A jolly man and his green giants

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The 190-pound melon that stunned crowds at Benton Neighbor Days has gone Hollywood.

Bob "Melon Man" Dwyer, a Sikeston watermelon farmer whose ultimate goal is to break the 262-pound world record, and his produce will be featured on "Garden Giants" at 8 p.m. Sunday on Home and Garden Television.

A crew from High Noon Productions in Denver, Colo., came to Southeast Missouri for two days in August, taping Dwyer on his farm and at the Benton event. Segment producer Corinna Robbins said she knew Dwyer was perfect for the one-hour special from their first telephone conversation.

"The idea was to do a really fun-loving look at people who get inspired to grow things really, really big," she said. "Bob is so fun and funny, it was a no-brainer."

Dwyer, 43, said he enjoyed his experience with HGTV -- Charter Channel 64 -- but there was one artistic difference: The crew wanted him to pull a melon off the vine before it was ripe.

"I told them I pick no melon before its time," he said.

Dwyer has been chasing the record for nine years and came in third in the world last year with a 228-pounder -- the one at Benton Neighbor Days was a runt donated as a fund raiser. His secret? Priming the ground with lots of horse manure, switching patches every year and using water-soluable fertilizer during the growing season.

Of course, all those featured on "Garden Giants" have their own methods. There's a guy from Alaska who grows mammoth cabbages, a woman from Washington and her prodigious pumpkin and some folks from New Mexico with gargantuan green chiles.

hhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 121