Utah Pumpkin Patch Tour - 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2010 Pumpkin Patch Tour was a big success. We tried something new this year and showcased some of the patches
in the northern part of the state. We started up in Brigham City with Ross Bowman’s patch. Ross and his wife Kaye were kind enough to provide us with breakfast of French toast and peaches and cream.Ross has a beautiful yard and very impressive garden. Ross’s garden is surrounded by flowers and he grows vegetables of all kinds as well as giant pumpkins.

From Brigham City we drove to Ogden to look at Matt McConkie’s and Tyler Quigley’s patch. We were all heartbroken to see the 840 pounder that Matt lost due to a split on the blossom end. I believe this is the biggest pumpkin ever grown in Utah this early in the year. Luckily Matt has another pumpkin estimating around 560 pounds that is still growing very well and will be a contender for this year’s top pumpkin. Tyler Quigley also had two nice pumpkins that were both estimating at about 480 pounds. There is enough time left in the year for either one of his pumpkins to reach the 1000 pound mark.

Next we drove up to the bench in Ogden to Dr. Sadiq’s patch. Sadiq has just one plant with a very nice pumpkin estimating right around 400 pounds. Sadiq’s patch slopes down but he has the pumpkin supported on a relatively flat surface. His plant looked very good and it was easy to see that his pumpkin has a lot of growth potential.

From Ogden we drove to Layton to see a patch of pumpkins grown by some varsity scouts. BrentWolfley is a varsity scout leader and his scouts decided to grow some giant pumpkins this year. They were kind enough to let us visit their patch and see their progress. We met with the assistant scout leader Burke Green and also met two of the varsity scouts;
James Knight and Braden Checketts. We were impressed with how they had kept such good growth records and even had future projections for the pumpkins. Brent has taught these young men well and it was easy to see how excited they were about the whole experience.

Next we went to Mitch Eiting’s patch in Bountiful. Mitch has a smaller lot and showed us how it is possible to grow a 500
pound pumpkin in a patch that is less than 400 square feet.

From there we went to West Valley to see Brent Evans and his patch. Brent has two nice pumpkins growing and he gets a lot of help from his family. For Brent growing pumpkins is a family affair. Brent’s son and grandson are involved in the hobby and love growing giant pumpkins.

Our next stop was Taylorsville to see Andrew Israelsen’s patch. Andrew lost two of his three pumpkins. For some reason they just stopped growing. When his second pumpkin, the 919 Israelsen, stopped growing he decided to take it to the Salt Lake County Fair. The pumpkin was estimating at 500 pounds and was a beautiful round orange pumpkin. The pumpkin was the hit of the Fair and it earned a Best of Show ribbon. He still has one pumpkin that is still growing and was estimating at 730 pounds.

Our last stop was David Bradley’s patch. David has a couple beautiful orange pumpkins that are in the high 300 pound range and are growing very well. He also has a greenie that is smaller than his pumpkins but is growing very quickly. After looking at the pumpkins, Dave and Cathy served us all homemade ice cream and we sat in the shade of his backyard and enjoyed each other’s company. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the tour and made it so enjoyable. We would also like to thank those growers who shared their patches with the rest of us. We all learned a lot and had a great time.