Growing blue-ribbon contenders in Rivah country

Growing blue-ribbon, record breaking, mind boggling, awe-inspiring ginormous produce is no easy feat.

Countless trials and errors, hours of research, months of labor and perseverance go into growing newsworthy crops. While it may not be an easy feat, for Jr. Brent, it sure is a fun one.

Brent of Lancaster got bit by the gardening bug at an early age. From about nine years old he had always been interested in plants and learning how to grow them, and began his own full-fledged garden by the age 14 at his childhood home in White Stone.

While Brent continued to garden throughout his adolescence, often times having it take a backseat to his schooling and social life, he came back to growing as he began raising his family.

When Brent moved to Chesterfield while working for DuPont, his new home already had a garden. He decided he would tend to it and begin growing produce. Growing far more than his own household could use, he set his daughter Codi up with her own produce stand.

“That produce stand was actually pretty successful,” he said.

When he moved back to the Northern Neck in 2009, that’s when the real fun began.

With four-and-a-half acres for a garden in Lancaster, Brent began planting and nourishing his soil. He grew oversized produce in Chesterfield, as he settled into his retirement back home,  he really started seeing, what one may say, enormous success.

In 2012 Brent began competing in the State Fair of Virginia growing competitions, showing his best and heaviest watermelons and pumpkins.

“Raised beds are the way to go”

In his tenure as a competitive and successful grower, Brent has developed a number of tactics and procedures he swears by in order to achieve monumental status for his produce.

Raised beds, mushroom composts, Miracle Grow and Organic Neptune are just a few of his reliable resources.

“First things first, you have got to get your ground right,” Brent said.

According to Brent, a mushroom compost can drastically improve the health of the soil as well as its water retention, drainage and reducing some need for chemical fertilizers.

He swears by his three-to-one dirt to mushroom compost ratio.

“That’s the magic,” he said.

Brent’s irrigation system and overall growing process is another key factor to securing a blue ribbon crop. It’s not as simple as planting a bunch of watermelon seed and seeing which one grows the heaviest. After planting the seeds in each of his two 11×11 planters on either side of his irrigation system, he nurtures and tends to the plants daily before picking a single watermelon from each planter he wants all of the water and nutrients to fuel.

Brent said that shortly after planting the seeds, a number of male blossoms will begin to bud. The trick is to find a female bud with a large vine to bring to a cradle, he said.

Once he determines which watermelon bud seems to be the most promising from each planter, he will remove any of the other existing buds to ensure all of the nutrients and water go to nourishing the one chosen watermelon.

“Ya gotta do it every single day”

He planted his 2025 watermelons around May 20 and pulled the watermelon he wanted to grow in mid-July, he said. By early August, his current blue-ribbon contenders weighed in at 111 pounds each.

Watermelons grow their best over warm nights, when the temperature is around 70-80 degrees. With how hot this summer has been, his watermelons have had promising growth, said Brent.

“It’s a lot of fun. Each day you see it growing more and more. When they first start growing they’ll double in size over night.”

Once the watermelon reaches a certain size it gets its own raised bed to protect it from critters in the ground. He covers it from the harsh sun to protect the skin so it doesn’t get tough as well.

While he tends the produce every day, and puts a lot of thought and effort into the growing process, genetics has a lot to do with a crop’s size.

Brent said he’s spent a lot of time over the years researching and trying different seeds. He’s ordered quite a few different varieties online to see which grow the largest paired with his techniques.

Brent will harvest his watermelon the day before the state fair. He expects his watermelon could grow up to 80 more pounds by then.

Clearly Brent has mastered the art of growing gigantic watermelon. In 2014 he broke the state record for the largest watermelon grown in Virginia, weighing in at a whopping 218.5 pounds.

He has tried his giant watermelon and they are pretty tasty, but he doesn’t usually eat them after the competition because of the amount of fertilization that goes into growing a crop of that size.

“A good idea would be to cut it open and infuse a couple bottles of vodka into it,” he suggested.

Years ago, Brent competed in the big pumpkin contest. He even grew a pumpkin that weighed in at 625 pounds. That’s a whole lot of pumpkin pie!

Brent said pumpkins aren’t the easiest crop to grow in this region, because they aren’t big fans of the heat.

This year, however, in addition to his watermelons, Brent will have some of his tomatoes in competition. They’re some of his favorite things to grow, he said.

“I take a lot of pride in my tomatoes,” he said.

A few years ago he won the competition for the best tasting tomato, but this year he’s going for size. As a matter of fact, he’s determined to win the state record for the heaviest Whopper Tomato. So far he’s off to a good start—one of his tomatoes recently weighied in at more than 3.3 pounds.

He’s growing Domingo Tomatoes, which he says could even weigh up to 10 pounds. That’s a lot of tomato sandwiches!

“The timing with the tomatoes has to be just right. They’ll start to lose their weight once they’re picked,” he said.

While his tomatoes have earned him state recognition for their flavor, they’re local favorites, too.

Brent grows tomatoes as well as fresh asparagus for the Old Farm Truck and Sandpiper Restaurant in White Stone.

He’s been growing sweet potatoes for 40 years as well.

When the colder weather seasons approach, Brent doesn’t retreat inside to ride out the winter. Instead, he keeps his garden going with broccoli, collards and kale.

He doesn’t just grow for the competition or for area businesses, but also for himself and his family.

For 20 years now Brent says he’s ditched the greasy breakfasts of bacon and sausage and has opted for fresh smoothies that utilize some of his crops, like kale, to get his day going.

“It gives me good energy. I feel really good”

Brent is the epitome of spending your days doing what you love. If you give him a phone call and he doesn’t answer, you’ll hear a very brief voicemail message that says “I’m either fishing or gardening…Call ya back.”

Each and every day, with the help of his fierce guard dog Popeye, and the frequent assistance of his grandkids Jett, Sage and Cade, Brent enjoys the beauty of his garden settled near the Rappahannock River in the backyard of the home he shares with his wife Corliss.

“You’ve got to love it. It gets in your blood and it becomes addicting. Each spring you just get more and more excited,” he said.

While Brent is going for state records for his produce at this year’s fair, it’s pretty safe to say that his garden and legacy has earned permanent blue ribbon status.