Cole Camp man primps pumpkins for weigh-in

Philip Wellington’s cargo raised eyebrows as he pulled a flatbed trailer behind his dusty Cadillac through Sedalia this week.

Wellington, 56, of Cole Camp, was taking his big, bumpy orange, white and green pumpkins to Republic this weekend for an official weigh-off at the Republic Pumpkin Daze.

Just how heavy are they?
“300 pounds, 250 pounds, 225 pounds, 195 pounds, 150, 125 and 100,” spouted off Wellington, a former salesman and telemarketing trainer, as he pointed to his lot laying on a bed of straw. And, heavy enough to blow out a tire on the trailer.

“All of these were grown in the past 30 days,” Wellington declared, pride bursting. “All of these are brand new pumpkins. ... If I had another 30 days, I could grow these two and a half times what they are now.”

In fact, Wellington said, he expects to see competition of pumpkins weighing as much as 1,200 pounds Saturday.

The recent start on Wellington’s pumpkins was a do-over, after the Cole Camp man found out his soil needed a boost. It was clay loam, blocking water from the roots; so, on a tip from Jim’s Garden Center, Wellington spread a one-pound box of laundry detergent over his 5,000-square-foot garden.

“The purpose of the detergent is the break down the surface tension of water, which makes water wetter and makes it penetrate the tight clay soil a little better,” said Jim Foster, owner of Jim’s Garden Center. “There is a proportion to use, about one pound to a pound and a half, per 5,000-square-feet. It an be All or Tide or whatever, as long as it’s a granular powder. Once it breaks down the surface tension, the water will dissolve the nutrients and make them available to the plants.”

“Within three days, the vines went from 12 to 30 feet long,” Wellington said.
His cyber-friends found on pumpkin-growing Web sites had never heard of such a soil amendment.
Wellington got his verve for pampering his giant pumpkins when he saw the winner at the Missouri State Fair, which in 2007 was about a 350-pounder. “I said, ‘Wow, I can do that.’ ”
He scoured the Internet to learn how to treat the soil, point the stem, care for the vines, fertilize and water to come up with the largest, heaviest pumpkin in the region.

“The point is to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin,” Wellington said. “I love competition, and I wanted to grow something not everybody could grow.”

It hasn’t been easy. “Right here, this is a terrible area to grow pumpkins, with this problem soil,” he said. Wellington used gallons and gallons of water and a heavy dose of cow manure to push his pumpkins along.

Besides the beauties on the trailer, Wellington plans to show off corn stalks and sunflowers taller than 14 feet, as well as a 29-pound musk melon and giant beets and tomatoes. His long gourds are 12 feet.

Wellington laments his 29-pound melon lost out at the Cole Camp Fair to a prettier, much smaller specimen. And, he knows he stands little chance of winning in Republic.
But, he said, “Next year, they better watch out.”