Giant Pumpkin Weighs 2175 Pounds, Wins Contest In California

A pumpkin weighing 2,175 pounds (986 kilograms) took top prize at the 46th annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh Off, setting a record for the largest in California.

According to WTSP 10 News, Leonardo Urena of Napa always tells his pumpkins he's proud of them and he encourages them to keep growing; whether or not speaking to vegetables has any effect on them, he won $15,000. He said he took up the pumpkin growing in 2000 and also won the Half Moon Bay contest in 2011.

Weigh-off spokesman Timothy Beeman says Urena's pumpkin is the second largest in the contest's history. A pumpkin from Washington state weighed nearly 2,400 pounds (1,088 kilograms) and won in Half Moon Bay in 2017.