Atlantic Giant

Why it suits Ireland

It half suits Ireland, and it is worth being straight about that. Giant pumpkins are driven by heat, root run and a very long uninterrupted growing season, and our summers are short on the first of those. The Irish results are consequently well below what the same seed does in Ontario or Ohio.

What Ireland does give it is water and a long mild autumn, and once a giant is growing it needs a great deal of both. If you can supply shelter, a serious amount of muck and a plant that never gets a check, this variety will produce something impressive here. It is a good crop to hand a child in April, because the weekly change in size through August is genuinely dramatic.

Growing notes

Sow in mid to late April, one seed on its edge per 9cm pot, at 18 to 25C. Pot on into a 2 litre pot rather than letting the roots circle, because a check at this stage costs size later.

Plant out after the last frost into ground prepared with as much well-rotted manure as you can find, and allow 3m or more each way. Fleece the young plant on cold nights in early June.

Choose one fruit, the earliest well-shaped one on the strongest stem, and remove every other fruit that sets. This is the step that decides whether you get one big pumpkin or four ordinary ones. Bury the trailing stems shallowly at intervals so they root along their length and feed the plant from more points, and keep the fruit itself off wet soil on a board or a bed of sand.

Water generously and feed weekly with a balanced liquid feed early on, moving to high potash once the fruit is swelling. Shade the fruit lightly in a hot spell, as the skin can split if it grows faster than it hardens, and a split fruit will rot within days in Irish damp.

Cut in October with a long stalk and get help lifting it, because a stalk that snaps off under the weight ruins both the fruit and, occasionally, a foot.