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Vol. 13: Grow Giant Vegetables

Extreme sports meet 4H when you grow giant pumpkins.

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+ Downloads & Extras:

Grow Your Own

Sites:

• howarddill.com — Howard Dill kicked off the modern era of the giant pumpkin in 1981 with his 493-pound world record fruit. He developed and patented his Dill's Atlantic Giant, the seed stock used by many serious growers. World Record Genetics brand seeds, which sell on his site for $20 each, sell out fast, so don't dawdle.
• bigpumpkins.com — Seed exchange, pumpkin cam, weigh-off lists, and a fascinating forum are features of this well-known pumpkin people site.

Books:

• Don Langevin’s three-volume World Class Giant Pumpkins has profiles of growers and their fruits and in-depth articles on every aspect of the magnificent Cucurbita maxima.
• Even if the closest you get to compost is your apartment's trash chute, Charles H. Wilber's How to Grow World Record Tomatoes is worth it just for the pictures of the 28-foot-high tomato plant and the 100-pound watermelon.

DVDs:

• Lords of the Gourd is a PBS documentary by Mark Lewis, an Australian filmmaker who follows several competitors in the Cooperstown Pumpkin Fest through the 2006 growing season.
• Jim Beauchemin, aka Pumpkin Jim (pumpkinjim.com), sells his DVD, The Secrets of Growing Champion Giant Pumpkins, which leads you day by day through the life of his vines and imparts secrets you never would have imagined. Even if you're just an armchair gardener, you'll find this instructional video a great introduction to the sport.