LINACY, N.S. — Why grow giant pumpkins?
“There’s only two ways about it,” says Linacy farmer Tom Dudka, “you either love to do it or you’re crazy.”
Dudka is in his 15th year of growing the gargantuan gourds and has made a name for himself as one of the best in the Maritimes. Last year he placed fifth overall at the Windsor West Hants Pumpkin Weigh-off with a pumpkin he had named Trump that weighed 1,051 pounds. It was a personal best for the Pictou County grower.
But with a new year comes new goals. This year, he has three, that if things continue to grow as they are, will all top the 1,000-pound mark in the coming weeks.
He believes the secret to his success is in his soil. In the past, Dudka said he had found the 1,000 lb.-barrier impossible to surpass, but then he started getting help from a friend and expert Terry Megeney, who helped him get the ground right for growing giants.
It's also important to have the right genetics. Dudka said giant pumpkin growers trade seeds online. This year he got the seeds for his pumpkins from a grower in New York whose pumpkin weighed 2,500 pounds. He attributes the incredible size in part to the U.S. climate which is more suited for pumpkins.
Here in Nova Scotia, Dudka said growers can expect to grow the pumpkin plants for 90 days and the pumpkins themselves for another 90 days, making it a six month labour of love.
Every morning he wakes up at 5 a.m. and spends the first hour of his day watering the plants. Each takes between 125 and 155 gallons. He also uses a seaweed mulch which he sprays on the leaves to help increase growth.
Dudka says there’s no real secret to his method.
“There’s no putting milk in it or anything like that. It’s just good old manure and seaweed. That’s it,” he said.
He does appear to have a bit of fairy tale-like help though, as he grows these Cinderella carriage sized pumpkins. There are, for instance, crows, which Dudka feeds, that have taken it upon themselves to guard the property and will dive bomb any racoons that approach. Racoons, Dudka explains, can wreak havoc on a pumpkin patch. Not only that, but Dudka has allowed the bushes to grow around his pumpkin patch. In thanks, dozens of sparrows gather there each morning and pick pests out of the garden.
“They’re bug control for me,” he said. “I let nature take its course. I’m amazed at the sparrows that go in here. Before I used to get hundreds and hundreds of cucumber beetles. This year I barely got 20.”
Dudka said he’s thankful for the community support he has received for his pumpkins. His neighbour Marinus Verhagen has always allowed Dudka to use his equipment to load and haul the pumpkins, for instance, and the Aberdeen Sobeys has faithfully displayed his produce. People in the community have also taken notice and have congratulated him on his successes.
With support like that, it’s hard not to love growing giants.
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Linacy's Tom Dudka places 5th with personal best pumpkin named Trump
