Land of the giants

Aug. 11, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman

PALMER - Guinness World Records is on official notice from the Alaska State Fair that gargantuan vegetables are expected to arrive in Palmer.

&#8220We have our fingers crossed for a few new world records,” said Kathy Liska, fair crops superintendent.

With less than three weeks before the fair holds its giant vegetable weigh-offs, three world-class growers are nursing monstrous creations.

Less than a mile from the fair's official weigh station, Palmer resident and local greenhouse owner Scott Robb tends &#8220Giant-Jac,” a burgeoning green cabbage that he hopes will claim top state honors this year.

Giant-Jac probably won't top the 124-pound world-record cabbage that grew in Wales in 1989, but it should vie for the $2,000 state prize.

Robb already has set five world records and eight state records.

He lost the world record for largest kohlrabi in 2004, when then-unknown North Pole grower Dave Iles dragged in a 63.95-pounder.

Iles is now a household name in giant vegetable circles, and said he has a couple world records headed to the fair again this year, including an even bigger kohlrabi.

Robb, however, also claims to have a record-setting kohlrabi.

&#8220It'll be a kohlrabi shootout,” he said.

Further south in the state, J.D. Megchelsen is feeding what may be the largest pumpkin ever to grow in Alaska soil. Last year, the Nikiski resident unveiled an eye-boggling 942-pound behemoth that drew a massive crowd of international fair-goers.

&#8220This year, the pumpkin could be over a thousand pounds,” Megchelsen said, during a break at the pipe-fitting and welding shop where he works. &#8220I'm betting that this one is going to go heavy.”

Alaska's reputation for yielding giant vegetables has spread in recent years, Liska said.

&#8220Alaska has become a hotbed for vegetable growing, and that intrigues people,” she explained. &#8220People who haven't been here think it's cold and dark all the time, so when we make a world record it goes all over the world.”

The bloated produce, however, often hails from humble beginnings.

Megchelsen grows his pumpkins in the back of a shop at work. It's a perfect environment, he said, because the shop provides shelter and warmth for the pumpkins.

The silent giant also gives co-workers something to talk about.

&#8220It definitely keeps things interesting around here,” he said.

If his pumpkin's main vine hadn't suffered sunburn earlier in the summer, Megchelsen said he might have made a run at the world record (1,469 pounds), set by a Pennsylvania grower in 2005.

&#8220My pumpkin is growing off a secondary vine this year,” Megchelsen explained.

Megchelsen said his pumpkin might be the largest ever grown on a secondary vine. Possibilities for the future excite him.

&#8220If you provide the shelter, you could break the world record here in Alaska,” he said.

The ultimate goal of big-time pumpkin growers is to break the 1,500-pound barrier, Megchelsen added. After that, it's on to the 2,000-pound mark.

&#8220You are never satisfied in this business,” he said. &#8220There is always something bigger.”

Iles is another grower whose appetite for swollen vegetables is insatiable.

Iles works full time in construction, but in his free time he invented a laboratory of sorts, where instead of planting vegetables in dirt, he grows them with nutrient-enriched water and humid air.

&#8220It's a combination of hydroponics and aeroponics,” he explained.

Iles wants to perfect the system, and market it to would-be growers.

Setting world records only highlights his project, he said. After two years of competitive growing, he already boasts five state records and one world record.

&#8220This system is so much better than anything I ever anticipated,” he said. &#8220I have so much confidence in the system.”

Will it yield a few more records this year?

&#8220Ask me in about three weeks,” he said.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.