The Topsfield Fair is back this weekend, and the 11-day agricultural celebration kicks off with the marquee giant pumpkin weigh-off. This marks the 40th contest for the giant gourds at the fair, and the competition is fierce.
Steven Connolly, the head of the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Group, is a heavyweight in the giant pumpkin scene. He was the first New Englander to grow a pumpkin over 1,000 pounds back in 2000, and his gourds have only grown in heft.
Connolly talked with Darryl C. Murphy on WBUR’s Radio Boston about the giant pumpkin game.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Darryl C. Murphy: How did you get into growing giant pumpkins?
Steven Connolly: “Well, it was a chance encounter. I was up at the Topsfield Fair about 30 years ago and I saw one of the bright orange orbs sitting in the farmyard and I just had to do it. I saw that and it just appealed to me.”
You’re a retired engineer. How do you apply that to growing giant pumpkins?
“Engineers like to collect a lot of facts and summarize what they’ve done to achieve even better results than someone else may have done before.
“I saw and I absorbed all the knowledge I could from the current growers of the day — I still do it today — and put that type of work mentality together to grow giant pumpkins.”
What is the process of growing a giant pumpkin?
“So briefly, in some respects, it’s a year round hobby, but let’s talk about the growing portion of the year.
“You are very carefully selecting the proper seeds over the course of the winter months and looking for pumpkins that went over their estimated weight, or they had a thicker rind to them or things like that.
“Then, you choose that seed and that seed is going to go into the ground early, in April, up here in the northeast when there’s still possibly snow going. We’re starting our pumpkins indoors in mini greenhouses to extend our season. And we are then in for a six-month ride with several fruits, or we call them fruits, they’re pumpkins.
“And there are many things, there’s amending of soil, so we’re doing soil tests, we’re doing plant tests, to see where we are with nutrition values that are put into the soil before the pumpkins go outside.
“That’s just part of the game, just to get an early start. So, I’m six weeks ahead of anybody else that could start without having mini greenhouses, for example.”
Is it true that these pumpkins, at some point in the growing process, can grow as much as 50 pounds a day?
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Even more if you’ve got some of the world record guys. So I’m putting on 55 or so pounds per day. I like to say they’re like big hungry teenagers when they’re in that feeding mode and I can hear them saying ‘feed me.’
“Of course, I feed them. I grab that early window when they’re growing what we call a rapid growth phase. And so much happens during those early July months when they’re putting on the 350 pounds a week.
“With research, I know what to feed them at different portions of the year. I know when to give them nitrogen and I know when to give them calcium and potassium, phosphorus.”
I read you once said you “become one with the plant.” What have these giant pumpkins taught you over the years?
“That life isn’t perfect. You are doing very good if you’re succeeding with 50% of your efforts out there in the garden. And then if you could get a little cut above that because of the knowledge, then so be it; you’ve got better chances to get all those fruit to the fairs.
“So yes, I do have a symbiotic relationship. I become one with the plants. I know everything about every vine on that plant and I think about it at night and go out there the next day and make that portion of the plant healthier, or better or whatever it is. It’s kind of silly, but we do have a rather close relationship with the pumpkins for a few months.”
How does climate change impact your growing season and your ability to compete?
“We talk about it in our circles of growers that the heat is rising a little bit up here in the northeast and there are more hot, summery days that the giants don’t like. Even thinking in terms of 30-year jumps, we can sort of say that things are a little bit different than they used to be.
“So, we’re very much more aware of shading the pumpkins and putting up structures and putting little fans around them to keep them comfortable, so to speak, in their optimum conditions. And they are waiting for the cool nights to bring them back down to 70 degrees, and then they sit through these 100-degree days that we used to not have. So, we’re adapting.”
What’s next for you? Do you have any fairs coming up?
“Bigger and better is my game, and it looks like I’ve got two very large pumpkins sitting out in the patch. They’re both 2,200 pounds, about six feet long, six feet wide. And one of them is up to my chest. It’s pretty tall. I’m only 5’9 but it’s a tall pumpkin when you think about it.
“And as you can imagine, we can’t really travel that far from our home base. So, mine are going to probably end up at the Topsfield Fair and at Frerichs’ Farm in Warren, Rhode Island.”