It began as a retirement hobby and has grown into a fall staple.
Audrey Allen of Elkhorn said she started growing giant pumpkins when she moved back to Nebraska from Oklahoma five years ago. Her first harvest was field pumpkins. Then she found some giant pumpkin growing groups on Facebook. Members gave her tips and ideas for improved size.
“I thought it would be fun,” Allen said. “I’ve learned a lot in three years.”
She’s been around gardening all her life. When she was a child, her mom had a garden on the farm.
She grows the gourds at her father’s, Don Stara, farm close to Bee. He is 90 and likes to see how the pumpkins are growing, Allen said.
After the first year of field pumpkins, Allen decided to see how big the familiar orange Halloween staple could grow. The heat in 2023 limited the growth, and her biggest pumpkin weighed about 200 pounds. Last year, her biggest pumpkin weighed 450 pounds.
Allen said she had one that weiged over 600 pounds, but it didn’t survive the summer.
“Everybody wants to beat last year’s,” she said.
This year’s biggest effort didn’t just beat last years – it crushed it. Allen has a pumpkin that weighs 820 pounds.
“We went to the co-op to weigh it,” she said.
A pumpkin that size starts with the right genetic seed, Allen said. Pumpkins require a lot of water, and she fertilized the plant twice each week. This summer, she said, she upped her fungicide game, spraying for insects on a regular basis.
She said serious growers will apply fertilizer every day.
When the plants are little, she protects them with a fence, but she said she hasn’t had issues with animals.
“It’s weather dependent,” she said.
In 2023, she said, the heat forced many of the plants to abort the gourds.
Allen also said adding shade helped the pumpkin grow bigger, as well. She has a shade that blocks 30-40% of the sun’s rays.
At 820 pounds, this pumpkin is not the traditional round pumpkin shape.
“It’s hard to keep the shape,” Allen said.
Her other big pumpkin, weighing in at 780 pounds, was a better shape. Her brother took that one to Oklahoma for a school fundraiser.
Allen said her family likes to keep an eye on the growth of the pumpkins, so she takes lots of pictures. She lets the pumpkin grow as long as the weather will allow.
Most of the field pumpkins, at 100 pounds much smaller than the 820-pound behemoth, are used to decorate porches.
Allen said her husband, Frank, helps a lot. Work begins in the spring, when the seeds are planted. Allen said she spends a lot of time in the pumpkin patch.
“Each year I put more care into it,” she said.
