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Upa Creek, MO

Curious as to what 'season ending' heartbreak everyone hates the most with growing pumpkins. The below are all out of our control and are just the ones I have experienced, so add on if I am missing something.

* A sudden blossom end split on a PB

* A full size sterile plant

* A sudden storm like wind or hail that destroys the plant\pumpkin

* Rot one cannot control usually on stem or blossom

* An animal causes the pumpkin to go down



My personal opinion is a sterile plant because we spend half a year on the soil and growing the plant and have absolutely nothing to show

A close second was a hail storm that wiped out my patch in 45 seconds back in 2016

7/24/2026 6:51:48 PM

Bethlehem CT

Great question Luke! I am going to say pinhole on the bottom discovered on weigh off harvest day! Sterile Plant is a big time nightmare because at least with a split or rot you have excitement for a bit. Yellow vine disease is a close second place for me... because you feel helpless to control it.
Hail really sucks too...i am starting to get ptsd now just thinking about all the pitfalls! lol

7/24/2026 8:51:42 PM

Nh

My biggest heartache was in 2019 when I thought my golf game was better than it really was. I was practicing my wedge shots in the yard and sculled the ball like a bullet into my plants canopy. Couldn't find my ball anywhere tii I looked at my cantaloupe sized pumpkin with a entrance and exit wound. Atleast it didn't suffer i guess. 🫣

7/25/2026 8:16:52 AM

Nova Scotia

Your entry at a weigh off and its accidently dropped/damaged before officially weighed perhaps? Believe it or not it has happened! At one of our contests years back it was not a pumpkin but a long gourd, they were still a novelty item and it wasn't properly braced as they are today...one of our volunteers unloaded it from a truck and thought he could carry it by himself into the weigh off building? Others were busy unloading pumpkins at the time. Needless to say it was wobbly and snapped in two pieces, the entrant was heart broken and not impressed of course. However a very valuable lesson was learned unfortunately.

7/25/2026 8:25:16 AM

Central NY

Soft spot on the bottom during lifting when they still putting a few on sucks. Knock on wood.

7/25/2026 10:01:54 AM

Nova Scotia

Yes porkchop the very tense nervous moments when raising the beasts up???

7/25/2026 10:39:16 AM

Grittyville, WA

I can think of worse things (vandalism?) but it's really frustrating to get a pumpkin all set up to grow on some sand or whatever, everything is ready to go, and then that's when it aborts. This doesn't have to be season ending for a later weigh off there is still time to set another, but for an early weigh off it ruins the hope of bringing a nice kin to that weigh off.

7/25/2026 12:43:44 PM

Plymouth, MN

Full size sterile plants are awful. Put so much effort into nothing. Lots of heartbreak in this sport, though.

7/25/2026 3:24:20 PM

Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, Quebec, Canada

Mine was when last year every pumpkin aborted and so did the most of the secondaries

7/25/2026 10:27:20 PM

Upa Creek, MO

Howard, Dale has everyone beat if that is what you are referring to. I felt awful for him.

Pork and Big Moon, never had that happen but I see it is common. All of my rotters fortunately happened just about now (late July) and not Fall.

CJB, agree on sterile plant. It's July\August when one finally gives up pollinating and accepts reality. Then its dwell on the 8 months of prep, elbow grease, money and let down after let down.

7/25/2026 10:44:23 PM

Central NY

Every new grower needs to watch Dales video the night before they harvest their pumpkin.

7/26/2026 10:02:16 AM

Nova Scotia

Yes Dale for sure, I was thinking about another pumpkin at a weigh off and I'm sure there were others over the years. One big issue we dealt with many years back were growers bringing their prized specimens on old weak pallets which made for a few close calls! Thankfully no longer an issue now. Oh another time a grower's cube van broke down on highway only minutes away from weigh off, had it towed in, think he lost money that day?

7/26/2026 10:51:08 AM

Grittyville, WA

Yeah, missing a weigh off cutoff by a few minutes is the worst. Getting stuck in traffic or having vehicle issues with pumpkin already loaded. That's certainly up there with the mice, pests, diseases.

7/26/2026 2:28:41 PM

Nova Scotia

Yes for sure ketchup bet one could write a book..."ROAD TRIPS OF A GIANT PUMPKIN GROWER". Start off with my father's trips to Ohio and Pennsylvania back in 1970s to today, ones such as Gienger from MN to Half Moon Bay, CA. Donald Black's from NY to here Windsor, NS 1993 with his new WR at the time 884 lbs. So many great stories to be told.

However back to being late for a weigh off due to vehicle, traffic issues, most weigh offs I would think would understand I hope especially if it was potential WR?

7/26/2026 2:58:25 PM

Upa Creek, MO

Ketchup, you mentioned vandalism... Doug English had someone put a knife through a watermelon many years ago. He grows right up on a road and we think it was just some jr high age kids walking by. He's the nicest guy ever and will help anyone, it was definitely kids.

7/26/2026 5:08:51 PM

Grittyville, WA

I read someone's story where they suspected a human saboteur. I think it really affected that grower's psyche. As for me, I'm my own #1 worst enemy.

7/27/2026 2:03:50 AM