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How to grow Giant Pumpkins – Book Review

How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins The All-Organic Way

  • My Review: Fun movie for the new pumpkin grower
  • Editorial Reviews – Don Langevin has written four books on giant pumpkins that have changed the landscape of competitive growing. Since his first book in 1993, the world record has been broken thirteen times, and his second book in 1998 set off a 10 year span that saw the world record broken every year. How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins The All-Organic Way offers an approach to growing that will change competitive vegetable growing all over the world. This book covers everything from soil preparation to seed starting, from feeding and watering to choosing the right fruit, from pest control to measuring for estimated weight, from competing to all the things that giant pumpkin growers do with their pumpkins all written with reverence to the Soil Food Web. Nothing is left out. As Langevin says, If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow giant pumpkins. Ron Wallace, the first gardener to grow a pumpkin over 1500 pounds in 2006 says, Don s books will put you on a level playing field with the best giant pumpkin growers in the world. Many credit Langevin for their start and success in competitive gardening. When Langevin s first book came out in September of 1993, the world record was 827 pounds. Now it is 1,689 pounds, and many are forecasting a 2,000 pound pumpkin in upcoming years. When that happens, this book will be given much credit for leading the way to this monumental feat. –Publisher
How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins II: Sequel to the Classic Book on Growing Giant Pumpkins

  • My Review: Start Here for first time giant pumpkin grower, A month by month guide on how to start a pumpking patch.
  • Other Reviews – I have read and enjoyed this book – more importantly the information was great in helping my pumpkins grow larger. The intended audience is one who wishes to grow BIG, and I mean BIG pumpkins. Growing large pumpkins can be done by anyone (with the help of this book). It is also a fun hobby that you can enjoy with your children. There is nothing like putting a 500+ pound orange jack-o-lantern on your front porch on Halloween and letting the neighborhood enjoy the sight of it. No one I have ever met does not smile when they see a big object like a giant pumpkin, it is guaranteed a great conversation piece. This book helps you learn about seed, soil, growing techniques, watering, and contests and even displaying your fruit after it is harvested. The author has spent lots of time fully researching this hobby and has done a great job of presenting the material of this unique endeavor to anyone who might enjoy gardening or growing large curabits. The pictures alone are worth the price of this book! This book is much better than World Class Giant Pumpkins the previous one by the same author. There are three or four other books or articles regarding this subject that are not as extensive as this one. If growing pumpkins is something you might enjoy or you have already tried to grow pumpkins and were not happy with the results this book will prove invaluable.
Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever
  • My Review: I was lucky enough to talk with Ron after this book was finished,  he’s a great guy and a great teacher for every level of giant pumpkin growers. Unlike some other growers he is willing to tell you what worked and what didn’t work for him. If you looking for a real story on what it takes to grow a world record pumpkin this is your book. I liked to re-read it during the late summer when the pumpkin patch is picking up steam.
  • From Publishers Weekly - The pursuit of the Great Pumpkin among Rhode Island gardeners becomes the passion of Texas-based Wall Street Journal bureau chief Warren in this gently ironic, thoroughly engaging work. Growing the world’s heaviest pumpkin (the record tops around 1,500 pounds) has become an international sport, requiring full-time planning and cultivation, and amply rewarded in prizes at fairs and in TV appearances. Warren focuses on a group of winners among the Rhode Island club of growers, led by father and son duo Dick and Ron Wallace, who live south of Providence. She follows their fastidious planning over the 2006 growing season, from early tilling of a new patch of land (they burned out the old patch by pouring in too many supplements and fertilizers) to careful selection of seeds from previous monster prizewinners via online auctions, then germinating seedlings in an incubation chamber; this is followed by a strict planting, culling, watering and fertilizing schedule. While wives feel neglected, the men obsessively care for their pumpkin patches, coaxing the behemoths to amass 30 pounds a day at peak growth, and fending off destroyers such as deer, foaming stump slime and cracks in the shell. Each of these growers shares tales of heartbreak, but Warren peaks the anticipation with the big fall weigh-ins, lending a humorous, poignant touch to this hearty gardener’s tale. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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