545 pound pumpkin takes all at competition

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Story Published: Oct 27, 2009 at 9:21 AM PST

By Katie Boer KPIC News

CANYONVILLE, Ore. -- These days, weight is something everybody wants to keep off. But this harvest, the pumpkins are packing on the pounds and in Canyonville, Ore., that's a good thing.

You can walk it in, cart it or even use a fork lift, but you wont get far trying to roll it.

The annual giant pumpkin weigh-in brings in the largest squash from around the county.

Contestant Joanne Gordon said, "It's pretty spectacular, I've been trying (to win) for seven years. Last year my pumpkin only weighed 40 pounds. This year it didn't rot and it kept growing."

This year she took first place. "545 pounds! This is an amazon pumpkin!"

Whether your pumpkin weighs in at 60 or 375, everyone has their growing secrets.

"I kept putting the vines over it to shade it, cause if the skin hardens then it doesn't keep getting bigger," said Gordon.

Two time pumpkin competition winner Ed Westfall said, "A lot of people think it's crazy, but go out and sing to your pumpkins, give em hugs. It helps."

Norriell and Gloria Kampmaus say the key to their nearly 500 pound pumpkin was T.L.C. "One day it's a softball, the next day it's a basketball, it just keeps growing. It's very small but it grows very rapidly."

Westfall says, "You could actually leave in the morning and come back and see growth. If you had time you could sit there in the daytime, and this is not a fictitious story, you could watch em grow they grow so fast.

The competition brought plenty of fun for all to watch, and people are already thinking about the bedtime story they will read to their pumpkins next year.

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