Bouyea family wins with Atlantic Giant pumpkin

HARKNESS | A giant pumpkin lounging on a lawn by the woodpile here earned a solid place this fall in competition. Grown by Jonathan Bouyea, the Atlantic Giant earned 10th place in the Giant Pumpkin Fest in Saratoga Springs, weighing in at a whopping 968.5 pounds. It was the first year Bouyea, who owns Top Notch Auto in Keeseville, attempted big pumpkin cultivation. And it became a real family effort through the summer. He attributes this first-time success to a lot of hard work, careful pollination, fertilizer and drip irrigation. "I got compost from Ashline Farm and that really helped. They were competition seeds," Bouyea told The Sun. "This was my first year, and I didn't realize how competitive these guys get," he laughed. There is a lot to growing giants, he said, describing how they buried the vines, culled extra pumpkin starts and tendrils, and marked progress daily. There is a science to it. Some competitors cross-pollinate varieties of giant pumpkin because pollination isn't always left to the bees. "You wrap the flowers so they can't open. When they push themselves open, you pollinate them and then wrap the flowers again. It guarantees germination." Bouyea grew a few other huge pumpkins that he allowed bees to pollinate, but they didn't reach the same heft as the winning squash, which they've affectionately named "Jackson." "My son named it," Bouyea laughed. Bouyea said the whole family, his wife, Kaitlyn, and their young sons, Maverick and Oscar, had a blast watching their giant grow. "The whole family was into it. We'd have dinner and then go out, cut the tendrils, pick the flowers, and see how big it was getting." Initially, Bouyea thought they might carve a boat out of it and take it for a test float off Port Kent in Lake Champlain. "I don't know if this one is going to be the boat," he mused. "I was thinking about doing that. We'll see what happens next year." To cut it, he said, you have to use a sawzall. The Atlantic Giant called Jackson will be moved to Port Kent as part of the extended Bouyea family's trick-or-treat display for Halloween.

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Bouyea family wins with Atlantic Giant pumpkin

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