A Woodley man has won a competition for the largest pumpkin – with his entry weighing in at a staggering 896 lbs (771 kgs).
Amazingly, this massive fruit was the third-best of this year’s crop grown by Curtis Leach.
What he described as his “personal best” effort, weighing what he hopes will be close to 1,700 lbs (771 kgs), is set to be entered into a competition this weekend in Southampton.
Curtis won the weigh-in at Wargrave Nursery Plant Centre last Saturday in what he said was a good year.
He told Wokingham Today: “It takes six months from planting to harvesting, and there’s a bit of luck involved in coping with the extremities of the weather.”
Curtis’ fascination with growing pumpkins started when he was 12-years-old.
He said: “I grew what I thought was an amazing pumpkin and took it to my local show fully expecting to win.
“It was a mere 32 lbs (14 kgs), and I’ve been trying to grow giant pumpkins since then.”
The world record currently belongs to a pumpkin weighing 2,702 lb (1,266 kgs) that was grown in 2021 by Stefano Cutrupi from Italy.
Curtis has previously held the UK record with a pumpkin weighing in at 1490.5lbs (667 kgs).
