From vegetables to Cannabis, Sam Felten knows more than a thing or two about growing award-winning agriculture. Perhaps best known by Leaf Magazines readers as one of the co-owners of the highly lauded Lofty Growers, Felten has gained acclaim in recent years with a slightly more unconventional kind of crop: giant pumpkins.
A lifelong horticulturist and lover of all things plant-related, Felten first moved to Eugene at 20 to take a job farming vegetables. He labored for several seasons, working the land and supplementing his free time with Cannabis growing. Then, 12 years ago, Felten was put in charge of a 90-light grow space, a relatively large operation for medical production at the time. Applying what he learned in a commercial facility, he dove headfirst into large-scale Cannabis cultivation, which eventually led him to start Lofty Growers with co-owners Utah Lange and Matt Lang. From there, they built the enterprise into the powerhouse producer it is today.
So, where did the giant pumpkins come in?
“I’ve always just been a plant person. I like growing specialty crops where you really focus in on one thing, dissect it and nerd out about it,” Felten explained to the Leaf. “I saw my first giant pumpkin online around 10 years ago, and I was like, ‘Man, that is so cool! I wish I had the room to do that.’ Each pumpkin takes around a thousand square feet of land, and, by the time I finally landed at a place where I could actually grow one, I had already started collecting seeds.”
That ideal space just happened to be right outside of Lofty’s cultivation facility.
The first year Felten grew a giant pumpkin, he ended up with a massive 1,500-pound monstrosity of a vegetable. In 2024, just his second year, he grew a pumpkin that weighed an astronomical 2,376 pounds, earning him a spot in the 2300 Pound Club at the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, along with wins for the biggest pumpkin at two separate weigh-in events, including a new site record and Washington state record with the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers. Boasting the distinction of being one of the top 20 largest pumpkins in the entire world, it’s safe to say Felten squashed the competition that year.
The Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers hosts several events, including an annual race called the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta. Taking place in Tualatin, the contest sees attendees carving out giant pumpkins large enough to sit in and race through a lake with kayak paddles — usually while fully decked out in a Halloween costume. Onlookers unfamiliar with the race may think participants are out of their gourds, but to many giant pumpkin growers, it’s a main event of the harvest season.
“Winning is awesome because there’s a little bit of money involved and it’s nice to win, but it’s really more about beating my previous record,” Felten explained. “For me, Cannabis has always been a passion, but there’s always the monetary association — providing for the employees, making sure my business partners are all taken care of. With pumpkins, the stakes are much lower. The passion is different, and it’s a great stress reliever.”
When it comes to giant pumpkins, the seed market has some surprising parallels to Cannabis, including a focus on genetics and crosses. One of the more popular pumpkins for giant pumpkin growing, the Atlantic Giant Dill, has a lineage that traces all the way back to the 1990s.
Factors like soil selection, application of specific amendments and the ability to problem solve are incredibly relevant to both Cannabis and pumpkin growing.
“In order to be good, it just takes time, effort and knowledge,” Felten pointed out. “When I first started in Cannabis, it took me a long time to realize that there are reasons why we apply certain things, or we spray a certain way, so it’s been interesting as I’ve been involved with pumpkins to see how people have evolved their way of thinking.”
From smashing pumpkin records to splashing pumpkins, Felten’s work with Sasquatch-sized squash shows how much of a Lofty Grower he truly is.
“I think a lot of Cannabis people would really enjoy this hobby, and it would really benefit from others joining in, being curious and sharing knowledge,” he concluded.
