Front Porch Magazine | Fall 2021

The

PUMPKIN KING

BUSTER PASSMORE LOVES GARDENING,

AND HE KNOWS HOW TO GROW (AND WIN) BIG

Story by Rob Anderson Photos by Jenny Higgs

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Champion pumpkin-grower Mark “Buster” Passmore is on the move the day we visited his farm. He usually is. Walking past some darting chickens and a series of tomato plants, he turns around and thrusts a dry corn stalk “sword” into the air triumphantly. The garden is his kingdom and he’s ready to defend it.

Actually, Buster is ready to talk about his garden, not defend it. The sword is just for fun, and Buster likes to have some fun while he works. At 12 (quickly approaching 13), fun is still important to him and growing things is what brings him the most joy. Some kids play games when they get home from school, but for Buster, pumpkins beat PlayStation every time. This has been true for most of Buster’s young life. “When I was about 3, I really loved to play in the mud,” he says. “Then, one day, I saw an ad for St. Jude and I thought, ‘Those kids need help’ and, three years later, I got into gardening and raised about $300 for St. Jude.”

In other words, a desire to make a difference for children fighting cancer at the well-known Memphis research hospital sent Buster back to the mud around the age of 6 to grow and sell vegetables as a fundraiser. Since then, he’s remained dedicated to both gardening and his chosen cause.

Buster first maintained a small garden when he and his father (also named Mark) lived in Jonesboro, but he expanded to a much larger garden at a home they moved to in Paragould. “That entire yard was a garden,” says Mark. “There was no grass in it at all. The only thing that wasn’t garden was at the end of our driveway where he had a sandbox.”

Buster tried his hand at tomatoes (“They’re pretty easy to grow,” he says), peppers and watermelons and he still grows these, but quickly honed in on pumpkins as his garden favorite. “At first, I just wanted to grow a pumpkin and decorate it. Then Dad introduced me to 4-H and I kind of got big into the 4-H pumpkin contest.”

He grew his first, small pumpkin in 2012 in Jonesboro and soon he and his father were entering his pumpkins in county fair and district fair contests, where he first garnered attention and even support.

“He wasn’t in 4-H when he grew one out of the package that was about 100 pounds,” says Mark. “That’s when Dave Freeze, our county extension agent, took notice of Buster and he really introduced us to this (4-H) contest.”

When it comes to pumpkins, though, Buster says he almost prefers “showing” to growing these days. He enjoys winning and he’s gotten used to it in recent years. He took home the top prize in the state 4-H Biggest Pumpkin contest in 2019 with a 491-pound gourd, then he won again in 2020 with a 334-pounder. This year, his entry

Buster Passmore chats while resting on one of the last pumpkins left in his garden this year. He’ll soon have to start cleaning out the leftover vines and stumps and preparing for next season.

Photo Courtesy of Mark Passmore

Buster and his dad, Mark, with one of his prize pumpkins.

was smaller – 219 pounds – but he still came out on top. “Three times in a row! I’m the first 4-H-er to ever get that done,” he says with evident pride.

The first year he tried his hand at the statewide 4-H contest, his pumpkin busted on the trip the Arkansas State Fair, but it didn’t deter him. That particular pumpkin weighed around 220 pounds, but it had a soft spot on it that made it vulnerable. It was a learning experience for the duo and they’ve since perfected their tricky procedure for lifting and transporting large pumpkins. Buster has also settled

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Photo Courtesy of Mark Passmore

Moving large pumpkins in tricky business that requires the right equipment and strategy. One of Buster’s first contest pumpkins shattered in the truck while being transported to the Arkansas State Fair.

into a particular routine for growing and caring for his potential winners.

“You wake up, you water them and, every so often – probably every couple of weeks – you fertilize them with the organic matter of your choice,” Buster explains. Buster has given his chosen organic matter mixes some colorful names – “Horse Poop Tea” and “Chicken Poop Soup” (“I came up with that recently,” Buster says).

Spraying fungicide and insecticide is necessary because bugs can be an issue when growing prize-winning pumpkins, Buster and Mark explain. Buster points to stink bugs as a problem, but adds that eggshells crushed and sprinkled on and around the pumpkin car ward these off. He’s also careful to point out that choosing the right sprays is key, because he doesn’t want to use something that will harm bees.

“Bees are very important for pumpkins because they pollinate. They can go from the male flower to female flower and it helps because the female flowers are the only ones that can grow a pumpkin,” he says.

Typically, sometime in mid-May, Buster says, he builds three mounds and plants two seeds in each mound. Then comes months of care and waiting. Moderate weather is best for the process, with heat and humidity being a

problem that can cause soft spots and other damage. Sometimes tarps are needed to provide shade for the long and tangled vines that grow in every direction. When the pumpkins reach roughly basketball size, Buster slides plywood boards under them to protect the growing gourds from ground moisture.

As the growing out continues, he and his father keep a close watch and, “after we see the three biggest ones, we get rid of the smallest ones.” Then, he says, they see which of the larger pumpkins grows the most and remove the others, because, “smaller pumpkins only slow down the process.”

The rejected pumpkins don’t go to waste, however. Mark and Buster experimented this year and discovered a tasty new way to make use of them. “If they’re about the size of a baseball, you can cut ‘em up, bread ‘em and fry ‘em up like squash,” Buster says. “It tastes just about like squash, too.”

Buster has made some friends in the world of giant pumpkin-growers. One friend in Rhode Island sent Buster a box of soil enhancers and other materials he can use during growing season. He also stays in touch with other “large plant” growers through Facebook Groups and often finds good tips and advice there.

“That’s where we got the idea for a hammock for his watermelons last year. It’s netting that kept it off the ground and helped keep it from rotting,” says Mark.

Touring the ever-expanding garden at their current home in the middle of miles of Bono farmland, Mark and Buster point out the round cages they use for containing the tomato plants and Mark pulls a smaller roll of chain-link in the middle of the cage. This, he says, was Buster’s idea for keeping the plant contained and growing upward so he could monitor the progress.

Photo Courtesy of Mark Passmore

Buster shows off one of his giant pumpkins and some of the soil enhancers and unique concoctions he uses to fertilize and grow the impressive prize winners.

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Holding some of the fruits (and veggies) of his labor, Buster talks about how he likes to learn through “trial and error” and experimentation. (RIGHT) Buster has won the state 4-H Biggest Pumpkin contest three years in a row, but he also loves growing tomatoes.

Buster and Mark hope that 4-H will have a tomatorelated contest to enter someday. In the meantime Buster likes to experiment with them in the kitchen.

“You can take a bunch of small, green tomatoes and pickle them,” he says. “They’re pretty good that way.”

Mark says Buster will often watch gardening videos on YouTube to learn new things when he’s curious or stumped. For his part, Buster says he learns most by just spending time in the garden.

“Usually I learn through trial and error,” Buster says. “Sometimes I might look up something I don’t know.”

Whatever the case, Buster’s mind is usually on gardening and he’s still coming up with ideas he’d like to try.

“I’d like to experiment with peppers and watermelons – cross-pollinating those,” he says with a smile. “I wonder if it will make the watermelon spicy … It’d be a spice melon!” Buster sees no end to his gardening days. He can continue entering 4-H contests until he’s 19. Last year, after pumpkin season, he worked on a food plot for deer not far from his home. It was for another 4-H competition, and he won. The rules say winners have to sit out a year for that, so he’s now focused on building a new greenhouse and preparing for next year’s pumpkin crop, a process that begins almost immediately.

“The day after we pick the pumpkin is when we start for next year,” says Mark. “We clean out the garden. We take the vines out and burn them and start adding the ‘chicken

poop soup’ for the soil.”

He will also continue to work on his other vegetables, some of which he sells. Buster’s contest winnings go into his college fund, while money from vegetable sales goes to St. Jude.

“Whenever someone pays him for his vegetables, we send them (St. Jude) a check. His first year, we drove over to give it to them, but he was too young to go in the hospital. He wanted to go in and visit all the kids. He had a bunch of jokes lined up and everything.”

Buster says he still wants to visit St. Jude some day when he’s older, but he’s forgotten the jokes he’d prepared when he was younger and will need to come up with some new ones.

Outside of gardening, he raises rabbits and broilers for others in the area and for other 4-H members. He plans to ride his four-wheeler during the winter and catch some butterflies during the summer. And, appropriate for a boy his age, he’ll be looking for ways to have fun and keep moving. He’s always moving. As we wrap up the day and start to head away from the garden, Buster pulls apart another corn stalk and hurls it across the garden like a javelin. As he goes to pick it up, a stray vegetable on the ground nearby catches his attention and he’s on to the next thing. •

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