Lone Pumpkin on the
Vine
Farmers with Central Wisconsin ties grow giant pumpkins
By Neal Hogden Fall is in the air and with it comes everything pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin patches, jack-o-lanterns and an endless amount of baking applications when using pumpkin.
One thing people might overlook when talking about pumpkins is the competition behind growing giant pumpkins. Giant pumpkins can grow upwards of 2,000 pounds and take a lot of planning and resources to grow.
Two area natives have taken up the family hobby of growing large pumpkins in an effort to get the fruit to be the biggest it can be. Stratford class of 2014 alum Phillip Sersch, along with his wife, Amanda, and daughter, Elise, have been growing giant pumpkins for five years. Phillip said he took up the hobby when he married his wife and moved to Black Creek. Amanda’s grandma had some old giant pumpkin seeds and Phillip decided to work up a piece of land for a trial year of growing the pumpkins. However, this is not as simple as planting the seeds and watering the patch of land.
“I worked some area up and threw them in and it worked as kind of a trial year and I really didn’t get anywhere,” Sersch said. “Then I started doing some research and got some store brand Atlantic Giant seeds. The next year I got a 200-pound pumpkin out of that one.”
The pumpkins are grown in a space that spans 1,500-2,000 square feet per plant. Even though that space might be sufficient enough to grow hundreds of field pumpkins, each giant pumpkin needs a good amount of space to gather nutrients from the surrounding vines and ground.
“The bigger area of the plant, the more nutrients it can pull from and send to that lone pumpkin,” Sersch said. “You don’t want to grow multiple pumpkins on the same plant because you want to send all the nutrients to the same pumpkin.”
Sersch said growing the pumpkins takes lots of resources, patience and science.
“There’s a lot of science behind it. Between soil to pH to the nutrients in the soil to weather, dealing with mother nature is tough,” he said. “It’s been a fairly dry summer, I’d say. You definitely rely on a lot of irrigation on your own end to grow the pumpkin.”
Astheplantgrows,Serschoccasionally measures and estimates the weight of the fruit but the plant is traditionally left alone to grow until about September when he takes it to a weighing site to be measured against other growers.
The hobby provides some quality family time spent outdoors while caring for the plants.
Likewise, Michael Paul of rural Edgar has been growing giant pumpkins as a part of a family hobby that has been handed down over the years. When Paul isn’t working on his uncle’s farm, he’s playing with his dogs or tending to his pumpkin plants. His current plant is an estimated 1,600 pounds and has been growing since early March and is finally reaching the peak of its weight.
He said he got his start in growing pumpkinsbecausehisuncleusedtogrow pumpkins that reached the 200-300-pound mark in the mid 1990s. He said in 2011, he went to Nekoosa for the weigh-off and that’s what got him motivated to begin growing his own pumpkins.
See GIANT PUMPKINS/ Page 3
FUN AT THE PUMPKIN PATCH - Phillip Sersch, formerly of Stratford, takes a picture with one of his giant pumpkins and his daughter, Elise. Sersch’s pumpkin growing hobby stems from his ag background and wife’s family.
Continued from page 2
He bought seeds online and has been growing ever since. His 2023 pumpkin was a hand-pollinated pumpkin in which he took the pollen from a male plant and pollinated it into the flower of a female plant and then closed off the flower so it would be a controlled pollination.
On top of a scientific approach to growing, Paul said there is also a genetic aspect that helps the pumpkins reach giant statuses. He said the seed he planted for his 2023 pumpkin was named the 2424-Caspers because it was a seed from Pete Caspers’ 2,424 Iowa state record pumpkin in 2022.
Paul said the hobby takes a lot of time when trying to perfect the science of it.
“This is every day. Twice a day, three times a day, you’re walking out here and checking on the plant,” Paul said. “Right now, we use like between 300-400 gallons of water for this one plant.”
On top of the shear amount of water that the plant uses, the nutrients the plant needs to grow are plenty.
“Lots of nutrients, lots of fertilizer, I use a lot of manure before I plow,” Paul said. “During season, I use a whole bunch of fertilizers. I’ve got Humic Acid, seaweed, 20-20 Foliar, micro-nutrients, a whole bunch of different things.”
Paul said growing the plants can be a challenge from year to year. He said early in the 2023 season, his other two prospective plants developed a disease so he had to pull them before the disease spread to the third plant. He said he’s had pumpkins start to rot from the inside out if the shell of the pumpkin gets any sort of hole or crack in it.
Paul said he donates seeds from his giant pumpkins to clubs like the Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Grower’s Association to help other people get involved in the hobby. He said he also grows giant marrow squash, giant tomatoes and other plants for competition. Currently, Paul said he owns the state record for the largest field pumpkin at 177 pounds, giant marrow at 124.5 pounds and butternut squash at 82 pounds.
Paul said he takes his pumpkins all over the state for the weigh-offs and getting them there is a process. A harness is fitted around the pumpkin and the fruit is lifted onto a pallet which then can be picked up by a fork lift and placed into the bed of a truck or in a trailer.
Both men are a part of the Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Grower’s Association, who not only hosts the weigh-offs but also helps growers get started. Sersch said he got his first real giant pumpkins by paying the membership fees and using seeds provided by the association. The association also has a “how-to” guide which shows the proper way to care for the plant during its growing period and the challenges that can face the pumpkins.
This year, both Paul and Sersch plan to take their pumpkins to Nekoosa on Oct. 7 for the annual weigh-off. For more information on how to get involved with the Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Grower’s Association, head to wisconsingiantpumpkingrowers.com.
Despite the fact that Paul’s pumpkin won’t get to its parent pumpkin’s 2,424-pound mark, he said, “There’s always next year.”
LARGE AND IN CHARGE - MIchael Paul of rural Edgar poses with an estimated 1,600-pound pumpkin. Around him is the plant that spans over 1,600 square feet and helps give the giant pumpkin a plethora of nutrients.
