Biggest loser has no place in this pumpkin patch

ENUMCLAW — Here is how seriously Robin Halbert takes growing giant, champion pumpkins.

He's a chicken farmer here, on a 10-acre farm that also includes a couple pet pigs that mostly sleep in the backyard.

Not long ago, Squiggles, a 200-pounder, managed to wander into the 800-square-foot greenhouse where Halbert babies those pumpkins, one of which weighed in at 994.5 pounds and took first place in the Super Pumpkin category at this year's Puyallup Fair.

Giant pumpkins are all about the weight, and the winning Puyallup Fair specimen is a long way from the 1,725-pound world record holder in Ohio.

But it's also been a cold, rainy summer here, and the Puyallup Fair is an early contest. With more growing time, Halbert, 40, expects to enter an even heavier pumpkin in the Oct. 9 contest at the Central Market in Shoreline.

Anyway, Squiggles ate some of the vine of the winning pumpkin, which didn't hurt the pumpkin, but which resulted in Halbert putting up a blockade consisting of a metal fence.

But what would have happened if the pig had managed to chomp into the actual pumpkin?

"I'd have barbecued her," says Halbert.

Uhh, you're serious?

"Well, something would have happened to her," he says. "If you're on a farm, and you have a dog that's attacking chickens, you get rid of the dog."

There is an entire subculture devoted to growing Giant Pumpkins.

There are videos and books, and seeds touted to grow the biggest. You can join the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth and go on a Great Pumpkin Caribbean Cruise.

Various stories say that the most primo of primo Giant Pumpkin seeds can fetch $500 at auction, although Holland's Land O'Giants, run by Joel and Mari Lou Holland, of Sumner, sells top seeds for $5 to $25 each. (Joel Holland made it into the 1992 Guinness World Records with an 827-pound pumpkin.)

Halbert's interest is in the sport — and for Giant Pumpkin growers, it is a sport, akin to running a marathon as they spend hours each day babying the plants.

He started in 2003, when, after years of seeing the Giant Pumpkins at the Puyallup, he decided to try his hand.

He used to take part in motorcycle races, with the usual injuries — broken ribs, broken collarbone.

About the only injury you can get growing Giant Pumpkins is if you decide to hoist a big one without a tractor.

Halbert bought and planted seeds from Holland.

"Nothing sprouted. The soil temperature wasn't warm enough," he remembers.

In 2004, he mounded some soil, which he guesses increased the soil temperature, and this time, he got a sprout.

"But I think the pumpkin got crossed with a male zucchini and it didn't get very big," says Halbert.

He began researching, and by 2006 had built nine small, portable greenhouses.

That year, he placed third at the Puyallup Fair with a 499-pounder. In the next years, more prizes followed in area pumpkin contests.

So this year, Halbert has the 800-square-foot greenhouse devoted to growing four Giant Pumpkin plants.

Over the winter, he had 500 chickens living in the greenhouse, which certainly resulted in fantastic manure.

Of course, the pumpkins are covered with blankets for maximum heat, and they get rubbed with olive oil so they glisten right before a show.

Before 2007, when he invested in 18 barrels to hold 8,000 gallons of rain water, Halbert was paying an extra $1,200 in his water bill during the pumpkin-growing season from May to October.

Like any sport, this one is not without controversy. A February 1997 Outside magazine article told of contestants using hypodermic needles to inject water into pumpkins for extra weight.

It is, however, for the most part a genteel pursuit in which excitement is witnessing a pumpkin gain 50 pounds of weight a day.

"Anybody can be a pro athlete in Giant Pumpkin growing. You don't need the physique to be in the NFL or NBA," says Halbert.

And, he says, there is just something about telling people that you grow them that brings smiles to their faces.

"It's the disbelief a vegetable can be that big. This isn't fiberglass. This is real. You say, 'I grow Giant Pumpkins.' You've got a friend instantly."

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237.