Welcome to the Indiana Pumpkin Growers

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Click here to book your room for the GPC convention (The Big Show) Green Bay, WI

Big Pumpkins link for all entries click here

State Fair pumpkin results click here

Hodge Family Farm-Alexandria pumpkin results click here

Fair Oaks Farms pumpkin results click here

Indiana Top-Ten pumpkins click here

Indiana State record for all vegetable classes: click here

“TOP TEN” overall page for each of the following categories:
Squash Long Gourd Watermelon Tomato Bushel Gourd Field Pumpkin Marrow

Fair Oaks Farms 2024 weigh-off pictures

State Fair 2024 pictures

Winner: Joshua Felts Greenfield, IN 1166#

Jim Beal 975#

Butch Ganstine 1010#

Steve Strickler 795# (Howard Dill award winner)

Butch Ganstine 694#

Steve Tanaka 370#

Jef Treece: 6.14 pound eggplant

Phil Groenewold has some great pictures of his plant, 5 lobe female flower and male flowers ready to pollinate the female.

Purdue: Common Purslane

Purdue: Cucumber beetles are out in full force!

Cucumber beetles article from Purdue

Purdue pumpkin disease identification.

Germination tips: click here

Pumpkin growing from seed to maturity: click here

End of the year “Pumpkin Drop” (Steve Strickler’s 2,054# state record)

New Indiana State Record: Steve Strickler, Bloomington, IN 2,054 weighed in Dublin, OH

New World Record!!! 2,749 pounds Travis Gienger from Anoka, MN

The pumpkin was weighed at the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, CA

Link to GPC powerpoint presentations at the 2023 International Growers Convention. Excellent study material!

Click here to watch the Paton brothers from England grow their pumpkins last year on their YouTube channel. 30 minutes. Great video!

Travis’s Pumpkins: Travis Gienger (Tiger King) 2,560# Soil Preparation

“Moby” Mike Schmidt (Moby Mike Pumpkins)

Chad New growing pumpkins

Josiah Brandt Growing Giants

Indiana Irrigation for watering your pumpkins (Mark)

B-Hyve irrigation controller products

PurKote polymer coated slow release potassium nitrate

Azos

Rootshield

Terra-clean (hydrogen peroxide) and Terra-grow

2023 Midwest Vegetable production guide – Purdue- Pumpkins page 124

PDF download from the Purdue Website

How to grow a giant pumpkin?? Get your soil tested, then start on our links page and work your way through the articles. Finally, attend one of our events and visit with other growers!

  1. Western Labs Atlantic Giant Pumpkins soil testing
  2. A&L Great Lakes Laboratories – Fort Wayne, IN soil testing

John Taberna Soil Scientist at Western Laboratories article

Cecil Weston: How I grew a 1,180 # pumpkin my first year (comprehensive and updated guide)

By Cecil Weston: How to use Bryan Langley’s soil amendment estimator

Download the Soil Amendment Estimator from the Team-Pumpkin website in Excel format .xls
“TOP TEN” overall page for each of the following categories:
Squash Long Gourd Watermelon Tomato Bushel Gourd Field Pumpkin Marrow Pumpkin

Click here to see the minimum weight to “break into” your states Top Ten!

Indiana State records for all vegetable classes: click here

Pollination of the Atlantic Giant Pumpkin by Wayne Hackney

Orginally published in the N.E.P.G.A. Newsletter – June, 1996

Groenewold pumpkin loading 2022

Purdue article: Late Season pest management in Pumpkins

Video on aphids: click here 5 minutes

Powdery mildew in pumpkins – Purdue article

First pests of the season: Purdue article – Early Cucumber Beetle management

Purdue Article:

2023 Midwest Vegetable production guide – Purdue- Pumpkins page 124

If you are looking for quality seeds for this year, 2022, please click on our Membership tab for instructions on how to join our group and receive seeds. Your membership helps support our club’s weigh-off activity in the fall and provides seeds for growers. If you just want seeds, join and we will send you seeds. There are no responsibilities and we will just keep your contact information in our group. We will have premium seeds available during our auction on www.bigpumpkins.com over the winter. Generally, they sell from $10-$100 per seed or packet of seeds. The best deals are early in the auction! This auction is a “donation” to support our club activities and allows you easy access to premium seeds from across the U.S. and the world.

Phil Groenewold from Dyer, IN 1st place 1,360 pounds

Loading his pumpkin, below:

Steve Strickler new Indiana State tomato record: 8.355 pounds

Squash vine borers (one of our biggest threats). Click here for Purdue article. Note: Sevin dust or spray will not kill squash vine borers. Spray insecticide under your leaves and on the vines for control.

Phil Groenewold (Dyer, IN) interviewed for article in Farm World Online: click here

Click here for a great presentation on Roundup (Glyphosate) by Dr. Stephen Myers from Purdue.

It starts at 1:15 into the two hour Zoom meeting. The whole two hours is interesting to pumpkin growers. 1:41 starts “How fungicides work”

If you spray dicamba or 2,4-D around your pumpkins (or anything), be careful of drift: click here.

Drift frequently ask questions: click here.

Midwest Vegetable Production Guide 2021 online: click here Purdue University

Updated 2021 Midwest Vegetable Production guide for Commercial Growers. Great info!

Click here for a list of the Top Ten pumpkins grown in Indiana

Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory: click here $11/sample

You can upload photos, mail samples or physically take samples to the lab for analysis.

They have a reserved pay parking for drop-off behind Lilly Hall

If you plants are dying from fungus or pests, this is a great service to figure it out for next year!

Mycorrhiza Primer from 2000, but still very relevant

Purdue Vegetable Crops Hotline link.

Glyphosate technical article from the Journal of Toxicology

Midwest Vegetable Production guide for Commercial Growers

Excerpt from above guide covering cucurbits.

How to build a tripod to lift your pumpkin: Steve Strickler, Bloomington, IN

Mark Clementz explains basic pumpkin positioning and how to not “crack your pumpkin off”

Roundup (glyphosate) tip: Always use soft water so you don’t have to add ammonium sulphate. If you are spraying a generic version, add one ounce of Alligare 90 or some other surfactant to 4 gallons of spray. If the Roundup label says 2 oz/gallon, add exactly that. Don’t mix it “hot”. Just be patient. Give it two weeks to work for great results and a full kill.

Common leaf problems guide with pictures by Matt DeBacco

One of the best guides you will find! From 2011. Click here.

Another guide from Matt DeBacco (Connecticut)

Click here for: What’s wrong with your pumpkin.

Midwest vegetable production guide for commercial growers 2021 link online.

Pumpkins start on page 120. Download the complete guide click here.

Mikkal Hodge, IPGA president, achieves 4,000 pound (three pumpkin total weight) GPC award

Fall is for soil testing. Here’s a quick PDF for guidance. Get your patch tested!!

Roasted pumpkin seeds recipe from SeriousEats.com

Steve Strickler from Bloomington, Indiana pumpkin carving 2019

Visit Phil Groenewold’s Atlantic Giant greenhouse near Dyer, IN

Click here for the PDF presentation by Bryan Reeb at our Spring Meeting covering Curcubit diseases and control. Great presentation and information for all growers.

Get your soil testing done! Google: AMS 401.04 7/8″ x 21″ to order a soil sampling probe $50

Take your sample to your local Co-op or fertilizer plant $15 for soil test with micro-nutrients. You don’t have to be a farmer with a large order, they are happy to help any gardener.

From our links page, more comprehensive testing: Western Labs or A&L Great Lakes labs – Fort Wayne, IN

Role of various elements in your soil: click here

Click here for a link to some seed germination tips, with pictures.

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Want to grow Atlantic Giant pumpkins this year?? We are here to help you.

Click on the Membership link above. Donate $20 to join and support the club.

Membership runs from January 1st until December 31st.

We will mail you plenty of great seeds to get started. April 15th is the date to start them germinating.

Just looking for seeds??? $20 per year to join our club.

We’ll send you great seeds to get you started.

(Example of seeds received with membership)

The trick is to keep the plant alive from April 15th through September 15th.

Generally that means keeping the bugs and fungus off the plant.

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Guide to growing from one of our friends from another state. Click below:
How I grew an 1,180 lb pumpkin my rookie year.

This is a 34 page guide. There are less detailed instructions, but this is comprehensive!