1 yr. ago • 96%

Pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds wins California contest, sets world record for biggest gourd

apnews.com Pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds wins California contest, sets world record for biggest gourd

A Minnesota horticulture teacher has set a world record in California for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o’-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds.

A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record in California on Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o'-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds (1,247 kilograms).

Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, with an enormous, lumpy, orange pumpkin that could produce at least 687 pies.

“I was not expecting that. It was quite the feeling,” said Gienger, 43, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years and last year set a new U.S. record for growing a giant gourd.

17 comments

I didn't know the world record was so seemingly achievable. I just saw a 2000+lb pumpkin at my stupid local contest, wasn't even a state fair. Those last 750lbs are difficult, I'm sure.

16
- I assume that's the general pattern for most World's ______est ________. An obvious example is some Olympic world records where second place is a few hundredths of a second behind, and 100th place is maybe 5 seconds. Those last few seconds/pounds/whatever make all the difference in the world at the highest levels of competitions.
  
  8
  
  Yeah being the 99th percentile makes you pretty darn good, but it's really the top 1/10th if not 100th of 1 percent that competition for the "best" begins.
  
  4
  
  And then there's women's 800m freestyle swimming.
  
  1
Oh my gourd

5
That is positively the largest pumpkin I've ever seen.

5
- It is probably the largest pumpkin that anyone has ever seen.
  
  8
  
  Also one of the ugliest, but thankfully it wasn't a beauty contest
  
  2
  
  Seems probable that it is!
  
  1
Cinderella would be pissed if she knew

4
Who would downvote this?!

2
Made into 1 and a half pies.

1
Meanwhile people are unable to get food or water for themselves but farms can overgrow crops for funsies.

-20
- No one's allowed any fun unless all suffering ends. This makes sense.
  
  25
- Ever grown a pumpkin, or a gourd of any sort? It's a giant ball of water and cell walls.
  
  Save your rage for something meaningful kid.
  
  6
- Also said in the article the pumpkin could make something like 647 or 847 pies or whatever. Is that not food?
  
  1

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