Growing
Cinderella’s carriage
Johnson cultivates giant pumpkins
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
HOUSTON — Pumpkins worthy of a fairy godmother’s wand do not grow by magic in Nickki Johnson’s patch. Instead, her giant fruits grow by abundance of effort, time and year-round planning.
“At minimum, (this summer), I was probably in the patch an hour in the evening and half an hour in the morning,” Johnson said. “I joke that I started my day in the pumpkin patch, and I ended the day in the pumpkin patch.”
Johnson grows her orange beauties on the farm she and her husband, Marc, live on in rural Houston. The pumpkin is mainly Johnson’s project, but their daughter, Ella, enjoys helping, especially as the pumpkins set on the vines.
“It’s been a learning experience, not only for me, but then I can teach her, (too),” Johnson said.
Johnson grew up with pumpkins — at least those varieties grown in regular sizes. Her dad always had a patch, and in 2022, Johnson took on growing the family pumpkins. The whole extended family gets together in the spring and fall for planting and harvesting.
“It was just fun to carry on the tradition for my dad,” Johnson said. “Growing the regular ones for all of us has been really fun as a family.”
However, the idea of giant pumpkins started when Johnson and a friend attended the 2023 Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days, which has a giant pumpkin weigh-off. Looking at the display, her friend idly asked whether they were going to grow giant pumpkins next year.
“I was like, ‘Well, joke’s on you, because we’re doing it now,’” Johnson said.
In 2024, Johnson and two other friends each started growing pumpkins. Johnson’s largest, named Ariel after Ella’s favorite Disney princess, weighed 403 pounds, taking third at the weigh-off in Hesper-Mabel. Their largest pumpkin grown so far, Addison, weighed 595 pounds and was taken to the River Prairie Ginormous Pumpkin Festival in Altoona, Wisconsin, last year. Addison took 20th place.
With success and more ideas, Johnson entered the 2025 growing season.
She started two seeds in the house April 11 — named Bruno and Bambi.
“We had this idea to just name all of our pumpkins Disney characters,” Johnson said.
This year was “B” Disney names. Next year will be “C” names — including Cinderella.
To elongate the growing season, Johnson built mini hoop houses for each of her plants, each with a 21-square-foot area with buried heating cables regulating soil temperature to 70 degrees, and she amended the soil with nutrients. Her plants moved outside April 29.
However, disaster was around the corner. On May 16, 70-mph winds flattened one of the hoop houses, partially crushing Bambi. Bruno survived the first day, but then winds tore off Bruno at the root after catching the netting Johnson had placed as protection. The next day, Johnson started another plant as backup.
“I had zero life above ground for that (Bruno) plant,” Johnson said. “It was all cut off. I had two little roots.”
After surviving the storm, to develop the vines, Johnson was pruning tertiary vines, training the main vine to grow straight, and directing the secondary vines in a Christmas tree pattern.
“The more secondaries you have, the more power it has … (and) the more energy it pushes towards the pumpkin,” Johnson said.
Johnson was also rooting the plant. At each leaf node, pumpkins have roots that go up and go down, and Johnson would cover the nodes with compost or dirt.
“It’s a lot of work,” Johnson said. “My back really would hurt by the time I got out of the pumpkins.”
The pumpkins had another weather challenge in late June when heavy rain poured down the hills through the pumpkin patch. Luckily, dirt trenches around the edges of the hoop houses directed the water around the plants.
On July 2, Johnson pollinated Bambi, and on July 8, she pollinated Bruno. Johnson waited for flowers on the main vines at least 10 feet from the base. Small pumpkins developing closer were removed because more vine is necessary to support a champion pumpkin.
Johnson manually pollinates to control the genetics.
“(You) get down there by 6:30 (a.m.) because if you get down there any time after that, the bees could have already done it,” Johnson said.
To grow the pumpkin post-pollination, Johnson was fertilizing steadily. The first 14 days were a basic all-purpose fertilizer. Then, Johnson switched to daily fertilization with potassium and boron. Once a week, she also fertilized with magnesium, compost tea bags, calcium and seaweed.
The pumpkins received about 50 gallons of water per plant per day, spread across the plant to feed all its roots.
In mid-July, Johnson started spraying fungicide weekly. She sprayed insecticide monthly throughout.
To keep the pumpkins in peak growing comfort, they were covered daily with sheets to protect from sunburn, keep cool and protect from pests.
“Everyone thinks (it looks like) I’m tucking them in at night,” Johnson said.
In the mornings, Johnson would bring out fans with rechargeable batteries to keep the pumpkins dry and prevent rot.
Around 20 days after pollination, the secondary pumpkins are eliminated if the main pumpkins are doing OK.
Johnson cut off Bambi’s secondary pumpkin July 28. Three days later, she found the blossom end had split on her main pumpkin, meaning it had to be harvested early. Bambi weighed 405 pounds with 30 growing days remaining.
The battered Bruno plant ended up having a pumpkin harvested Sept. 5.
“Bruno, after all of its trials and tribulations to keep it alive, still came out weighing 431 pounds,” Johnson said.
When it comes to next year, Johnson has plans to improve her process. She wants to pinch off every flower next year, even the male flowers, to focus 100% of her plants’ energy. This year, Johnson put sand underneath the pumpkins and a piece of foam. Next year, she will try fabric from old trampolines gifted by friends. Johnson said she has heard this fabric works well underneath giant pumpkins.
“(My friends) thought I was getting (the trampolines) for my daughter,” Johnson said. “I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m cutting this thing up and putting it in the pumpkin patch.’”
Through the process, Johnson has grown a local pumpkin community. This year, another friend joined the area trio growing giant pumpkins.
Next year, 10 more people are planning to grow, and Johnson is planning a potential weigh-off in Houston.
Regardless, next year, Johnson will be spending her summer in the pumpkin patch.
“It is a lot of work, but there are worse things I could be doing,” Johnson said. “I’m getting out of the house. I’m getting fresh air.”
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
HOUSTON — Pumpkins worthy of a fairy godmother’s wand do not grow by magic in Nickki Johnson’s patch. Instead, her giant fruits grow by abundance of effort, time and year-round planning.
“At minimum, (this summer), I was probably in the patch an hour in the evening and half an hour in the morning,” Johnson said. “I joke that I started my day in the pumpkin patch, and I ended the day in the pumpkin patch.”
Johnson grows her orange beauties on the farm she and her husband, Marc, live on in rural Houston. The pumpkin is mainly Johnson’s project, but their daughter, Ella, enjoys helping, especially as the pumpkins set on the vines.
“It’s been a learning experience, not only for me, but then I can teach her, (too),” Johnson said.
Johnson grew up with pumpkins — at least those varieties grown in regular sizes. Her dad always had a patch, and in 2022, Johnson took on growing the family pumpkins. The whole extended family gets together in the spring and fall for planting and harvesting.
“It was just fun to carry on the tradition for my dad,” Johnson said. “Growing the regular ones for all of us has been really fun as a family.”
However, the idea of giant pumpkins started when Johnson and a friend attended the 2023 Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days, which has a giant pumpkin weigh-off. Looking at the display, her friend idly asked whether they were going to grow giant pumpkins next year.
“I was like, ‘Well, joke’s on you, because we’re doing it now,’” Johnson said.
In 2024, Johnson and two other friends each started growing pumpkins. Johnson’s largest, named Ariel after Ella’s favorite Disney princess, weighed 403 pounds, taking third at the weigh-off in Hesper-Mabel. Their largest pumpkin grown so far, Addison, weighed 595 pounds and was taken to the River Prairie Ginormous Pumpkin Festival in Altoona, Wisconsin, last year. Addison took 20th place.
With success and more ideas, Johnson entered the 2025 growing season.
She started two seeds in the house April 11 — named Bruno and Bambi.
“We had this idea to just name all of our pumpkins Disney characters,” Johnson said.
This year was “B” Disney names. Next year will be “C” names — including Cinderella.
To elongate the growing season, Johnson built mini hoop houses for each of her plants, each with a 21-square-foot area with buried heating cables regulating soil temperature to 70 degrees, and she amended the soil with nutrients. Her plants moved outside April 29.
However, disaster was around the corner. On May 16, 70-mph winds flattened one of the hoop houses, partially crushing Bambi. Bruno survived the first day, but then winds tore off Bruno at the root after catching the netting Johnson had placed as protection. The next day, Johnson started another plant as backup.
“I had zero life above ground for that (Bruno) plant,” Johnson said. “It was all cut off. I had two little roots.”
After surviving the storm, to develop the vines, Johnson was pruning tertiary vines, training the main vine to grow straight, and directing the secondary vines in a Christmas tree pattern.
“The more secondaries you have, the more power it has … (and) the more energy it pushes towards the pumpkin,” Johnson said.
Johnson was also rooting the plant. At each leaf node, pumpkins have roots that go up and go down, and Johnson would cover the nodes with compost or dirt.
“It’s a lot of work,” Johnson said. “My back really would hurt by the time I got out of the pumpkins.”
The pumpkins had another weather challenge in late June when heavy rain poured down the hills through the pumpkin patch. Luckily, dirt trenches around the edges of the hoop houses directed the water around the plants.
On July 2, Johnson pollinated Bambi, and on July 8, she pollinated Bruno. Johnson waited for flowers on the main vines at least 10 feet from the base. Small pumpkins developing closer were removed because more vine is necessary to support a champion pumpkin.
Johnson manually pollinates to control the genetics.
“(You) get down there by 6:30 (a.m.) because if you get down there any time after that, the bees could have already done it,” Johnson said.
To grow the pumpkin post-pollination, Johnson was fertilizing steadily. The first 14 days were a basic all-purpose fertilizer. Then, Johnson switched to daily fertilization with potassium and boron. Once a week, she also fertilized with magnesium, compost tea bags, calcium and seaweed.
The pumpkins received about 50 gallons of water per plant per day, spread across the plant to feed all its roots.
In mid-July, Johnson started spraying fungicide weekly. She sprayed insecticide monthly throughout.
To keep the pumpkins in peak growing comfort, they were covered daily with sheets to protect from sunburn, keep cool and protect from pests.
“Everyone thinks (it looks like) I’m tucking them in at night,” Johnson said.
In the mornings, Johnson would bring out fans with rechargeable batteries to keep the pumpkins dry and prevent rot.
Around 20 days after pollination, the secondary pumpkins are eliminated if the main pumpkins are doing OK.
Johnson cut off Bambi’s secondary pumpkin July 28. Three days later, she found the blossom end had split on her main pumpkin, meaning it had to be harvested early. Bambi weighed 405 pounds with 30 growing days remaining.
The battered Bruno plant ended up having a pumpkin harvested Sept. 5.
“Bruno, after all of its trials and tribulations to keep it alive, still came out weighing 431 pounds,” Johnson said.
When it comes to next year, Johnson has plans to improve her process. She wants to pinch off every flower next year, even the male flowers, to focus 100% of her plants’ energy. This year, Johnson put sand underneath the pumpkins and a piece of foam. Next year, she will try fabric from old trampolines gifted by friends. Johnson said she has heard this fabric works well underneath giant pumpkins.
“(My friends) thought I was getting (the trampolines) for my daughter,” Johnson said. “I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m cutting this thing up and putting it in the pumpkin patch.’”
Through the process, Johnson has grown a local pumpkin community. This year, another friend joined the area trio growing giant pumpkins.
Next year, 10 more people are planning to grow, and Johnson is planning a potential weigh-off in Houston.
Regardless, next year, Johnson will be spending her summer in the pumpkin patch.
“It is a lot of work, but there are worse things I could be doing,” Johnson said. “I’m getting out of the house. I’m getting fresh air.”
