HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) – A Minnesota gardening teacher set a new world record for heaviest pumpkin in California on Monday after growing a giant jack-o-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds (1,247 kilograms). was established.
Travis Ginger of Anoka, Minn., won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weighing in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, with a giant, lumpy orange pumpkin capable of producing at least 687 pies. did.
“I wasn’t expecting anything like that. It felt great,” said Ginger, 43, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years. Last year, a new U.S. record was set for growing giant gourds..
A pumpkin called “Michael Jordan” grown by Travis Zinger of Anoka, Minn., weighs in at the Safeway 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weighing Competition in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. lifted for. Ginger won the event with a pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
The previous world record for the heaviest pumpkin was set by an Italian grower who produced a 2,702 pound (1,226 kilogram) pumpkin in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
Geinger grows gourds in the pumpkin patch in his backyard. He said he decided to pay extra attention to the plants this year, watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding and fertilizing them a little more than usual.
Giinger, a landscaping and horticulture teacher at Anoka Technical College, has been growing pumpkins since he was a teenager, inspired by his father, who also grew pumpkins. He competed in Half Moon Bay’s annual weigh-in for the first time in 2020 and has won three of the city’s past four giant pumpkin contests.
“I’ve put in the work to put smiles on people’s faces, and it’s really nice to come out here to see everyone in this town,” he said.
The pumpkin champion won a $30,000 prize for growing the largest pumpkin and setting a new world record.
The giant pumpkin will be on display at Half Moon Bay through next weekend, along with the three runner-up winners, and visitors to the City’s Arts and Pumpkin Festival will be able to take photos with Zinger and the giant gourd.
