Biggest Pumpkin Ever!
Courtesy of Ron Wallace
Ron Wallace grew a record-setting pumpkin in a greenhouse.
How big can a pumpkin get? It’s a question that’s still unanswered. On October 12, a grower from the U.S. state of Rhode Island broke a world record with a massive pumpkin weighing 3,156 pounds (1,430 kilograms).
Ron Wallace hauled his prized pumpkin to a pumpkin-weighing contest near his home and learned that it had broken the 3,000-pound mark. No pumpkin had ever done that. After winning first prize ($3,500), Wallace contacted Guinness World Records, the organization that makes world records official. Guinness confirmed Wallace’s record on October 14.
Courtesy of Ron Wallace
Ron Wallace poses with his 3,156-pound pumpkin.
Pumpkin growers have been keeping Guinness officials busy this season. Less than two weeks earlier, Guinness had awarded the world record to Ian Paton of the United Kingdom, who grew a pumpkin weighing 2,857 pounds (1,296 kilograms).
Pumpkin growing is a hobby for Wallace, who protects his pumpkins from the Rhode Island weather by growing them in a greenhouse. He says pumpkin growers are generous people. They share tips with each other on how to keep their pumpkins growing larger and larger.
“The only way you create a 3,000-pound pumpkin is a community working together,” he said.
© Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images
Equipment is used to move Travis Gienger’s 2026 pumpkin so that it can be weighed.
Meanwhile, in Half Moon Bay, California, Travis Gienger won one of the largest pumpkin contests in the United States for the fifth time. His 2,389-pound pumpkin earned him $21,501 in prize money. Gienger was unable to compete last year after his pumpkin broke during the growing process. This year, he named his pumpkin Rocky, after a movie in which a boxer returns to his sport after a long time away.
“Five-time champion; that’s what we came here to do,” Gienger told the Associated Press.
