A 2,492.5-pound pumpkin with a shiny orange, "leopard print" skin took top honors at the first-ever Kentucky Giant Growers Bluegrass Championship weigh-off on Sept. 12, held at the Hancock County Fairgrounds in the small river town of Hawesville.
The winning gourd belonged to Phil Groenewold of Plainfield, Illinois, who hauled it more than 300 miles to compete. It broke Illinois's state record by 347 pounds, surpassing a mark that had stood for 11 years, according to local coverage of the event.
He didn't win by much room to spare. Runner-up Josh Monin, a Kentucky grower, brought a 2,481-pound pumpkin that had already broken his own state record from the previous year — falling just 11.5 pounds short of Groenewold's winner. The top 10 pumpkins at the weigh-off averaged 1,506.15 pounds, organizers said.
Growers hauled entries in from more than 14 states for the inaugural competition, part of a wider Chamber Harvest Fest, according to WBKR, which described a small town suddenly hosting visitors from as far as Colorado, New York and Kansas.
Giant pumpkins are bred from a single genetic line traced to the Atlantic Giant cultivar, and growers spend a full season — roughly 140 days — nursing a single fruit through careful seed selection, soil testing and constant monitoring. During their peak growth window, the pumpkins can pack on 30 to 60 pounds a day.
Even at nearly 1.25 tons, Groenewold's pumpkin remains well short of the world record: 2,819.4 pounds, set last October by British twins Ian and Stuart Paton at a weigh-off in Wargrave, England. California grower Travis Gienger held the previous global mark at 2,749 pounds.
Organizers of the Kentucky event have already scheduled a second edition for Sept. 11, 2027, betting that the state's first taste of competitive giant-pumpkin growing will draw an even bigger field — and, growers hope, an even bigger gourd.
