By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — The Circleville Pumpkin Show is much more than just four days of parades, rides and vendors selling anything edible made with pumpkin. There’s a friendly, yet hidden battle going on among the growers of this fruit.

More than anything else, folks in Pickaway County want to be known as the holder of the largest pumpkin for that show.
This year, Dr. Bob Liggett and his wife, Jo, took the top prize of $2,000 at the 102nd annual event, with a pumpkin that weighed 1,375.5 pounds. It was Liggett’s seventh victory in the Circleville Pumpkin Show weigh-in.

Last year, he grew an Ohio-record pumpkin that tipped the scale at 1,524.5 pounds. Sharing the secrets of his success is Liggett’s pleasure.

“At first it started out that all the growers were so competitive, that they held secrets to themselves, but a few years ago we started a group whereby we share ideas and methods to growing these monsters,” he said. “We do this so we have better genetics for pumpkins in our area.

“We meet each second Sunday in November to share what methods we used; methods such as pollination and watering, what insecticides worked best and what ones didn’t work at all.”
Liggett, whose car license plate reads DRPMPKN, began growing his heavy winner on April 20.

Second place at the weigh-in went to Buddy Conley and Karen Wiget. Their pumpkin weighed 1,145 pounds. The couple took third at last year’s show and received $700 for their second-place finish this season.

Caleb Miller and his grandfather, Ken Speakman, finished third in the great weigh-in, at 1,073 pounds.

“We started growing it in a garage in March; it’s a lot of work,” Miller said. “When it was small, we put Styrofoam under it to better protect it and to keep it from rotting.

“You really have to worry when it rains a lot, too, so you have to control the water.”

The two men planted five seeds but only two matured to gigantic portions. Their biggest problems this season were insects and yellow vine disease. Animals were not an issue, as they erected a fence to keep them away and eventually put a tent over the pumpkins, opening the flaps occasionally for some sunshine.
“I’m somewhat glad this is all over,” Miller said.

Growing large pumpkins require lots of time. And some money. “It cost us about $600 to raise these pumpkins,” said Speakman, who grew a pumpkin weighing 1,263 pounds last season.

“We were dealing with fungicides, insecticides and fertilizer all the time. We were constantly watering them and giving them plenty of sunlight. We spent two to three hours a day with these things.
“Every day you’re doing something with these things. They’re a lot of work,” he said.

Speakman retired from his job in 1998. At age 58 he simply had some time on his hands, so when Miller brought home a few giant pumpkin seeds, Speakman went to work – growing pumpkins, that is.

“We cross-pollinated ours by hand,” he said. “We crossed our biggest pumpkin with someone else’s biggest pumpkin.

“And, you have to be on hand when you cross-pollinate; you don’t want a bee doing this. You have to be there when the blossom opens up on the female plant and cross-pollinate them the same day. This way, you can protect the genetics,” Speakman said.

Trucks with the pumpkins lined Main Street on the opening morning of the show, and all faced the center of town where a crane was ready to hoist the large fruit onto a scale for an official weigh-in in the center of this central Ohio city. Several thousand people 10-deep packed the intersection of Court Street and Main Street to witness the annual weigh-in.

The rules are simple: Any opening in a pumpkin is grounds for disqualification. Any sign of disease will disqualify an entrant, as well.

“I always say this will be my last year, but I keep coming back,” Speakman said. “I guess I do it for the challenge. We really battled that yellow vine disease. I believe it came in with importing.”