Woodridge Farmer Grows, Shows Thousand-Pound Pumpkins

Greg Sliwka does not have an ordinary vegetable garden.

In fact, he doesn’t quite have a vegetable garden at all. It’s more of a giant pumpkin patch.

For around two decades now, My Suburban Life reported, Woodridge's Sliwka has been using about 1,000 square feet of his yard to plant and grow giant pumpkins, which he then enters in weighing competitions each fall.

“I think it probably started when I was a kid,” Sliwka told My Suburban Life. “My mom gave me a little section in her vegetable garden, and I planted some regular planting pumpkins. Years later, I heard about Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkins and claims that they could reach a couple hundred pounds and thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’”

His first giant pumpkin weighed in at 90 pounds. The next year, it was 100 pounds heavier, but paled in comparison to some of the pumpkins at his local contest.

This year, he grew four pumpkins weighing between 1,229.5 pounds and 1,468.5 pounds — each! — winning third place in the state at weigh-in.

Sliwka said that growing the pumpkins is a yearlong effort, beginning in late April, complete with soil tests, temperature control, water and seemingly near-constant attention.

At their peak growth spurt in July and August, the fruit can grow by as much as 40 pounds a day, Sliwka said.

Each small detail could be the difference between a large pumpkin and a contender – in 2003, Sliwka won that year’s weigh-off by a single pound.

“It shows the importance of what you do to these plants – letting off the gas just a little bit could be the difference,” he said. “Growers who are into this are really serious and put in really good effort year-round and do crazy things to nurture them and get the most out of their potential.”

What happens to the massive squash once he’s shown them? He donates the pumpkins to local organizations, local art competitions, Oktoberfests and the Brookfield Zoo.

Check out the videos below to really step into Sliwka’s garden.

Photo via Sliwka's website, growbigpumpkins.com.