![]() ![]() It won’t be long now before the world record inches closer to the 3,000-pound mark.ĭespite his original gourd’s relatively small size, Dill is the grandfather of every giant pumpkin grown today: every jumbo-sized gourd grown in recent history is a cultivar or selectively bred version of the original ‘Atlantic Giant.’ It’s incredible to think of how much the giant gourd growing field has progressed in the last few decades. Which, by the way, weighed a mere 493.5 pounds. Nova Scotia gardener Howard Dill gets all the credit for breeding ‘Atlantic Giant,’ with which he won the 1981 world record for heaviest pumpkin. Or, for a gourd that’s genetically primed to grow at least 600 to 1,000 pounds, try your hand at growing ‘Wallace’s Whoppers.’ You can find seeds in a variety of packet sizes available from Eden Brothers. Unless you’re a super-serious grower ready to shell out dozens to hundreds of dollars for prime seeds, you can expect to grow a gourd of about 300 to 500 pounds with the commonly available cultivar ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant,’ ( Cucurbita maxima ‘Atlantic Giant’). You’ll need to do some preparation before you grow a big gourd.įirst, and most important of all, you need the right type of seed. If you want to grow a giant pumpkin, here’s how to do it.ĭon’t just rush out to the garden and try turning a regular-sized, already-growing pumpkin into a leviathan. Because how in the world does one transport such a pumpkin from the field to the fairgrounds, anyway? I digress. Maybe describing it as a sport would be more accurate. My current garden isn’t large enough to handle growing a record-breaker of a squash, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t developed an interest in the profession. That day at the fair, I imagined digging a hole in the massive gourd and turning it into a wonderful autumn-themed fort for my toddler son and me. I mean, how often does a person get to see a pumpkin big enough to live inside? This local record-breaker from the 2019 Alaska State Fair weighed a whopping 2,051 pounds! Photo by Laura Melchor.īut what it lacked in beauty it made up for in sheer wondrousness. The slumped, corpulent behemoth my son and I beheld that day was anything but pretty. Something like Cinderella’s magic pumpkin that turned into a carriage. His squash currently holds the United States record for the largest pumpkin ever grown in recorded American history.Īt the 2019 Alaska State Fair, I got to see a real giant pumpkin for the first time, and I must admit I was expecting something beautiful. In 2018, Steve Geddes of New Hampshire grew a 2,528-pound monstrosity that won him a prize of $6,000. ![]() In 2020, the current world record-holder for the largest, heaviest pumpkin of all is Matthias Willemijns of Belgium, who in 2016 grew a 2,624.6-pound beast. Yeah, it’s that lucrative, folks, and the giant squash-growing profession is popular around the world. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. ![]()
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