Bennett patch grows great pumpkin

New hobby produces 889-pound mammoth

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It may haven taken four years to develop, but Morgan Hermiston has discovered a giant new hobby, growing a very unique crop on his family farm five miles south of Durant.

Hermiston, 35, officially grew his first giant pumpkin this year – a nearly 900-pound orange phenomenon that now sits in the front yard of his Bennett home as a Jack-o-Lantern.

The 889.5-pound pumpkin may not have set any Iowa records, but it was, by far, the largest pumpkin Hermiston has ever grown and he hopes to do even better in 2025.

“I’m really looking forward to next year,” he said, noting his entry in the annual pumpkin-growing contest held in Anamosa was an eye opener. “It was a humbling experience seeing some of those 2,000 pound pumpkins. Mine looked like a gourd next to the winners.”

Hermiston says he’s learning more and more about his newfound annual hobby after growing a vegetable garden every year that typically produces a fruitful amount of tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables, including regular size pumpkins the family uses for fall decorations. But when the COVID-19 pandemic came around, he was bored and looking for a new hobby with his wife, Brittany, and they came across an Internet section on growing giant pumpkins.

After extensive research on genetics, fertilizers and vine care, he grew an Atlantic 75-pound pumpkin in 2021 at Hermiston Farms in rural New Liberty, where he farms 2,000 acres and raises 13,000 hogs with his dad, Colin.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of issues including pesticide challenges, the plants didn’t produce in either 2022 or ’23, so he went back to research the semi-successful hobby more. He found a grower in California willing to sell three seeds from his giant 2,500-pound pumpkin for $20. “It was low risk,” said Brittany of the experiment. “We had nothing to lose.”

The seeds were planted in May and Brittany said, “It just took off.” Morgan cared for the pumpkin daily for at least an hour, making sure it had enough water to grow, its vines were buried to try to capture more moisture and nutrients while he hand plucked all but one flower blossom from the growing vine daily, giving it all the nutrients it needed to grow.

Brittany said they really didn’t know what they had until late July when “it really took off,” growing as much as 30-35 pounds a day. On Oct. 4, they used industrial cutters to knife through the huge two-inch thick vine feeding the pumpkin, which they hoped was going to be about 1,000 pounds before it was officially weighed at the Anamosa Pumpkin Fest Ryan Norlin Pumpkin Weigh-off on a special scale. It placed sixth in the competition and is currently ranked 480th worldwide according to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.

Although the pumpkin may have been huge in size, the vine was the talk of the farm community, estimated at 1,200-foot in length, put on display at first inside a large machine shed on the farm where it took up most of the room and later mowed into the ground. The pumpkin itself traveled from Anamosa to Bennett to rest on a corner spot at the Hermiston home at 443 Main Street.

Now carved into a Jack-o-Lantern, it sits under lights and a giant scary Halloween skeleton for everyone in the area to see. “We had to carve the pumpkin,” which Brittany said only took a little more than an hour, adding it was crucial, “in order to harvest the seeds.”

Those valuable seeds hope to produce an even bigger pumpkin next year and the Hermistons say they’re willing to sell some of them to local growers who may have interest in producing giant pumpkins as well. But Hermiston admits he may buy more seeds from the same west coast producer he found, hoping for an even larger outcome.

“It takes a lot of water and a little bit of luck,” he said in growing giant pumpkins, pointing out it also has a lot to do with genetics and cooperative weather, which they claimed was ideal this year.

“It’s a hobby that turned into something I really enjoy,” Hermiston finalized.

Morgan Hermiston, Brittany Hermiston

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