This Pumpkin's Not Meant for Pie: Martin Grenchik's Giant Pumpkin Harvest

Every year, dozens of pumpkin growers from across Ohio and Pennsylvania travel to Salem, Ohio, to compete in the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers (OVGPG) Weigh-Off, one of OVGPG’s most popular events. The competitors aren’t just big—they’re behemoths, most weighing in at more than 800 hundred pounds. In fact, this year’s winner, grown by Dave and Carol Stelts, tipped the scales at 1,807.5 pounds.

Adams County pumpkin grower Martin Grenchik, 16, of Fairfield, was one of the contestants in this year’s OVGPG Weigh-Off. His giant pumpkin weighed in at approximately 1,018 pounds. Grenchik has grown ‘Atlantic Giant’ pumpkins before, but this year’s specimen was the largest the teenager has grown. Grenchik esimates he spent approximately 15 to 20 hours a week, from April to September, cultivating his pumpkin patch.

The process began in early spring when Grenchik obtained 3 cubic yards of alpaca fertilizer provided by Helen and Larry Hornbake, owners of Alpacas of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Rental Center, for his 600-square-foot pumpkin patch. In April, Grenchik started the seeds indoors, and a few weeks later, in early May, he transferred the plants to the fertilized garden. (Each plant, he says, will normally grow one main vine with several side shoots coming off the main vine on which several pumpkins can grow.) Since pumpkins do best with minimal rain and sun exposure, the 2011 growing season in Adams County proved to be challenging. With record rainfalls recorded in the area, Grenchik protected his pumpkin by covering it with sheets and a large tarp.

Grenchik estimates that during the pumpkin’s most active period of growth, it put on about 48 pounds in a 24-hour period. In September, the pumpkin was harvested by Grenchik and a team of men. “It was a nerve-wracking experience,” Grenchik says of the process. The pumpkin was harvested by Grenchik and a team of men who carefully cut the pumpkin from the vine, lifted into onto a tarp with a special lifting strap, transferred it onto a tractor and eventually transported it to Salem for the big day.

MORE INFORMATION

Don Langevin
How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins

Annedawn Publishing
Norton, MA 02766508-222-9069

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

BigPumpkins.com

Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers