Article by Sean Freeman
T
he South African Giant Pumpkin record has been broken by a lady farmer
from the Midvaal, Gauteng.
Shirley Olivier has smashed the South
African giant pumpkin record with a massive
pumpkin weighing in at 506 kg. Her pumpkin
has beaten the previous record set in 2014 in
the Western Cape by 8.5 kg. Shirley has been
growing giant pumpkins competitively for 4
years, and consistently features in the top 3
largest pumpkins at the annual Standard
Bank / Livingseeds Giant Pumpkin Competition hosted in the Midvaal.
For breaking the South African record Shirley
walked away with R 20 000 courtesy of Standard Bank who is the main sponsor of this
unique event. Second place went to last year’s
winner Hugo le Rouxs and Team “Fluffy”, who
fielded an impressive pumpkin weighing in at
416 kg.
Giant pumpkin growers are a breed apart and
often spend hours tending and grooming
their prize pumpkin for weigh-in day. Giant
pumpkins grow to full size in just under 90
days, putting on an impressive 25 kg per day,
around day 50 and then tapering off to a
mere 1 or 2 kg per day just before harvesting.
In the picture left to right: Philani Ndolvu (Standard Bank
Agri) Claire Slabber (Talborne Organics) Shirley Olivier
(Grower) Sean Freeman (Livingseeds.co.za)
For more information on growing or entering next year’s Giant
Pumpkin competition email [email protected] who knows
you might walk away with first prize next year.
Livingseeds is South Africa’s Heirloom vegetable seed supplier. Livingseeds grows over 600
different vegetable varieties on our farm near Henley-on-Klip. We specialise in the unusual
and hard to find vegetables that makes growing and eating so much fun.
Sean: 071 911 5159 or e-mail [email protected]
www.livingseeds.co.za