GREENFORD, Ohio - The Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers will hold their giant pumpkin growing seminar Feb. 26 from 6:30-9 p.m.
The school will take place at the Green Township Community Building in Greenford, Ohio.
To register, call Parks Garden Center at 330-533-7278. There is no charge to attend.
Giant pumpkin seeds will be available.
Tim Parks will cover seed selection, soils, fertility, pests, pollination, pruning and irrigation.
Anyone can grow ’em. Several first-year growers have produced giant pumpkins weighing 400-700 pounds.
Fred Calai of Canfield, Ohio, attended the first seminar in 1995 and grew a 400-pounder that year. Last year, Calai became the first person to exhibit three 1,000-pounders at the same weigh-off.
Premiere club. The Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers is considered one of the world’s premier giant pumpkin clubs with 300 members in North America.
Group members enjoy seminars, a summer patch tour and picnic and newsletters. The growing season culminates with the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-off Oct. 4 at Parks Garden Center with $5,600 in prize money.
The weigh-off also has divisions for heaviest tomato, watermelon, muskmelon, hard stem pumpkin and squash.
Records. Jack and Neil Lanterman of Salem, Ohio, grew the Ohio state record watermelon last year. It tipped the scales at 201 1/2 pounds.
Ohio grown seeds have produced 8 of the 21 largest pumpkins ever grown, all over 1,100 pounds.
A New Hampshire grower currently holds the world record at 1,337 pounds.
