Giant pumpkin growers have chased the 3,000-pound mark for years. On Saturday, a veteran from Greene, Rhode Island, finally got there. The scale at Frerichs Farm in Warren read 3,156 pounds, roughly 1,432 kilograms, for Ron Wallace’s giant, the top entry at the yearly contest run by the regional growers’ club.
That figure blew past the previous world best by close to 300 pounds. And the old record was barely a week old. On October 3, British grower Ian Paton of Hampshire had set it with a fruit nicknamed “Bagheera” that weighed 2,856.8 pounds, twelve months on from the day he and twin Stuart first brought the crown to Britain. For the moment, Paton’s name remains in the Guinness database.
Wallace is no stranger to pumpkin history. Local reports credit him with breaking the 1,500-pound barrier in 2006 and, six years later, with the first fruit beyond 2,000. Originally a chef, Wallace now makes his living from organic plant food and fungi that help roots draw in more nutrients.
Records in this hobby are policed closely. Under the rules of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the body that sanctions official weigh-offs, a fruit is disqualified if cracks reach the inner cavity or if soft rot appears. Official scale weigher John Russo confirmed the winning number at the farm, which has staged the Columbus Day weekend contest since 2000.
The timing adds a twist. Several American competitions had raised their prize money this autumn in hopes of luring the first 3,000-pounder, with one event in California offering a 75,000-dollar bounty. Wallace beat them all to it without leaving his home state.
