The secret of pastor’s giant pumpkins

Pastor Davelee Tibbetts has got himself a bumper
crop of pumpkins, which he grew in his yard and is
attributing the success to an experiment with coconut
oil

Pastor Davelee Tibbetts

Friday,  February 17, 2006

Pastor Davelee Tibbetts’ crop of oversized pumpkins is all down to an experiment that seems to have worked. With the first three pumpkins this year weighing in at 28, 18 and 16 pounds, he revealed to Cayman Net News his secret: 

He rubbed the fruit with coconut oil and the bugs left them alone. He doesn’t know where the idea came from, and has never heard of anyone doing this before, and doesn’t know why it worked. It was just a whim, he said. 

He tried his experiment after spraying pesticide on the leaves of the vines last year, which protected the leaves, but left the fruit fair game to the miniature predators, which attacked and destroyed his pumpkins before they matured.

“When they were about two or three pounds, they turned yellow and dropped off the vine,” he said. He grows his crops in his backyard in the Creek, where his first bunch of bananas this year weighed 73 lbs.

Last year, he tried to grow yams in his yard, but something attacked and killed them, said Pastor Tibbetts, who ministers the Watering Place and Spot Bay Church of God Holiness.

If he tries to grow yams again, he is going to experiment further with his use of coconut oil as an insect repellent, he said.

The huge fruit he has grown already will be distributed amongst friends and neighbours, which is what he usually does with his homegrown crops. 

“If you’re good, I won’t forget you,” he said. However, he doesn’t yet know what 

With eight or ten more still on the vine, “not yet fit”, he’s hoping they all grow to the huge proportions as his first three.

“If they’re good, I might sell a few,” he said.

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