An Anoka man has set a record for the heaviest pumpkin ever grown in North America, but his 2,560-pound gourd almost didn't make it to the scale.
Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher who has been growing large pumpkins for 28 years, was on pins and needles Monday as officials with the 2022 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off weighed his rhinoceros-size gourd. The pumpkin had already survived a mid-growing season accident and nearly fallen to the ground as Gienger loaded it onto the trailer he used to cart it 35 hours from Minnesota to California.
"It was like slow motion," Gienger said as he recalled watching as the numbers register on the scale. "My brain was not processing anything at the time. Then it was, 'Oh, I won.'"
With his wife, Megan, 15-month-old daughter, Lily, and other family members at his side, Gienger slipped on the black Carhartt jacket featuring the festival's logo, which goes to the winner of the nearly half-century-old competition. Gienger, who won the event two years ago with a pumpkin a few hundred pounds lighter, also collected $23,040 in prize money.
"The fact it was done in Minnesota makes it that much harder," he said, noting the field had entries from Oregon, California and Washington — states with much more favorable pumpkin-growing climates.
The road to Gienger's first-place showing started April 10, when he planted an 1885 Werner seed about the size of a quarter. Two months later, Gienger accidentally spilled five gallons of dirt on top of the gourd. It appeared his California dreams were dashed.
"It shredded it," Gienger said. "It crashed and burned. Nobody thought it would grow."
Lots of tender loving care in the form of 200 gallons of water and 12 to 14 applications of fertilizer a day brought it to life. Scars from the accident healed over, a critical development to meet the strict contest rules.
