Sunday Times E-Edition

Liesbet squashes the competition

By GILL GIFFORD

● Wykus Lamprecht of Meyerton was just three years old when he developed a love for growing vegetables. Today he is an awardwinning, record-holding grower of giant pumpkins.

Lamprecht, 34, an electromechanical technician, has transformed his garden into two pumpkin patches and spends his time nurturing his orange behemoths.

“The other day I was at the shops when this random lady greeted me as Mr Pumpkin. I was chuffed — sommer instant recognition,” he said.

Recently, he won the Goliat van Gat pumpkin festival, organised by the Transvaal Agriculture Union, in Silverton, Pretoria, where his 890kg whopper named Liesbet took first prize and broke all records.

Lamprecht’s pumpkins, which he always gives women’s names, are grown on sterilised sand in a 170-day process that involves intensive fertilising and watering — 600l a day at the peak growth stage.

“It’s a stressful hobby. The other night I had a dream that I came out here and found just the pumpkin skin standing. No flesh, no seeds — just the shell. It was distressing, and such a relief to wake up and realise it was just a bad dream,” he said.

Lamprecht covers his pumpkins with fleece blankets at night, and puts fans on them on hot days.

At 890kg, the pumpkin he named Liesbet was 17kg short of gaining Lamprecht a place in the Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth’s 2,000 Pound Club. This is an elite group who have grown pumpkins weighing more than 2,000lbs, or 907kg.

“If Liesbet could have grown another one or two days we would have got there. It’s something I dream of. They send you a nice jacket from America,” Lamprecht said.

For now he continues to source special seeds and hone his pumpkin-growing skills.

Liesbet’s seeds will be sold to other aspiring giant-pumpkin growers to raise funds for next year’s prize money offerings. The pumpkin’s flesh will be donated to feeding schemes.

Will Lamprecht himself cook some up? No. He doesn’t like the taste of pumpkin.

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2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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