AP, HALF MOON BAY, California
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg.
Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England.
Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified.
The pumpkin that won the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off sits on a scale at the event in Half Moon Bay, California, on Monday.
Photo: AFP
“It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday.
Guinness World Records lists a 1,296kg squash grown by Ian Paton of Lymington, England, as the record holder, set on Oct. 3.
The record-breaking gourd comes as growers across the world are joining competitions this month in the hopes their pumpkins would be crowned king. In Northern California on Monday, a Minnesota grower won a prominent annual competition for the fifth time.
Wallace went home with US$3,500 at his local contest.
Other competitions tried to entice him with bigger prize money, some totaling US$70,000, but it was important for him to be surrounded by his hometown for the record-setting win, he said.
“I was just ecstatic, the place just exploded,” Wallace said, describing the moment the pumpkin was weighed.
In Northern California, a pumpkin named Rocky won a major annual pumpkin-weighing contest, tipping the scale at 1,083kg, but fell far short of a possible new world record.
Horticulture teacher Travis Gienger and his family drove 35 hours from Minnesota, lugging a pumpkin the size of a small car, to California.
He is going home with US$21,501 in prize money after beating dozens of other pumpkin growers in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.
He missed out on last year’s contest because his pumpkin broke while growing. Hoping for a comeback story, he named this year’s pumpkin “Rocky” after the iconic boxer played by Sylvester Stallone.
“Five-time champion, that’s what we came here to do,” Gienger said following the win.