A teacher from the US set a new world record for the heaviest pumpkin in the world, dominating his competition with a massive gourd weighing 2,749lbs (1,247kgs).
Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, held just south of San Francisco in Half Moon Bay on Monday. The ginormous and oddly shaped record-breaking pumpkin could help produce at least 687 pies.
“I was not expecting that. It was quite the feeling,” said the 43-year-old, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years and last year set a new US record for growing a giant gourd.
The previous world record for heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 2,702-pound (1,226-kilogram) squash in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
“This thing’s been surprising, this thing is named Michael Jordan because it’s 23 and the greatest basketball player of all time so only thing we gotta figure out is if it’s the greatest pumpkin of all time,” he said, ABC 7 reports.
Mr Gienger grows his gourds in the pumpkin patch in his backyard. He said this year he decided to give his plants extra care, watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding and fertilizing them a bit more than usual.
The pumpkins submitted by Mr Gienger have even prompted competition regulators to utilize new scales that are able to get the entire weight of the massive beasts he submits. The new industrial scale can weigh up to a whopping five tons.
Mr Gienger, a landscape and horticulture teacher at Anoka Technical College, has been growing pumpkins since he was a teenager, inspired by his father who also grew them. He first competed in Half Moon Bay’s annual weigh-off in 2020 and has won three of the city’s last four giant pumpkin contests.
“I put in the work so that I can put a smile on people’s faces and it’s just so nice coming out here to see everyone in this town,” he said.
The pumpkin champ won a $30,000 prize for growing the biggest pumpkin and setting a new world record. The gargantuan pumpkin will be on display in Half Moon Bay along with the three runner-ups through next weekend when visitors to the city’s Art and Pumpkin Festival will be able to take photos with Gienger and the enormous gourd.
Residents got to see the large pumpkins up close, even getting to touch them. “This is the most exciting part, going down Johnson Street because the stage is kind of far away so you really can’t see them but it’s great to see all of the efforts and talk to the farmers,” Barbara Correia, a Half Moon Bay resident said.