A Rhode Island grower’s 3,156-pound pumpkin is officially the heaviest ever grown, the first to break the 3,000-pound mark.
Story Highlights
- Guinness World Records has certified Ron Wallace’s 3,156-pound pumpkin as the heaviest pumpkin on record.
- It is the first pumpkin ever recorded at more than 3,000 pounds.
- It beat the 2,857-pound record that a British grower had set only a week before, by nearly 300 pounds.
- Wallace credits his first season growing in a greenhouse and nearly perfect weather.
A Rhode Island Grower Shatters The World Record
Ron Wallace, a 60-year-old grower from Coventry, Rhode Island, says the difference this year came from two things. It was his first season growing in a greenhouse, and the weather was close to perfect. He also took a more scientific approach to his growing. “It’s been a long season and I was beyond happy when I saw the weight!” Wallace said.
The pumpkin was weighed on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Frerichs Farm in Warren, Rhode Island. Guinness World Records then certified it as the heaviest pumpkin on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Wallace also took home $3,500 from his hometown contest.
The win did more than edge out the old record. It crushed it. The previous mark of about 2,857 pounds belonged to Ian Paton, a giant-pumpkin grower from Lymington, England, who set it on Saturday, Oct. 3. Wallace’s pumpkin topped that by nearly 300 pounds, only one week later.
Officials Checked The Pumpkin Before It Hit The Scale
This wasn’t a backyard guess with a bathroom scale. Officials from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the group that runs and oversees official giant-pumpkin weigh-offs, inspected Wallace’s pumpkin before it was weighed. They confirmed it met the group’s competition standards.
Those standards matter. A giant pumpkin with rot or a crack that reaches its hollow center can be turned away before it ever gets weighed. Wallace’s pumpkin passed, went on the scale, and then went through the Guinness review that made the record official.
Decades Of Work Built Up To This Moment
This is not Wallace’s first record. In 2006, he grew a 1,502-pound pumpkin, the first to officially top 1,500 pounds. In 2012, he became the first grower to pass 2,000 pounds, with a pumpkin that weighed 2,009 pounds. The new pumpkin is his third world record in about 35 years of growing giant pumpkins.
The greenhouse gave him an edge in a hot, dry summer. Rhode Island had its third-warmest June on record, and much of New England dealt with drought through the growing season. Wallace has said growing under cover “makes a big difference.” He told reporters that a 3,000-pound pumpkin takes a whole community of growers working together.
For a competition built on honest measurement and strict rules, Wallace’s win is a reminder that real accomplishment still gets recognized. No committee handed him anything. He grew the pumpkin, brought it to a certified scale, passed inspection, and let the number speak for itself. That’s the kind of plain result Americans can get behind, whether they follow pumpkin contests or not.
Wallace has said he is thinking about taking next season off to finish projects around his farm, but he has not made a final decision.
Sources:
turnto10.com, boston.com, yahoo.com, weather.com, providencejournal.com