A Minnesota horticulture professor set a world record in California for the heaviest pumpkin on Monday after growing a giant pumpkin that weighs 1,247 kilograms (2,749 pounds).
Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Pumpkin Weighing Championships in Half Moon Bay, California, with a huge, lumpy, orange pumpkin that could produce at least 687 pies.
«I wasn't expecting this. It was quite a sensation,” said Gienger, 43, who has been growing pumpkins for almost 30 years and Last year he set a new record in the United States for growing a giant pumpkin .
The previous world record for heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 1,226-kilogram (2,702-pound) pumpkin in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
Gienger grows his pumpkins in his backyard pumpkin patch. He said that this year he decided to give his plants special care, watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding and fertilizing them a little more than usual.
Gienger, a professor of landscaping and horticulture 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 the annual Half Moon Bay weigh-in in 2020 and won three of the city's last four giant pumpkin contests.
“I worked hard to be able to make people smile and it's very nice to come here and see everyone in this city,” he said.
The pumpkin champion won a $30,000 prize for growing the largest pumpkin and setting a world record.
The gigantic pumpkin will be on display in Half Moon Bay along with the three finalists until next weekend, when visitors to the city's Pumpkin and Arts Festival can take photos with Gienger and the massive pumpkin.
