By Leslie Cholowsky, Editor
For the second year in a row, Sean Sheedy from Sedgewick is attempting to grow a giant pumpkin, and this year, he’s well on track to beat his own record.
Sheedy unveiled the sprouted seed for this year’s pumpkin on April 22, planting it soon after.
Then a strong windstorm in early May destroyed the first plant. Luckily, Sheedy had a backup pumpkin ready to go, and started to put all his care and attention to that pumpkin.
This year’s pumpkin is named “Priscilla.”
Sheedy has navigated a few scary moments, like when he discovered a crack on the stem. He told his social media followers that “A wound on a pumpkin has the same risks as it does on a human… infection and rot.”
He says the pumpkin community assured him that a bit of rubbing alcohol and drying it with a fan should avert disaster.
Sheedy gives regular updates on Priscilla’s growth, on June 30 she was 56” around, then on Aug. 3 when he measured she’d ballooned to 68”.
That’s when he realized that if the pumpkin continued to grow at this rate, he might beat his record from last year of 189 pounds.
According to a pumpkin weight calculator he found, at 68” Priscilla would have been around 117 pounds.
Less than a week later, the pumpkin was measured at seven feet in diameter, which gives it an estimated weight of 200 pounds. He said, “Last year the calculator over estimated, so I don’t trust it much.”
Just this past weekend, Pricilla measured up at eight feet (96”) around, and the calculator now estimates her weight at 300 pounds.
He told his followers, “I didn’t think she would get this big, so I have to move some of the vines around so they don’t damage her or she them.” He also started treating the pumpkin for spider mites. As of Sunday, she’d grown more, to 99” around, est. 320 pounds.
Read the rest of this story from the August 26 edition of The Community Press!
