Wed 11 October 2023:
A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record in California on Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o’-lantern gourd.
Travis Gienger, a horticulture and landscape teacher at Anoka Technical College, set a new world record Monday for growing the plumpest pumpkin on the planet after growing one weighing 2,749 pounds.
An orange-shirted Gienger punched the air and offered hugs all round after the weigh-in.
“I was not expecting that. It was quite the feeling,” said the 43-year-old landscape and horticulture teacher, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years and last year set a new United States record.
Aside from pride, Gienger won $9 per pound, ($24,741) as well as a special $30,000 “mega-prize” for the new world-record breaking pumpkin, contest officials said.
For perspective: according to an online Alaska Wild fact sheet, Gienger’s pumpkin is about the equivalent weight of an adult male walrus.
A photo of Gienger celebrating after winning the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco shows him dressed in an orange long-sleeve shirt and matching shoes, celebrating with a fist in the air before a crowd of spectators and photographers.
The California contest pits growers of mega-gourds from all over North America against each other.
Gienger, from Minnesota, pipped his nearest rival by a hefty 250 pounds to win the title.
Gienger grows his gourds in a pumpkin patch in his back yard. He said this year he decided to give his plants extra care, watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding and fertilising them a bit more than usual.
The champion gourd will be on display in Half Moon Bay this weekend when the town hosts its Art and Pumpkin Festival.
The US is currently in the throes of autumn celebrations with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes available at many stores.
The previous world record, according to Guinness World Records, was set at 2,702 pounds, grown a grown in 2021 by Stefano Cutrupi from Tuscany, Italy.
Gienger also set the U.S. record last year when one he created one weighing 2,560 pounds and two years prior in 2020, when he grew one weighing 2,350 pounds.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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