Wyoming's 'Pumpkin King' Having Difficult Year Growing Gigantic Pumpkins

It's been a perilous year for growing humungous pumpkins in Wyoming.

The Cowboy State's small but passionate giant pumpkin-growing community is still carefully cultivating their ginormous gourds, but there've been some unexpected challenges in 2024.

Wyoming's “Pumpkin King," Jay Richard, had the greatest year of his pumpkin-growing career in 2023, winning pumpkin weigh-offs in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.

In 2024, he's not anticipating a similar outcome when October arrives.

"It's been a very, very difficult year," he said about growing huge pumpkins in Wyoming. "They say, if you're not winning, you're learning. So, I ought to be pretty darn clever next year."

Too Many Changes

Richard grows his pumpkins in a custom-built greenhouse in Worland. The greenhouse was the key to his success in growing two massive pumpkins, 1,784-pound Marion and 1,686-pound Joanie, last year, which was also his first in the greenhouse.

Marion won the first Center Street Pumpkin Festival in Logan, Utah, while Joanie won a weigh-off in Littleton, Colorado, a week later.

Richard's third pumpkin, Leather Tuscadero, weighed 1,399 pounds and won the 2023 Wyoming State Pumpkin Championship Weigh-Off and Oktoberfest in Worland.

At the climax of the championship, it was dropped 200 feet in spectacular fashion onto an RV.

Between the three giant gourds, Richard secured the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth's Jacket Award for having three pumpkins with a total weight of more than 5,400 pounds.

It'd be hard for Richard to top 2023, but he enthusiastically planted his 2024 pumpkins totally committed to topping that success.

While growing too fast may not seem like a problem when the goal is to create stupendously huge squash, that is definitely a concern. Growing too fast can split it, then it’s game over.

Richards attributes some of his disappointment this summer to "making too many changes too quickly."

"The one thing I did wrong was making too many changes without measuring the changes in incremental steps," he said. "This was the first winter in the greenhouse. I was trying to figure out what to do with the cover crop, and I introduced a CO2 and misting systems into the greenhouse. Too many changes all at once."

Richard compared pumpkins to thoroughbred horses.

"They're cantankerous, and it's kind of a pain to get them going," he said. "But once they go, they really go. But it was tough this year getting it to that point."

Last year’s pumpkins took on a “Happy Days” theme, and this year’s crop draws from “The Brady Bunch.”

Richards reported Sunday morning that his largest viable pumpkin so far now is one named Jan, which “is checking in right at 1,100 pounds,” he said. Jan’s gaining about 10 pounds a days, which he calls “extremely slow” but a “steady” pace.

His second largest is called Marsha2, which is at about 775 pounds, even if she’s a “wildly misshapen pumpkin.” The third is Marsha3, having just hit the 700-pound mark.

The Marsha Twins and both “showing gains of around 15 pounds a day,” he said.

Behind Schedule

Richard acknowledged what he did and didn't do that compounded his pumpkin perils this year, but several other factors beyond anyone's control compounded the situation. The biggest external factor has been the weather.

"It was tough out of the gate," he said. "It was 25 degrees at my house in June 12, the latest frost I've ever recorded by about two weeks. It froze that night, and it was really cold. Then it got really hot, and the plants weren't developed enough to handle the heat. I had a lot of heat stress to deal with."

Going by his own analysis, Richard said it's been a tough growing season throughout Wyoming. Based on the historical dates when plants like Russian olive, clover and lilacs bloom and reach their peak, he said everything is about 14-20 days behind in 2024.

The reality of the tough season hit Richard in early July when one of his greenhouse pumpkins — the original Marsha — split open and died. Richard said the loss of one his carefully cultivated pumpkins made him "sick to my stomach."

"It died after 23 days," he said. "It was a genetic problem. Mutations can happen, and it did."

Not Alone

Richard keeps working on his pumpkin crop, despite the difficulties. But he finds good company in his misery, as he knows other Wyoming pumpkin growers are also struggling this year.

"My friend Ron (Hoffman) in Riverton is going to come in under his normal size," he said. "He's behind by a few hundred pounds. He's hoping to get 1,000 pounds this year, and he's typically a 1,300-1,400-pound guy.

“Our friend Andy (Corbin) in Cheyenne has been pretty quiet, but I think he's got a couple of pretty good ones going this year. But it doesn't sound like it's been quite the year like he had in 2023."

Andy and Amy Corbin set a state record for Wyoming pumpkins in 2023. Their prized pumpkin won the 15th Annual Giant Pumpkin Contest and Fall Jamboree at the Fort Collins Nursery at 2,062 pounds.

Richard is close with nearly everyone in the Cowboy State's pumpkin-growing community, and they've all shared their struggles. But the best thing they can do is keep going, which Richard said everyone is doing.

"We're not going to give up just because it's tough," he said. "What would I tell somebody else who's having a tough year or struggling? Keep going and growing, and take it all the way to the finish line. Take advantage of any opportunity to learn something. So, I give those words of encouragement to myself because that's what I would do for somebody else struggling like me this year. I'd tell them to keep going."

Four For October

Perspective is everything. Richard might be having a difficult year, but that doesn't mean he's despondent.

"I actually have four pumpkins this year," he said. "They're gaining great, and they're super ugly, so I'm going to grow them all the way in the end and see what happens. Until they split or quit, I'm not going to quit."

Richard is attempting an "experiment" in his greenhouse. After the loss of Marsha in July, he's working on the other Marshas on a single plant from the same seed.

"It's actually a seed out of the world-record pumpkin grown last year by Travis Gienger in Anoka, Minnesota," he said. "His pumpkin weighed 2,749 pounds, and this is a seed out of it. So, it's not just any old seed, and the plant is sustaining two pumpkins easily without even breaking a sweat."

Cindy, Richard's third pumpkin, is one of the smallest he's had to date at about 500 pounds, but it's still growing.

"I should be able to grow 1,000 pounds," he said. "With everything that I know, the genetics I have, and the work I put into it, 1,000 pounds is the minimum I've set for myself. I'm already there with one, and the twins are on track if they stay together. That's some kind of accomplishment."

Down But Not Out

With the right conditions, nutrients and water, pumpkins can gain up to 25 pounds a day. Wyoming's pumpkins still have plenty of time to grow even more ginormous before the weigh-offs begin in late September.

Richard is hedging his bets. He's still giving his all to his pumpkins, but he's not expecting to reach the high weights and high emotions of 2023.

"As good as last year was, this year has been challenging," he said. "I've told people many times this year that when you step up to the plate and you're swinging for a home run over the fence, sometimes you don't do that well. You can strike out. I wouldn't say anybody is striking out this year, but we set the bar pretty high last year, and this definitely isn't as good a year."

Nevertheless, the work continues. Richard is still looking forward to the 2024 Wyoming State Pumpkin Championship Weigh-Off and Oktoberfest in Worland on Oct. 5, when pumpkins and zucchinis will be weighed, celebrated, dropped and exploded.

Richard isn't sure which of his pumpkins will be hoisted and dropped this year, but he has an idea of what they'll be dropped on.

"I'm looking for an outhouse," he said. "That'll be great. And I want to invite people to bring old burner phones that will still connect to the internet. We can do a Facebook Live while they're taped to the pumpkin, and they'll be recording to the point where they don't record anymore.

“It might be fun to see what kind of footage we can get with the fall and the splat, so I've got my feelers out for an outhouse."

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.