Deer Park Area News and Events


Thursday, October 09, 2003
New Richmond News
Ailts' giant pumpkin briefly holds state record

Joe Ailts Pumpkin
Photo by Bob Zientara-More than five feet long and weighing an estimated 1,000 pounds, this pumpkin was grown by Joe Ailts in a garden in the town of Stanton. Ailts kneels behind the gigantic vegetable.

Award-winning pumpkin grower Joe Ailts, of the town of Stanton, managed to grow a 1,056-pound pumpkin this summer in a garden he started behind his family's new home on County Highway T.

The pumpkin briefly held the all-time state record as the largest fruit of its kind ever grown in Wisconsin.

At a state competition in Necedah last weekend, Ailts won first place and a $1,000 cash prize. He sold the pumpkin for $1,000 to a professional sculptor, too.

Later the same weekend, at another competition elsewhere in Wisconsin, a different grower won another contest with a fruit that weighed in at 1,159 pounds.

Ailts cultivated his new garden with care, even going so far as to put up a greenhouse to protect the pumpkins from cooler weather. But that was before last week’s hard frost ended the growing season.

Ailts said that despite the drought conditions during the last two months of summer, it had been a good growing season for his prize pumpkins.

“As long as I was careful to water them every two days, they did well,” said Ailts Thursday.

On Friday, the giant pumpkin was rolled onto a wooden pallet and raised by forklift into a truck to be taken to the contest in downstate Necedah, where fortune and (briefly) fame awaited him.

Ailts said he's already making plans to win back the record next year.


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