STILLWATER - The gigantic pumpkin growing in Lorelee Zywiec’s backyard patch isn’t going to win any beauty contests.
It’s pale - tan, almost - and lumpy. A depression, known as a dill ring, cuts from one side to another, making it look as if two pumpkins are fused together - sort of like a squashed barbell. (Pardon the pun.)
“I know, I know. It’s pretty funny-looking,” said Zywiec, a New Richmond, Wisconsin, grower who is in the running for top giant-pumpkin honors at this weekend’s Stillwater Harvest Fest. “I don’t know if it’s the ugliest one I’ve ever grown, but it’s close.”
Her pumpkin, which she affectionately dubbed “Queen,” ranks high in the three areas that matter: impeccable genetics, off-the-charts measurements and the all-important “thump” test.
“We thump on them, so I can tell it’s heavy,” Zywiec said. “You kind of pound on them with your fist - not too hard, you don’t want to put a hole in it - and you can hear the denseness. This one sounds very solid, very heavy.”
Experts in competitive giant-pumpkin growing (yes, there are such people) expect Zywiec’s pumpkin to tip the scales at more than 2,000 pounds Saturday. Chris Stevens, the New Richmond, Wisconsin, pumpkin grower who set a world record with his 1,810-pound pumpkin at the harvest festival in 2010, said Zywiec’s pumpkin could break the world record of 2,323 pounds, held by a Swiss grower named Beni Meier.
Even more amazing: Another Wisconsin grower, Josiah Brandt, is in the running for the world record, too. Brandt said he expects the monster growing in his makeshift greenhouse in Rudolph will weigh in at “just under 2,300 pounds” Saturday at Lowell Park in downtown Stillwater. “I’m thinking 2,250 pounds,” he said. Stevens, vice president of the St. Croix Growers Association and site representative for the Stillwater Harvest Fest, loves such great gourd news.
“Just think about that. Two pumpkins well clear of a ton! Isn’t that crazy?” Stevens said. “We were at 1,800 pounds only five years ago! But the weather this year has been good, and there are a lot of big ones out there as a result.
“It’s going to be one heckuva showdown.”
Brandt, 23, said super summer weather made for perfect giant-pumpkin growing.
“There was not a lot of rain and a lot of sun,” he said. “Right now, the days are sunny and warm for this time of the year, so we’re getting really great weight gains for September through October.”
During a three-week period from July 10 to Aug. 1, Brandt’s pumpkin “put on 50 pounds a day,” he said. “Now, it’s growing about 5 to 10 pounds a day.”
Brandt, who works for Domtar Paper Co. in Nekoosa, started growing giant pumpkins when he was 8. This is his eighth competitive growing season; he took a few years off when he was traveling for work, he said.
“It takes a lot of work to do it,” he said, “but it’s a good pastime.”
It can be quite profitable, too. Two weeks ago, Brandt took home $3,500 when he captured top honors with a different giant pumpkin at Pumpkinmania in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. That beauty weighed 1,965 pounds and was the Wisconsin state record holder - for one week. Another pumpkin grower broke Brandt’s record with a 2,034-pound pumpkin at the Ryan Norlin Pumpkin Weigh-Off during Pumpkinfest in Anamosa, Iowa.
“You don’t know if you’re going to be the record-holder until the season is over,” Brandt said.
Brandt and Zywiec are battling it out for the $5,000 top prize in Stillwater.
If one of them sets a record, he or she could bring home even more: There’s a $2,000 bonus for a world record and a $500 bonus for a state record, Stevens said.
Zywiec, who owns and operates a cleaning business, grew four contenders this year. She saved for Harvest Fest the one believed to be the heaviest.
“I know I do have a big one. It’s taping 462,” Zywiec said, referring to the pumpkin’s circumference, the “over-the-top” measurement from stem to the blossom and the “over-the-top” measurement from side to side.
On Oct. 3, she placed second at the Giant Pumpkin Fest in Nekoosa, Wis., with a 1,848-pound pumpkin. And on Sept. 19, she had another second-place finisher with a 1,538-pounder at Oktoberfest in Chippewa Falls, Wis.
Unfortunately, Minnesota isn’t measuring up to Wisconsin this year, said Scott Steil, a Richmond, Minn., competitive pumpkin grower who set the state record with a 1,873-pound monster at 2014’s Harvest Fest.
“We just didn’t have the great growing conditions that they had in Wisconsin,” said Steil, an insurance agent. “We were really dry here this year, and that just affects the overall weight. They stole all the rain from me. I can blame them.”
Stevens, the New Richmond grower, said he lost four record contenders this year when they split, which can sometimes happen when giant pumpkins grow. He said the behemoths would have weighed more than 2,000 pounds apiece.
“How do you prevent that? I’ve been asking myself that for a month and a half, and I don’t know the answer,” he said. “A lot of it comes down to the weather and luck. … I think they tried to grow too fast.”
Stevens said fans can expect to see even more prodigious pumpkins in the years to come.
“It’s all genetics,” he said. “I see them grow, and I still can’t believe it. We’ve seen an 80- to 90-pound linear progression in about the last 10 to 15 years, and it’s not showing any signs of letting up.
“Seven or eight years from now, you and I are going to be talking about 3,000-pound pumpkins. That’s just not right.”
IF YOU GO
What: Stillwater Harvest Fest
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday
Where: Lowell Park on the St. Croix River in downtown Stillwater
Highlights: 100-foot pumpkin drops, 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; pumpkin weigh-off, 11 a.m. Saturday; chili cook-off, 1 p.m. Saturday; beer and wine tasting, 1 p.m. Saturday; children’s costume parade, 11:30 a.m. Sunday; pumpkin boat regatta, 2 p.m. Sunday; live music all weekend.
Information: harvestfeststillwater.com.
The Pioneer Press is a media partner of Forum News Service.
