Getty Image / Chris Ison/PA Images
There has been a viral headline going around for weeks about how humans do not know the limits of how large pumpkins can grow. It comes from a 2024 article by Yasmin Tang in The Atlantic titled ‘No One Knows How Big Pumpkins Can Get’ and the ominous nature of the headline made for perfect viral joke fodder on X/Threads but the reality is that year after year we see a new world record broken for the largest pumpkin ever grown.
The official Guinness World Records announced the new heaviest pumpkin world record this week. It was grown by two brothers, Ian and Stuart Paton from Hampshire in the United Kingdom (pictured above in 2010), and is a true testament to man’s hubris.
Do we need to grow pumpkins that weigh more than male bison? No, we do not. Do we need to hold global competitions to see who can grow the largest pumpkin, pumpkins so massive they can grow 50 pounds every day? Absolutely not.
But it is awesome that we do. And every year I tell myself ‘this is the year you get into competitive pumpkin growing’ then I remind myself I live on the surface of the sun here in Florida where the only things that flourish are mosquitoes and invasive Burmese pythons.
New World Record Pumpkin: 2,819 Pounds!
According to GWR the two brothers started growing XXL pumpkins “in their early teens” and now the 64-year-old twin brothers share a century’s worth of gourd growing experience between them. That culminated in this new world pumpkin which tipped the sales at 2,819 lb 4 oz, or 1,278.8kg.
Not content to settle for one world record on this magnificent pumpkin, they actually won two world records. The first world record is for the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded and the second is for the largest pumpkin circumference which measured 649.8 cm (255.8 in; 21 ft 3.8 in).
Now behold this new world record pumpkin in all of its glory:
Circling back to the aforementioned article in The Atlantic about how we have no concept of what the true limits of pumpkin growth is… That article states that 10 years ago 2,000-pounds was the record and now these giant pumpkin growers are in a veritable arms race to become the first person to measure a 3,000-pounder.
The entire article is worth a read but I found this part interesting… “Giant pumpkins aren’t quite supersize versions of what you find in the grocery store. All competitive pumpkins are Curcubita maxima, the largest species of squash—which, in the wild, can grow to 200 pounds, about 10 times heavier than the common Halloween pumpkin.”
So don’t be fooled into thinking you can scoop up a pumpkin at Publix and propagate it into a world record pumpkin using the seeds. At least start with the correct seeds!
For those wondering, and I know there are thousands of you, this year’s Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh Off in California was won by a 2,346-pounder:
Say it with me: ‘dudes rock.’