‘Close, but no cigar’

October 2, 2011 at 12:03a.m.

Hundreds attend annual Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh-off

CANFIELD

Even as he was being congratulated on his victory in a heavyweight title bout, Dave Stelts could barely mask his disappointment.

“Close, but no cigar,” Stelts said as he smiled into a small sea of cameras and video recorders. “We gave it a good try.”

Stelts, 51, of Edinburg, Pa., had been the favorite to win the 17th annual Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh-off at Parks Garden Center in Canfield Township. His monster-sized entry tipped the scales at 1,807.5 pounds, which blew away the competition. The closest entry was grown by pumpkin powerhouse Quinn Werner of Saegerstown, Pa., which weighed 1,587.5 pounds.

But Stelts, and many of the other 300-plus people who came out to either watch or participate in Saturday’s weigh-off, had high hopes of seeing the world’s first 2,000-pound pumpkin. Based on its overall size, and using a formula developed by giant pumpkin growers, the huge gourd’s weight was estimated at 1,827 pounds, and was clearly the heaviest of the 56 giant pumpkins in this year’s field.

But history has shown that some pumpkins weigh in at less than the estimated weight, while others weigh as much as 10 percent more. The actual, final weight isn’t really known until it’s placed on the scale with the numbers displayed on a large, overhead screen. If Stelts’ entry had been one that went overweight, he would have at least broken 1,900 pounds and been close to a ton.

“That’s what everybody came to see today,” he said before his entry hit the scales. “I hope we give them a good show.”

Some growers will put their entries on a scale before they enter them in a contest, so they already know the weight going in. Stelts, who has a scale available, said he opted against that.

“We’re all going to find out [the weight] together, he said as he watched other, lighter pumpkins being weighed before his. “It’s a good, solid entry, but the scale is the final judge.”

He nervously watched as the pumpkin was brought to the scale on a forklift, then placed on the scale with a heavy duty hydraulic hoist. When it became clear that the pumpkin wouldn’t reach 2,000, or even 1,900 pounds, Stelts and the crowd held its breath to see whether it would break the world record of 1,810.5 pounds, set last year in Wisconsin.

There was a long, loud, collective groan when he came up just short.

“Four more pounds and we would have had it,” Stelts said, posing with his wife, Carol, behind their winning entry. “I would have loved to bring the world record back to Ohio Valley.”

Christy Harp of Massillon, an OVGPG member, set the world record two years ago with a 1,725-pound pumpkin.

Even though he was disappointed that his boulder-sized pumpkin didn’t weigh in as heavily as was anticipated, Stelts still was thrilled to have set a personal best record for himself. His heaviest effort before Saturday’s showing was 1,662.5 pounds two years ago. He also surpassed last year’s local championship weight, which was 1,663 pounds and had been grown near Dayton. His entry this year was also the heaviest ever weighed in the local contest, and made Stelts a four-time site champion.

Alan Gibson, an OVGPG board member, said the key to a blue-ribbon pumpkin is as much in the thickness of the gourd as in the overall circumference. But because the pumpkins must be intact, growers can’t lop off the top like a jack-o-lantern to inspect the insides.

Gibson, of Salem, said when the OVGPG held its first weigh-off in 1995, the winner weighed 816 pounds. The following year, the 1,000-pound barrier was broken, and ever since then growers have been aiming for a one-ton pumpkin.

“It’s within grasp,” said Tim Parks, owner of the garden center that hosts the event, and also an OVGPG director. “People get closer to it every year and it won’t be long until someone hits it.”

And then?

“We start shooting for 2,500,” he said, laughing.