A grower in Rhode Island has smashed his own son's giant pumpkin record with a gourd weighing 1,026 kilograms (2,261 pounds).
Richard Wallace's pumpkin beat the North American giant pumpkin record set by his son, Ron, at the same event last year. Ron Wallace's pumpkin topped the scales at 1,100 kilograms (2,230 pounds) at the Frerichs Farm Pumpkin Weigh Off in 2015.
Despite being dethroned, the legacy of that record-breaking pumpkin continues.
Across the country, a third-grade teacher from Washington state won a giant pumpkin weigh-off in northern California with a 866 kilogram (1,910 pounds) gourd.
"I am just over the moon elated right now,'' Cindy Tobeck said. "It was just a real steady grower. It wasn't an explosive grower... it kept growing well into the summer when a lot of pumpkins slow down.'' She said she planted it in April, spending much of that time in a greenhouse with heated soil.
Tobeck said the secret to growing giant pumpkins is using the right seed.
She said hers came from a 1,100 kilogram pumpkin that won a different contest last year -- Ron Wallace's record breaker.
Tobeck beat out more than two dozen other pumpkins from Oregon, Washington and California.
