Buddy & the great Pumpkin

We got a late start growing this 400 pound pumpkin, but it's finally ripe. It was grown just from seeds bought at Walmart, the Dill's Atlantic Giant. It grew to this size in two months and was a lot of fun watching how fast it grew. At its best it was putting on 10 to 15 pounds a day. If you want to grow a bigger one you have to get seeds from a genetic grower of the ones over 1000 pounds. It had a lot of challenges--hungry, bored rabbits, powdery mildew, squash beetles, a hail storm, and then high temperatures. Circumference is 120 inches and with this and a couple of other measurements its estimated weight is 400 lbs.