For Joe Scherber, growing gourds is more than a hobby. It’s a passion.
Massive pumpkins grow in the yard of his Wheat Ridge home, their vines snaking in all directions. Some of Scherber’s favorite smaller pumpkins and gourds line his porch. And in his living room, pumpkin seeds dry on absorbent pads, their genetics carefully labeled. Behind his house is a pumpkin graveyard, a massive pile of deconstructed pumpkin chunks that resembles a beached whale.
Pumpkin growing shapes the seasons for Scherber.
“I’ve done it for so long that it would be strange if I didn’t,” he said.
A dentist by training, Scherber grew pumpkins as a kid and enjoyed them. He started growing giant pumpkins about a decade ago when a patient showed him a picture of a pumpkin he had grown, which was large enough for him to sit inside, Scherber said. The patient gave him one of the seeds to plant in his yard, and Scherber’s first pumpkin was about 200 pounds.
Scherber caught the fever. In 1996, the first year Scherber competed with his pumpkins, he set the state record with a 746-pounder. In 2000, Scherber set the record again with a 1,009.2-pound pumpkin, the largest ever grown in the state.
Scherber has driven his pumpkins to Anamosa, Iowa, for the national competition a few times. He uses a sling to hoist the pumpkins into his truck and covers them, to protect them from damage and gawking motorists, he said. He’s done well in the national competition in the past, but it’s getting very competitive, he said.
Scherber and other pumpkin enthusiasts trade seeds every year to see how they will grow. He is particularly interested in tracking the genetics of giant pumpkins, since growth is a recessive trait, he aid.
Scherber said he’s seen some pumpkin seeds sell on eBay for up to $600 each, but seeds aren’t everything, he said.
“Everything’s got to fall into place,” he said. “It’s really hit or miss.”
Scherber only grows a few plants each year because it’s better to focus on quality over quantity, he said.
This year, he pined most of his hope on an 800-pounder that was growing about 20 pounds a day. Scherber pruned all of the fast-growing vines and kept the pumpkin covered with a blanket to protect it from sun, wind and his cats’ claws, but a crack on the pumpkin’s blossom end did it in, he said.
Scherber was disappointed, but internal cracks and genetic cracks are often a problem with giant pumpkins and cannot be prevented, he said.
“I didn’t get suicidal or anything,” Scherber said. “It’s just a pumpkin.”
Pumpkin growing is a good activity for families because it teaches kids about genetics, pollination and gardening, said Scherber’s wife, Michelle. The Scherbers also have made new friends through the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, a global organization for pumpkin enthusiasts who meet every year, Michelle Scherber said.
The pumpkins serve another important purpose.
“It’s definitely a conversation piece,” Michelle Scherber said.
Briana Hovendick is the Wheat Ridge Community Editor. She can be reached at 303-279-5541, ext. 222.
DID YOU KNOW?
The world’s largest pumpkin, grown in 2006 in Pennsylvania, weighed 1,502 pounds, according to published reports.