Gigantic 116kg ‘poisonous’ pumpkin to be used for compost and target practice

In the tiny town of Kalgan on Western Australia’s south coast, a wide-eyed crowd gathers in a field.

Huddled around hay bales lined with gargantuan gourds, a man clad in an orange shirt holds his hand up and proclaims “116 kilograms, first place”.

A cheer rings out as Mark Blyth steps forward to accept his prize for heaviest pumpkin at this year’s Kalgan Pumpkin Festival.

It is a huge win for the Albany jeweller who finished 10th only 12 months ago.

“Last year I spoiled it by over fertilising, over watering, and just over-thinking the whole process,” he said.

This year his win followed a simpler approach of good location, plenty of water, genetics superiority, and vine maintenance.

But Mr Blyth said there was still room to improve.

“Towards the end I probably overdid it a little bit. The stump went rotten about two months ago so it really hasn’t grown for about two months,” Mr Blyth said.

“The plan next year is to try and get a bit bigger.”

Bigger not always better

Giant pumpkins can take up to three months to grow from seed, but disposing of the “tasteless” veg brings its own problems.

“A few years ago we sent a lot of the pumpkins to the soup kitchen in Albany, but I was told that giant pumpkins can be quite poisonous,” festival organiser John Bocian said.

“Yes, they can be. But if they’re grown on soils that are well fertilised with no heavy metals they’re very safe to eat.”

Like its namesake pumpkins, the event has grown in recent years with more people entering their homegrown horticultural produce.

But Mr Bocian said this year’s summer had taken a toll on overall size.

“We’ve had a pumpkin here one year, which Bob Maillard grew, that was 376kg,” he said.

“This year I don’t think anybody took the effort of covering their pumpkins.

“On hot days the skin gets hard, it can’t breathe. It gets tight and the pumpkin can’t grow, so it retards growth.”

Mr Bocian said smaller pumpkins often retained enough flavour to find their way into the kitchen, while the larger ones went back into the ground as compost.

But with over 100 kilos of pumpkin to deal with, Mr Blyth said he had his own plans for disposal.

“You probably can [eat it] but I don’t know that they taste any good,” he said.

“We’re gonna take it out the block in a couple of weeks and shoot it.”