Local man grows prizewinning pumpkins

PITTSFIELD – When Joseph “Joe” L. Goetze says he’s planning to carve a big pumpkin for  the upcoming Halloween holiday, he means it.

The pumpkin he will be carving, with the help of his five-year-old granddaughter, Emma Goetze, weighs 1,456 pounds.

As a matter of fact, the same pumpkin recently won eighth place in a contest at the Topsfield State Fair, north of Boston. Topsfield is America’s oldest agricultural fair. He won a ribbon and $100.

Another one of Mr. Goetze’s big boys, which weighed 1,154 pounds, recently won second prize in the Giant Pumpkin Contest at the Big E (Eastern States Exposition) in West Springfield. As of this writing, the very pudgy winner can be seen in front of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.

Mr. Goetze retired a year ago June from the Lenox Department of Public Works, where he worked for 38 years.

He’s been growing giant pumpkins for at least 14 years. How does he get them to grow so large?

“Good seeds and a lot of luck,” he said.

This past spring and summer, Mr. Goetze grew four big boys, including the two winning entries. A 1,072-pounder still sits at the end of his driveway.

Unfortunately, a fourth pumpkin, weighed at almost 1,200 pounds, cracked.

To get the huge pumpkins to the Big E and to the Topsfield State Fair, Mr. Goetze borrowed a forklift from B&G Construction Company. The pumpkins were on pallets and had to be strapped down and hoisted. It was quite a production and took at least a half hour to get each pumpkin ready to roll.

The patch in which Mr. Goetze grows his pumpkins is 3,200 square feet. He spends between $300 and $400 on fertilizer.

He even has to send soil samples for testing in a California laboratory to see what has to be added to make it the best possible soil for growing.

Now that he’s retired, Mr. Goetze can spend several hours a day in the pumpkin patch, tending to his potential prizewinners.

From May to September, the pumpkins put on between 30 and 35 pounds a day, he said.

Now that the contests are over, Mr. Goetze plans to use a saw to carve the gargantuan pumpkin perched in front of his house. He’ll draw a face on it and insert a drop light, he said.

He gets a kick out of growing these beauties, but said they wouldn’t make very many pumpkin pies.

“They are 90 percent water,” he said.

What’s the fate of  the gigantic pumpkin now in front of the Red Lion Inn after Halloween?

“It’ll go to the pigs,” Mr. Goetze said.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on October 11, 2012. Filed under Community News,Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry