This record pumpkin, renamed Bagheera, weighs 1,295 kg (but another even larger one could steal the record)

Extreme vegetable growing had a historic day at a weigh-in competition held near Reading, Berkshire. Farmer Ian Paton, a 65-year-old from Lymington in Hampshire, has revealed to the world a titanic soup weighing 1,295.8 kilograms, achieving the official UK record under the supervision of Guinness World Records judge Sebastian Suski. Renamed Bagheera in homage to the panther de The Jungle Bookthe pumpkin required 6 hours of daily care and approximately 490 liters of water per day to overcome an exceptional heat wave.

Guinness World Records judge and Commonwealth expert Gerald Short certified the specimen’s record weight, calling it the heaviest vegetable in the 100 million-year history of fruit plants. Despite his record-breaking size, Bagheera did not break the world record for circumference, stopping at just over 6 metres, a record that remains firm in the hands of the pumpkin grown jointly by the Paton brothers themselves in 2025. For over 50 years Paton has in fact grown giant pumpkins together with his twin brother Stuart, but this year he chose to compete alone.

Bagheera is currently the star of the show at Sunnyfields Farm near Southampton, where she has been featured in a scenic installation recreated with over 10,000 pumpkins and courgettes forming a mural dedicated to science writer Sir David Attenborough. Once the exhibition is over, the fate of the vegetable will follow concrete agricultural logic: Paton confirmed that the pumpkin will be cut and used as fodder for cows.

The American answers by Ron Wallace and Travis Gienger

Despite the record just achieved, however, there are those who do not give up, claiming they can do even better. Overseas in Greene, Rhode Island, Ron Wallace grew an extraordinary 1,432 kilogram pumpkin, weighed in Warren and awaiting official approval by Guinness World Records, an achievement that surpasses Paton’s record by 136 kilos and earned him a prize of $3,500.

Meanwhile, in California, Minnesota horticulture teacher Travis Gienger triumphed for the fifth time at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay with his 1,084-kilogram Rocky pumpkin, taking in $21,501 after a 35-hour journey. A constantly evolving sector in which we Italians have also distinguished ourselves with the historic record achieved in 2021 by Stefano Cutrupi in Peccioli, Tuscany, with a 1,226 kilogram specimen.