Life Is Gourd

Story by Amanda Larch

Each year, Chris Rodebaugh receives recognition and awards for his giant pumpkins. Now, he’s sharing tips and tricks on how to cultivate the perfect pumpkin.

A few years ago, local dentist Chris Rodebaugh attended the West Virginia State Fair and was so drawn to the large pumpkins on exhibit, he wanted to try to grow them himself. 

After researching, Rodebaugh discovered pumpkins could grow even bigger than those 300-pound fruits on display at the fair, and his interest piqued. 

“I was just amazed at how big they were,” Rodebaugh recalls. “I thought, I’m going to grow a 500 pounder and I’m going to compete next year at our state fair.”

He planted his first seeds in 2018, and by the time of the state fair, he had a pumpkin in his patch that was about 900 pounds—and continuing to grow by at least 20 pounds a day.

“It was already way over anticipated, and it was still growing pretty aggressively,” Rodebaugh says. “I didn’t want to take it off.”

So, Rodebaugh let it keep growing while researching other weigh offs he could attend later in the season. When he finally settled on the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth competition at the North Carolina State Fair, he removed the pumpkin. It weighed in at 1,551 pounds and won first place in that year’s competition. Rodebaugh chalks this down to good weather and a little bit of beginner’s luck. 

Attending fairs and weigh offs is a family affair for Rodebaugh. Ever since he started growing pumpkins, his father has joined in with the hobby, growing his own giant pumpkins.

“He’s my big ride or die in this world. A lot of times it’s me and him, and if it’s not me and him, it’s me and my immediate family going to the weigh offs. You go, eat good, stay somewhere, and have a have a nice little mini vacation weekend,” he says. 

Since that first year competing, Rodebaugh has continued to grow large pumpkins and has won several weigh offs and placed in others, including at the North Carolina State Fair. He says what he likes most of all about growing pumpkins is the excitement at the scale; his largest fruit to date was just shy of a ton, weighing in at 1,965 and one-half pounds.  

“It also went to the North Carolina State Fair; I became quite partial to that weigh off,” he says. “I see the same people weigh in, and a few new people every so often. It’s a good atmosphere.” 

Aside from his beginner’s luck, Rodebaugh stresses the importance of doing the research before the first seeds even hit the soil. Soil, as it turns out, is crucial. 

“The first year was doing the research, putting in the time and effort, and making sure things were fed properly,” he says. “I didn’t do any type of soil adjustments that first year; I took virgin ground that never had a garden or had any type of soil amendments to it and tilled it, put some plants out, and managed them nicely.”

Rodebaugh recommends anyone, regardless of what they’d like to grow, taking a soil test and sending it off to WVU Extension or other colleges and businesses that offer those services. The test results show what the soil may be lacking, and the soil can be amended pre-season, which will benefit crops for the rest of the year and provide better yields. 

“It’s just as important to somebody that has a family garden as it is somebody who wants to professionally grow pumpkins,” he says. “If you know your soil, then you can do better.”

Rodebaugh prepares for each fall harvest beginning in April, starting the seeds indoors in a grow chamber equipped with special lighting. After a few weeks, he’ll look to transplant them outside in what he calls a hot hut—a miniature greenhouse—to allow the plant a different environment than the outside environment, in case of frost or snow. 

“I do what it takes to make sure the plant has the best chance to get established early on,” he explains. “When the last chance of frost is there, which is probably the middle or even late May, I remove that and then it’s open to the environment. So they’re babied early on.”

When the soil hits a certain temperature, usually between 62 and 65 degrees, the nature of the plant changes. “The first month or so, no joke, it’s kind of slowpoke, and then the nice warm spell comes and watch out,” Rodebaugh says.

In June or July, the next step is selecting the best fruit with the best position on the vine to pollinate, resulting in a controlled cross. Rodebaugh does this so bees won’t have a chance to pollinate it—and because of predictability. Think of two prize racehorses producing an offspring with the potential to be another great horse someday. That’s the same mindset here, Rodebaugh says, as he uses seeds with a traceable lineage and pedigree.

“It’s just basic minor genetic manipulation of making the cross the way you want,” he says. 

At the time of pollination, the fruit is between 250 to 550 square feet and still growing; it will eventually take up about 1,000 square feet. It has what Rodebaugh calls a ‘big sink’ on all the nutrients coming up in the plant, causing vine growth to slow, with an average weight gain of 40 to 45 pounds a day. Rodebaugh says he has left for work in the morning and returned to a visible difference in the size of the pumpkins.

But don’t get too caught up in how much a pumpkin grows each day, Rodebaugh advises, because it’s all about how well that pumpkin is sustained.

“The key, like anything, is not how high those weight gains get, it’s how long you sustain them,” he says. “You’re better to have 30 pound a day gains for four or five weeks than you are 40, 50 pound gains for 10 days. It’s keeping everything happy and healthy.” 

The plant’s health directly relates to overall fruit production, how well it performs and how big it gets, Rodebaugh says. Managing the plants and making sure the fruit stays healthy is crucial, as is keeping the garden weed free to allow for proper airflow and ensuring the soil has the proper moisture concentration. From there, Rodebaugh says, it’s a waiting game. 

“Find the weigh off that you’re looking for and hope that your fruit holds together (and) doesn’t split,” he advises. “If we have a nasty rain event, that could cause the fruit to split and that’s game over. Or if there’s a big drought, you’d better be supplementing water because that fruit will stall out and will do nothing.

“It’s really keeping everything as ideal as possible. That’s what it’s all about, an ideal growing environment at every moment of that whole lifecycle,” he says.

After all the work that goes into it, what happens to the pumpkins after the weigh offs? Some stay on display at the fairs they’ve placed in, though Rodebaugh will harvest the seeds. Other times, Rodebaugh has sold the fruit to what he calls a pumpkin broker, who will rehome them to a business or event—or even, in one case, at Dollywood as part of the theme park’s Halloween decorations. Maybe the most fun of all, Rodebaugh will sometimes bring them home and set them in his front lawn on display for neighbors to enjoy. 

“Nobody approaches that with anything else except for happiness or wonder, and there’s very few things in this world that you can get a consensus across the public that brings joy,” he says.