An American teacher from Minnesota has set a record for growing the world’s heaviest pumpkin, which weighed 1,247 kilograms. Travis Gienger was named the winner Monday of the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. The 43-year-old won the same contest in 2022. His winning pumpkin last year weighed 1,161 kilograms. Still, Gienger told The Associated Press he was surprised to win the world record. “I was not expecting that,” he said. “It was quite the feeling.” Gienger is a teacher at Anoka Technical College in Anoka, Minnesota. He teaches agriculture and growing methods and has been producing pumpkins for nearly 30 years. Gienger says his father also raised pumpkins and this got him interested. The past world record for the heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 1,226-kilogram gourd in 2021, the Guinness World Records organization reports. Gienger who grows the pumpkins on his home property said this year he decided to give his plants extra care. This included watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding them food, or fertilizer, a little more than usual.
