Growing Giants with Laird

10/05/2026

Yesterday was a day I wont soon forget. After a really tough growing season, I was lucky enough to get a 2,046 pound pumpkin to the scale for a 1st place finish in Nekoosa. The best part was being surrounded by all my family and friends who made the trip out to support me. Also, to everyone that sent messages throughout the day and to all my growing buddies, I really appreciate you. It truly meant the world to me!! I also wanted to take the time to Thank some of the companies who helped get me here. Hsu Growing Supply for the compost and soil to bury vines, MycoMaxx Garden and New Age Farming LLC for their amazing fungi, GS Plant Foods for their awesome organics, Be Organics for some healthy bacteria, Ferti-Organic, Inc. for the top quality soil amendments, and MycoGasm and Heber Hall for the advice and products to help fight the fusarium. I couldnt have done it without any of you!! We finally got one over 1 ton....time to start planning for an even bigger one!

10/03/2026

We are loaded and ready fpr the weigh off tomorrow! Heavy thoughts!!!

10/02/2026

I got the official word from Chris Brown today. Both of these are large enough for WI State Record, big head giant sunflowers. The first one is 83.5" and the new WI State record is 90"!!

09/30/2026

2026 GIANT pumpkin patch from above

09/27/2026

Everyone always asks how we lift these giant pumpkins out of the patch, so here is a quick time-lapse showing how we do it!

09/27/2026

The first weigh off of the season is in the books. We took the 2551 Ford pumpkin to and got 4th place at 1857 #. It went 10% heavy to chart. Congrats to all the growers that were able to get their pumpkins to the scale this season.

09/25/2026

September 25th patch update- harvest day for the Ford pumpkin!

09/12/2026

Great article about one of last year's giants!

A 2,161 pound pumpkin. And it never made it to a weigh-off. 🎃

Grower Laird of "Growing Giants with Laird" put a full season into this thing, and then it cracked through to the interior cavity. In giant pumpkin competition, that's automatic disqualification. Season over.

So instead of hauling it off, he carved it. In the patch. Both sides, freehand, using smaller sacrificial pumpkins for the eyes and teeth. In his words: "It was a great way to celebrate the plant's life before it left the patch."

What got it to 2,161 lbs was a five-part feeding program, and honestly the logic scales down to any garden:
🌱 Root Ruckus - build the root system first, everything else depends on it
🌊 Ocean Magic - 70+ trace minerals for cell wall strength (that's what stops splitting)
🐟 Fish & Kelp Blend - nitrogen plus kelp's natural growth hormones for leaf canopy
🍯 Grower's Honey - carbohydrates that feed the soil microbes, not the plant directly
💧 Yucca Wet - a natural surfactant so everything above actually gets absorbed

The lesson isn't "buy five products." It's that giant growers feed the soil biology and the root system, not just the fruit. The fruit is the result.

Read the whole story 👉 https://gsplantfoods.com/blogs/fertilizers/how-gs-plant-foods-powered-a-2-161-pound-giant-pumpkin-from-record-breaking-harvest-to-incredible-sculpture
🛒 Root Ruckus: https://gsplantfoods.com/products/root-ruckus
🛒 Ocean Magic: https://gsplantfoods.com/products/ocean-magic-sea-minerals

09/09/2026

Beautiful evening in the patch!

09/08/2026

Got the 150 sq ft challenge pumpkin weighed and out of the patch. It came in at 897 # and 10% heavy to chart, which was cool. I had alot of fun doing this challenge and will absolutely do it again. One of the biggest comments I get from people is that they would love to grow a giant pumpkin but dont have the space. I hope this inspires growers to give it a try. A 10'x15' area is very small and almost everyone has that space in their backyard. To grow something this large, from a space that small, was amazing to watch and alot of fun.

I wanted to be able to do something with the pumpkin even though we couldn't get it to a weigh off, so one of this year sponsors Hsu Growing Supply, said they would display the pumpkin. I carved their logo on the pumpkin and gave it a heavy spray of polyurethane. Hopefully it will last a couple weeks at their store!