Quite possibly one of the most important and difficult decisions you'll make in your endeavor to grow a true giant.  One absolute, if you want to put the odds in your favor of growing the largest fruit possible, DO NOT buy Atlantic Giant Seeds from a Garden Center.  There really is that big of a difference.  Dedicated and obsessed Growers have been refining the genetic potential and integrity of these for many years, and have developed more superior strains than are available on the commercial market.  This truly is the "secret" to growing huge pumpkins.  They are readily available to anyone who would like to have them, usually for free.  I've included a few places to find them in the Resources section.

* Believe it or not, the genetic lineage of most Atlantic Giant seeds can be tracked back at least 8 generations, and some to their inception when invented by Howard Dill in the 1980's! There are entire web sites dedicated to cataloging and tracking each seed.  A mind blowing number of attributes are collected, including all of the progeny they have sired.  If only race horses were tracked this thoroughly!

* Seeds are named from the weight of the pumpkin they were grown from, and the last name of the grower.  For example, my name is Thad Starr and I grew a 1325# pumpkin.  It will forever be known as the "1325 Starr".  Attributes will be available on that fruit, and many growers will choose their seed selection based upon that information.  Then, attributes will be available from the fruit produced from the 1325 Starr, further guiding growers on it's potential.

* For your first attempt, I will warn you not to become too obsessed with seed selection.  Locate a superior seed from a grower and plant it.  You will have enough to learn and master just getting the fruit to the scale at the end of the season.

*Some genetic lines do have a higher likelihood of producing certain traits in progeny, for example; orange, heavy to chart, tendencies to go over 1000#'s, etc..  Weigh-offs aren't beauty contests, the heaviest fruit wins.  You need to figure out your expectations before you grow; do you want the biggest fruit possible, or a pretty (gigantic) carver?  Deciding these questions will help guide you in your seed selection.

* I look at seed selection like a Chevy vs. Ford argument; both are fine choices, it really comes down to a matter of personal choice.  There are literally thousands of crosses (seeds) available that have the potential of growing the next World Record or the most beautiful, orange pumpkin ever.  Your odds are better if you stick with the popular choices, but don't be afraid to try an "unproven" seed.  There are many gems out there waiting to be discovered.

* I strongly advise you join a local club and become friends with the growers. They will guide you through this and the many more decisions you will have to make throughout the season.

* Your patch should be in an area that receives full sun if possible.

* For each plant you intend to grow, you will need a minimum of 400 square feet of area, with the ideal size being 600 -700
square feet.

* Soil condition is perhaps the most important ingredient in growing a giant pumpkin.

* Of course, a pumpkin can be grown in any available area, a small flowerbed or garden. For these beasts to grow truly large, size matters.

* The fall is the best time to add amendments to your soil. General practice is to add soil amendments such as manure, compost , leaves, lime or sulfur and any fertilizers that don’t leach out quickly in the fall.

* When starting a new patch in which to grow giant pumpkins, haul in and spread at least a couple loads of manure, preferably aged or composted. Aged compost is an excellent amendment that can be added in the fall or spring. Amendments to adjust your soil PH toward an optimum reading of 7.0 should be added in the fall. Add lime if your soil test shows your PH to be low. Agricultural sulfur can be added if your PH is high.

* Early Spring, as soon as your soil is dry enough to work, and your amendments have been added, till your soil. Never try to work your soil when it is too wet, as you will do more harm than good.

* After your patch is tilled, erect a small hoop house or cold frame over the area where your seedling will be planted. The purpose of this mini-greenhouse is two-fold. Your plant needs the ground to be warm before planting and your plant will need to be protected from cold weather on those early spring nights. The enclosure should be large enough for the plant to grow inside for up to 3 weeks so a 3’ x 3’ area should be the minimum area it covers. Remember if you keep the top of the enclosure fairly low to the ground, you will retain more of the days heat after dark.

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* Seeds should be started inside on or about the last week of April, depending on the weather. Use a 4" pot or larger, filled about ¾ full of potting soil, to start your seed. Atlantic Giants can fill a 4" peat pot with roots in 7 days.

* There are several methods to start your seed. If you want to improve the speed and reliability of germination, especially if you are fortunate enough to have obtained a ‘hot’ seed, there are a couple things you can do prior to placing the seed in the pot that will do much toward increasing your odds that it will germinate.

* First, very lightly file the edges of your seed with a nail file or fine sandpaper so that a very small amount of the seed coat edge is sanded away. Stay away from the pointed end. You should just start to see a color difference along the edge if done correctly. This will aid moisture in penetrating the seed coat.
Next, soak your seed for up to 8 hours in warm water before planting. This will give your seed a jumpstart in getting moisture into the seed. After soaking the seed, wet a paper towel and squeeze most but not all of the water out. Carefully wrap the seed in several folds of the paper towel and place it in a zip-lock bag, leaving just a bit of air inside. The seed then needs to be kept between 85 and 90 degrees for optimum conditions.

* The warmer you keep your planted seed, the faster and healthier your seed will sprout. The easiest way is to simply place the zip-lock bag on a warm surface such as the top of a refrigerator or a computer monitor. In 3-5 days your seed should begin to sprout with a small taproot protruding from the pointed end. At this time you should have your pot and growing medium ready to receive the newly sprouted seed. Poke a hole in the growing medium and carefully place the seed in the hole, insuring that the root is not pressed into the medium and that the top of the seed is about ½" below the surface. Gently pack the medium around the seed with a fork until the hole is filled in to the surface of the medium. Now place the pot in either a warm sunny spot or back in your germination box until the seedling breaks ground.

* Try to maintain the 85 degree temperature day and night.

* After your seedling breaks ground, if you’re using a germination box, remove the pot and place in a sunny window. A fluorescent light placed a few inches above the pot will help your seedling ‘green-up’ faster and prevent the stem from getting ‘leggy’. Short and stumpy is better than tall and lanky. Continue to keep the soil moist, but not wet. Once your plant is about 5 days old you should notice the first true leaf forming between the seed leaves. When this leaf grows to about 2" across it and the weather is cooperating, you’re ready to set your seedling in the ground inside the cold frame you erected earlier. Place the seedling in the ground up to the bottoms of the seed leaves, insuring that the first true leaf, the one in the middle, is facing opposite the way you want your main vine to run.

Click Here For Tutorial		Click Here For Tutorial

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* Once your seedling is in the ground, it is very vulnerable to the elements, even inside your cold frame. Pumpkin plants do not like extreme heat and will not tolerate the cold. At night in May, place a bucket or a box over your plant and cover with a blanket to retain as much of the day’s warmth as possible. Uncover in the morning when the temperature is above 40 outside or 50 inside the cold frame.

* Water your seedling as needed to keep the soil moist but not wet.

* Your plant is susceptible to disease through its life span. One of the most common is known as Powdery Mildew, identified by the presence of white powdery looking spots on the top and bottom of leaves. Spraying your plant once a week with a fungicide such as Daconil will go far in keeping disease at bay. Insects are also a problem such as slugs, cucumber bugs and white flies. A pesticide such as Ortho Max applied once a week opposite of the fungicide application should keep the bugs down. Begin pesticide and fungicide treatments after pollination, or earlier if a infestation occurs.

* Your plant should start to vine in about 2-3 weeks, depending on the temperature and soil moisture. If your plant decides it wants to vine in the wrong direction, you can turn it in the right direction over the course of a couple weeks using a few stakes and moving the vine a little bit each day during the heat of the day, starting when the vine is about 12” to 18” long. At around 5 weeks old, your plant vine will grow up to 1 foot a day so be prepared to stay on top of it from this point on.

* As your vine grows, it will sprout what are known as secondary vines off of the main vine. These secondaries are where the plant gets much of its energy and should be nurtured as the main vine is. However, off these secondaries will grow more vines known as tertiary vines or sucker vines. These vines rob the plant of valuable nutrients and should be pinched off when they appear.

* Establishing a growing pattern for your plant is first. There are several growing patterns that growers use but the most widely used pattern is the ‘Christmas Tree’. Think of your plant as a Christmas tree, where the main vine is the trunk and the secondaries are branches. Train your vines so that the main vine runs generally straight out from the stump and the secondaries grow perpendicular
to the main as shown below:

* If you do not have enough room to grow your plant in the pattern above, you can cut off all the secondaries from one side, allowing the main and remaining secondaries to be a bit longer. This is known as the flag pattern. Your secondaries should be allowed to grow to a minimum length of 10 feet using the Christmas tree pattern and 14 feet using the flag pattern. Whatever pattern you decide on, your chances of growing a big pumpkin will be much better if you strive for a plant that covers 400 square feet or more of area. Pruning is a vital part of the overall health of the plant. It not only keeps the vines contained within the space you have to grow in, but it improves air circulation for drying the plant surface to prevent conditions favorable to disease. When the vines reach the perimeter of the patch, simply pinch off the very end of new growth on the vine and bury the end, keeping in mind the optimum lengths listed above.  

I use a variation of the Christmas Tree Pattern.  I just assumed that to train the vines in the shape of a Christmas tree, I would curve the secondaries towards the back of the patch.  After I had the first few sides vines trained backwards, I noticed that I would still have a lot of the patch, dirt that I payed a lot of money to amend and improve, sitting idle not growing anything.  So I curved them more aggressively backwards until I could fill as much of the patch as possible. What happened was I was able to pack an incredible amount of plant into a very small area.

I discovered using this unique training pattern that the stump of the plant had to be placed further into the patch to allow roots and vines to grow behind it.  Also, the further away from the stump, or the closer to the fruit, the longer the vines were allowed to grow.  The secondaries near the fruit are upwards of 30 feet long.  Many people have said that after they set a pumpkin, the vine growth stops, but I have never experienced that.  The growth will stall for a week or two, but it will pick back up.  Maybe not at the speed that it was before pollination, but back to the point you will have to manage them.

Some other notable differences in the way I train my vines: The vines are only about 12" apart. This means that you need to be very diligent in terminating any and all tertiary growth as it will be very difficult to get into the plant later to clean it out.  Collecting male flowers for later pollination is harder.  I use an extension pole with a clipper that has a clamp to retrieve the flowers.  You will lose some air flow in the plant, increasing susceptibility to disease, so adjust your spray schedule accordingly.

*Please note that most of the details on the drawing are for illustration only.  The dimensions of the patch are correct, and that about it!  The number of side vines shown and the number kept on each plant vary are determined by how the plant grows.  I keep all side vines possible, terminating them only if the future of the fruit is in jeopardy.  Each vine is curved back and within 12" of the next vine, but the exact position and distance is also determined by how the plant grows.  Look at this as a "game plan" and allow yourself the flexibility to adjust and compensate as you plant needs.

* Giant pumpkin plants have the ability to grow 2 taproots where every leaf stock meets the vine. These tap roots can supply a larger volume of nutrients to your plant and roots than just the main root system alone. Bury them just below the surface, trenching ahead of the plant as it grows. This provides the tap roots an easier growing medium is generally accepted to be a much more productive method.

* Be very careful not to disturb the soil near the plant, you will destroy feeder roots.

* Pumpkins require huge amounts of water, 500 gals a week or more if your plant takes up 1000 square feet. Remember to water at a constant rate and compensate for rain so the soil stays moist but not wet.

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* Around the last week of June, your plant’s main vine should be 8’ to 10’ long and growing fast. Pumpkins produce both male and female flowers, males having longer stems and females having a shorter stem with a bulb or baby pumpkin under the blossom. The males will be the first to show and will be followed by the appearance of females a week or so after. Once the males start showing, they will come fast and furious for the next month or so. This is the signal that the time is near to pollinate. The ideal position to set a pumpkin is at least 10 feet from the stump along the main vine. When each female first appears, try to make a small outward curve in your vine 2 feet either side of the female so that the female or baby pumpkin is on the outside of this curve. This is to prevent stem stress later on as your fruit grows to huge sizes and can actually press on the vine and pop your fruit off, ruining your season. Make the curve slowly and carefully over the course of a few days so as to not snap the vine. When the female is ready to open, the blossom will be about 3 inches long and get an orange hue. The same goes for the male flowers. This means the flower will open the next morning. The prime time to set your fruit is between July 1 and July 10. This provides the right amount of time for your fruit to grow and be ready for Oct when most weigh-offs occur. If you only have one plant and are not concerned about preserving the lineage of your pumpkins genetic line for later seed distribution, you can let the bees do the work for you. However if you’re after a big one and want to do all you can to insure a good fruit set, it’s imperative to properly pollinate by hand.

* Observe the new pumpkins on the vine for 10 days after they have been pollinated. Note the shape, growth rate and skin texture as gauges for which one will be your main fruit. A good measure of growth rate is a 30" circumference at 10 days old. The skin of your fruit should be yellow, shiny and tender. One other aspect to take into account is stem length and position in relation to the vine. Your main
candidate should be a fruit that has a long stem and is oriented as close to perpendicular to the vine as you can get. If all your fruit are at an angle of less than 90 degrees to the vine, choose the one that is closest to perpendicular to the main vine. You will be able to move the fruit very slowly up to ½" a day toward 90 degrees. This will reduce stem stress when the fruit really starts packing on the
pounds. Use extreme caution when moving your pumpkin, it doesn't’t take a lot to crack or snap off the stem.

- By August 1, you should cull your fruit down to the one fruit on each plant that shows the most promise, taking into account the items listed above.

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* You will need to place something under your pumpkin for it to grow on that allows water to drain as well as prevent pests from tunneling into your fruit from below. Many people use a 3" or 4" bed of play sand while still others are now using belt material discarded by paper mills. As long as it allows drainage and prevents critters from destroying your fruit from below, you can use a number of different things. The most important characteristic of the material you use for a bed is that it allows the fruit to grow and expand, unrestricted and with minimal resistance. If a material such as styrofoam with holes in it is used, the chances of the friction between the fruit skin and the foam causing the fruit to grow concave on the bottom increases, and thereby increasing the risk of a bottom split.

* Another form of stress mentioned briefly above is stem stress. Your pumpkin will grow at astonishing rates from mid-July to mid-August in some cases gaining 20 to 40 lbs. a day. This rapid growth can put tension on the pumpkin stem as the fruit grows in height and its shoulders grow toward the vine. Cutting the tap roots under the 3 leaves in either direction of the fruit will allow the vine to move upward as the pumpkin grows. Supporting the vine as it curves upward toward the stem is also a common practice. Insure the vine does not rub against the fruit itself. You can train the vine by carefully pulling it away from the fruit shoulders with cushioned pieces of cloth. This method takes practice to learn and can run the risk of popping the fruit off the vine so use extreme caution when performing this method and only pull what the vine will allow every few days. Cut off any leaves that impede access to the fruit or may be rubbing against the skin of the pumpkin.

* Your pumpkin can gain such large amounts daily because the skin is very pliable early on. However cracks in both the skin and stem do occur. It’s natural for the stem to develop splits and heal over as it grows in size, however deep splits are an issue. If a split or crack in the skin of the pumpkin goes deep enough to enter the inner cavity of your fruit, your season is over, as the fruit will begin to rot very quickly. Many large pumpkins develop deep stem splits that do not go into the cavity, however if not cared for, they can continue to go deeper and ruin your season.

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* Hopefully you have grown an enormous pumpkin that will take all of your friends and neighbors to lift out of the garden! There are special lifting tarps made specifically for this, and are available at www.pandpseed.com. The pumpkin can now be proudly displayed as the neighborhoods largest jack-o-lantern, or entered into a weigh-off, to show off your efforts. Hopefully, you can bring home a ribbon, or even prize money.

* There are a few area weigh-offs hosted by the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers (PGVG). The first one is in Gervais, Or at Bauman's Farms October 3rd, where the top prize is rumored to be TEN THOUSAND dollars. There is another weigh-off in Seaside, Or in late October, with more normal prize money. Your fruit can even be entered in local fairs, but organizers are usually not equipped to handle a pumpkin in the hundreds of pounds.

* Check back here for a list of weigh-off sites and their pay outs throughout the year!

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* Probably the best resources are local clubs. They allow you to meet local growers, and learn how best to grow in your area.

* Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers, PGVG, is the local club for the Willamette Valley. Members receive one of the greatest annual seed distributions in the world. You will be given at least 25 seeds from pumpkins ranging from 300-1200 pounds, maybe bigger! You get 2 free entries into either/both PGVG weigh-offs, quarterly newsletters that are packed with great information, and free entry into the annual Patch Tour and Picnic, where you get to tour other growers patches, see their pumpkins, learn their secrets and meet the wonderful people that call themselves giant pumpkin growers.

* There are also many valuable resources available on the World Wide Web;

Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers club home page. Schedule of events, weigh offs and tons of general pumpkin info.

Big Pumpkins   is the undisputed champion for everything pumpkin on the internet.  This is THE place to learn, share and discover what it is to grow a giant.  There is no finer resource.

Extreme Pumpkin  Quality products to grow larger and healthier fruits and vegetables.  Say Hi to Tom if you work with these guys.  He's a fellow obsessed grower, and one heck of a nice guy

Seed Outlet .   Source for quality seeds and growing supplies.

P & P Seed Co. World record giant seed selections include pumpkin, squash, gourd, cantaloupe, watermelon, sunflower, corn, cabbage, radish and more. Garden seed favorites, Halloween giants and special selection Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds can all be found here. .
Growing supplies.

Maine Pumpkin Growers Organization  A comprehensive Atlantic Giant Pumpkin growing club. The source for most of the material contained in this brief tutorial.