Every year, farming communities across the nation celebrate giant pumpkin weigh-off events, encouraging growers to dedicate time and resources to cultivate enormous pumpkins. Approximately 125 giant pumpkin competitions take place annually, but the Half Moon Bay World Championship is often dubbed “the Super Bowl” of these weigh-offs.

In the previous year, Travis Gienger, a horticulture and landscape educator at Anoka Technical College, grew a pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds, setting a new world record for the heaviest pumpkin. He has won the Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off consecutively for three years. In 2024, his impressive pumpkin weighed 2,471 pounds.

The festival held in Half Moon Bay, situated south of San Francisco, attracts a large number of visitors, with winners receiving $9 per pound or $30,000 for breaking the world record.

What is the Weight of Giant Pumpkins?

A pumpkin is labeled as giant if its weight exceeds 150 pounds. According to Axios, ideal conditions can allow some giant pumpkins to gain up to 50 pounds in a single day. However, once harvested, these pumpkins typically lose 6 to 8 pounds daily.

Giant pumpkins can reach weights of over 2,000 pounds. A fact sheet from Alaska Wild mentions that Gienger’s 2023 champion pumpkin equaled the weight of an adult male walrus.

Nick Kennedy, who secured second place in the 2023 Half Moon Bay weigh-off, likened his pumpkin’s dimensions (7 feet by 6½ feet and about 45 inches in height) to that of a Smart car, which ranges from 8½ feet by 5½ feet and 61 inches tall.

Giant Pumpkins are Constantly Setting New Records

More than five decades ago, the top pumpkin at the Half Moon Bay Championship weighed only 132 pounds. Since the competition commenced in 1974, the size of pumpkins has progressively increased. In 2023, the winning pumpkin was almost 2000% heavier than the one that won in 1974.

The Evolution of Pumpkin Weigh-Off Events

Jack La Rue, a former competitive pumpkin grower and now a historian/statistician for the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth – the governing body for weigh-off events – noted that the ambition for record-breaking pumpkins traces back to the late 1800s.

During the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, William Warnock established a recognized record at 400 pounds, which he surpassed by another three pounds in 1904. This record remained unchallenged for 72 years until Bob Ford broke it with a 451-pound pumpkin. A significant boost to this community came in 1980, when Canadian Howard Dill set one of his three world records with a 459-pound pumpkin after introducing the Dill’s Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seeds.

The Half Moon Bay weigh-off started in 1974 when the California town won a friendly competition against Circleville, Ohio, for the title of pumpkin capital of the world.

Competition from other locations has intensified, but La Rue still considers Half Moon Bay the premier event, buoyed by the current world record held by Gienger.

“At present, Half Moon Bay stands out as the foremost venue for the heaviest ten pumpkins ever recorded at one location,” La Rue stated.