displayed for Halloween. He plans to do it again next year and encourages others to do it. Anybody with a pumpkin can enter the contest.
Trivia: An 1,100-lb. pound pumpkin will make 700 pumpkin pies.
Photos by Carol Jensen
