A pumpkin grown in Greene, Rhode Island just did something no pumpkin has ever done before: it broke the 3,000-pound barrier. Ron Wallace's entry tipped the scale at 3,156 pounds Saturday at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh-off at Frerichs Farm in Warren, instantly becoming the heaviest pumpkin ever officially recorded.
The weigh-off ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Warren farm, with the winning number confirmed by official scale weigher John Russo, according to WJAR. Wallace reportedly surpassed the previous world record by nearly 300 pounds, the station reported, a margin that stunned even seasoned growers gathered for the annual Columbus Day weekend competition. The event, as the station noted, also featured food trucks and live entertainment for the crowds who turned out to watch.
Before Saturday, the official world record for the heaviest pumpkin stood at 2,819.3 pounds, set in October 2025 by twin brothers Ian and Stuart Paton in Wargrave, United Kingdom, according to Guinness World Records. The Patons had themselves dethroned Minnesota grower Travis Gienger's 2023 mark of 2,749 pounds. Wallace's 3,156-pound gourd didn't just edge past that record — it obliterated it by more than 336 pounds, making it the first pumpkin in documented agricultural history to clear the 3,000-pound threshold, per the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.
A Grower Who Keeps Rewriting the Record Book
This isn't Wallace's first brush with pumpkin history. He became the first grower in the world to raise a pumpkin over 1,500 pounds back in 2006, with a 1,502-pound entry, and then became the first to top 2,000 pounds in 2012 with a 2,009-pound pumpkin grown for the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts, according to the fair's own account of its weigh-in history.
Wallace's background helps explain the decades of breakthroughs. He trained as an executive chef at Johnson & Wales University and now runs Wallace Organic Wonder, a Rhode Island company that produces organic fertilizers and mycorrhizal fungi soil inoculants designed for extreme plant growth, the business states on its website. Those fungi colonize plant roots to help pumpkins pull in more nutrients and water — exactly the kind of biological edge that separates a backyard gourd from a 3,000-pound record-breaker.
Strict Rules Govern What Counts as a Record
Official weigh-offs sanctioned by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth don't hand out world records lightly. Pumpkins are automatically disqualified if they show soft rot, cracks that penetrate through to the inner cavity, or more than two soft damaged areas requiring removal, according to the organization's 2026 rules and handbook. Cracks that penetrate through to the inner cavity disqualify a fruit.
Frerichs Farm has hosted this Columbus Day weekend weigh-off since 2000, and this year's event carried extra weight for the Warren community. Longtime farm owner and former Warren Town Council president David S. Frerichs, who served 12 years on the council and started family traditions including Pumpkin Palooza, passed away in May, according to WJSmith Funeral Home. Beyond the scale, the farm's festival keeps its own quirky traditions alive, including dropping an 1,100-pound pumpkin from a crane so kids can rush the field and gather seeds, per Visit Rhode Island.
A National Race Toward 3,000 Pounds
Wallace's win lands in the middle of a national arms race among giant pumpkin growers chasing the same milestone. Weigh-offs across the country had ramped up prize money this fall, including a $75,000 cash bounty offered at the Wheatland, California event for the first grower to submit a 3,000-pound pumpkin, as Hoodline previously reported, with Wheatland's total purse topping $100,000.
Gienger won $30,000 for his 2023 record-setting pumpkin, nicknamed Michael Jordan, which measured 21 feet, 1 inch around, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Wallace also made history at the Topsfield Fair in 2012.
