L'etoile du Gourd! Massive Minnesota pumpkin squashes U.S. record
Updated: 8:11 p.m.
A horticulture teacher from Anoka County set a new U.S. record Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after raising a giant gourd weighing 2,560 pounds.
Travis Gienger of Nowthen set the new record and won an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California.
Gienger drove the gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off at the 49th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.
He said growing the pumpkin took 180 days and required lots of attention.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
“I’m watering on a set schedule, say 12 to 14 times a day with fertilizer. Spraying, weeding, pulling the pumpkin back, checking it. It's quite involved,” Gienger said.
He planned to retire from competing after this year, but said his wife wants him to continue.
Gienger, who also won the same contest in Northern California in 2020, broke a record set last week in New York where a grower raised a massive pumpkin weighing 2,554 pounds.
A grower in Italy holds the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. He grew a 2,702-pound squash in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.