HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) — A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record for the heaviest pumpkin in California on Monday after growing a giant jack-o-lantern pumpkin 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 a giant, lumpy, orange pumpkin that could be used to make at least 687 pies.
“I didn’t expect that. “It was a really great feeling,” said Gienger, 43, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years and set a new U.S. record for growing a giant pumpkin last year.
A pumpkin named “Michael Jordan” grown by Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, is lifted to be weighed at the annual Safeway 50th World Pumpkin Weigh-in in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. Gienger won the event with his 2,749-pound pumpkin. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
The previous world record for the heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 2,702 pound (1,226 kilogram) pumpkin in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
Gienger grows his pumpkins in the pumpkin patch in his backyard. He said this year he decided to give his plants extra care by watering them up to 12 times a day and fertilizing and fertilizing them a little more than usual.
Gienger, a landscape and horticulture teacher at Anoka Technical College, has been growing pumpkins since he was a teenager, inspired by his father, who also grew them. He first competed in Half Moon Bay’s annual weigh-in in 2020 and has won three of the city’s last four giant pumpkin competitions.
“I’ve put in a lot of work to put smiles on people’s faces and it’s just so nice to come here and see everyone in this city,” he said.
Pumpkins are transported to be weighed at the 50th annual Safeway Pumpkin Weigh-in in Half Moon Bay, California, on Monday, October 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minn., lifts his 2-year-old daughter Lily from his pumpkin named “Michael Jordan” before it was weighed at the 50th Annual Safeway Pumpkin Weigh-in in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday. October 9, 2023. A pumpkin grown by Gienger won the event in 2022. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
The pumpkin champion won a $30,000 prize for growing the largest pumpkin and setting a world record.
The giant pumpkin, along with the three runners-up, will be on display in Half Moon Bay until next weekend, when visitors to the town’s Arts and Pumpkin Festival will be able to take photos with Gienger and the giant pumpkin.