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On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

I was looking at the weigh-off results for pumpkins and there are very few listed as coming from Canada. What is the story? Is this related to climate change?

10/11/2017 5:04:31 PM

Eganville, Ontario

Climate change should help Canadians one would think. I've heard the weather dabate but It's hard to blame the weather too much when a lot of ontario growers are more south than some very good American growers.

I would say there's only a couple dozen serious Canadian growers that are set up in a decent enough climate to really compete. It's a numbers thing.

10/11/2017 9:12:49 PM

Georgetown, Ontario

Pesticide Bans in several Provinces like Ontario makes a big difference too. Unless you are smuggling in products or breaking the lawn you will be getting hammered with Powdery Mildew, Cuc Beetles, Squash Vine Borer, etc. Also, when you can win $1500 weigh offs with a 1400 pound pumpkin, there isn't a whole lot of incentive to spend a lot more money to grow 2000 pounders.

10/12/2017 4:06:35 PM

Ontario

For us in eastern Ontario, the weather was hard on us. Weeks of rain and cool nights,then very hot in mid September. Jim worked hard, but our 2 largest pumpkins have rot as do several nice field pumpkins.

10/12/2017 7:15:23 PM

Walkerton Ont

true but i would grow for the sport not for the money.

10/14/2017 5:54:51 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Scott Carley beat a long standing Provincial Record in BC this year besting Jake van Kooten’s 1536.5 (world record at the time) with his 1543lb pumpkin grown from his own seed. Lots of PB’s at the Weighoff this year, just not a lot of serious growers in our area.

10/15/2017 9:36:52 AM

Ontario, Canada

Our time is coming soon. The GVGO is offering a nice chunk of change to the 1st Canadian GVGO member to reach this milestone. We'll up it by another $500 to $6,000 for 2018.

Cold & extremely wet season was the downfall for a lot of our Ontario growers. Just look at how many different Ontario growers made it to a weigh off. The number is small compared to previous seasons. Some of Ontario's better growers either didn't grow or got wiped out.

By the time summer weather arrived in Aug, it was too late to get those big gains & a cold snap in early Sept, slowed growth to a crawl. Our pumpkins never reached more than 30# per day & that was only 1 pumpkin & for only 1 week. We are however thankful to get 3 pumpkins (2 over 1500#) & a squash to a weigh off after last season's disaster of going 0 for 4.
Ryan H is right, there are only a handful of serious growers in Canada, so the odds aren't in our favor. Also we don't have very many growers who owe huge greenhouses either, as our hot summer temps make it either too expensive or unbearable to grow in.

Jane & I are taking next season off, so if the 2,000# barrier isn't broken in 2018, then look out, as we'll be refreshed & ready to break it in 2019. ;o).

Congrats to all the Canadian growers who grew a new PB & also to all the growers who made it to scales this year.

Cheers,
Phil & Jane
GVGO

10/16/2017 8:36:55 AM

nOVA sCOTIA

My patch has been heating up for the last few years. Green manure after green manure after green manure so i'm pretty sure if we recieve a summer in 2018 like we did here in Nova Scotia this year i will be in the game again!!!I have a 2145 and other exellent seed so i will be sending my membership dues to the GVGO to be part of the contest :)

10/16/2017 9:36:39 AM