Summer Weather Takes a Toll on Growers Seeking the King Pumpkin Title
A season of pouring rain has left some pumpkins failing and others growing as growers compete to have their golden orb named the 2025 King Pumpkin.
Dean Wehr, weighmaster in charge of the pumpkins at the weigh in, is just as surprised as everyone else when it comes time to growers bringing in their pumpkins to the Pumpkin Festival.
Wehr said some growers like to share growth progress on Facebook, while others like to keep quiet about theirs.
On Wednesday evening of the festival, Wehr’s job is to inspect the pumpkins, making sure they are ready to go. If a pumpkin has any rot or holes, it will be rejected. Although a pumpkin may have rot or holes, Wehr still weighs them because growers can sell the seeds afterwards based on their Great Pumpkin Commonwealth standings.
The Barnesville Pumpkin Festival is GPC certified, one of 10 weigh-off sites in the Great Lakes States of the United States. GPC sites are found throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. A calendar of CPC weigh-offs this year is posted on the organization’s website.
Wehr describes a good pumpkin as a big, beautiful orange one.
The pumpkins competing for the King Pumpkin are on a 120-day cycle, Wehr said. Growers will pollinate the plants 120 days before the weigh-in date to get their max potential.
Wehr noted growers usually like drier weather conditions better because they can control how much water goes onto the pumpkins. He said, “They have everything down to a science.”
Every grower in the top 10 at the Pumpkin Festival wins a cash award. The King Pumpkin winning grower collects $2 a pound for the winning entry.
While not specified for this year, 32 growers participated in the Barnesville weigh off last year.
First place winner for the 2024 King Pumpkin Lee Zappa continues to grow his pumpkins amid the weather adversity. Derrick Zappa helps Lee.
Lee said most of the growers are in a pumpkin club where growers connect.
He said most growers start the process of growing their pumpkins in mid to late April inside the house for about 10 days before they are ready to go outside. Prior, the growers already have greenhouses installed before the seeds are ready to be planted. Growers may also try to warm up the soil if needed.
Zappa pollinated his plants on June 14, which was his earliest ever. He noted the weather at the end of May was cold and wet and that set him back at least a week.
Zappa worked at the Canfield Fair a few weeks ago where he said pumpkin sizes were way down from previous years.
He added too much rain fell and then sometimes it was too dry this summer.
Zappa said he expects pumpkin weights to be down for this year’s festival. When it was raining all the time at the beginning of summer, a lot of nutrients got washed away because his plants were showing signs of nutrient deficiency. He noted, though, sometimes nutrients were still there, but they are locked up in the soil because it is too wet.
When the soil finally dried up in July, Zappa tested and found he was low on nitrogen, which is really important. He ended up getting his plants to green up in early August, and now they are looking good.
“It’s a ton of work. Most growers that are serious, probably put in several hours a day,” he said. “We’re really busy.”
For some growers, pumpkins were no match for the weather.
Although grower Dean Kreager placed in the top 10 of last year’s festival, he has no pumpkins to weigh this year.
He said in early June, a storm did a lot of wind damage to vines. His surviving three plants were all ready and pollinated on the same day but later that day 3.5 inches of rain fell in 45 minutes, which led to the rest of the growing going downhill fast.
The Pumpkin Festival is set for Sept. 25-28. The weigh in will take place at 6 p.m. Sept. 24. The weigh-in will be livestreamed by the Belmont County Tourism Council expanding the reach of the event worldwide.
King Pumpkin 2024 winner Lee Zappa photographed his plant before it bloomed and produced the 2196 pound King Pumpkin last year.
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