Pumpkin weighs 686 kg

Pumpkins can be used to make lamps for an elephant during Halloween carnival .

Recently, Thad Starr's Atlantic Giant pumpkin-like pumpkin, which weighed 686 kg, broke all previous records of the Half Moon Bay area at the Pumpkin World Championship. This pumpkin gave Thad Starr a reward worth $ 9,144.

This pumpkin is grown in the hills of Pleasant Hill, Oregon state and grows from the seeds of a 102 kg pumpkin. Atlantic Giant is a breed of dwarf squash.

Starr is 40 years old and he has been cultivating this giant pumpkin for two years. Last year, his secret surpassed former champion Joel Holland of Puyallup, Washington state for 1st place. Holland's pumpkin is also Atlantic Giant but only weighs 623 kg. This candidate has passed 70 other contestants in the competition. Holland is the one who won the championship for 3 consecutive years with his pumpkins at the Half Moon Contest.

The Half Moon Bay competition has allowed agricultural producers to compete from Washington, Oregon to Northern California. The warm climate combined with less rain and fertile soil in North America are ideal conditions for these giant pumpkins to grow. Starr said he applied organic fertilizer, adding fertilizer from fish, seaweed, protein, phosphorus and potassium to ' pump the steoit ' (pump steoids) into his giant squash. In addition, he also applied more chicken manure. He added, patience, weather and a bit of luck also helped him in this award.

This pumpkin is grown in the hills of Pleasant Hill, Oregon state and grows from the seeds of a 102 kg pumpkin.Atlantic Giant is a breed of dwarf squash.(Photo: Softpedia)

But according to him, seeds are the last factor to determine the weight of the pumpkin later. All the seeds of the Atlantic Giant pumpkin, one of the world's largest weight breeds, originate from the original Atlantic Giant, planted in the Howard Dill area by Nova Scotia twenty years ago. However, Dill's squash only stopped at 135 kg. And when the hobby was spread, many gardeners began delivering cherries, to get the best seeds to grow later.

The seeds of this pumpkin variety have been traded throughout the United States and abroad. This process is repeated until the new Atlantic variety is characterized by a yellowish, tuberous, and gigantic size, discovered by scientists. Starr chose his seed because it was made from two lines of pumpkin that grow well, not because of the size of the original variety. The record holder of the world's largest pumpkin is Joe Jutras of Rhode Island, with a pumpkin weighing up to 760 kg at the competition at Topsfield Fair, Massachussetts on September 29.

Bui Thanh