1,730 pounds! Pumpkins at Andy T's weigh-off are BIG
This year's winning pumpkin weighed in at 1,730 pounds
ST. JOHNS - Clad in an orange shirt and an orange cap, Rick Drabek patiently waited for his pumpkin to be weighed during the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-off at Andy T's Farm.
The process involved a freight scale and a tractor equipped with a forklift.
Drabek was hoping his pumpkin would top 600 pounds. His personal best so far: 547 pounds.
So he was all smiles when the news came from the official weight-takers: The lopsided whopper that looked a little like a beanbag chair weighed in at a hefty 778 pounds.
Growing a mammoth pumpkin is no simple task: Drabek said he and other growers choose seeds carefully, cultivate only one or two pumpkins per plant, and cover leaf nodes to encourage vines to have more roots to nourish the giant pumpkins. They swap tips about keeping wildlife away and keeping the huge fruit healthy until it's weigh-in time. Since his 778-pounder had a basin shape, that means bailing water from and drying the depression after every rain.
"Everybody has a story," he said of the growers watching the weigh-off.
Andy Todosciuk, owner of Andy T's, said this year's contest had a record number of contestants. He was hoping for a record pumpkin, too, but last year's record of 1,921 pounds stands. Ken Sweet of Washington Township took home top honors for 2016 with a 1,730-pound pumpkin.
For Ed Moody of Frankfort, the giant pumpkins are a canvas. He hand-carves fanciful faces into them, mostly for charity clients from Grand Rapids to Hawaii.
Adam Zeedyk of Hicksville, Ohio, had come to buy. He found a 700-pound pumpkin in Indiana last year and paid $200 for it, then had a relative with artistic skills paint Brutus Buckeye, the Ohio State University football mascot, on it.
"It looked really neat," he said. He's hoping to buy a 1,000-pound pumpkin this year, but that takes some searching and negotiating. Some growers don't want to sell their pumpkins; others already have buyers lined up.
Contact Kathleen Lavey at 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenlavey.