For those of us who followed Peanuts each Halloween, holding our breath with Linus as he waited for the Great Pumpkin to rise up out of the ‘most sincere’ pumpkin patch in the world—the wait may be over, but not quite as Linus expected.
The Great Pumpkin, if we can call it that, is the new world champion for size and weight—2,819 pounds and 21.3 feet in circumference—was grown by Ian and Stuart Paton, 64-year-old twins from Lymington, Hampshire, England. It was measured and crowned at the Giant Vegetable Weigh-Off at Wargrave Nursery in Reading.
The Patons say it took 130 days to grow from the size of a golf ball to its weigh-in size, consuming about 130 gallons of water a day, using a trickle system that slowly recycled and dispersed water, bypassing a watering ban that was in effect in July. The pumpkin was nurtured in a greenhouse; Ian told press that “You wouldn’t be able to grow them that size outside.”
The Guinness World Record was previously held by Travis Gienger, whose pumpkin weighed 1,246.9kg (2,749lbs) in 2023 at the Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California.
