Graduate student Andrey Vega-Alfaro readies a knife to free a large squash. To grow giant pumpkins, horticulturalists start with special hybrid seed of the variety Atlantic Giant. Then, they remove all but one fruit from each vine, so the plant can pump all its energy into one massive squash. The largest pumpkin on record weighed 2,624 pounds. These weigh about 100 pounds.
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
Students use a jury-rigged stretcher made of tarp and wooden stakes to transport the pumpkin “patients” from the field to the trailer that will take them back to campus.
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
Opportunity came calling when graduate student Emilee Gaulke, left, and her parents offered the plot behind the family home in Hartland, Wisconsin, to grow the pumpkins. After starting the plants in the Walnut Street Greenhouse on campus, Goldman and his lab members transplanted the vines to Gaulke’s home. Two days before the regatta, the lab, including Adam D’Angelo, right, joined to harvest the pumpkins and transport them back to campus.
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
John and Ann Strassman stopped to help prep the pumpkins for sailing during a visit to the Terrace from Milwaukee. Every October, the couple makes sure to visit campus, where John graduated in 1975 and again in 1979 with an MBA. Their daughter graduated from UW–Madison in 2009.
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
Left to right, Adam D’Angelo, Joel DeMeritt and Liam Dixon use the tools they have available — kayak paddles — to scoop out the innards of the makeshift boats.
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
Students pick the seeds out of the guts of all the squash. On the inside, giant pumpkins look just like their jack-o-lantern cousins. The seeds make a good snack, says Goldman, and can be saved to plant the following year. The Horticulture 370 class that normally grows the gourds also does pie taste tests with giant pumpkins and other squash. The winner every year? A butternut squash variety — just like most canned “pumpkin.”
Photo by: Althea Dotzour
Graduate student Andrey Vega-Alfaro readies Irwin Goldman’s niece, Eva Goldman of Detroit, for her voyage. Although the pumpkins …….
Source: https://news.wisc.edu/pumpkin-paddlers-squash-the-competition/
