Oh, great (big) pumpkin!

The top 10 entries weighed an average of 1,171.5 pounds.
By KATIE LIBECCO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANFIELD -- Orange hats and shirts dotted the crowd of more than 100 people that filled hay bale benches to see the 11th annual Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers' weigh-off at Parks Garden Center here.
Jerry Rose of Huntsburg won the pumpkin weigh-off and $2,000, with his 1,344.5 pound entry. This year, he competed with the third-largest pumpkin he has grown. In 2003, he won the weigh-off with a 1,370-pound pumpkin.
"It's all about the enjoyment. I enjoy seeing something grow 35 to 40 pounds a day. This keeps me at home," Rose said. "I love working out in the garden."
OVGPG's weigh-off Saturday consisted of 137 competitors -- 83 giant pumpkin entries, 20 watermelons, 15 long gourd entries, six cantaloupes, five squashes and eight tomatoes. Overall, $8,000 in prize money was awarded.
The average weight of the top 10 pumpkins was 1,171.5 pounds, said Nic Welty of Smithville, an OVGPG member.
"I knew it was going to be close, but I didn't realize how close it would be," Rose said, referring to second-place finisher Quinn Werner's 1,332-pound pumpkin. Werner is from Saegertown, Pa.
The weigh-off was part of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, which consists of 25 other weigh-offs that took place Saturday across the United States and Canada.
As the pumpkins were carried to the scales by a forklift, the crowd seemed to grow more excited, cheering as the weight was shown for each entry.
"Pumpkins are our life," said Linda Lanterman of Canfield.
"My husband has been growing pumpkins since before we met. It's been a lot of fun and always interesting."
Pumpkins vs. squashes
A Youngstown librarian with a husband on the OVGPG board of directors, Lanterman explained that the pumpkins being weighed were actually squashes.
"Pumpkins have a hard stem, and since these have soft stems they are technically squashes. A kind of rule of thumb is that if it's orange everyone calls it a pumpkin, and if it's green it's called a squash," Lanterman said.
"All of these are squash because of the stem."
Rose was eager to share pumpkin-growing secrets.
"A lot of time, a lot of manure, a lot of water -- especially in dry summer like we had -- and meticulous care," Rose said. "And a lot of it is luck. I had two or three others that were possibly bigger, but [they] split."
John Maness of Geneva, Ohio, knows what Rose means.
"You put a lot of time and a lot of money into this, but you're still at the mercy of Mother Nature," he said.
Maness competed last year, but his pumpkin split just recently.
Tim Parks, owner of Parks Garden Center and OVGPG board member, explained pumpkins often split because they grow so quickly.
"Pumpkins start growing about the first of May and bloom about the first of July. They start about the size of a golf ball," Parks said.
"From there, you don't know what's going to happen. Some grow up to 40 pounds every day; sometimes it just grows faster than it can handle."
This was the 11th year the OVGPG held the weigh-off at Parks Garden Center.
OVGPG consists of 300 members from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virgina.
"We have a great young group of growers who are well-connected, which is important to any group surviving," Parks said. "They are really doing well."
More information on OVGPG and pumpkin growing is available at www.ovgpg.com.