UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Giant vegetables invade UNE

Next UNE supports elite athletes December 9, 2005  

Previous Lecture on Bonhoeffer at Uniting Church December 5, 2005 

Giant vegetables invade UNE

December 08, 2005

Giant pumpkinThe University of New England’s department of Agronomy has thrown down the gauntlet to other departments at the university and Armidale’s general population to show them up in their own field of expertise by competing in the Annual Agronomy Vege Growing Competition.

The competition, which involves pumpkin, sunflower and zucchini growing, is set to breathe new life into vegetable patches around Armidale, ending with the weigh-in of pumpkins and zucchinis and the measuring of the sunflowers at the end of February.

The competition, which began as an in-house agronomy project in 2003, has opened up to the university and the wider Armidale community for the first time this year, and is expected to create some fierce competition and some suitably impressive vegetables by the competition’s end.

John Stanley is the co-ordinator of this year’s competition and expects it to attract a record number of entrants.

“For the past couple of years the competition has basically been an all-agronomy affair and has had 15-20 entrants,” Mr Stanley said.

“This year we’ve opened the competition up [to the public] so we expect it to be the biggest yet.”

The idea to open the competition to the public has already created some interest with the Steiner school expressing their interest and requesting some pumpkin seeds to get started.

This interest is expected to grow, with the only rules of the competition being that all vegetables must be grown in gardens within 50 kilometres of Armidale’s centre.

An extra dimension to add to the excitement of the vegetable growing competition is its timing. The competition’s completion is at a similar time to the Armidale show, so growers will have the extra incentive of entering their vegetables in the show on top of bragging rights around town for the competition’s winner.

“Ideally, to get the biggest pumpkins possible by the end of February, you need to plant at the end of October and hope that you get no frosts,” said Mr Stanley.

“In that respect, we’ve been about a month late to start the competition so that will restrict the size of the winning entrant somewhat.”

In the past the weight of the winning pumpkin has been as much as 118 kilograms, however, Mr Stanley warns that the “pumpkin detective” must always be on the lookout for “pumpkin cheats”.

“It’s always amazing to see the kind of pumpkins that turn up for the weigh-off,” said Mr Stanley.

“Last year someone turned up with a wool bale covered with hessian bags on a ute and attempted to play it off as a pumpkin.”

Former competition co-ordinator Mark Trotter has also seen some tricks used as an attempt to lighten up the competition.

“As well as your serious entrants you also get your jokers and there’s been some very funny situations in the past couple of years,” Mr Trotter said.

“A popular prank is for people to enter a pumpkin under someone else’s name and fill it up with concrete to get them disqualified.”

The competition costs five dollars to enter with pumpkin and sunflower seeds provided. Those wishing to grow zucchinis will need their own seeds.

For more information contact John Stanley on 0428 223 332 or Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photograph is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Ben Glover at December 8, 2005 11:16 AM