It's never too early to start planning your patch of giant pumpkins

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hundred eight two three eight two five five. Good morning.
I am Ron Wilson, your personal yard boy. We're talking
yarding as the big events gonna happen here in about
two or three more well three more hours are supposed
to start the big snow storm. Yes, it'll blowing, it's snowing,

(00:21):
and who knows what's gonna happen, And it's cold, and
it's like, uh, well, I think right now it's about
six degrees seven degrees outside it's six degrees. And you know,
the interesting thing is after we get the snow today, tonight, tomorrow,
maybe even to Monday morning, the rest of the week
is in the teens. And on Friday it's like twelve,

(00:45):
they're calling for the high and then it starts coming
back out of it again. So it's gonna stick around
for a while, and I just you know again, hunker down,
be safe, be ready for it. You know, nothing you
can do about it, uh And then you know, once
it comes rue, then we deal with it. This is
one of those times if by chance tomorrow we get
uh twofold, we get an excess amount of snow where

(01:09):
it can build up on the plants. You gotta you know,
gotta watch that. If you have hydranges out there, they
still have a lot of flowers on them, and a
lot of folks will leave those on over the winter
to uh enjoy. As for winter characteristic, you know, sometimes
those can build up with snow, especially if they're sleet
or ice involved with it at all, and can cause

(01:31):
those to bend over and break. That's the only thing,
you know, when somebody asks me about dead heading those
hydrangees in late fall going into the winter, that's the
only thing that I like leaving them on there that
I'm cautious about is watching for that if by chance
that would happen. And if it you know, if it
looks like it's gonna start breaking branches off, I mean
they'll they'll regrow, but you know it'd be go. You

(01:52):
go through it a you know, five minutes, you clip
all those off of there and you don't have to
worry about it. So that's up to you. But I
just putting a four warning out there just to watch
if by chance you have some specimen evergreens smaller that
really starts to build up and you see it looks
like it's going to break those branches, I'll take a
straw room and just go underneath those, or even a

(02:13):
leaf rake and go underneath the branches and just kind
of up and down very gently, because again the temperatures
are in the teens. This means those branches are very
brittle as well, and you can break them very easily
or damage them. So you just want to slightly just work,
you know, slight vibration to help dislodge any of the
heavy snow off of those, but otherwise you kind of

(02:35):
sit back and wait. Once it's all said and done,
then we get back out next week and start to
inspect the trees and the evergreens and all to see
if we see any damage, any breakage or whatever it
may be in the top or toppling over or pull
it off or leading to the side or whatever, but
just kind of honk it down. Great day today and
tomorrow and even Monday, well Monday will be digging out,

(02:55):
but you know, to look at those seed catalogs and
read your gardening book and whatever else it may be,
and just kind of settle in for the weekend and
just write it out. Make sure you're all set and
ready to go with the blankeys and the candles, just
in case but write it out all right. Eight hundred
A two three eight two five five. That's our number.
We were talking about two things before we went into
the break one. I want to just go back one

(03:18):
real quick, talking about winter seeding. Dormant seating is the
second best time to seed, next to fall seating. But
you don't want to put seed down in the wintertime
when the ground is frozen really hard, all right. The
reason being is that then the seed's gonna lay on
top of that until it thaws out. And if you
if it's like right now, it's frozen pretty hard in

(03:38):
our area, Tom wanted to put seed down and then
you know, on top of the snow comes in and
then of course there's the snow melts. It kind of
helps to push it into the end of the soil. Well,
if it's really frozen that hard down below, it's gonna
stay like that, So it's gonna stay frozen. There's a
good chance that seed's gonna wash away. What we're looking
for for dormant seating in the wintertime is a freezing

(04:01):
and thawing process of the soil. And you get into
three weeks ago or you wait till we get into
mid February typically, and what happens is during the nighttime,
temperatures get really cold, ground freezes. Next day sun comes out,
gets up into the forties, ground thaws, and in the
morning you can get up and you go out. If
you walk on it, it like crunches because it honeycombs.

(04:22):
It opens up and that seed falls down in those honeycombs,
and then when it thaws during the day closes back
up and it's a natural seed bed. That's what we're
looking for for dormant seating. So if your yard as
hard as a brick, frozen solid, don't throw seed out
on it. I wouldn't throw seed out, or you can

(04:44):
if you want, I would not, and I wouldn't do
it now before the snow because it's a real good
chance that may just wash right off the top. That's
why we prefer the mid to late February ish that
type of condition when it comes to seeding. Also, we
were talking before the break about this is the year
twenty twenty six, the year of the hot Pepper, and

(05:04):
of course the Scoville units and where they are. The
ghost Pepper came along and broke all the records at
a million scoville units, and it actually had a great
flavor and a great fragrance. You wanted to eat it,
and when you did, you regretted it, but it was
great flavor. Then we had three or four or five
that came along and kept breaking that record, and finally,
finally along came the Carolina Reaper. And when it first

(05:29):
came out, it was it was pushed as being a
two million Scoville units, but it has has averaged out
to about one point six one point eight, which is
close enough, right, And that has been the number one
world's hottest pepper until I think last year or un
officially last year, if I'm not mistaken, because the new

(05:49):
hottest pepper that's out there now, which is not available,
it is not available as far as I know, and
I don't think you can find the seeds anywhere. They're
not making those available either, is pepper X. And it's
all there. They've all been bred by the same guy.
And if you've ever read his story, it's phenomenal. But

(06:10):
it's his name is Ed Curry. He is the company
founder and president of Pucker but Pepper Company, and a
girl they raised all these read all these hot peppers
and had the hot sauces and the whole nine yards.
And what's interesting is the story behind it. I always
love the stories behind how this this came about. But
he unfortunately in junior high in high school, had some

(06:33):
drug issues and became a drug addict et cetera. He
admits it. And his mother was a master gardener, so
she kind of taught him how to garden and all. Well,
he got out of some got arrested a couple of
times and convinced him to get out of the drugs
and all. But trying. Being concerned about his health and all,
he started looking at great ways to, you know, to

(06:55):
keep his health through all the stresses he had gone
through earlier, to improve his health and to keep it
good and healthy so he would live a long life.
Did a lot of research about all the foods and
cultures around the world that lived the longest, and come
to find out, he learned more about hot peppers and
how peppers were a very important part in cultures that
use a lot of hot peppers for living a long time.

(07:16):
So he did a lot of research in it and
a lot of medical studies, et cetera, et cetera. And
that's why he is a true believer in research has
shown it now of their healing potential with that capsation
basically is what it boils down to. And peppers in general,
hot or sweet high envitamins c B, they're good for you,
oh nine yards. But you know, the hot peppers, that's
kind of a tough one to do, right. It's hot,

(07:39):
and so you know they're working in other ways that
add it to your food or whatever. But that's what
he's been doing. So he's a true hot pepper breeder.
And he has finally come up with a Pepper X
which is currently recognized as the world's hottest pepper, and
it's averaging are you ready for this two point six
million scovel units? It's two point six million Scoville units. Now,

(08:04):
like I said, as far as I know, the seeds
are not available when it comes to Pepper X, but
all the rest of them are, including the Carolina Reaper,
which as far as I'm concerned, is about as hot
as you want it to be anyway, and I don't
think it has a great flavor, but there you go.
But again, that's that's the year of the hot pepper.
Everybody's into it, and maybe you will be two. After

(08:28):
reading about this, I'll tell you one pepper. I like
the ones that are oh, fifteen ten, fifteen thousand skoal units.
You know, some of the they've got some of the
new like the shashitos that you know, it's kind of
a Russian roulette. Some are hot summer not Some of
the bell peppers have been some some of the bell

(08:50):
peppers have done an excellent job being sweet bell pepper,
but a little bit of heat to it where they've
done that type of breeding. So you know, there's so
many out there today. But seriously, you look at you
go to the unpendent independent guarden centers and you look
at the hot pepper varieties versus the sweet pepper varieties,
and chances are you'll find more hot pepper varieties than
you will sweet pepper varieties. To Raleigh, North Carolina, we're

(09:12):
going to go and talk to Ken. Ken. Good morning, Hey,
good morning.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
I enjoyed listening to you. I lived in California last
century and got out thankfully. I brought a fig tree
with me thirty five years ago, put it in a
whiskey burrow in Lexington, Kentucky. Then moved to Pittsburgh in
a whiskey burrow, and I've planned it now in the
ground in North Carolina, Raleigh for about twenty years and

(09:37):
it's now about ten to fifteen feet and it produces
massive figs, and I just wonder if I should how
much I should trim it down. You know, I've read
where I should trim it down heavily for others. And
that's trying to get your advice on that.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, you know, does it have die back at the
end of the winter season? I mean, do you protected
or you just leave a sit?

Speaker 2 (10:02):
No? We thankful in North Carolina our lake doesn't freeze
here like yours.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, I didn't know if you did added protection. Do
you have any die back at all after you get
out of the winter? Is it pretty well in good shape?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Oh, it's in great shape.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
And here's the deal is that you know, as you
well know, the majority of those new figs obviously are
going to come on to new growth. Do you get
two crops out of it? By the way, I'm just
curious that the early crop and the lake crop. Yes, yeah,
so the new growth is where you get all of
the new figs, and so, yes, they do go back through.
They will cut them back. I used to do the

(10:37):
same thing you did as far as the twenty five
gallon barrel and grew all different types of figs in there,
and of course that limited their size. They didn't get
more than about six feet tall or so because of
the limited roots system. But I would still cut them
back about a third every year just to force out
that new growth, clean them out a little bit, open

(10:57):
them up a little bit, that type structural pruting. So
you know, they'll still produce figs. If you don't do
anything to them at all, They're still going to have
figs on them. You're still going to get production. But yes,
typically you know you'll go through for more production and
take about a fourth of it back, you know, open
it up a little bit, like pruning a fruit tree

(11:19):
as far as criss crossing branches, that type of thing
and cutting it back and forcing out new foliage. Yes,
that's a that's a recommended practice. But Kenneth, if you
never did anything at all, you'll still get figs. I
think my uncle, and he's in North Carolina, he's in
the southern part of North Carolina, Ashboro, And yeah, I
don't think he proves that thing at all. He's got
two of them. They're about twelve fifteen feet high and wide,

(11:42):
and he just gets a ton of figs every year
and basically doesn't do anything to him.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, thank you. I, like I said, I enjoy listening
to your show every Saturday. And I also do pottery
with a that has a two hundred acre read down here.
Then they have over a million blueberry plants and they
just shipped hundreds of thousands of the new ones to
the outfit Mississippi that supplies all the walmarts and lows

(12:11):
and everything, so we'd have plenty of blueberries to eat
as well.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Good for you, Good for you. Well, if you have
extra blueberries of figs, you know where we are.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well I my grandkids enjoy growing them up in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
I appreciate the call, appreciate you listening to the show.
Thank you, all right, take care, all right, quick breack
we come back. Phone lines you're open for you at
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five if
you're feeling okay. At the bottom of the hour, Jerry Rose,
our giant pumpkin grower, will join us talk about how
you can grow giant pumpkins as well. Here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Back.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
You're in the garden with Ron Wilson again, that toll
free number eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
We're talking your gardening with the before the big event
happens here starting in about three hours, supposed to start
snowing and keep going until Sunday night. So we'll see
what happens. Yes, you can feel it, it's coming. Be ready.

(13:16):
I said something a couple of weeks ago about it.
I said, no way, not having any snow as to
buy a snowboard, which I did, a battery operated one,
and now I get to try it out. I'm not
actually looking kind of forward to it after we get
the snow through and see what happens. By the way,
talking about that fig, I'll tell you what. If you've
never grown figs in a container on the patio or
deck or whatever you should, They're absolutely gorgeous. The leaves

(13:39):
are absolutely gorgeous. It's a great way to grow them,
no matter what selection you have, no matter where you live,
you can grow them and overwinter them and a container.
Like gentlemen was talking earlier, unheated garage on heated shed
something like that over the winter, bringing back out in
the springtime. And obviously some zones they have very heart,
they're very hard. In our zone six, Zone five Chicago,

(14:03):
hardy does a pretty decent job. It's still better to
try to protect it over the winter time if you
plant it in the ground. But as long as you do,
if you do any kind of winter protection, you can
grow about any variety as long as it's protected really
well south side of the house. Maybe get a little
reflection of the heat off of the foundation. But very
pretty easy to grow. And if you've never had a

(14:25):
fresh fig before, wow, it is something. I'll throw this
one out at you and the garden stores will have these,
and they have had them. It's called pignomenal. It's a dwarf,
a true dwarf fig actually designed to be grown in containers.
And I have not done this, but you can take
it in the house supposedly and it will continue to
produce figs over the wintertime, assuming you have a very

(14:48):
sunny location. But great for growing in containers because it's
stays smaller and still produces some fair amount of figs
for you. But it's called fig noomenal, so be sure
and check that out to Kentucky. We go, Tim, Good morning.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, Ron, So, I've got a couple of box woods
out by my bird feeders, and they're about seven feet
tall and seven feet in diameter. And I guess I
also kind of need to worry about the snow crushing
them down. But what I was hoped, what I was
wanting to do was this spring, maybe along March, cut

(15:27):
them back significantly h to let them regrow so that
they're that they're starting to thin out from the squirrels
running and the and the cardinals and the other birds
jumping through it. Uh, you know for the bird back
and forth from the bird feeders. But I've got my
bird feeders right next to them.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
That's a nice bed and breakfast for them to be
able to slip inside that thing and to slip back
out again. That's that's they love that.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
Stuff all they do, Okay, and I can tell that.
But they're they're starting to get thinner from all the activity. Yeah,
and so, but I mean so if I so a
few years ago when the when that blistering cold blast
hit my couple of box woods in the front of
my house, it burned them up and it just destroyed them.

(16:15):
I tried cutting them back and it didn't work. But
if I come March, if I if I cut these back,
I was hoping to cut them back to maybe about
four feet in diameter, that's a possibility.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
You know, Timing wise, I'm running out of time here,
tim But remember timing wise, you do want to do
it late March early April before the new growth comes out.
That's first of all. And second of all, the more
you take them back already you have proved them, the
more time it takes for them to recover, it's a
little bit tougher on them. So you know, maybe a
third of the way back all the way around, you're

(16:51):
going to lose most of the foliage. But a third
of the way back shouldn't be any problem at all.
As a matter of fact, you give me light feeding
with something like a holy tone. When you're done, get
that watered in, and then take it from there. But
absolutely they should recover from that without any problem. So
have ad it. Eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five year in the guard with Ron Wilks, actually

(17:14):
in the guarden with Ron Wilson. Ever think about growing
one of those giant pumpkins. You should. It can be done,
and it may be something you might want to start
out with. Giving it a shot this year to help
get you started. As our giant pumpkin expert, he's no
stranger to our show. He is from Huntsburg Township, Ohio.
He's a premier, world class giant pumpkin grower forty five

(17:39):
years experience, known for producing massive, award winning pumpkins. What's
the biggest one? Two fifty eight pounds? You got it
in twenty sixteen. He specializes in using high tunnels. He's
won over twenty giant pumpkin contests, consistently places in the
top tier of international competitions. I read all this from AI,

(18:00):
mister Jerry Rose the second man, ay, I's got you covered.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Well, I guess they can. They can make anybody look good, right, Well,
you know.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
He gotta I gotta go back and check all these statistics.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
And this buddy is is that it says I had
at twenty fifty eight twoenty sixteen. My biggest one was
actually last year, So he needs me up there. Yeah,
twenty fifty eight and a.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Half twenty fifty eight point five, I got.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, I beat my record by half a pound last year.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
There you go. Uh So, anyway, Jerry rose with us
this morning talking about grind Groener's giant Pine because I
appreciate it. I got a little text from Jerry late
last night said the entire family's down with the flu
or something, so I asked him to wear a mask
this morning so we didn't get.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
What Yeah, yeah, I got it on. I actually came
out here into my shop, got out of the house,
away from everybody, and filled the wood burner full of wood.
And I'm sitting about five foot from the wood burner
right now because it feels pretty good right out here
right now.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
So are you supposed to get hit with any of
the snow that's coming through?

Speaker 3 (19:04):
They're saying maybe eight eight to twelve or something, which
you know, a lot of people get worked up over that,
but we're used to the heck. I had to over
twelve inches in six hours on New Year's even. You know,
I work for our Towlenge to ply on the roads
for thirty years. And I don't know. I mean, I
guess if probably for you guys to put usnow the
whole heck a lot worse than to put a snow
for us up.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
There, yees' not Yeah, we don't get don't get that
quite often. But I think it's a lot of funny
to settle back and enjoy Yep, nothing you can do
about and let people like yourself get it all taken
care of it, and then get back out and do
your thing. Anyway. Talking with Jerry Rose, giant pumpkin grower.
A great website that you will find him on quite
a bit is big Pumpkins dot com. That's big Pumpkins

(19:44):
dot com. So give us an update. Twenty twenty five
is in the books. The world's largest pumpkin in twenty
twenty five came out of the UK.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
The Paton Brothers, I can't think of twenty eight something. Uh,
myself and Quinn. Quinn were at their place a couple
of years ago, years ago, and uh, you know they're
the premiere set up over there with the they ain't
even a high tunnel, you know, it's a greenhouse over there,
you know, all computerized uh uh shade covers and watering

(20:16):
system and everything, and they they're growing in soil. But
it's just premiere soil, you know. But yeah, that's the
way it is. You know. We'll just have to beat them.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Do you name your pumpkins?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
No, but I some say bad words out whenever.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, because I guess this this one's name was called Muggle,
and I was just curious, if you yeah, if you.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
If you know, all right, never never named them.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, you know, I think the what I think is
great is it seems like these pumpkin festivals that have
now become way you know, international way way offs, have
become more and more popular. They're getting i mean every
year like Hamilton, Oakland, Uh, you know the one what
you want to buy you.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
A bum? Canfield Park starts center.

Speaker 5 (21:08):
You out, You're getting big, bigger.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
And bigger all the time, and the interest is out there,
and of course you all highly encourage folks to give
it a try.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Oh yeah, that's that's the big thing. I know. When
we were texting earlier in the week there, you know,
that's one of the things I wanted to kind of
bring up our club here in Canfield at uh next Saturday,
we have a beginner seminar. It just does all the basics,
you know, get teach people how to get soil tests
and starting their pumpkins. Then it's all the basics at parks.

(21:43):
It will be a park's guard and center next Saturday,
and uh the last couple of hours. And I always
say it's you know, it's a it's a good because
most of all of the US big growers will be
there for nothing else, just to kind of hang out
and get to see everybody does. It's the middle of
the wintertime and to get out of house for a
little bit. And and then we teach all the basics
to the new growers that anybody that wants to to

(22:07):
look it up get on our website. The Ohio Valley
Giant Pumpkin Growers are our Facebook page, our website and
they'll tell you about it if anybody wants to come
up there free. If you ever do want to go
a little more in depth, we have an advanced seminar
in the middle of March, but that's when we get
the real serious. Going in depth can lose people because

(22:30):
you're getting pretty scientific and everything then. But this one
air is just to kind of get your feet wet
and everything, so that you know, if you want to
play around doing.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
It, well, if somebody's interested in doing this, I mean
how much obviously that needs to be a full sought
area how much space do they need to grow giant pumpkin?
And you grow how many plants? First of all, how
many plants do you grow each year?

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Competitively? I've got six of them that are nine hundred
square feet each one all right?

Speaker 1 (23:00):
One?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, so fifty four hundred square feet okay for nine
h or six of them.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I'm sorry, but you don't have to grow six. You
can grow one or two or three or whatever. And
there's even a class of pump giant pump and growers
that's within a limited space.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, that's uh. They call it one hundred and fifty
square foot competition and there's actually a load of the
prize money and everything with it. And uh, I think
the I don't think they've beat fifteen hundred pounds on
it yet, but they're knocking at the door. You know.
I played around with the last year a little bit
and had a couple like I think about seven hundred
pounds and one hundred and fifty square foot. That's only

(23:36):
you know, depending on how you want to grow, you know,
ten foot by fifteen foot, right, and uh, you know
that's not that's not very big at all. I mean
it still sounds big, but I'll tell you what a
fastest than plants grow, You could sell that ten by
fifteen foot spot up real quick.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Uh yeah, you know, as you well know. By the
last two or three years now, we've had the volunteers
come up in our landscape bet and I'd let them. Unfortunately,
have let one grow every year and it takes over
the landscape, had the turf, the tree in front of it,
the whole nine yards I wind up on, receive the lawn,
resaw the area. It's crazy, but anyway, it can be fine.

(24:12):
And we don't do anything to that darn thing, and
we and we just have we have a great time
with it. But it can be a lot of fun
and very educational as well. So if somebody wants to
get started, you've got a couple classes here, and obviously
folks listening to us in other states. I'm sure there
are giant pumpkin growing communities within them as well, because
every would you say, every state gets involved pretty much

(24:34):
on this side of the mis.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
We got yep, yep, we got we got them all.
There's there. You know. Almost every club has some kind
of seminars of the beginners. We have the International Seminar,
which is in Utah. This here, Salt Lakes City, first
weekend of March. So hard to believe that's only about
a month and a half away. And I know myself

(24:55):
and Quinn are going out on a Tuesday, coming back
to following Monday. The seminars starts Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
and my wife and young Jerry. He's coming out on Thursday.
The wife's coming out over the weekend because I'm actually
getting inducted into the GPC, the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Hall
of Fame this year.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Well, congratulations to you, sir, now, thank you now a
I will add that to your list of all the accomplishments.
Talking with Jerry Rose. If you'd like to learn more there,
The great website is big Pumpkins dot com. Uh he's
a part of the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers. You
can check them out as well. Quick break, we come back,
we'll talk about so where do you get started? What
are some of the things you want to look for

(25:36):
right now? And a whole lot more with Jerry Rose
here in the garden with Ron Wilson, I guess this
morning our Giant Pumpkin grower, mister Jerry Rose. Sometime when
you're got Google out there, just the Google Jerry Rose,
giant pumpkin grower, and AI will print out about a
three page He's all over the monitor, all over the screen. Uh,

(25:58):
they'll print out all kinds of st up but you know,
I'm not sure all of it's true, but you know
it's interesting reading. And he's got the flu, but he's
still talking to us this morning, and we appreciate that.
And he is the only pumpkin grower that I know
that actually sleeps with his pumpkins.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Maybe I should have did that the last couple of
days and I wouldn't feel so bad.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Takes all the blankets out of the house. And that's
how personally becomes because he's protecting his little babies that
are growing out there. So you grow six to nine
plants a year. You said, write six to nine plants
something like that.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, and it's always one pumpkin per plant.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Right, correct. I need to grow the six competitive ones
and then I'll put out two or three smaller ones
just to kind of see, like be almost like test
plants for my own personal seeds from the year before.
Usally won't put quite as much time into them, but
just to kind of get a feel for me, see
if there's something I want to try to grow competitively

(26:55):
maybe the next year after that. And I always got
people that want to buy him off end of the year.
You know, there's always hard to believe, but there's always
that guy that maybe wants the biggest seven hundred pound
jack Lander in their front yard or something like that.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Which anything under sixteen hundred pounds, by the way, is
a throwaway, is what Jerry calls him. A throwaway pumpkin.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
You you're right, because it don'tcle Pete. You've been down
to Oakland. What's the hundred pounder doing? It wins you
a good lunch? Paul puts a good lunch on down there.
That's about all it's gonna get you.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Fifty dollars gift certific get to Oakland.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I got certificate.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Pick a few things anyway, talking to Jerry Rose. If
you're interested in giant Pumpkins, Big Pumpkins dot Com and
of course the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Grower as well, Uh,
you can check that out. They've got a couple of
classes coming up in the Canfield, Ohio. Is it Parks
Garden Center.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Correct, yep, Yeah, that's where we have our our way
off and everything there.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
All right, and that's coming up the three first, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
The thirty first, two weeks from today is our beginners
and then in the middle of March check out and.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's a twenty first or something I think it is
is a dance seminar where we'll have we usually get
in some guest speakers and that that's where we're actually
lining up right now.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
We usually get maybe uh sometimes just some of the
big growers are gonna be there, and then uh, usually
we'll try to get at least one scientific you know,
maybe right now I'm working on a soil scientist from
a lab to try to get him in there. To
usually Givehi an hour and try to tell him that
even though you know, we're a pretty good punk and grower,
sometimes you know, they can top way over our heads,

(28:30):
so try to dumb it down for us. And even
pump and grower type people.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, sometimes they get a little bit too out there
for me too. I mean, you just like, I don't
need all this stuff and anyway, good for you, but yeah,
sounds like a lot of fun. And again, if you
want to learn more about it. If they go to
Big pumpkinscot Coms that listen on there.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Too probably won't be listed on there, but you can
link over. I'm pretty sure you can link over to
our website and Facebook and every Ohio valley and everything.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
All right, So if you go ahead, no, go ahead,
go ahead, you're fine. I was gonna see. So if
somebody's listening there saying, you know what, let's give it
a shot. Got grandson or grandkids, or maybe you just
want to do it yourself. I got an area that's
a twenty you know, I can do the you know,
a couple plants anyway in the garden. If first of all,
obviously you want to learn about it, learn how to

(29:19):
grow them. You can't be too anxious about getting started
too early, although you guys do because you're competing. But uh,
you know, the obviously seeds very important here. You just
don't go out somewhere and buy giant pumpkin seeds, I mean,
or is it or due you from Burpie or Johnny Seeds.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Or wherever you can get your atlantic you know giants
that they grow on whatever a field plot or something
like that, and sometimes that's okay. Especially if it's just
your first year for you know, playing around, because you
know you can get them relatively cheap. I think in
our club, the cheapest you can get we sell packages
of four four for five dollars, or you can get

(29:59):
three packages for ten, so you can get twelve seeds
for ten bucks. And usually them are the seeds that
we call our generic seeds.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
You know.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
I say I had a thousand pounder, which sounds that
is pretty big, but it's not you know, competitive. I'll
take the seeds out of that and dry them out,
and them are the seeds that go into them four
for five dollars or three for ten, you know, and
that's that. We'll have that kind of stuff like at
the beginner seminar there in a couple of weeks, and
even at our advanced similar but at our bad seminar,
you'll get the big gun seeds there too, you know.

(30:29):
And like I said, for the new person, they don't
have to grow that. But you know, we get seeds
that are you know, one hundred dollars a piece. That
ain't something that is the brand new grower. You're gonna
want to take chance of just throwing a one hundred
dollars bill out there screwing up or something like that.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yep. And I noticed when we do the way off
and you know, when I'm handed the sheet of that
particular pumpkin, a lot of times it has the parentage
at the bottom of that.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, we do. We do all of our own crosses
and everything. The new hot seed this year is out
of Dave Steltz's World champion last not this last year,
but the year before twenty seven to thirty one. It
grew a twenty seven forty one and plus other multiple
nice ones last year, and they're going in the seed auctions,

(31:14):
I think last night at our seed auction. I was
watching last night and it was three hundred and fifty
dollars for one seed, which is pretty good, you know,
But like last week and twenty Andy Wolf's had from
New York had a twenty three sixty five, which has
grown a really lot of really nice big one and
they're getting hard to get a hold of. They were
going for about seven hundred and fifty dollars a seed,

(31:37):
but you ain't gonna hardly find any more of than
left anymore because it's going to be about a four
or five year old seeds, so most of them have.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Been planted now, and obviously do they guarantee that to
be viable? I mean, is there any guarantee of that thing?
I mean, are you.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Just down no guarantee whatsoever. You're just taking a chance,
you know. And I have had a couple pretty decent
seeds not Germany for me, and luckily I know most
of the guys well enough that you know, they know
I'm I've been able to get most of them. But
I still I bought a couple of seeds this year
because there's a couple of seeds out there that I
think could become what we call pretty hot seeds. But

(32:13):
I don't want to grow them this year, so I
just buy them. They keep them in my collection, so
if they get to be hot, I'll have them for
next year.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Does missus Rose approve of these before you purchase these seeds?

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Luckily I'm out in the shop. She can't hear me, so, uh,
what you don't knows?

Speaker 1 (32:32):
And you know she's not listening to the show. So
you got that, you know, going for.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
A few minutes agohen I got out of the bedrooms,
how you feel, I said, I got to get up
ron Wilson's gonna be calling me in a few minutes.
So she was still laying in back.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
She sugar says that heads and so didn't you tell
me last week that the seed actually sold for like
twenty five hundred bucks?

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Little shop. I tell you the story. It's a guy
named Dan Sutherland from my Washington. He's he's the best
tomato grower in the world by far. But well, I
always say, ninety nine percent of people are real good
at sharing secrets and seeds and all that. We're all.
He is not. I've never met the guy or anything,
but he he just he's to himself. I mean, he

(33:17):
don't I mean, nobody even came close to touch him
in tomatoes. I think he's had two or three of
them over sixteen pounds, multiple fifteens. You know. The next
closest in the world been eleven pounds, which sounds still big,
but when you look at the percentage wise between eleven
and sixteen pounds, that's five pounds. That's quite a bit
of difference. So he donated four seeds to the GPC,

(33:39):
the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, and the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth gave
three of them to three of the other best tomato
growers in the world just gave one to each one
of them, and they put one in their auction last
Saturday night, and tomatoes heed, we're top of you know,
like I joked about, I'd be my luck, I'd blow
cough or something, the blows thing off the table and

(34:00):
and uh it went for twenty three hundred dollars. Of
the guys that were bid with twenty three hundred and
twenty two to fifty, they were back to I can
remember we were watching it. The last one was twenty
two fifties that I'm out. Well. Then the guy that
was moderating the online ouctions said, hold on a minute,
just hold on a minute, And they came back a
couple of minutes later and said that Dan Sutherland had
donated another seed, and uh, he was good. They were

(34:23):
gonna give each one of the top two the guy
that grew twenty three hundred and twenty two to fifty
gonna give each one of them one of them for
two thousand a piece. So they actually saved a little
bit of money. And the guy that had that world
record seed donated the next one, but still two thousand dollars.
Far as some agency.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I guarantee you, missus Rose would not approve the check
for that particular sea.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
No, no, no, do these cards no cash?

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Do these come with like any kind of a certification
that it truly came from that particular too. Okay, you
got it.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
You gotta trust the guys. And you know, I think
you know there there, I'm sure I might meet this
guy this year. I've heard he's gonna actually come to
this our international seminar there in Utah, and you know,
but he just he's that's everybody's different, right.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Wow. Crazy. By the way, so folks know not only
you a giant pumpkin grower, but you go for the
other records too, like the field pumpkin. You do the tomato.
How big was your biggest tomato?

Speaker 3 (35:23):
I've had one just a little shy of seven pounds.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
And the world's record is sixteen.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, something about ten pounds.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Life crazy stuff. Hey, Jerry, always a pleasure. Hope you
and the family feel better again. If you want to
check them out, it's big Pumpkins dot Com or the
Ohio Valley Jumpkin Giant Pumpkin Growers. Have a great weekend, Relax.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Feel better, get do, get snowed in.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
You got it, Thanks Jerry. Always a pleasure. Quick break
we come back. Steve from northern Kentucky. Hang on, you're
coming up. We'll grab you before we talk to Ron Rothis,
who will be coming up after the break as well