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Bethlehem CT

Looks like Ron Got it a bit ahead of schedule! When will it end? Us watermelon growers have not increased the world record in the last 13 years. What is it about these pumpkins that allows for such continual size increases.

10/31/2026 7:57:13 AM

Sharon, MA

John: Excellent question. One thought is that the shear volume of growers involved with this quest makes increase inevitable. Plus if all of our big growers, dedicated themselves to anything, like a field pumpkin or bushel gourd or watermelon then they would probably tick up at a faster pace and we would be talking about 300 lb FP's 500 lbs BG's and 400 lb Watermelon. As the saying goes...Never say never

10/31/2026 8:05:40 AM

Grittyville, WA

This is the post I was waiting for regarding the 3156. Ron earned us a couple extra years leeway. It's a collective effort as there are so many different growers contributing to this progress without many back to back repeats. There will almost certainly be some new names added to this list in the future.

As for why the AG's are making more gains (Are they? Need identical graphs for the others...) I wonder if the genetics are more flexible. Also wonder if some new mutation or genetics got added around 1998, that changed the trajectory.

10/31/2026 12:17:57 PM

Bethlehem CT

"Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well."
Whoever wrote that poem centuries ago, definitely could imagine a pumpkin attaining such massive size that you could store a person in one! Nothing is new under the sun LOL

11/1/2026 7:17:35 AM

Bethlehem CT

Man those old nursery rhymes are creepy and we dont even think about it.

11/1/2026 7:23:26 AM