st. PAUL, Minnesota — The competitive pumpkin grower is just one of Travis Gienger’s titles.
A native of Anoka, Minnesota, the Halloween capital of the world, Ginger has been growing giant pumpkins for 28 years, starting as a child in a “regular suburban” backyard.
“When I was 14, I grew a 447-pound pumpkin and have been doing it ever since,” Gienger said on the morning of Aug. 30.
Two years ago, he grew the heaviest pumpkin in North America that year.
“And I’m back at it again this year,” he said, referring to gourds that are currently growing to compete in competition this fall.
Another Gienger title is educator. He started his career as a high school teacher and is currently a landscape and horticulture instructor at Anoka Institute of Technology.
He is a business owner, founder and president of Waterstone Fire Tables and Custom Rock Creations. The company filled a space in his Adopt-A-Garden at this year’s Minnesota State Fair out of sheep and poultry barns. Daily time by a giant pumpkin.
Noah Fish / Agweek
He ranks in the elite class of the most competitive pumpkin growers in the world, and his crowning achievement as a grower was attending the 2020 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon, California. and won the 2,350-pound pumpkin.
He rose to media darling status after a pumpkin named Tiger King after the hit Netflix series of the time was named the heaviest pumpkin in North America that year and the third heaviest pumpkin in the world. obtained.
Ginger and Tiger King (Pumpkin) appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show and months after winning their first award, Jeff Lowe, top role in the Tiger King cast, reached out to him and thanked him for the publicity. expressed the meaning of
Every state has a pumpkin contest, but he only wants to enter the highest level.
“You can go here to Stillwater, Minnesota, or you can go west for the big guys in California like I did,” he said.
That makes the pumpkin transport itself a tremendous feat. The trip he makes with his wife and other family members to Northern California is a 2,500-mile trip. With 2,350 pounds of pumpkin.
“So scary,” he said of a cross-country driving stretch sparsely populated by gas stations. If you get holes or cracks, you’re done.”
“It takes a lot of time,” Ginger said of his pumpkin growing process.
A pumpkin he grew this year weighing about 1,000 pounds was on display at the Waterstone exhibition, attracting streams of astonished onlookers who stopped to look and take pictures on weekday mornings. .
But the pumpkin was a single use for Zinger, who said it had unexpectedly sprouted from weeds. There’s no secret to maintaining a perfect giant pumpkin, he says. Constant monitoring and attention to the entire growing process.
“Every morning and evening I spray and fertilize,” he said. “And all day, log in on the phone and he waters 14 times a day and he fertilizes 14 times a day when needed.”
That’s the more than 200 hours he’s put in at this year’s State Fair, plus the last 12 years. I’ve seen a lot of pumpkins in my life, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I thought about taking them to a state fair.
“People just go insane,” he said of the pumpkins on display. It is worth keeping.”
Gienger said the judging process at the top pumpkin growing contest is rigorous, with judges scrutinizing pumpkins from every angle. The pumpkin he had at the state fair would have been eliminated due to cracking.
“If there is even one rotten spot, you are disqualified,” he said.
Just as professional athletes risk using performance-enhancing drugs to gain an edge on the playing field, cheating in pumpkin farming is sure to get caught.
“Once upon a time, a man filled a pumpkin with water and it weighed astronomical,” says Gienger. “So there are no pinholes or anything like that. They inspect pretty well, especially if you’re anywhere near a world record.”
A striking detail of his elite status as a pumpkin grower is that he does it in Minnesota.
“The craziest part of what I do is that it’s outside of Minnesota. This should never happen. ‘We go from 96 degrees to 52 degrees.’
This year, Gienger is growing promising gourds to the final stage before the October competition. Sticking with the theme of current popular entertainment, the pumpkin’s name is Maverick.
He said he could not attend the event until he knew what the pumpkins would be like in a few weeks. I hear you (he took home $16,450 in prize money in 2020 and received $7 per pound in the ‘pay by pounds’ system). Now it’s “I understand”.
“We have about two weeks left, so we’re going to set it up pretty nicely. Right now it’s really, really big. It’s bigger than the others,” he said.
He’s optimistic about Pumpkin, but he’s not ready to spread the news that he’s won another winner.
“I mean, it’s still growing,” he said.
Ginger, 41, said he enjoys the fun that comes with success, but he’s ready to step away from competitive pumpkin growing any time soon.
“After this year, I said growth was over,” he said. “But my wife doesn’t want me to.”
If he wins the top prize again two years after his last one, his retirement will shock the pumpkin-growing world much like Michael Jordan did for the NBA in 1993.
