A Rhode Island Man Grew the First Pumpkin to Surpass 3,000 Pounds. The Gargantuan Gourd Is the Largest Fruit Ever

On October 10, Ron Wallace took the pumpkin king crown with a 3,156-pounder. The previous record—a respectable, nearly 2,857-pound pumpkin—was set just a week earlier by British grower Ian Paton

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

October 20, 2026 5:20 p.m.

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On April 15, Ron Wallace tucked a small seed into the soil in his greenhouse in Greene, Rhode Island. Nearly six months later, that seed had grown into a massive pumpkin—one so big it would set a new world record.

On October 10, Wallace’s enormous gourd officially weighed in at 3,156 pounds at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off, becoming the first pumpkin to ever top 3,000 pounds. Wallace now holds the Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin, smashing the nearly 2,857-pound record set just a week earlier.

Wallace was introduced to the hobby by his dad, who he says was one of the first New Englanders to grow giant pumpkins, according to a statement. Decades later, he still loves seeing people’s reactions when they encounter one of these gargantuan gourds.

“You ever see anybody say a bad word about a pumpkin?” he tells the New York Times’ Victor Mather. “When you see one of these giants, everybody is just in awe. They want to touch it. They want to sit on it. They want to get photos with it.”

He adds: “A giant pumpkin brings a smile to everybody’s face, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what nationality you are. Giant pumpkins don’t care about any of that.”

This isn’t the first time Wallace has grown a record-setting pumpkin. In 2006, he grew a 1,502-pounder, the first to break 1,500 pounds, according to the statement. He reached another milestone in 2012 with a 2,009-pound pumpkin, the first to surpass 2,000 pounds.

Those two previous world records were “historic accomplishments at the time, but this one feels a bit more special,” Wallace says in the statement. “I had a few off growing years as I was taking a more scientific approach. It felt great to see it all come together.”

This year, Wallace’s victory was decisive. While growers typically top the current champion by just 20 to 30 pounds, his pumpkin topped the previous record—set by British grower Ian Paton on October 3—by nearly 300 pounds.

You might think there’d be some bad blood between such fierce competitors. But Wallace and Paton are friends who talk “weekly, sometimes daily” during the growing season, Wallace tells the Providence Journal’s Mark Patinkin. In fact, it was Paton who first suggested that Wallace should try growing his pumpkins in a greenhouse.

Wallace took the advice, and it paid off. Growing his record-setting gourd in a greenhouse this year allowed him to control everything from the amount of water it got to the temperatures it endured. At its peak, his pumpkin was putting on “60 pounds a day, sometimes almost 500 pounds a week,” he tells the Providence Journal.

But it wasn’t just the greenhouse that gave Wallace an edge this season. He also credits “top of the line genetics” and a collaborative, pumpkin-growing community that generously shares tips and tricks to help propel the entire hobby forward, he tells the Times.

When it finally came time to transport his colossal masterpiece to the annual pumpkin weigh-off, Wallace used a harness and a heavy-duty rope to carefully lift the pumpkin off the ground. His team swaddled it in damp sheets, a comforter and shrink wrap, then loaded it onto a custom pallet on the back of a flatbed truck.

Wallace’s pumpkin faced off against roughly 20 other competitors at Frerichs Farm in Warren, Rhode Island. Upon arrival, his was clearly the largest, and he suspected it might weigh more than 3,000 pounds. But he had no idea how big it really was until it was loaded onto the scale.

“I don’t weigh them,” he tells the Times. “It would be like opening up your gifts before Christmas.”

Once it was weighed, he tells the Associated Press’ Terry Chea and Mikella Schuettler, “the place just exploded.”

What’s next for Wallace’s gigantic gourd? It’s on a victory lap of sorts, with stops at festivals in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, as well a future as the world’s largest jack-o’-lantern. Once all the pomp has faded away, the pumpkin will meet a fate that befalls most of its smaller fellow gourds and end up in a compost pile.

Wallace will save some of the pumpkin’s seeds, which he plans to donate to pumpkin-growing clubs around the world to auction off for fundraising efforts.

Wallace never imagined a day when pumpkins would top 3,000 pounds—so he has no idea what their upper limit might be.

“Let somebody else chase it for a year, he tells the Providence Journal. “If someone breaks it, I’ll get back at it.”

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.