Chuck Shugart showed off some of the pumpkins he’s been growing at his farm at Yellow Grass this summer, stopping by the Weyburn Review office on Wednesday afternoon.
Collectively the pumpkins weighed around 900 pounds, according to the scales at Mryglod Steel, and the biggest two were those in front of him, weighing 134 and 121 pounds respectively.
He said some neighbours may want one for a big jack-o-lantern, but otherwise he may sell any of the ones he’s not able to give away.
The big gourds had extra water and fertilizer as Shugart had hoped one of them might exceed 200 pounds. He had heard some growers will feed in milk through the stem to help them grow big, but he hasn’t tried that method as yet.
Two years ago he had one that reached 198 pounds, and he had hoped to break that mark. Some of his larger pumpkins were taken that year by the Co-op for a pumpkin smash event.
He sourced his seeds from a supplier in Saskatoon, but is hoping to obtain seeds from a grower in Eastern Canada who has had pumpkins reach up to 1,000 pounds.
