Giant pumpkin

Atlantic Giant is a label for the round phenotypes of the giant squash (popularly called a pumpkin, depending upon fruit color) variety of the species Cucurbita maxima bred publicly from simple Hubbard material through intermittent efforts over the past centuries. The uniqueness of this variety lies in its production of fruits more massive than those produced by any other plant in the world. Fruit can exceed 16 feet in circumference. The heaviest Atlantic Giant on record weighed 766 kg (1689 lb) and was grown by Joe Jutras of Topsfield, Massachusetts in 2007. Under normal conditions the Atlantic Giant can consistently produce fruits in excess of 250 kg (551 lb).

History

As the germplasm of such a giant squash variety is commercially provocative, the name Atlantic Giant came from a U.S. legal protection that was granted for the rounder phenotypes. Numerous labels were created for this variety over the past two centuries. This phenotype graduated back into the public domain, retaining the Atlantic Giant label. After the Atlantic Giant right expired, an ensuing filing was made in September 1985 and accepted, purportedly for the oblong phenotypes of the variety, under a label Dill's Atlantic Giant, named for Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia, who helped create the seeds. This 18-year right expired in 2004, leaving all phenotypes of this originally public variety back into the public domain.

Pumpkin growing competitions

Many people use the Atlantic Giant for competitions at weighoffs and harvest festivals around the world. These rounder phenotypes of the giant squash variety grow larger, thus those which fell under the Dill's Atlantic Giant division are generally not used. Competitive gardeners tend to become extraordinarily involved with their pumpkins. Because of the uncanny genetics of the material, there has been an aggressive and unimpeded increase in fruit weight per generation, and the stability of optimized genomic loci means that it is now relatively easy to grow large fruit in ordinary growing conditions.

Seeds from pumpkins that have been proven to produce big pumpkins can be sold at online auctions for considerable sums of money. The largest contest award paid for a single pumpkin was $53,000 USD to Nathan & Paula Zehr for the first 1,000 lb pumpkin (1061 lb actual weight) at the Clarence NY World Pumpkin Confederation Weigh-Off in 1996. The highest price paid for a single pumpkin seed was USD$850 for a 1068 Wallace seed in 2006. Numerous clubs and organizations dedicated to promoting giant pumpkin growing exist worldwide.

Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) is the major organizer and sanctioning body overseeing giant pumpkin and vegetable growing in the United States of America, Canada and Europe. Now with fifty eight weigh-off locations throughout the world the GPC and its sponsored sites are attended by hundreds of thousands to the ever popular annually run festivals and weekend events held each summer and fall.

See also

• Hants County Exhibition
• Circleville Pumpkin Show
• Pumpkin Fest

Further reading

• Susan Warren, Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1596912782

External links

• DNAtrackAtlantic Giant family trees and pumpkin stats
• GPC, Great Pumpkin Commowealth
• Howard Dill
• Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario
• BigPumpkins.com
• Growing Atlantic Giant pumpkins