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Jabba the Pumpkin: Monster gourd rises from Nipomo patch

By Mike Hodgson/Associate Editor

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Rick Tibben checks on the growth of his pumpkin “Jabba” at his home in Nipomo. He has 12 monster pumpkins in his patch. / Adobe/Ian Gonzaga

It rises like a giant, warped Salvador Dali orange sun from amid the huge green leaves of Rick Tibben’s Nipomo pumpkin patch.

It’s so massive, so misshapen, so “lumpy and bumpy and bulbous,” Tibben said, that the Dana Elementary School students who pass his place after school call it “Jabba,” after the “Star Wars” character Jabba the Hutt.

“It’s over 4 feet wide right now,” Tibben said Monday.

Tibben has 12 monster pumpkins growing in his patch, with the smallest weighing in at about 350 pounds.

But he’s hoping Jabba will be the one big enough to win the Great Pumpkin Contest set for Oct. 16 at the San Luis Obispo Downtown Farmers Market.

“They’ve all seemed to stop growing except one,” Tibben said of his passel of pumpkins. “The one that’s still growing is about 750 pounds. Jabba has stopped, but it’s probably about 800 pounds, as near as I can estimate.”

If Jabba does tip the scales at 800 pounds, it could be heavy enough to take the top prize. The record for the San Luis Obispo contest is the 714-pound gourd grown by Jill Duncan of San Luis Obispo that won the inaugural event in 2006.

Tibben’s 800-pound assessment could be close because he’s gotten pretty good at guesstimating the weight of his pumpkins.

“I guessed 580 pounds last year, and sure enough, that’s what it was,” he said, referring to the 582-pounder that earned him first runner-up in the 2007 competition.

He noted there is a tool called a “pumpkin tape” that can be used to estimate a pumpkin’s weight. The gourd’s circumference is measured horizontally and vertically, then the inches plugged into a chart that gives an approximate weight.

“But that only works well with round pumpkins,” Tibben noted, and Jabba is definitely not round.

Which also means the monster gourd can’t be rolled into the truck for its trip to the Great Pumpkin Contest. So how do you hoist an 800-pound pumpkin into a three-quarter-ton pickup truck?

“I hired the Nipomo High School water polo team to help me put it on the pumpkin tarp,” Tibben explained. “Then they’ll lift the tarp onto the pallets in the truck.”

A pumpkin tarp is just another of the many specialty items made for the world of giant pumpkins.

Tibben said the tarp has 16 handholds around the edge, allowing 16 people to lift up to 1,000 pounds of pumpkin.

“When they’re over 1,000 pounds, they use special slings,” Tibben said.

He hopes to fit his two biggest pumpkins — possibly 1,500 to 1,600 pounds worth — into his pickup. One of them will be entered under his name and the other under the name of his “little brother” in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program who helped him grow it.

He also plans to enter two others — one in the “prettiest pumpkin” category and another in the “most unusual” category — that will be hauled to the market in his neighbor’s pickup.

The contest is no small investment for Tibben, who this year paid $50 per seed for some of his seeds from a man who’s famous for growing gigantic pumpkins. He paid $35 per seed for some and $25 per seed for others.

“I wanted to go all-out this year,” he said.

But the San Luis Obispo competition is the only one Tibben will be entering, as the Paso Robles contest was canceled this year after its organizer died, he said.

“I was really hoping to enter that one this year so I could pay my water bill,” Tibben said, noting the winner of last year’s Paso Robles contest took home $8,246.

What will happen to Tibben’s pumpkins after the contest is over?

“I’ll put them on my driveway as part of my Halloween decorations,” Tibben said. “Then, I’ll chop them up with an ax, save the seeds from some of them and then make compost out of them.

TO SEE THE GIANTS:

n While it’s way too late to start growing gourds for the third annual contest— you should have planted your seeds last May or June—you can see the pumpkins.

n The SLO County Great Pumpkin Contest is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, during the San Luis Obispo Downtown Farmers Market at Mission Plaza.

n At stake this year are cash and prizes totaling more than $2,500.

n Info: Cara Crye at Farm Supply at 543-3751.

GREATEST U.S. PUMPKINS

State records for the heaviest pumpkins in the U.S. include the world record holder from Rhode Island

n 1,689 lbs.-Rhode Island, grown by Joe Jutras

n 1,662 lbs.-Iowa, grown by Don Young

n 1,631.5 lbs.-New York, grown by Dan McKie

n 1,556.5 lbs.-Pennsylvania, grown by Quinn Werner

n 1,556 lbs.-New Hampshire, grown by Bill Rodonis

n 1,535.5 lbs.-California, grown by Pete Glasier

n 1,524.5 lbs.-Ohio, grown by Bob Liggett

n 1,524 lbs.-Oregon, grown by Thad Starr

n 1,468 lbs.-Illinois, grown by Joe Richards

n 1,445 lbs.-South Dakota, grown by Kevin Marsh

SOURCE: www.pumpkinnook.com

OTHER GIANT GROWERS:

In addition to Rick Tibben, South County pumpkin growers who have taken honors in the San Luis

Obispo County Farm Bureau’s Giant Pumpkin

Contest include:

n Mathew Ortiz of Nipomo, 2006 Junior Division heaviest pumpkin, 404 pounds

n Randy Cavanaugh of Arroyo Grande, 2007 heaviest pumpkin second runner-up, 562 pounds

mhodgson@theadobepress.com