Polson man grows half-ton pumpkin
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HAMILTON — With Halloween just around the corner, many a jack-o-lantern can be seen protecting neighborhood porches and stoops. These pumpkins have the all too important job of protecting the house from evil spirits during this haunted time of year.
However, a 1,030-pound pumpkin might send a stronger message to would-be ghosts and goblins. Retired real estate agent, Polson resident and part-time farmer and rancher Emmitt May grew a pumpkin that topped the scales at 1,030 pounds. The half-ton gourd was a Montana State Record — May’s second record-setting attempt in as many years. This year’s pumpkin shattered his old record of 893 pounds.
The pumpkin was weighed at the Hamilton Farmers Market Co-op weigh-off alongside several other pumpkins from the Big Sky Giant Pumpkin Growers Club. May said the club has about 25 members. Most reside on the Flathead Reservation, a few in the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula and one lives near Spokane, Wash.
“It felt really good,” May said of setting a state record two years in a row. “Especially in this part of the country where we have a shorter growing season.”
Montana springs are wet, cold and rainy. Because of this, May starts his pumpkins indoors and then moves them outside to a custom-made greenhouse. This effectively lengthens the growing season enough to produce May’s Atlantic Giant pumpkins that top the scales and set records.
“People love pumpkins,” May said. “They always do. If you ever want to make someone smile, just show them a big pumpkin.”
The seeds will be given away or sold to other pumpkin growers throughout the country, and the flesh will be fed to May’s cows. May said the sugar content is not high enough to make pumpkin pie.
In other parts of the nation, like Seattle, Wash., and Rhode Island, the growing season is longer and results in much larger pumpkins. This year, Ron Wallace of Rhode Island grew the world record pumpkin for the second year in a row — a 2,009-pound orange behemoth. Pumpkins of this size are sometimes hollowed out and used in boat races after the competition, but May said he wouldn’t want to participate in such an event.
“I don’t think I want to get on the Flathead with one of those, as cold as it is,” he laughed.
Three of May’s pumpkins can be viewed at Les Schwab Tires in Polson, Delaney’s Nursery, and First Citizens Bank. The state record pumpkin is currently inside Delaney’s and can be seen until Halloween, when May will remove the seeds and dispose of the rest.
The seeds inside May’s new state record pumpkin might contain some of the best genetics for Atlantic Giant Pumpkins in the world.
When a giant pumpkin is weighed, it takes the name of the grower alongside the weight of the parent plant. May’s 1,030-pound pumpkin will henceforth be known as “May-1,030,” as will the seeds produced from that crop.
May planted a 1,421.5-Stelts in order to grow his May-1,030. A separate seed from the original 1,421.5-Stelts grew the 2010 world record — an 1,810.5-Stevens.
A 1,725-Harp (world record in 2009) grew the 1,789-Wallace that May cross-pollinated with his 1,030-May.
In short, May’s pumpkin has the within its seeds the genetics of at least two world champions and the Montana state record.
“The guys agree that I’ve got some of the best genetics in the world,” May said. “(The new seeds) have the potential to grow any size pumpkin.”
