Half Moon Bay’s new king of growers is Don Young, a 45-year-old tree trimmer from Des Moines, who has been dabbling in competitive pumpkins since 2003.
Young’s mighty white pumpkin blew away the Coastside competition, but it was 67 pounds short of the world record, set just weeks ago by a colossal 1,725-pound pumpkin in Ohio.
  
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“It’s still a monument,” Young said. “It’s a good victory, but we all want a little more. We’ll try harder, and I’ll be back next year.”
Young has made a circuit out of competitive pumpkin growing, towing his heavy giants to regional weigh-offs around the country, including a Morgan Hill competition last Saturday. But his biggest pumpkin, he said, was reserved for Half Moon Bay.
“There’s a lot of competitions, but this is the Super Bowl of weigh-offs,” he said.
Young listed a litany of meticulous measures he took to grow his champion, including using organic soil, alternating water temperatures, misting the plant leaves and even providing fungus enhancements to help the pumpkin roots absorb more nutrients.
The competition awards $6 for each pound of the winning pumpkin, meaning Young will take home a $9,948 grand prize—more than enough to cover the steep gas costs after lugging his hefty contender more than 2,000 miles. In addition, Young’s champ will be featured with the top five winners this weekend at the city’s annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, which he plans to attend with his family.
Second place went to Leonardo Urena of Napa and his 1,470-pound squash, followed by third-place winner Ron Root of Citrus Heights, whose pumpkin weighed 1,247 pounds. Returning after two record-setting wins, Thad Starr of Oregon was happy to visit Half Moon Bay again, but his 1,031-pound pumpkin fell far short of his past victories. Starr said he saved his biggest pumpkins this year for the new local weigh-offs starting in his home state, but bad weather in the Northwest hindered the size of all his giants.
“The weather just wasn’t there. It took all the world-record chances out of my pumpkins,” he said.
Half Moon Bay’s Eda Muller won an impressive local victory with her 1,200-pound squash — the only winning giant pumpkin that still had a deep orange color. Eda barely edged out her husband, John Muller’s 1,187-pound entry in the San Mateo County bracket of the competition.
“Me and John both were so excited to be in the top 10.” Eda said. “But this is his game, and I wanted him to win.”
Eric Carlson of Portola Valley left a winner for having the most beautiful pumpkin in the competition. His was a dark-orange bean bag of a squash.
“It’s the prettiest pumpkin I’ve ever seen, but my wife is far more beautiful.” Carlson said with a fat grin.
“Smart guy,” chimed a bystander.
New growers, the Gaasch family made a respectable showing with their first giant pumpkin in the competition, which they grew in the front yard of their Frenchmans Creek home. Named by 6-year-old daughter Madelyn, their pumpkin, “Mr. Strong,” weighed in at 432 pounds — the sixth biggest in the county.
“This has been great. We’re definitely doing this next year,” said Patrick Gaasch. “Of course, now we’ll have to buy a bigger truck.”
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