Poway family grows 275-pound pumpkin

A Poway family was able to spend their Halloween with a big surprise— a 275-pound pumpkin named Wanda.

Paul and Cindy Kassel planted five Gigantic Atlantic Pumpkin seeds in their backyard in July, not expecting one to produce a monster pumpkin.

This is the second year the Kassels have grown pumpkins, but the first year they were aiming for large pumpkins.

The plants produced a number of pumpkins, but Paul Kassel said they focused on four specific pumpkins, which he and his family named Bambi, which was Kassel’s childhood baseball nickname, Lucy, Helga and the then-runt, Wanda.

Wanda was Cindy Kassel’s mother’s name, who passed away last year.

“We just needed one more name for the baby preemie,” said Kassel. “This poor pumpkin had its vine eaten up by a rabbit.”

His wife called out her mother’s name and Kassel decided to go with it.

The Kassels left on vacation in August, and returned in October to discover that in the two months they were away, Wanda had grown into a monster pumpkin.

“Here it is two months later since we left and Wanda has grown to be over 275 pounds and growing,” said Kassel. “We miss Wanda, my mother-in-law, and the response from pumpkin Wanda after being given a name was far greater than we could have imagined.”

Kassel credits Wanda’s thriving with his neighbor, Jim Stevenson, who holds a Ph.D. in agriculture and has helped them with their pumpkins and other produce, and Jim Parks, Kassel’s landscaper who looked after the pumpkins while they were away.

Kassel said he didn’t pick Wanda for being the biggest pumpkin, as it was so small he was planning on picking it off being it was named. Instead, he was betting on his namesake pumpkin, Bambi, as being the big winner.

“It didn’t grow at all while we were away,” said Kassel. “I guess it didn’t like its name.”

Bambi ended up being the smallest of the four pumpkins.

The next largest pumpkin after Wanda is Helga, which is estimated to be about 200 pounds.

Stevenson and Kassel estimate Wanda to be at about 275 pounds through measurement, as Wanda is too heavy for them to move currently. Kassel said he plans to let Wanda grow for another couple of weeks, then will cut Wanda up and measure the pieces to get an accurate weight.

“I’ll harvest some of the seeds, and try for an even bigger pumpkin next year,” said Kassel.

In fact, Kassel said he’d love to see if anyone in Poway could match his monster pumpkin. “I’d like to see Poway have a biggest pumpkin contest,” said Kassel. “That’d be interesting.”