# data[].attributes.body
http://www.burpee.com/gardenadvicecenter/vegetables/pumpkins/how-to-grow-huge-pumpkins/article10276.html

# data[].attributes.body
https://m.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/wwx1k/where_is_my_pumpkin_getting_its_mass_from/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most champion pumpkin growers have their own methods and secrets for producing the gigantic pumpkins that win pumpkin contests every year. Of course it is necessary to start with the right kind of pumpkin seed, one that is selectively bred to produce the really big pumpkins such as " Prizewinner Hybrid" which with the proper growing methods can produce pumpkins in the 300-pound range.

Culture
Pumpkins need a lot of sun. Choose the sunniest place you have; remember that pumpkins are sensitive and will need shelter from wind and frost. Try to protect pumpkins from the worst of the elements by covering them during heavy rains, or putting up some kind of barrier to protect the vines from high winds or using shade tents during summer's hottest days.

Pumpkins like and need a lot of water, but don't plant pumpkins in wet or dense soil. They need good, well-drained soil. You can dig it up by hand. Don't use a tractor, pumpkin roots don't go down very far. Prepare the soil in early spring, as soon as the ground is warm. Fertilize the patch with a good four inches of rotting cow manure. Pumpkins do best in soil that is slightly acid or nearly neutral.

If you live in a part of the country where there is still danger of frost in late April or early May, start pumpkin seeds indoors about two weeks before planting. Sow one seed for every four-inch peat pot filled with grow mix. Keep the pots watered, never let them dry out.

Planting
When seedlings have the fourth or fifth leaf, set them outdoors in hills about the size of a pitcher s mound, one plant to a hill. Protect pumpkin seedlings the first few weeks with plastic-covered frames. Space each hill at least 20 feet apart.

Fertilizing
Pumpkins have two kinds of flowers, male and female, which appear in early July. The male flowers show up first, followed by the females. Look out for the first female flowers. Look for vines to be strong and well-established before letting a female flower set fruit. It might help to break off the first female on each vine and wait for the second or third, when the vines are at least ten feet long. A female is easy to recognize: she has a baby pumpkin at the base of each flower.

You need a big vine to produce a big pumpkin, so in a sense you're choosing the vine before the pumpkin. When you find a vine that's strong enough and a female flower on the verge of opening, put a bag of cheesecloth over it for the night to keep the insects out. The next morning pick a fresh male bloom, trim off the corolla or outer petals, and rub the pollen-laden stamen in around the center of the newly opened female bloom.

Growing
This is just the beginning of a summer of long but rewarding work. What you have started is actually a pumpkin-producing factory. Remember that there are 100 or more leaves to each vine and if you are trying to grow a 300-pound pumpkin, each leaf is responsible for up to four pounds of weight in your pumpkin. Every leaf, every stem, every hair roots is now receiving sunlight, absorbing water, and blending nutrients. All are traveling down the all-important stem to your prize pumpkin.

Giant pumpkins balloon out from the vine and if precautions are not taken, they will tear away and lose touch with their all-important stem. Since vines put out roots at every leaf, tear out the roots of the vine where it is close to the pumpkin. This will give it free room to grow without damage to the vine. Gently train vines away from the pumpkin to prevent it from crushing them, try giving them a nudge in the right direction every day.

When two or three fruits on each plant reach the size of softballs, remove all but the most promising one and start to prune the pumpkin plants. After the primary vine has reached 20 feet, pinch off the tips and the side shoots so the vines won't divert resource from the fruit. Break off all the other female flowers A potential prizewinner is forming. The work of the plant now must go entirely toward nurturing this fruit alone.

It is important to remember that the only thing that will increase the size of the fruit comes out of the vines and the vines must get support from the natural root. For growing really big pumpkins, the most important things to remember are seeds, soil, sunshine, and water.

By mid-August the plants are pulling in water and nutrients at a great rate. Nighttime is when pumpkins do their growing, most expand two inches in circumference every night.

If it's a dry season, give each plant 15 to 20 gallons of water twice a week. Water in the evening, and water only the base of the plant to keep the leaves dry, which reduces the risk of disease.

See all our pumpkins

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to grow huge pumpkins - Gardening Tips and Advice at Burpee.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most champion pumpkin growers have their own methods and secrets for producing the gigantic pumpkins that win pumpkin contests every year. Of course it is necessary to start with the right kind of pumpkin seed, one that is selectively bred to produce the really big pumpkins such as " Prizewinner Hybrid" which with the proper growing methods can produce pumpkins in the 300-pound range.

# data[].attributes.body
http://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/how-to-grow-a-giant-pumpkin/

# data[].attributes.body
ww.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-great-pumpkin-74423844/

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/surprising-science-giant-pumpkins-180957099/?no-ist

# data[].attributes.body
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/growing-giant-pumpkins/story?id=12005986

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.google.com/search?q=pumpkin&rlz=1CAACAH_enUS710&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN19nhzI_PAhVM92MKHTkfDe8Q_AUICCgB&biw=1363&bih=678&safe=active&ssui=on#safe=strict&tbm=isch&q=pumpkin+designs&imgrc=48vbnp2BozYH4M%3A

# data[].attributes.body
http://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/how-to-grow-a-giant-pumpkin/

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/food/pumpkins.html

# data[].attributes.headline
if the pumpkin seed is heathy than the pumpkin will grow bigger

# data[].attributes.subject
if the pumpkin seed is heathy than the pumpkin will grow bigger

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From special seeds to helpful fungi, creating a monster takes more than just sunlight and soil

smithsonian.com

Waiting in line for their weigh-in, the lumpy, pale pumpkins sag on their pallets like deflated balloons. But to become a world heavyweight champion, looks don't really matter. When it comes to this competition, decades of intense selective breeding have banished the petite, perfectly ovoid and brilliantly orange fruits with a focus on one exclusive trait: massive size.

Every year, an international community of giant-pumpkin farmers loads up beastly gourds on trailers, carting them to local fairs and weigh-ins for a chance at the title.

The size of these pumpkins is unimaginably large to me-I can barely grow tomatoes without making heart-breaking tears through their delicate flesh, innards dripping to the ground. So I went to scientists and competitive pumpkin growers to ask this burning question: How do you make a monster pumpkin?

The current world record is held by Beni Meier, a Swiss accountant by day, who grew a pumpkin that weighs in at 2,323.7 pounds, roughly the same amount as a small car. But it's likely he won't hold that title long. These giants have been growing in mass by leaps and bounds every year, and there are no signs that they're slowing down.

"The weight is still continuing to go up ... 1,000 pounds was the goal 15 years ago, and everyone thought that was unheard of," says Woody Lancaster, a competitive pumpkin grower and so-called heavy hitter, or someone who consistently churns out monsters. His 1,954-pounder ranked 14th in the world this year.

According to Lancaster and other growers, there are a few basic tenants to cultivating giant pumpkins: Keep them at the perfect temperature, give them continuous food and water, protect their delicate skins from drying and cracking and cover them at night for warmth. Competitive growers also lovingly prune their pumpkin plants, reducing their fruit to a few prized gems. But above all, you have to start with a champion seed.

George Hamilton, extension field specialist in fruits and vegetables at the University of New Hampshire, ranks the relative importance of a grower's checklist something like this: "Number one is genetics, number two is genetics, number three is genetics. And then number four you've got sun, warmth, fertilizer and water," he says.

These days, nearly every prizewinning pumpkin can trace its roots back to Howard Dill's Atlantic Giant. Dill spent 30 careful years cultivating his beasts from the Mammoth pumpkin varieties, which are rooted in the squash species Cucurbita maxima.

In 1981, Dill scored a world record with a 493.5-pound beast, trampling the previous record of 460 pounds. He patented the seeds, and an international cohort of growers continued to selectively breed them for bigger pumpkins.

Just under 35 years later, the weight record for the pumpkins has more than quadrupled.

"Basically it's like horse racing. We're breeding big pumpkins into big pumpkins every year to create bigger pumpkins," says Ron Wallace, another heavy hitter who holds multiple growing titles. Last week, Wallace broke the North American weight record with his 2,230-pound behemoth.

So why can these monsters grow so large? Atlantic Giant pumpkins can pack on close to 50 pounds a day during peak growing season, says plant physiologist Jessica Savage at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. Though a pumpkin is roughly 90 percent water, there is still a great deal of sugar flowing into the plant's bulk.

Oddly enough, the giant plants aren't any better at producing sugar than their regular-sized cousins, explains Savage. They're just better at moving it around.

To take you back to high school biology, plants have two types of tissue that work to get food and water flowing through them: xylem and phloem. The xylem transports water into the plants, and the phloem is responsible for sugar movement. While all pumpkins easily move large amounts of water, Savage found that giant pumpkins have supersized phloem.

Growers have also harnessed the power of mycorrhizal fungi, which happily colonize the plant's roots and assist water and nutrients flowing into the plant in exchange for carbohydrates, explains Wallace, who originally introduced the fungi to extreme gardeners. With increasing demand for his special fungi-containing elixirs, Wallace started selling the mixes this past February, and business is booming.

So is there a biological factor that will eventually limit their size?

Not really. These monsters are so good at moving sugars, that given the proper conditions, there isn't anything glaring that limits their growth, says Savage. "It seems like everything in the plant just increased with the fruit size."

Another grower, Matt DeBacco, suggests that the limit may be in the cells. Plants get large in two stages. First they divide and multiply their cells, then the cells begin expanding. Each individual cell can expand up to a thousand times its original size, so if the pumpkin has more cells to start with, it can expand much faster in the late season, when growth often becomes sluggish, DeBacco explains.

DeBacco, dubbed "mad scientist Matt" by his local community, is currently tinkering with a brew of hormones and amino acids to prolong the initial period of cell growth. Already his method has produced gourds estimated to weigh over 2,000 pounds, and he thinks there may still be room for some tinkering.

"I think that is the last thing that we try before we actually sequence them and change the G's, the A's, the T's and the C's," says DeBacco, referring to the chemical base pairs that make up DNA.

In the end, the limit may come down to physics. Giant pumpkins already sag under their own weight, developing heart-wrenching cracks if they grow too quickly or unevenly. But the sagging may actually be one of the keys to continued growth, according to researched published in the International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics.

Lead author David Hu and his team used vices to test how much force some ill-fated pumpkins could withstand. They discovered that round pumpkins could put up with a lot. Based on these tests, they estimated that a perfectly uniform pumpkin could grow up to a whopping 20,000 pounds. As the pumpkins flatten, things get more complicated, but flattening does seem to help the gourds hold up their massive bulk without cracking.

So although we might not ever have pumpkins big enough to serve as chariots, we already have some large enough for boat rides, and maybe they'll keep expanding horizontally. The extreme gardeners will just have to go on growing their massive gourds to find out.

About Maya Wei-Haas

Maya Wei-Haas is the assistant editor for science and innovation at Smithsonian.com. Her work has appeared on National Geographic and AGU's Eos and Plainspoken Scientist.

Read more from this author | Follow @WeiPoints

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Secret to Growing the World's Largest Pumpkin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
smithsonian.com Waiting in line for their weigh-in, the lumpy, pale pumpkins sag on their pallets like deflated balloons. But to become a world heavyweight champion, looks don't really matter. When it comes to this competition, decades of intense selective breeding have banished the petite, perfectly ovoid and brilliantly orange fruits with a focus on one exclusive trait: massive size.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/surprising-science-giant-pumpkins-180957099/?no-ist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A new world record was set this month for the heaviest pumpkin ever grown. Taking first place at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Minnesota -- and beating last year's record by 85 pounds -- this Sasquatch of squashes weighed in at just over 1,810 pounds.

To pumpkin enthusiasts like Chris Stevens of Wisconsin, a contractor who grew this record-breaker, the giant pumpkin is both a work of art and the product of an ever-evolving amateur science.

"There's a tremendous amount of tender loving care that goes into this," said Tim Beeman, who coordinated the 2010 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in California's Half Moon Bay. "These guys are like mad scientists."

These super-sized pumpkins have also attracted the attention of university scientists, who are helping growers to better understand how their pumpkins get so large and how to make them even larger.

Giant pumpkins on display in festivals across the country trace their ancestry back to Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds first patented in 1979 by Howard Dill, who set the world record in 1980 with a 459-pounder.

Plus-Size Pumpkins Regularly Weigh More Than a Thousand Pounds

Today, giant pumpkins regularly weigh more than a thousand pounds and are thought to thrive in a "golden zone" that stretches across southern Canada and the northern half of the United States.

Loading one of these monsters into a pickup truck for a trip to the local fair has become a delicate dance of straps, pulleys, and prayers. After the judging, the pumpkins typically find homes on front porches, in casinos or in kitchens that use them to feed underserved populations. Some are even carved into boats.

The increasing size of giant pumpkins over time is partially due to genetic changes brought on by selective culturing. For decades, pumpkin growers have steadily pushed these fruits by swapping seeds and using other traditional breeding techniques that have been around for thousands of years.

"These are just ordinary people doing this who don't understand genetics," said Jules Janick, a horticulturalist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "It's the way that a lot of crops like corn were originally developed."

Giant Pumpkins Can Fetch $850 Each

Growers cross the biggest, most desirable pumpkins -- which produce seeds the size of a peach pit that can fetch $850 each, according to Janick -- with each other and let nature improve them over several generations.

This selective breeding is called artificial selection, a term coined by Charles Darwin, and is similar to processes that occur in nature, except in this case the growers are selecting the "fittest" individuals -- the larger pumpkins -- to breed in order to pass on the more desirable genes to help create even larger pumpkins.

"It's very similar to horse racing, where breeders cross the fastest horses. You can see the effect of this breeding if you look at the records," Janick said.

Giant pumpkins grow about a hundred times faster than a typical pumpkin. They can gain an average of 20-40 pounds in a single day, and as much as 60 pounds a day under the right conditions.

For engineer David Hu, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who studies how the shells of plants and animals get their shape and size, these fruits are a biological puzzle. Small pumpkins are roughly spherical. But giant pumpkins tend to be irregular, lopsided, and as much as twice as long as they are tall.

"They look like ugly green peppers," said Hu, commenting on the shape, not the color, which remains orange.

explore why giant pumpkins change shape, Hu built a computer model. A giant pumpkin is made of billions upon billions of cells, each pulled and pushed by forces under the weight of its neighbors. To simulate these forces, Hu represented clumps of these cells as points connected by springs.

The simulation suggested that the shape of the pumpkin is not due only to gravity pushing down, but to how the internal forces affect the growth of the pumpkin. The sides of the pumpkin seem to feel the most force which, Hu believes, causes cells in these areas to divide faster and the pumpkin to grow outwards.

However, other scientists cautioned that this model is limited. Because giant pumpkins are difficult to grow and work with, Hu smashed ordinary-sized store-bought pumpkins to test their strength and fed the data into the model. But the strength of these small pumpkins might be different than that of giant pumpkins. The model also lacks pre-stresses, forces caused not due to the weight of the pumpkin, but to anatomical features built into its structure that might resist gravity.

Prize-Winning Giant Pumpkin Grower: Steadiness Is the Key

Still, the general conclusion that some cells might be dividing faster than others is "not unexpected" said biomedical engineer Larry Taber, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

"The location of the greatest stresses (near the bottom) is expected, as that part must support more weight than regions nearer the top (like pressure increasing with depth under water)," Taber said.

Hu offered a lesson for any would-be mega-pumpkin growers.

"There cannot be any sudden changes in weight," Hu said. "The pumpkin has to have time to redistribute the weight as it grows."

That's a lesson that Don Young, a prize-winning giant pumpkin grower in Iowa, has learned through years of experimentation. He knows that rain and other factors in the environment can play a huge role in shaping how fast the pumpkin grows -- and that steadiness is the key.

To prepare his pumpkins for a coming storm, which could cause them to swell and burst, he gradually increases how much he waters them, slowly ramping up their growth rate.

"It's like competing in a NASCAR race," said Young. "There's a fine line between running the pumpkins so hard that they blow up and getting them to the finish line in one piece."

During the giant pumpkin growing season, which starts around April and lasts as long as 160 days, or until the last frost, Young also collects soil and pumpkin samples every week and sends them off to a lab for analysis. He wants to know which nutrients the pumpkin uses during different parts of the season.

Young and other growers, who spend as much as 40 hours a week caring for their pumpkins, are also starting to use symbiotic fungus to enrich the uptake of nutrients from the soil.

"We're experimenting a lot with trial and error," said Young. "Sometimes we move forwards, sometimes we move backwards."

The race is on to grow a pumpkin that weighs more than a ton.

"The future is thicker, longer, and heavier," said Young. "We'll see a pumpkin weighing more than 2,000 pounds in the next couple of years."

No one can predict just how big the world's biggest pie-fillers can get. Some growers think that the pumpkin's size is limited by its genetics and others, by the number of days in the growing season.

One thing is clear: to get these gigantic gourds to judging booths across the country, everyone's going to need a bigger truck.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Great Pumpkin: Secret to Growing Giant Gourds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new world record was set this month for the heaviest pumpkin ever grown. Taking first place at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Minnesota -- and beating last year's record by 85 pounds -- this Sasquatch of squashes weighed in at just over 1,810 pounds.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.informeddemocracy.com/pumpkin/growing.html

# data[].attributes.body
http://garden.org/learn/articles/view/290/

# data[].attributes.body
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/growing-giant-pumpkins/story?id=12005986

# data[].attributes.headline
if the pumpkin seed is healthy than the the pumpkin will grow bigger

# data[].attributes.subject
if the pumpkin seed is healthy than the the pumpkin will grow bigger

# data[].attributes.body
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/growing-giant-pumpkins/story?id=12005986

# data[].attributes.headline
The reason why the pumpkin got so big was because Pumpkins do best in soil that is slightly acid or nearly neutral. If you live in a part of the country where there is still danger of frost in late April or early May, start pumpkin seeds indoors about two weeks before planting. Sow one seed for every four-inch peat pot filled with grow mix.

# data[].attributes.subject
The reason why the pumpkin got so big was because Pumpkins do best in soil that is slightly acid or nearly neutral. If you live in a part of the country where there is still danger of frost in late April or early May, start pumpkin seeds indoors about two weeks before planting. Sow one seed for every four-inch peat pot filled with grow mix.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
See all the wonderful things Emmalee Stevenson has made

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how to plant, grow, and harvest pumpkin plants with this growing guide from The Old Farmer's Almanac.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pumpkins are a popular squash-and for good reason! This fall, choose from our selection of popular pumpkin recipes, including pumpkin pancakes, curry, pie, muffins, bread, mousse, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin spice and more.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.reference.com/home-garden/life-cycle-oak-tree-56a2c8bd562fea3f

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Acorns are a large type of seed and the result of a fertilized ovum in an oak tree. Each female flower contains six ovules with eggs, but only one ovule or ovum is fertilized at one time. The time of year that acorns drop from oak trees depends on the species. Some oak trees drop acorns in the fall, while others drop acorns during the early part of the year.

After dropping to the ground, acorns are carried away from the parent tree by weather, water and animals such as squirrels. Over time, the acorn becomes covered with plant debris and soil, creating an ideal environment for growth.

Oak trees grow slowly and live for up to 400 years, according to GardenGuides.com. An oak tree is mature when it begins producing acorns at around 20 years of age. There are over 80 species of oak trees in North America, some of which grow to over 100 feet in height.
Learn more about Trees & Bushes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Acorns are a large type of seed and the result of a fertilized ovum in an oak tree. Each female flower contains six ovules with eggs, but only one ovule or ovum is fertilized at one time. The time of year that acorns drop from oak trees depends on the species.

# data[].attributes.body
http://garden.org/learn/articles/view/290/

# data[].attributes.headline
This website tells you how the seed affects  the pumpkin

# data[].attributes.subject
This website tells you how the seed affects  the pumpkin

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.burpee.com/gardenadvicecenter/vegetables/pumpkins/how-to-grow-huge-pumpkins/article10276.html

# data[].attributes.body
Here's a link to a website that lays out some good ideas for growing pumpkins.
http://garden.org/learn/articles/view/290/
And here's another one!
http://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/how-to-grow-a-giant-pumpkin/

# data[].attributes.headline
I found a couple images that you should see. 

# data[].attributes.subject
I found a couple images that you should see. 

# data[].attributes.body
google.com/pumkintexture

# data[].attributes.headline
I used google and searched, " farmer's secrets to big pumpkins".

# data[].attributes.subject
I used google and searched, " farmer's secrets to big pumpkins".

# data[].attributes.body
I used another one, but most of my information was from here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Every fall, thousands of backyard gardeners haul an enormous harvest to county and state fairs around the country. Forklifts and small cranes are required to lift the largest pumpkins onto the scales. Blue ribbon winners weigh as much as a compact car.

The bar gets higher almost every year-the 1,000-pound mark was first breached around the turn of the millennium; the current world-record pumpkin weighed in at 2,323.7 pounds, grown by a German gardener in 2014.

World champion growers have turned what was once an innocuous 4-H hobby into a professional pursuit , with big cash prizes instead of just blue ribbons, the of world champion specimens fetching upwards of $1,000 . But that shouldn't deter you from seeing how big of a pumpkin you can grow just for the fun of it, not to mention the bragging rights you'll accrue.

If you want a giant pumpkin next fall, don't wait until spring to get ready, you have to start preparing the ground now. It's a race to provide the longest possible growing season and funnel as much nutrients and water as possible into a single pumpkin, all while making sure there are no mishaps with pests, disease, or errant kids, pets, or livestock trampling the plant.

Find a Plus-Size Pumpkin Seed

The first step in growing giant pumpkins is to obtain the right seed. One-thousand-plus pound pumpkins generally result from high-pedigree hybrid seeds , which circulate among the most serious growers and cost from $10 to $100 or more per seed. But virtually all giant pumpkins are descended from a variety called Dill's Atlantic Giant , which is widely available from seed companies and sells for typical seed prices. Three hundred- to 500-pound specimens are routinely grown with this variety, but you still have to work at it-growing a giant pumpkin requires in-depth horticultural knowledge, a daily dose of TLC for the plant, and, well, a lot of luck.

Prepare Your Soil

1. In the fall, till up a 10-foot diameter bed in a sunny, well-drained spot with rich garden soil. Eight or more hours of sun is a must, and if the area is protected from wind by shrubbery or structures, that's even better.

2. Spread 6 inches of composted cow manure over the bed and till it in. This will be the base of fertility for the giant pumpkin next year.

3. Sculpt the bed into a low broad mound, like a pitcher's mound, and cover it for the winter with a straw mulch or a .

4. In late winter/early spring, start the pumpkin seeds in peat pots about a month before the average date of last frost in your area.

Plant Your Seeds

1. Once your most vigorous seedling has several leaves, transplant it into the bed that was prepared in the fall. (If you have the space, you can plant more than one seedling if you prepared more than one mound; each seedling should be at least 10 feet apart.)

2. Cover the seedling with a to protect it from late frosts and to warm up the ground, which encourages the pumpkin plant to start growing. This is essentially a mini-greenhouse, but it doesn't have to be fancy-four stakes with clear 6-mil plastic sheeting stapled over top is sufficient. The cold frame should cover at least a 4-foot diameter area around the young plant.

3. Check soil moisture daily. The ground needs to be evenly moist-but not soggy-at all times. Wetting the leaves encourages fungal problems, so always water at ground level (a drip system is ideal for this).

4. Fertilize with light doses of nutrients weekly. In the first third of the growing season, concentrate on high nitrogen sources, such as fish emulsion; in the middle third, increase the phosphorus content with products high in bone meal; in the third phase, use products high in potassium, such as greensand. Provide trace minerals with kelp meal throughout the season. For an in-depth discussion of fertilizing techniques for giant pumpkins (including the use of conventional fertilizers-those listed above are organic) .

5. Maintain a weed-free zone around the pumpkin plant throughout the growing season.

6. Monitor for pests and disease on a daily basis and apply insecticides and fungicides as soon as they appear.

Coax a Giant

1. If the growing area is exposed to wind, install a low fence around the pumpkin plant to prevent leaf damage and desiccation. You need the leaves to remain large and supple to provide maximum photosynthetic energy.

2. Pick off all flower buds until the pumpkin vine is about 10 feet long. This allows the plants to grow more and larger leaves, which will then support rapid growth of a single pumpkin.

3. After the vine's 10 feet long, allow several flowers to develop into pumpkins, but remove all but the largest fruit after several weeks of growth.

4. Spread a bed of sand under the chosen pumpkin to keep it out of contact with the moist earth below. This is essential for preventing rot.

5. Gently adjust the chosen pumpkin so the stem is at a perpendicular orientation to the vine. The stems usually start out with an acute angle to the vine, but they are prone to breaking in this arrangement once they become brittle later in the season.

6. Erect a canopy of shade cloth over the chosen pumpkin. In full sun, the skin of the fruit hardens earlier, restricting its ultimate size.

7. Remove the rootlets that form along the vine for several feet on either side of the pumpkin as it develops. The vine needs to lift freely from the ground as the pumpkin grows, which is prevented by the small roots that form naturally on all pumpkin plants.

8. Spread a couple inches of soil over roots that form along other parts of the vines to encourage a larger root system. Water and fertilize the soil under all the vines, not just the main root system, to encourage maximum uptake.

9. Prune the lateral vines that develop off the main vine once they reach about 8 feet in length. Though, in general, you want as many leaves as possible to feed energy to the growing pumpkin, the plant begins to divert more energy to vine growth (rather than fruit growth) if the vines are allowed to grow to an excessive length. Many pumpkin growers recommend training the vines into a Christmas tree format , where the longest lateral vines are closest to the planting location, becoming shorter as they move toward the growing tip.

If you can keep up the TLC regime until the first frost of fall (when the leaves will turn brown and die), you should end up with a massive pumpkin. At this point, clip the pumpkin from its stem and find a few friends to help you roll it onto a scale. Most importantly, don't let all that food go to waste-the giant varieties are suitable for soups, pies, muffins, and any other recipe calling for pumpkin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Grow a (Record-Setting?) Giant Pumpkin - Modern Farmer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Every fall, thousands of backyard gardeners haul an enormous harvest to county and state fairs around the country. Forklifts and small cranes are required to lift the largest pumpkins onto the scales. Blue ribbon winners weigh as much as a compact car.