World's third largest pumpkin grown in Marysville

At 1,693 pounds, his pumpkin has been declared the third weightiest grown in the world this year, and it will soon be on display at a botanical garden in New York City.

But Brant Bordsen — a Marysville attorney, some-time local opera singer and monster pumpkin grower — is sure his 2012 gourd will be even greater.

"I believe Dr. Frankenstein will be unleashed next year," he said this week, after his orange behemoth was weighed in at a contest in Half Moon Bay.

Though it turned out to be only the second heaviest pumpkin at the contest, it surpassed Bordsen's 2010 baby — a 1,645.5 pounder that broke a previous U.S. West Coast record.

His confidence has been bolstered, he said, by a local secret weapon he discovered in 2009.

Shake and Grow, a plant stimulant product, was developed by Yuba City plant geneticist Frank Smith for use in his garden.

After neighbors begged to learn the secret of his prolific vegetable plants and flowers, he and his wife, Gail Smith, launched a small enterprise in 2008.

Gail Smith markets and sells the tiny green amino acid-based granules online in small quantities to home gardeners in New Mexico, Nevada and California.

"Our dream is to add more products, get a warehouse and expand to other states," she said of the fledgling product, which she demonstrates by sprinkling onto the soil around a house plant.

The Smiths' friendship with Bordsen and his wife Eleanor — in whose name the pumpkins also are listed for contests — began with an introduction by a fellow attorney, and was based on a mutual passion for gardening.

Bordsen notes that he has no financial interest in the Smith's company.

But he has plenty to say about their plant product.

"This stuff is spectacular," Bordsen said.

Tomatoes and other fruit and vegetable plants in his garden have been enhanced since he began using it in 2009, he said.

He used very little at first. But that year, Bordsen took fourth-place at Half Moon Bay.

"I grew six plants, and the two treated plants went big and heavy," he said. "I thought, 'we were on to something.' So the next year, I cranked it up."

He is quick to point out that magic fairy dust from a can is not the only factor responsible for his success in the world of gargantuan gourds.

"We use tons and tons of compost, we use fish, we use seaweed, we use worm castings," he said. "I wear one pair of shoes every year just to go from the patch to the back porch to make sure I don't infect them with a virus or something. I know just how I like to cover them (pumpkins) to keep the temperature regulated. I'm very particular."

After his fourth-place finish in 2009, the Bordsens and Smiths took a chain saw to the prize winner and sent some of the innards off to a lab to test the pumpkin's nutritional value.

According to Gail Smith, the pumpkin and other edible plants treated with the stimulator have shown an enhanced level of valuable nutrients.

Much of the fruit from that first experimental monster pumpkin, she said, went into pumpkin bread.

As for the future of Shake and Grow, the Smiths have some high-minded uses for their product too.

They have become involved with orphanages in Cambodia and intend to make regular trips there.

The product they market here to relatively wealthy hobby gardeners could help improve crops in the third world, and Cambodia will be their first significant foray into charity work abroad.

"We know we can help expand their production," said Gail Smith. "We know we can really be of assistance."