It's Time to Find the Great(est) Pumpkin

A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the current record by nearly 300 pounds. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin Saturday at a contest in New England and is now waiting for the Guinness Book of World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England.

Wallace said he's been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified, reports the AP . "It's truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow," Wallace said Monday. The Guinness Book of World Records currently lists a 2,857-pound squash grown by Ian Paton of Lymington, England, as the record holder, set on Oct.

3. Wallace went home with $3,500 at his local contest. He said other competitions tried to entice him with bigger prize money, some totaling $70,000, but it was important for him to be surrounded by his hometown for the record-setting win.

"I was just ecstatic, the place just exploded," Wallace said, describing the moment the pumpkin was weighed. Wallace says he owes a lot to the pumpkin-growing community who always freely share tips and tricks. For the first time this year, Wallace began growing his pumpkins in a greenhouse, which he says makes a big difference.

"The only way you create a 3,000-pound pumpkin is a community working together," he said. The race for massive pumpkins is on elsewhere: In Northern California, a pumpkin named Rocky won a major annual contest, tipping the scale at 2,389 pounds, but fell far short of a possible new world record.

Horticulture teacher Travis Gienger hauled his pumpkin across the country from Minnesota to win the contest for a fifth time. He's going home with $21,501 in prize money after beating dozens of other giant pumpkin-growers in Half Moon Bay. He missed out on last year's contest because his pumpkin broke while growing.

Hoping for a comeback story, he named this year's pumpkin "Rocky" after the iconic boxer played by Sylvester Stallone. "Five-time champion, that's what we came here to do," Gienger said following the win. Gienger and his family drove 35 hours, lugging a pumpkin the size of a small car, to California.

Hundreds attended the 53rd World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off to enjoy food trucks, music, and pumpkin-related jokes. Earlier in the day, the crowd went wild when a very symmetrical pumpkin named Tinkerbell won the prettiest pumpkin contest. The prize money was calculated at $9 per pound of pumpkin, and Gienger's winning gourd will be showcased during a parade through Half Moon Bay this weekend.

Gienger missed out on an extra prize of $30,000 for breaking the world record. Sadly, these giants are grown for their size, not flavor, so there were no giant pumpkin pies at the end of the festival. Read These Next Senator who sued patients for debt had a debt of his own.

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