At least two hours a day tending to his pumpkin‚ with the heatwave during December requiring in excess of five hours’ attention a day being poured into his behemoth‚ landed a Centurion man an epic reward at the weekend.
Peet Joubert‚ who fielded a pumpkin weighing in at 613kg‚ smashed the South African giant pumpkin record at the Livingseeds Giant Pumpkin Competition‚ held at the Walkerville Agricultural Show in Gauteng.
Sean Freeman, of livingseeds.co.za, said: “Peet’s giant was an outright winner, with his closest competitor displaying a pumpkin of 357.5kg.”
On his own Facebook page‚ Joubert has been sharing his experience of growing the pumpkin from seed to the monster size the plant became.
In one video‚ the new national pumpkin grower champion expresses his excitement at the first buds and the “spellbinding” flowers that emerged as well as the practical details of plant spacing and irrigation required to ensure the dramatic growth of his pumpkin.
Freeman said: “Peet is new to pumpkin growing‚ and says that this was one of the most stressful things that he has accomplished.”
These pumpkins grew at such a rapid rate that you could see them gaining between 25 and 30kg in a single day‚ Freeman said‚ adding it had an average growing period of between 70 and 80 days.
An immense amount of attention is required to ensure nothing goes wrong with a competition-quality pumpkin.
Even loading a giant pumpkin from a grower’s back garden was a mission that could not be underestimated‚ Freeman said.
Joubert’s trailer that was used to carry the pumpkin became bogged down in the soft soil .
As a result‚ he had to lift a 3ton trailer “that also had the added weight of the South African record-breaking pumpkin on it‚ and it had to be done in a way that did not put the ‘life’ of his pumpkin in jeopardy”, Freeman said.
“Any structural damage to the pumpkin caused by a wrong move‚ or the trailer slipping off a jack‚ would have disqualified his entry‚ even before it had arrived at the weigh-in.”
A modest Joubert‚ whose profile shares the famous quote “To grow a plant is to believe in tomorrow”– attributed to actress Audrey Hepburn‚ simply states: “Passion = Hard Work = Results.”
New SA giant pumpkin record
Image: Facebook
At least two hours a day tending to his pumpkin‚ with the heatwave during December requiring in excess of five hours’ attention a day being poured into his behemoth‚ landed a Centurion man an epic reward at the weekend.
Peet Joubert‚ who fielded a pumpkin weighing in at 613kg‚ smashed the South African giant pumpkin record at the Livingseeds Giant Pumpkin Competition‚ held at the Walkerville Agricultural Show in Gauteng.
Sean Freeman, of livingseeds.co.za, said: “Peet’s giant was an outright winner, with his closest competitor displaying a pumpkin of 357.5kg.”
On his own Facebook page‚ Joubert has been sharing his experience of growing the pumpkin from seed to the monster size the plant became.
In one video‚ the new national pumpkin grower champion expresses his excitement at the first buds and the “spellbinding” flowers that emerged as well as the practical details of plant spacing and irrigation required to ensure the dramatic growth of his pumpkin.
Freeman said: “Peet is new to pumpkin growing‚ and says that this was one of the most stressful things that he has accomplished.”
These pumpkins grew at such a rapid rate that you could see them gaining between 25 and 30kg in a single day‚ Freeman said‚ adding it had an average growing period of between 70 and 80 days.
An immense amount of attention is required to ensure nothing goes wrong with a competition-quality pumpkin.
Even loading a giant pumpkin from a grower’s back garden was a mission that could not be underestimated‚ Freeman said.
Joubert’s trailer that was used to carry the pumpkin became bogged down in the soft soil .
As a result‚ he had to lift a 3ton trailer “that also had the added weight of the South African record-breaking pumpkin on it‚ and it had to be done in a way that did not put the ‘life’ of his pumpkin in jeopardy”, Freeman said.
“Any structural damage to the pumpkin caused by a wrong move‚ or the trailer slipping off a jack‚ would have disqualified his entry‚ even before it had arrived at the weigh-in.”
A modest Joubert‚ whose profile shares the famous quote “To grow a plant is to believe in tomorrow”– attributed to actress Audrey Hepburn‚ simply states: “Passion = Hard Work = Results.”
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