It’s that time of the year when families can frolic through pumpkin patches to pick the perfect prototypes for carving jack-o’-lanterns, decorating their homes and baking pies.
Aloun Farms in Kapolei and Waimanalo Country Farms on the opposite side of Oahu are holding their popular harvest festivals this month, and they’re glad to be back to normal after two years of scaling back festivities because of the pandemic.
Aloun, celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, is producing 250,000 pumpkins this fall for its 20th Pumpkin Festival to be held the last three weekends of the month. Aloun spokesman Michael Moefu said educational tours will also return four days a week; they include a booklet and pumpkin harvesting, among other activities.
In the past, Aloun Farms’ Annual Pumpkin Festival attracted approximately 60,000 attendees over three weekends, and about 15,000 students and families for its educational tours.
It’s been a rewarding experience for the staff and volunteers to see the same kids returning each year to take photos, said Moefu, who has been publicizing the event for 12 years.
Besides holding the island’s largest and longest-running pumpkin festival, the farm supplies 90% of the entire state’s pumpkins, Moefu said. Prior to the early 2000s, most of Hawaii’s pumpkins were imported. This year, Aloun has expanded its farm to Waimea, Kauai, where a pumpkin patch will also open to the public. Aloun grows different kinds of produce on more than 2,000 acres in four sites on Oahu and Kauai.
A dozen varieties of the iconic orange winter squash, including baby ornamental gourds, are available for purchase. Varieties that produce giant pumpkins have names like Big Mac and Frankenstein; for jack-o’-lanterns, look to Classic Jack and White Jack; for miniatures, Tiger Stripes and Wee Bee.
Reginaldo Pandy, Aloun’s crop care supervisor, has been growing pumpkins during all of his 22 years working at the farm. This year’s weather, with no rain, has been ideal for growing the crop. (Rain discourages bees from coming out to pollinate.) Aloun produces pumpkins on a total of 80 to 90 acres.
It’s a formidable undertaking to overcome the usual challenges: infestations of aphids, pickle worms and melon flies in the early stage of growing, and the spread of powdery mildew on the leaves, which can stunt growth. Fruit fly baits, including GF120 with spinosad and cue-lure traps, are used to control the melon flies (a variety of fruit fly), he said.
But it should be a lot easier for the backyard gardener to grow pumpkins on a much smaller scale, no harder than other vegetables and ornamentals, he said.
Aloun starts planting seedlings in early July to have the crop ready in time for the fall festival; depending on the varieties, growing cycles can range from 55 to over 90 days. Home gardeners can plant seeds straight into the ground, but birds eating the seeds became a problem at Aloun, Pandy said.
In the early and later stages, the farm irrigates the crop once or twice a week, or more often if the weather is very hot. Fertilizer with an NPK of 10-30-40 is applied five times during the growth cycle. Plastic is placed on the ground to control the weeds and to prevent pumpkins from rotting, Pandy said.
Moefu said insufficient pollination by bees is also a problem, but the farm is diligent about keeping its hives healthy and active.
Rounding up enough labor to tend to all of Aloun’s crops is always a struggle, he said. So the farm has to get creative, recruiting high-school students, fundraising groups, football teams and college interns throughout the year.
Family operation
At Waimanalo Country Farms, the Fall Harvest Festival started Oct. 1 and runs daily through Nov. 20, except Mondays. In 2010, the farm opened its first patch to the public; today, about 15 of its 52 acres are devoted to the cultivation of pumpkins. Varieties include Golden Orange, Wee Bee and Orange Mini.
The Waimanalo farm is a small family operation, started in 1948 by the Wong family (originally as Golden Melon Farm). It is now run by sixth-generation farmers Dominic and his wife, Shawn Kadooka.
The farm is also well-known for its corn and sunflowers, with honey recently added to the mix. Unlike Aloun, Waimanalo Country Farms only sells about 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of pumpkins from its home base on Oahu every fall, not statewide through other retailers, Dominic Kadooka said.
“Everything depends on the weather; sometimes the harvest is early, sometimes it’s late. This year was good, the first main harvest came early,” about mid-September, Shawn Kadooka said.
Dominic Kadooka said the weather was great: not too hot, but dry with overcast skies. When it doesn’t rain, he irrigates every other day. The soil is also well-draining, without too much clay, and he hardly needs to fertilize.
He starts planting in July and about a month later, there are tiny pumpkins, and before you know it, they’re nice and big. “God’s timing is perfect,” he said.
Like Aloun Farms, fruit flies, one of the worst pests in the state, and pickle worms are the biggest headaches, along with powdery mildew. Dominic Kadooka said he’s tried different insecticides through the years and has found that DiPel biological insecticide has worked especially well on the pickle worms.
Everything is done manually on the farm, he said. They inspect each pumpkin individually and sometimes break open damaged ones to search for the cause of the problem, using information from the University of Hawaii and state agriculture department websites to troubleshoot.
Waimanalo Country Farms employs no paid staff, depending instead on the work of about 15 family members, including parents, in-laws and children who contribute special skills such as woodworking, beekeeping, welding, baking and more. Even five grandchildren know how to work, he said.
Shawn Kadooka acknowledged that growing so many pumpkins in time for the fall festival “is a lot of work because it’s just our family. … But we don’t mind doing it as long as people enjoy it. Once (the festival) gets going, it’s really fun to talk to people!”
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Aloun Farms
91-1440 Farrington Highway, Kapolei
>> 20th Pumpkin Festival: 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m., Oct. 15-16, 22-23 and 29-30. Events include entertainment, keiki rides, a petting zoo and hayrides. Also, pick your own ‘Ewa Sweet Corn and string beans.
>> Cost: $5 general admission; age 2 and under free. Small pumpkins are $7; medium, $10; large, $12.
>> Educational tours: 8:30-11 a.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, Oct. 11-14, 18-21 and 25-28. Reservations required, $10.
>> Info: 808-677-9516; alounfarms.com
Waimanalo Country Farms
41-225 Lupe St., Waimanalo
>> Fall Harvest Festival: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, through Nov. 20; Country Market Stand, 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Pumpkin patch and sunflower fields open for reserved picnics. Tractor rides, animal visits. School field trips available.
>> Cost: $12 general admission; age 2 and under free. Pumpkins range from $8-$18, depending on size.
>> Info: 808-306-4381; waimanalocountryfarms.com
Holy Nativity School
5286 Kalanianaole Highway, Aina Haina
>> 10th annual Great Pumpkin Festival: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Oct. 22. Kiddie games, shave ice, scavenger hunt. Tickets are limited.
>> Cost: $30 admission; pumpkins range from $3-$15.
>> Info: 808-373-3232; holynativityschool.org
Is there a gardening topic you’d like to read about in the Garden Variety column? Email Pat Gee at pgee@ staradvertiser.com with your request.
