A pumpkin grown in Greene, Rhode Island has become the heaviest ever recorded, after tipping the scales at 3,156 pounds (1,431.5 kilograms) — the first gourd in history to cross the 3,000-pound threshold. Grower Ron Wallace's entry was weighed on Oct. 10 at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers' weigh-off at Frerichs Farm in Warren, Rhode Island, and has since been certified by Guinness World Records.
The new record obliterates the previous mark of roughly 2,857 pounds, set by English grower Ian Paton — a jump of nearly 300 pounds in a category where growers typically add only 20 to 30 pounds a year. Wallace grew the pumpkin in a greenhouse for the first time this season, a change Guinness World Records' own account of the record-breaking week credits with helping push the fruit past its predecessors.
It is Wallace's third world record in roughly 35 years of competitive pumpkin growing, following a 1,502-pound title in 2006 and a 2,009-pound title in 2012 — meaning he has now broken his own sport's heavyweight mark in three different decades. The Smithsonian, tracking the giant-pumpkin circuit's steady march toward ever-larger fruit, noted that Wallace's pumpkin is also believed to be the largest fruit of any kind ever grown.
Giant-pumpkin competitions operate on a simple if peculiar science: growers cross-breed Atlantic Giant seed lines, strip all but one fruit from the vine, and feed and water it obsessively for months. A sanctioned scale and a witnessed weigh-off, rather than estimates from size alone, are required for a result to count toward the record.
Wallace said he is weighing whether to take next season off to catch up on other farm projects, leaving the giant-pumpkin world wondering who — or what greenhouse — might come for his record next.