r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/IM2X_ • 6h ago
Image A man in Rhode Island just grew the first pumpkin in history to weigh over 3,000 pounds (1,431 kg), setting a new world record
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u/scarybirdman 5h ago
Imagine being all hyped that you grew a thousand pound pumpkin and you lug that fucker to the giant pumpkin festival only to find out you don't even place in the top 10
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u/SparkyMallard15 5h ago
I would still be hyped because 1000 lbs is difficult for a novice, but I wouldn't even bother with competition until I've gotten some experience.
I think I've heard its harder to get an extra 100 after 2000 lbs than it is to get up to 1000, cause then its more about locking in the right schedule of nutrients and better base material.
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u/ATypeOfRacer 2h ago
Is it just continuous genetic mutation? Like wtf causes this?
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u/Smartass_Comments 1h ago
Whole lot of foliage and only one fruit to catch all that energy makes that fruit get big as fuck.
Basically cut all new pumpkins that try to grow off the vine and be on a crazy nutrient schedule
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u/IM2X_ 6h ago
On October 10, 2026, Ron Wallace of Rhode Island grew a pumpkin weighing 1,431.5 kg (3,156 lb), officially breaking the world record.
It became the first pumpkin in recorded history to exceed 3,000 pounds, surpassing a record that had been set just one week earlier.
Source and photographs: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2026/10/pumpkinpalooza-how-the-worlds-biggest-pumpkin-record-fell-twice-in-one-week
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u/SuperDocument 5h ago
It always bothers me that they rest them on their side. I get that it’s a delicate process and the vine could be damaged. But I wanna see the biggest right side up pumpkin.
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u/ifidjdjdjdjjjrjd 3h ago
It's also because the bottom is most prone to cracking. If it cracks, it's fully disqualified so it's important to monitor that.
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u/agoldgold 29m ago
Apparently a local prison group competes and their biggest pumpkin so far unfortunately cracked.
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u/Fluxtration 5h ago
Your farmers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should...
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u/WaterVsStone 5h ago
I've never understood this hobby. Giant pumpkins all look like bloated whale carcasses washed up on the beach. Hey, my whale carcass is bigger than yours! I'm number one! I'm number one!
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u/Cannabrewer 5h ago
The science and horticultural skill that goes into doing this is ridiculously impressive.
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u/Fluxtration 5h ago
Also, I was paraphrasing Sir Dr. Ian Malcolm because that gourd definitely has dino DNA in it.
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u/SchmeatiestOne 5h ago
Testing the limits of anything is cool. And agriculture is important
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u/WaterVsStone 5h ago
Testing the limits of lip filler and obsequiousness are very cool by your logic
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u/Dr_Ingheimer 5h ago
Sure. The limits of how much lip filler is too much before it looks bad is usually missed, though. But there’s surely a limit of some amount of filler thats objectively better.
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u/SchmeatiestOne 4h ago
The extension of knowlege is always a good thing. Causing harm to someone is not. If you could test the limits of lip filler without harming someone that would probably improve a few lives. I wasnt saying that furthering knowlege justifies literally everything
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u/alldogsareincredible 5h ago
For some reason I see this pumpkin and want to bash my skull against it until the skin breaks then take its flesh and make some pumpkin pasta sauce.
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u/panadarama 5h ago
But does it taste good? And are there changes in nutritional value when overgrown like this?
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u/SparkyMallard15 5h ago
Those aren't eating pumpkins, I think animals might nibble before it composts, but even the seeds are usually harvested to grow for next year from what I understand.
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u/panadarama 4h ago
Feeding and decorative purposes only,okay. But nutritional value still may vary. Other animals than humans need minerals and vitamins too.
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u/Odd-Giraffe-1125 2h ago
I've heard they taste bland. Giant pumpkins are bred for size, not flavor.
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u/Thewolfmansbruhther 1h ago
Very different idea but I’ll share it. Talked to an apple farmer. He said for them, same nutrition and flavor but more spread out in bigger apples, but people think bigger is better, so that’s what they have to grow.
If that translates to this, it would be completely bland (flavor is so spread out). Don’t know if that translates but it’s a thought
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u/sofaking_scientific 3h ago
He's my neighbor! Love driving by every year to see what set up he has to grow
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u/Lordofthewhales 5h ago
So what's changed for this to happen? Assuming something outside of perfect growing conditions has created this giant pumpkin?
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u/Next_Instruction_528 2h ago
I think the hardest part isn't getting the genetics it's preventing it from splitting or rotting under its own weight. A large percentage of these giant pumpkins go bust before ever making it to the scale.
The genetics are interesting tho
Every modern 2,500+ lb pumpkin traces its roots back to Dill's Atlantic Giant genetics, but today’s seeds are lightyears ahead.
Seeds from previous record-breakers routinely sell at auction for $300 to over $1,500 each.
There is a lot that goes into it though it's very interesting.
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u/QuirkyCookie6 5h ago
Probably perfect conditions (super el niño year?), and continual refinement of genetics for super size
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u/DickDover 5h ago edited 4h ago
I am no expert, but I know that they can grow really large things in Alaska due to the much longer daylight during the summer months, not sure if that translates to world record large.
*Edit, I just looked it up, parts of Alaska can get 20 hours of sunlight a day
Alaska has Guinness World Record for the largest green cabbage ever grown, weighing an astonishing 138.25 pounds
The Alaska State Fair tracks massive local and world-record entries, including a 39.50 lb broccoli (John Evans, 1994), 63.30 lb celery (Scott Robb, 2003), 82.90 lb rutabaga (Scott Robb, 2009), and a 2,147 lb pumpkin (Dale Marshall, 2022)
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u/QuirkyCookie6 4h ago
Yes they absolutely can, but there are probably other constraining factors in Alaska, the chief among which are the soil and land. A giant pumpkin takes up a lot of prime farmland, which is in short supply in Alaska which is primarily mountainous, or with forest or peatmoss bogish soil types. Other vegetables can get large, but they dont need as much land as a giant pumpkin, even though they are much larger than their lower latitude counterparts. If you want to explore the soil of Alaska, I recommend the UC Davis Soilweb https://soilmap2-1.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/ Also at the end, a giant pumpkin isn't really good eating, so I suspect there are less giant pumpkin growers in Alaska purely by virtue of it being less practical when growing your own food is so much more important there.
This pumpkin was grown in Rhode Island, which has a similar latitude to the northernmost parts of California, and southern Oregon. Which would probably translate to 16 hours a day of sun at solstice? (That is a guesstimate)
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u/OregonHotPocket 4h ago
Plus no one in Oregon actually likes pumpkin pie so there will be no pumpkin thefts. It’s weird but true. I know because as a former pumpkin thief I could never sell my loot unless I went to Salem, Massachusetts.
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u/Spidron 4h ago
I recently got a giant pumpkin grower's videos showing up in my YouTube feed (I have no idea why) so I learned a bit about it:
They very carefully train a single huge pumpkin plant to produce exactly one pumpkin. And by train I mean that they snip off all other flowers that could produce competing fruits on the plant and snip off all inconvenient shoots and runners, so that they essentially have one huge plant with one main shoot and lots and lots of side shoots to the left and right (think a single plant taking over the whole garden) sort of in a fish bone pattern, with that one single pumpkin at the end of the main shoot.
Then they also harvest the seeds of that huge pumpkin to try again next year.
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u/Remcin 1h ago
Do they just keep it on a steady drip of chemicals? Literally how does it get this big so fast?
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u/theMeatman7 34m ago
No usually it's selective breeding. It's not about who can water it most, most of its weight is water, but just best crop selection over time. A pumpkin may be large but if it's leaves aren't extraordinarily large then it won't be kept for the next year.
It's no over night process, it hard and long. You need right soil nutrition and a well managed sunlight and good climate. I'm no pumpkin farmer and I wonder if they grow these things in a controlled greenhouse.
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u/Remcin 32m ago
Ultimately yeah everything is selective breeding, some genes go and some don’t. But still this is such a gargantuan difference between ye old pumpkin and this monstrosity that there must be more going on. Even if it’s a runaway gene you must still need to feed the bejesus out of it, that carbon has to come from somewhere.
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u/King_Of_Axolotls 6m ago
they cut all but one of the flowers off of a field of pumpkin plants, then splice the remaining vines together into dozens of square feet of leaves, feeding into one selectively bred and hand pollinated pumpking.
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u/bl8catcher 5h ago
Damn, now I'm interested what kind of pumpkin they'll create in Kasterlee next year to break that record... can't have anyone else hold that record for too long.
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u/Dr-McLuvin 2h ago
I’m always curious how they make sure people don’t cheat in these competitions. Like you could pump an absolute shitload of water into this thing right before the weigh in.
Regardless this is an awesome achievement!
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u/StruggleBoy1999 16m ago
Seems criminal to make a pumpkin that size and not make a jack-o-lantern out of it.
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u/Quick-Grape-7482 5h ago
This is so stupid. Someone should tell them to stop.
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u/Sovereign_5409 5h ago
That’ll cover at least 3 halloweens.
If he was smart he’d carve it for Halloween and potentially take the record for world’s largest jack-o-lantern as well.
BOGO on Guinness world records.