GREENFIELD — Keith Martin gets a kick out of growing giant pumpkins, but this year he decided to raffle off a sizable squash for a good cause.
The Greenfield man is raffling off a 500-pound pumpkin to benefit the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen in downtown Greenfield.
Raffle tickets can be purchased for $5 each at Arrowhead Golf Course, Occasions Hair Salon and Downtown Cuts, all in Greenfield, as of September 14.
The last time Martin measured, the prize pumpkin was roughly 4 feet tall and just as wide, measuring just over 10 feet around the middle.
“When they get this size, they can grow over 30 pounds a day,” he said.
The giant pumpkin isn’t even the biggest one in his yard. Martin is also growing another pumpkin that’s weighing over 900 pounds.
The “smaller” pumpkin — which currently weighs in around 550 pounds — will be loaded into a truck or trailer with a tractor for the raffle winner to do with as they please.
Martin plans to set his bigger pumpkin — which will likely top out well over 1,000 pounds — in his front yard across the street from Arrowhead Golf Course, where he does seasonal maintenance work.
One of his co-workers has a wife who serves on the soup kitchen’s board, which led to the conversation about raffling off the giant pumpkin.
The raffle draw will take place at the golf course clubhouse at 10 a.m. Oct. 7 when Martin will present 100 percent of the proceeds to the soup kitchen.
Martin has no idea how much the raffle might make, but he’s happy that his fascination with big pumpkins will go to a good cause.
“I just think they’re fun to grow,” said Martin, who has been growing them in his backyard for about eight years. Last year, he relocated a 500-pound pumpkin to his front yard for passersby to enjoy.
“When I stood it up, it came up to my chest,” said Martin, who stands at roughly 5-foot-9.
He used a seed from that pumpkin to grow this year’s pumpkins, but in the past has purchased seeds online from a grower who grows pumpkins weighing up to 2,000 pounds.
“The genetics in those seeds help to grow really big pumpkins, It just takes a lot of fertilizer and water,” said Martin, who said the bigger pumpkins can require up to 200 gallons of water a day.
“If you give them lots of water and fertilizer, the really big ones can grow between 20 and 30 pounds a day,” he said.
Martin measures his pumpkins regularly to track their growth, using a special formula that estimates a pumpkin’s weight based on its height, weight and circumference.
As his pumpkins continue to grow leading up to the Oct. 7 raffle, there’s no telling just how big the prize pumpkin will get.
Jill Ebbert, the soup kitchen’s executive director, was happy to hear Martin thought of the soup kitchen when planning the raffle.
“I think it’s just fantastic when people come up with unique ideas to help us out. I’m always amazed at what they’re willing to do to help us,” she said.
