Oct 20th, 2016: Pumpkin Record

[xoxoxoBruce]

At 2261.5 lbs, Richard Wallace of Greene, R.I., clinched the title from his son, Ron, whose 2,230-pound fruit set the record in 2015.

Giant pumpkins have beefed up immensely since the fruits broke the 500-pound barrier in the 1980s. “Basically it’s like horse racing,” Ron Wallace, who was the first person to grow a 1-ton pumpkin, told Smithsonian magazine in 2015. “We’re breeding big pumpkins into big pumpkins every year to create bigger pumpkins.”

It is possible that, within a decade or two, a master pumpkineer’s produce could tip the scales at 3,000 pounds, according to Danny Dill, son of legendary gourd grower Howard Dill. (Three decades ago, Howard Dill created the Atlantic Giant pumpkin variety.)

link