BARNESVILLE — He did it again — Bill Neptune of New Concord captured the title of King Pumpkin for the fifth time on Wednesday with a 1,952-pound entry.

Neptune said he started growing pumpkins competitively about 30 years ago, inspired by his neighbor, Pat St. Clair, who had a pumpkin Neptune estimated at 300 pounds growing in his yard. Being neighborly, St. Clair gave Neptune seeds and got him started.

“I got hooked,” Neptune said. “That first year, I grew a 200-pound pumpkin and that was like, I gotta do this.”

The secret to his success?

There isn’t one.

“You have to control your water, and we had a tough year in Ohio,” Neptune said. “It was so wet.

“I’m still growing outside, so you have to fight the water issue all the time,” he continued. “So getting that water dialed in where

See Full Page