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CapitalPress.com
October 21, 2016
People & Places
Big pumpkins, big business
John Hawkley
specializes in
record-setting
mega-squashes
Western
Innovator
For the Capital Press
John Hawkley
Associated Press
KEY LARGO, Fla. — A
narrow ribbon of road link-
ing the Florida Keys with the
mainland is the front line in a
renewed ight against maggots
that can eat livestock alive.
Near a Key Largo visitors’
center painted with larger-
than-life tropical ish and sea
turtles, northbound drivers
with animals must stop for
agriculture oficials check-
ing for signs of New World
screwworm.
The parasite once cost the
U.S. livestock industry mil-
lions of dollars every year.
There hadn’t been a U.S. in-
festation in over 30 years, un-
til the USDA conirmed Sept.
30 that screwworms were kill-
ing rare, dog-sized deer found
only in the island chain.
The source of the infes-
tation isn’t known, but the
Keys’ isolation may help stop
Calendar
Occupation: Competitive
pumpkin grower
Family: Wife, Patty, three
grown children and one
grandchild
Quote: “Growing pumpkins
takes an extreme amount
of labor and love from April
through July 1. After that you
hope to see the fruits of your
labors.”
Courtesy of New York Botanical Society
Napa, Calif., competitive pumpkin grower John Hawkley still holds the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-
Off competition record with this mega-squash that tipped the scales at 2,058 pounds in 2014. The
seeds from the huge pumpkins are highly prized for their genetics.
I have a plant and in six to
eight days I begin to see baby
pumpkins that I transfer to
mini-greenhouses and then
outside.”
He said he needs 750
square feet per plant for the
big ones.
This year’s winner, To-
beck, told an NBC reporter
that she regularly sent pump-
kin samples to a laboratory for
tests so she could adjust her
fertilizer blend.
screwworm from spreading,
Florida Agriculture Commis-
sioner Adam Putnam said.
“We are obviously in a
more remote part of the state
with one way in and one way
out,” Putnam said.
Fifty years ago, Florida’s
ight against screwworm pio-
neered a kind of birth control
for insect pests — a tech-
nique that’s potentially useful
against Zika and other mos-
quito-borne viruses.
What are
screwworms?
New World screwworms,
or Cochliomyia hominivo-
rax, are about the same size
as common houselies as
adults, but have orange eyes.
They only lay eggs near open
wounds in warm-blooded an-
imals. Unlike most maggots,
these larvae feed on living
lesh. They don’t ly very
far, but infected animals can
spread infestations if they
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Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
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Hometown: Napa, Calif.
Hawkley began com-
peting for prize money in
2012 and won a Morgan
Hill, Calif., weigh-off with a
1,647-pounder.
In 2014, he was the irst
person in the U.S. to grow
a 1-ton pumpkin, which
weighed 2,058 pounds.
After that win, the New
York Botanical Society lew
Hawkley, his wife and the
pumpkin — in a specialty–
built crate — to New York.
The pumpkin went on display
and Hawkley appeared on TV
shows. The society harvested
the seeds and mailed them
back to Hawkley.
Hawkley still holds the
state and Half Moon Bay
Pumpkin Weigh-Off records.
“Contrary to popular opin-
ion, growers do not make a
batch of pumpkin pies after
competitions,” he said. “Most
of the big ones are not really
edible. People are fascinat-
ed by the big pumpkins and
want to display them. There
are large casinos in Las Vegas
that buy the huge ones at 40
cents to $1 a pound just for
displays.”
When he does sell one of
the scale-busting pumpkins,
he wants the seeds returned.
They are valuable for their ge-
netics, he said.
Jesse Ramer, interim ex-
ecutive director of the Napa
County Farm Bureau, pointed
out Hawkley’s contribution to
agriculture.
“We have the greatest
farmers in the world here in
the winegrape business,” he
said. “I think it is important
to spotlight other folks that
are doing other interesting
projects. We are pleased to
have John as a Farm Bureau
member.”
Hawkley trades seeds with
growers all over the world.
After the season is over, he
gets envelopes with return
addresses from people want-
ing seeds. Clubs use them for
fundraisers or for members to
grow their own.
“We in the Napa Valley
have a history of world record
holders,” he said. “But the
biggest challenge is keeping
the pumpkins growing as long
as possible while keeping
them whole.”
Florida oficials hope quarantine, irradiated lies stop screwworm
By JENNIFER KAY
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Corporate oficer
John Perry
Chief operating oficer
By JULIA HOLLISTER
NAPA, Calif. — In a re-
gion known for its vineyards
and wineries, John Hawkley
grows pumpkins.
Big pumpkins. Pumpkins
so big he needs a forklift to
move them. Pumpkins that
can bring him a paycheck
worth thousands of dollars.
Hawkley thinks big —
over 2,000 pounds or more —
and the rewards lie in the con-
tests he attends, not the pies.
“I grew up in Napa but
wasn’t interested in growing
pumpkins until 10 years ago,”
he said. “That was about the
time I watched a couple of lo-
cal people load a huge pump-
kin on a carrier to take to a
weigh-off.”
He said he was fascinated.
“That season I grew a
200-pound one and was
hooked,” he said.
Hawkley said growers
in the area help each other
produce the big ones, which
is extremely dificult. Pests
such as beetles and white lies
can attack the big squashes.
Soil-borne diseases are also a
threat.
Several weigh-offs take
place each year in Califor-
nia, and the winning pump-
kins are getting bigger, along
with the crowds — and the
paychecks.
This year’s winning pump-
kin at the Half Moon Bay, Ca-
lif., contest tipped the scales
at 1,910 pounds and garnered
a cash prize of $11,460 for the
winner, Cindy Tobeck of Lit-
tle Rock, Wash.
The path to a winning
pumpkin starts with the right
seeds, which Hawkley keeps
from year to year and swaps
with other competitive grow-
ers.
“In April, I start the seeds
indoors in quart-sized cups
in a preheated, insulated hot
house,” he said. “In two days
Capital Press
Oregon Society of Weed Sci-
ence annual meeting, 8 a.m. Best
Western Hood River Inn, 1108 E.
Marina Way, Hood River, Ore.
Wednesday-Friday
Oct. 26-28
FSPCA Preventive Controls for
Animal Food Course, 8 a.m. Sprin-
ghill Suites by Marriott,424 E. Park
Center Blvd., Boise, Idaho. The
course will cover an overview of
the FSMA requirements for animal
food, current good manufacturing
move to new areas.
Livestock are most at
risk, but human infections
can occur in rare instances.
Screwworm lies are found
throughout South America
and a handful of Caribbean
countries.
Miniature deer
Key deer are a unique
subspecies of white-tailed
deer about 3 feet tall at the
shoulder — the size of a large
dog. Found only in the Flor-
ida Keys, their population
rebounded from just a few
dozen in the 1950s to a herd
of roughly 1,000 now.
About 30 Key deer have
been found dead or have been
euthanized in the last two
weeks because of screwworm,
said National Key Deer Ref-
uge Manager Dan Clark. Ref-
uge records indicate at least
another 30 deer deaths over
the summer were linked to
screwworm.
Sterilizing
screwworms
Agriculture oficials have
announced the release of mil-
lions of male screwworm
lies, sterilized with radiation,
to mate with wild female lies
in the refuge. Any eggs pro-
duced won’t hatch, killing the
ly population over time, said
Cris Young, a veterinarian with
the USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service. The
screwworm’s life cycle is about
24 days.
The releases may continue
twice weekly for six months,
Putnam said.
Chemical treatments are
available for infested cattle and
pets, but the sterilized insects
are so effective that pesticides
aren’t necessary, Young said.
Sterile insects, Zika
The “sterile insect tech-
nique” developed in the 1950s
is still widely used. Irradiated
Mediterranean fruit lies have
been released regularly since
1998 in South Florida and the
Tampa area. Texas and Cali-
fornia also release irradiated
fruit lies.
The promise of pest control
without pesticides is a selling
point for those trying similar
techniques to control the mos-
quitoes that spread Zika.
A representative from the
United Nations’ Internation-
al Atomic Energy Agency
pitched the technique’s po-
tential this spring to Florida
Keys mosquito control ofi-
cials looking for new weap-
ons against the hard-to-kill
species carrying Zika, dengue
fever and other viruses.
A proposal to test mos-
quitoes genetically modiied
so their larvae won’t survive
is up for a referendum in the
Keys next month. A separate
test being considered in Flori-
da involves mosquitoes steril-
ized with bacteria.
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