Giant pumpkin ruined from rain

OVER 300kg of Bangalow-grown pumpkin will be missing from the Royal Easter Show this year, thanks to the never-ending downpours.

Pumped up: Tidge Knight pictured in 2005 with one of his biggest pumpkins.

OVER 300kg of Bangalow-grown pumpkin will be missing from the Royal Easter Show this year, thanks to the never-ending downpours.

These big vegetables have been a hobby of Tidge Knight for 21 years and have secured him a number of wins at the Alstonville Show.

But the 73-year-old had a run of bad luck over the past two years missing what could have been an Australian record.

“The weather has buggered them this year,” Mr Knight said.

“A disease gets into them and they just rot.

“Last year my pumpkin was on the way to the Royal Easter Show and it split and then rotted before it could be judged.

“If I got it down I think I could have won.”

Mr Knight’s backyard in Bangalow is turned into a giant pumpkin breeding ground five months a year, fostered by special seeds bought in America.

Huge amounts of pumpkin-devoted time go into preparing these giant entrants, and Mr Knight is not giving up any time soon.

“I plant the seed the first week in November so it takes roughly five months of growing,” he said.

“They take a lot of looking after and watching.

“I don’t use any chemical fertilisers, only a whole lot of compost and natural fertiliser on the leaves.

“I’m going to do it till the day I die.”

The record for the heaviest pumpkin in Australia stands at 512kg and America holds the world record for the heaviest pumpkin at 667kg.

Originally published as Giant pumpkin ruined from rain