The Great Pumpkin Tale: Nathan & Rebecca Litscher (SP Fitness) family has been growing pumpkins for 3 years since we moved back to Prairie du Sac. We tried giant pumpkins in 2019 with little success. But with a little studying and hard work, we were able to get two fruits to the scale for 2020. It’s a fun activity that the whole family can participate in. The most important thing we have learned while growing pumpkins is the fact that the learning is never done. There is always something more to learn and get better at. It is our hope that this lesson sticks with our kids as they grow up.
Our kids are active participants every step of the way. It became something they could really get excited about. We joined the Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Growers this past winter and we were able to obtain some good seeds. We started the seeds indoors in mid-April. Once the soil warmed up to 50°, we were able to transplant outdoors. Plant maintenance includes regular weeding, watering and vine pruning. We prune the vines to the shape that we want. We grown one pumpkin per plant. When a female blossom opens up at the location we want, then we hand pollinate it to make sure it sets fruit. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get one to set. We were able to get three pollinated during the first week of July. When we picked them, they were 70 days old. It was especially fun to monitor the growth of the pumpkins in the early stages as they almost seem to get bigger right in front of our eyes. When we were getting close to picking the pumpkins, we were trying to decide what to do with them after we got them weighed. We thought maybe we could use them to raise some money for the community. We immediately thought of 6:8 and their mission to improve lives and help lift people out of poverty. Please take a guess and spread the word to help raise money for this worthy cause. Thank you and good luck! | 
