MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Willem le Grange, who farms in the Ruiterbos area, inland from Mossel Bay, came fourth in the Giant Pumpkin Festival competition, held in Heidelberg in the Southern Cape. 

Le Grange entered his back-up pumpkin, weighing 696kg, after his first pumpkin which he aimed to enter into the competition, rotted about a month ago. 

The festival took place from Thursday to Saturday, 27 to 29 March. 

Willem said: "The pumpkin season started well and generally everything fell into place and things were growing as they should.

"I had a pumpkin that grew nicely from the beginning. It didn't break any records with its daily growth, but grew by a good average weight per day, keeping its growth constant. 

"Unfortunately I lost the pumpkin on 4 March. 

"That morning there was a little stream of water running out of it, from underneath." 

Underside 

Willem surmises that the underside of the pumpkin, which one does not see, burst, causing it to rot. 

No one can look at the underside, he explained. It could not have been foreseen it would rot.

He thanked the fertiliser company he uses for all its support during the season. 

Willem has entered the pumpkin competition a number of times before and either won or done extremely well. 

For the first time in South Africa, there are two pumpkins that weigh more than a ton: 

Piet Lotz of Riversdale came first in the competition with his pumpkin, weighing 1 120kg. 

This was actually Lotz's second pumpkin that he entered. 

Lotz's first entry weighed 1 062kg. 

Here are the top five in the pumpkin contest:

1. Piet Lotz 1 120kg, 

2. André du Plessis 954kg, 

3. Pieter Conradie 737.5kg, 

4. Willem le Grange 696kg, 

5. John Booysen 589kg. 

Willem entered two squashes which gained first and second place in the squash contest. They weighed 586kg and 398.5kg.

Willem, sitting on the good pumpkin.

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