There are two Michael Jordans, both of whom are widely regarded as the greatest of all time. One is an NBA legend. The other is pumpkin. In 2023, the eponymous 2,749-pound Goliath set the world record for heaviest pumpkin. Michael Jordan weighed as much as a small car, but was even bigger and wide enough to barely fit into a parking space. Like all giant pumpkins, its flesh was distorted by its mass, making it look like Jabba the Hutt with a spray tan.
It’s hard to imagine how pumpkins can get any bigger. But I could have said the same about the previous world record holder, a 2,702-pound beast from Italy in 2021, and the 2,624-pound beast from Belgium in 2016, the world record holder before that. I don’t know. Every year around this time, giant pumpkins from around the world are loaded onto pickup trucks using forklifts and taken to record-setting competitions.
Michael Jordan set a record at the Half Moon Bay Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weighing in California, considered the Super Bowl of North American pumpkin growing. The first winner in 1974 weighed just 132 pounds. In 2004, the winner weighed in at 1,446 pounds. “At the time, we thought, ‘Oh my god, how can we push this any further?'” said Withy, president of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, an organization that sets global standards for competition. Grande told me. Just 10 more years later, the record passed the 2,000-pound mark. “We’re way beyond that now,” Travis Ginger, the Minnesota grower who grew Michael Jordan, told me. For champion producers, there’s only one thing to do next. Try to break 3,000.
Giant pumpkins aren’t exactly supersized versions of those sold at the supermarket. All competitive pumpkins are maximum curcubitathe largest species of pumpkin, can grow up to 200 pounds in the wild, which is about 10 times the weight of a typical Halloween pumpkin. But decades of selective breeding, breeding only the largest plants, have created giant varieties.
Virtually all of today’s champions trace their lineage to Dill’s Atlantic Giant, a variety bred in the 1970s by a Canadian grower named Howard Dill. Michael Estadt, an assistant professor at Ohio State University Extension who has experience growing giant pumpkins, said highly competitive growers source seeds from each other through seed exchanges and auctions, where a single seed costs He said they can sometimes sell for thousands of dollars. Mr. Zinger’s champion seeds are in high demand, but even he is always looking to improve the genetics of his lines. “I’m looking for a heavy,” he said.
But even a pumpkin with an award-winning pedigree won’t reach its size if it’s not properly managed. Just like babies, they require a tremendous amount of care even before they are born. At least 1,000 square feet of soil per pumpkin should be fertilized and weeded several months before planting. Once you’ve planted your seedlings, you’ll need to water them daily throughout the growing season (approximately 4 months). A simple garden hose won’t do the trick. Each plant needs at least 1 inch of water per weekwhich allows pumpkins to gain up to 70 pounds in one day. Fruits and leaves should also be inspected for pests and diseases at least once a day, but this is not an easy task because of their large surface area. It is most important to quickly locate and remove the eggs of the insect called pumpkin vine borer and bandage the damaged vine. “One day you might have a nice pumpkin, and the next day all the vines are dead,” said Julie Weisenhorn, a horticulture educator at the University of Minnesota who grew the giant pumpkin. Seymour (744 pounds) and Audrey (592 pounds).
Growers can continue to push weight limits on pumpkins by ensuring they don’t pollinate plants with substandard genes. To do this, they pollinate by hand, painstakingly scattering pollen from a plant’s male flowers to its female flowers. This usually causes the plant to produce three or four fruits, but only the most promising ones survive. The rest are killed in an attempt to direct all of the plant’s resources to a single giant. Similarly, cut off wayward vines and push the emerging roots deep into the ground in hopes of harnessing the last nutrients for potential champions.
Still, some factors are beyond anyone’s control. Quite literally, the weather can make or break your pumpkin. Too much rain can cause the pumpkin to grow too quickly and the pulp to split, making it impossible to compete. Too much sunlight makes the meat tough and prone to fractures. It’s not uncommon for giant pumpkins to have custom-made personal awnings. Half Moon Bay, Nova Scotia, Minnesota, the giant pumpkin capital of North America, has nature on its side, with humidity and cool nighttime temperatures. Cooler nights mean less breathing and less energy wasted.
But nature trumps even the world’s champions. This year, Ginger was unable to break the record she set with Michael Jordan. He believes the cold and rain made it difficult to provide micronutrients to Rudy the Pumpkin. (Weighing 2,471 pounds, it still won the Half Moon Bay contest.) And no matter how big your pumpkin gets, you’ll still need to pack a few more pounds for the road. When cut from the vine, it quickly loses weight. In the water. Pumpkins can lose about 10 pounds in a day.
All the experts I spoke to believe that £3,000 is within reach. “It’s still trending upwards,” Grande said. 2,907 pounder Already recorded, albeit corrupted. Pumpkin genetics are continually being improved. Grande said 2,000 pounds were grown this past year, more than ever before. Producers are constantly developing new methods. The Great Pumpkin Conference hosts an annual international summit for growers and scientists to exchange technology (last year in Belgium and this year at the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field). . Changing goals are creating new (and expensive) methods. Carbon dioxide and gibberellic acid are used as growth stimulants. Some pumpkins are grown entirely in greenhouses.
The giant pumpkin’s weight has increased 20 times in half a century because runners keep running faster marathons, skyscrapers keep clawing their way into the sky, and people are spending a lot of money on anti-aging treatments. It’s the same reason why you’re spending money. Pushing the limits of nature is certainly an exhilarating endeavor. I’m proud to be a successful person. Food companies in particular build their entire businesses on the development of the biggest and best companies. Wild strawberries are about the size of a nickel, but cultivated strawberries can be about the size of a ping pong ball. Industrial breeding has become lean, 2.5 lb chicken What was in the 1920s became today’s 6-pounder. There is still room for growth: strawberries can grow The size of a saucerand the heaviest chicken on record is A 22-pounder named Weird.. However, commercially sold foods are subject to other growth constraints, such as transportation, storage, processing, and customer preferences. Abnormally large foods are associated with less flavorits size can be uncomfortable. When it comes to food, some things are too big.
In contrast, giant pumpkins have only one purpose. It’s about being as heavy as possible. It’s not food, so it doesn’t have to be pretty, taste good, or be able to withstand transportation. When companies develop crops or animals that push their limits, it tends to be an isolationist operation shrouded in secrecy. But the giant pumpkin community has little incentive to protect its seeds and technology. Most competitions are low-stakes local events, and no one, not even Howard Dill, got rich with giant pumpkins.
Breaking records is primarily seen as a communal effort. “The secret to our success is that we are a shared community,” Grande says. Some contests are worth the investment, with world record winners receiving a $30,000 Half Moon Bay prize, but “this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme,” Estadt says. he told me. People do it “for the thrill of victory,” he said.
All the pumpkin experts I spoke to agreed that there must be limits. But no one knows what it is. 4,000 pounds, 5,000 pounds, these are just as achievable as any other goal as far as producers are concerned. Every milestone they reach marks a new feat for humanity, a new victory over nature. But even the most majestic pumpkins always suffer the same fate. This means that it is eaten by livestock and returned to the soil.
