Pumpkin Time

Ranndy's Note: The pumpkins above and the post

below are both the work of my brother - John C. Piña

Why grow a pumpkin? I guess everyone has their own reason, but I think many do it for the same reason. To see how big a pumpkin they can grow. Personally, I have always enjoyed seeing the pictures and stories about those people that grow those Atlantic Giant Pumpkins that always win the contests. How is it possible that a plant that starts from a seed can grow a fruit that large in only seven or eight months? It doesn’t happen without a lot of hard work and some luck. The plant does its part by setting, expanding and ripening the fruit. The grower does everything possible to give the plant ideal growing conditions, including monitoring water requirements, fertilizer needs, aiding in pollination and even monitoring and mitigating sunlight. Have you ever seen a pampered pumpkin with its own parasol? I have.
Thought I began growing a pumpkin to compete in a local contest (I even won, 185#, small potatoes); I realized that first year, it was for the kids. Kids do enjoy carving pumpkins, but you should see them light up when you pull up with the truck and unload their own personalized pumpkin. So, for the past 10 years I have grown them for my Grandkids, other kids and myself.

The Piña Plucker

The Piña Plucker By John Pina

In the harvest of 2002 we experienced some sun-burnt fruit at our Buckeye Vineyard due to an extended period of hot dry weather just before harvest. Our winemaker, Cary Gott, was concerned so we asked the picking crew to drop fruit that had significant shriveled berries. The result was clean fruit for the winery but significantly less due to the amount dropped.
The 2003 harvest experienced similar hot dry weather, again burning the berries exposed to the afternoon sun. Cary and I looked at the vineyard the day before our planned pick and again we were concerned with the amount of shriveled berries. The plan was to again go through the vineyard the morning of harvest and drop any burnt bunches.
As I was driving home that evening I considered the options and came up with a plan. I drove straight to the second-hand store in Healdsburg and bought all the forks they had on hand. I then went home to my shop and started cutting and bending the prongs to fashion a suitable berry removal tool. I took two forks and riveted them together facing opposite directions. One fork retained all four prongs, but they were bent as a uniform rake. The fork on the other end retained only the two center prongs that were also bent to form a two prong rake. The idea was to use the full rake to remove all the berries on a burnt bunch while the two prong rake was used to remove individual burnt berries. I worked late to produce a dozen of these “pluckers” so that there would be more than enough to supply one to each member of the harvest crew the next morning.
The next morning when I presented the tools to the crew, I’m sure they thought I had lost it. I explained that the purpose of the tool was to remove only shriveled berries rather than the whole bunch. Of course, it was easy to find the burnt berries as they are only on the side of the bunch that got the hot afternoon sun. It only took a few minutes before they were comfortable with its use and made extremely good time going through the vineyard.
The next generation of pluckers is still two stainless forks but now they are tightly welded together.
We began to share these tools with our vineyard management company clients and even considered having them commercially produced. Modified VSP trellis systems have reduced the need for this tool lately.
John C. Piña
Spring 2009