A Minnesota horticulture teacher made headlines Monday after setting a world file for rising the heaviest pumpkin, the AP reported.
Travis Gienger, 43, of Anoka, Minnesota, received the fiftieth World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, with a colossal pumpkin he dubbed “Michael Jordan” weighing 2,749 kilos.
Gienger has been rising pumpkins for almost three many years and set his first American file for rising a mammoth squash final yr. Nonetheless, he expressed nice shock at his win this yr.
“I did not count on that,” he instructed the AP. “It was an actual feeling.”
Travis Gienger’s big pumpkin rises on the Safeway fiftieth Annual World Pumpkin Weigh-in Championship on October 9, 2023. Liu Guanguan/China Information Service/VCG | Getty Photos.
Gienger, an teacher of panorama and horticulture at Anoka Technical Faculty, tends to his pumpkin patch in his yard in Minnesota. Nonetheless, this yr he determined to present his crops additional care, together with frequent watering (as much as 12 instances a day) and extra beneficiant feeding and fertilizing than in earlier years, he instructed the publication.
Gienger’s laborious work paid off – he took residence a $30,000 prize for rising the most important (by weight) pumpkin and setting a world file. The colossal pumpkin will stay on show till subsequent weekend in Half Moon Bay, together with the three runners-up.
In second place, Ron Root and Nick Kennedy of Citrus Heights, Calif., got here away with a 2,497-pound pumpkin, securing a $3,000 prize, in line with the competition’s web site. Third place went to Leonardo Urena of Napa, Calif., whose 1,893-pound pumpkin earned him $2,500, and fourth was Ruben Frias of American Canyon, Calif., with 1,863 kilos of pumpkin and a $2,000 prize.
Travis Gienger poses together with his successful 2,749 pound pumpkin. Liu Guanguan/China Information Service/VCG | Getty Photos.