We have a winner!

Congratulations to L.M. and her support team in the Old Dominion for producing this year's biggest pumpkin! The 45-pound beauty is enjoying a post-competition second career as a Halloween ornament.

While L.M.'s tender care for the pumpkin was undoubtedly the biggest factor, Team Virginia's secret soil supplement can now be revealed. It is terra preta, otherwise known as biochar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Terra preta, the real secret of El Dorado, is a long-lost Indian method of creating fertile soils in the tropics using charcoal. Up to 10% of soils in the Amazon Basin are terra preta. Abandoned for centuries, they are still marvelously fertile. According to some accounts, terra preta soils can be mined for potting soil but will spontaneously regenerate at the rate of 1/2 inch per year.

Now under study by scientists worldwide, once the secrets of creating terra preta soils are understood again, the economic incentives to cut down tropical forests will diminish and ultimately, because terra preta soils also sequester carbon, the looming threat of global warming will be warded off. Meanwhile, Team Virginia is offering the secrets of biochar freely to next year's Interstate Pumpkin Brawl. 

Good luck to all!