Jay Richard, Wyoming’s “Pumpkin King,” is doting over the two perfect plants growing in his custom-built greenhouse in Worland. Each has a perfectly shaped orange pumpkin attached to it, and he couldn’t be more proud.
Now, he needs them to stop waiting and start gaining.
Despite constant pampering and nearly 500 gallons of water per day between them, these pumpkins are “slow growers.”
If Richard wants to achieve his goal of growing a 2,000-pound pumpkin this year, “Jill” and “Kelly” need to get out of their comfort zone and step on it.
“They’re doing pretty well,” he said. “They look fabulous, and the plants are unbelievably healthy this year. They’re just slow. But every time I read the book, the tortoise beats the hare.”
Planting And Pampering
Richard reached a pinnacle in his pumpkin-growing career in 2023, when he grew three pumpkins that won weigh-offs in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
The combined weight of “Marion,” “Joanie” and “Leather Tuscadero” was 4,869 pounds. The 1,784-pound “Marion” remains Richard’s personal best for a single pumpkin.
Richard’s been determined to surpass his personal best and crack the 1-ton barrier. After a disappointing 2024, he entered 2025 armed with more knowledge and determination than ever.
“This year’s seeds came from Ralph Laub, who set the Utah state record last year,” he said. “I’m borrowing his scale, so I’ve got one of my pumpkins sitting on a scale so I can monitor its growth every day. I’m really thankful to them for everything they've donated to me this year to help me learn what the heck I'm doing.”
Richard germinated his seeds April 6 and planted them in his greenhouse April 15. They’ve been gettingconstant care and attention ever since.
“I’ve been sending my soil to be tested at Western Laboratories in Idaho, and it looks great,” he said. “The tissue test that tells me what’s in the plant looks really good. Temperatures have been somewhat agreeable this year, and the kinetics are very satisfying.”
Richard installed a drip system with an injection device to give his pumpkins a direct hit of phosphorus. He has even installed air conditioning in the greenhouse.
“I don’t even have air conditioning in my house,” he said. “Some people say it’s excessive. I say it’s necessary.”
So, why is it such slow growing this year?
Pick Up The Pace, Pumpkins!
Despite the health of the plants and their pumpkins — and the pampering they’re getting — Richard is frustrated that they aren’t growing faster.
“I can tell you they're gaining about 27 to 29 pounds a day,” he said. “If you don't grow giant pumpkins, that seems like a lot, but I would like to see them gaining 40 pounds a day, easy.”
For professional pumpkin growers, putting on 30 pounds a day is considered slow during “peak growth.” Richard is willing to make whatever changes he needs to speed up the growth, but he can’t identify the problem.
“If I could tell you what they needed, it’d already be in the plant,” he said. “There’s hardly anything that needs adjusting. I would sure like to see them pick up the pace, but that might be all they’ve got in them, and I don't know why.”
Richard has shared his pumpkin problem with his contacts in the pumpkin-growing community hoping to crowd-source his way to an answer. After reviewing everything he’s provided, they’ve all come up blank.
“I talk with my friends like Ralph and Brad Bledsoe in Colorado,” he said. “They’re heavy-hitter growers, some of the best in the world, and they’re just as stymied as I am.”
The default explanation is that it’s something to do with the genetics of the pumpkins, one of the many essential intricacies in growing giant gourds. Sometimes, you get slow seeds.
Richard is determined to find a flaw he can correct. Until then, he’ll keep doing what he’s doing and hope his pumpkins turn a corner in the not-too-distant future.
“I've had several pumpkins that reached 50 pounds-plus per day,” he said. “I guess I’m going to have a lot of 30-pound days, but I hope I have a lot of them because I’m going to need them.”
Richard’s Angels
Richard might be frustrated by the slow growth of his pumpkins, but that’s coming from a professional pumpkin grower’s perspective. To the layman, the pumpkins in his greenhouse are nothing to scoff at.
The larger of the two pumpkins is expected to surpass 600 pounds this week. That pumpkin is named “Jill,” after Farrah Fawcett’s character from “Charlie’s Angels.”
“If you were male, alive, and breathing in the ’70s, you know that picture,” Richard said. “That's who she's named after.”
“Kelly,” the smaller of the two greenhouse pumpkins, is hovering close to 500 pounds. Then there’s “Sabrina,” which Richard calls his “red-headed stepchild,” growing in his old pumpkin patch.
“I’ve thought about rototilling her a few times,” he said. “It’s embarrassing, but we’ve got to have something to drop at the weigh-off.”
Richard was referring to the annual Wyoming State Pumpkin Championship Weigh-Off and Oktoberfest, held during the first weekend in October each year in Worland.
It’s a tradition for Richard to hoist the smallest of his three pumpkins up with a crane and drop them on something below, whether it be an RV or a wooden cutout of Wile E. Coyote.
Even if they’re disappointingly slow growers, Richard isn’t letting himself get too discouraged.
“I’ll say this for sure: these are the biggest, healthiest plants and the best-shaped pumpkins I’ve ever had,” he said. “They're even orange, believe it or not.”
He’ll keep feeding and watering his plants and pumpkins until the day comes to uproot them and get them ready for the weigh-offs in the fall. As far as he’s concerned, they’re already winners whether they win or not.
“We’re going to push them all the way to the end,” he said. “I'm not confident, but I’m comfortable with what they're doing. It’d be nice if they step it up at some point, but I am optimistic that they are going to be the best ones I've ever grown.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
