Swiss farmer breaks record with pumpkin weighing over 650 kg

Switzerland’s heaviest pumpkin this year weighs 651.5 kilograms and was grown in a private garden in the canton of Zurich, the Swiss agency Keystone-SDA reports. This is the third year in a row that grower Florian Isler from Esslingen, in the canton of Zurich, has won the Swiss champion title in giant pumpkin growing, the contest organiser Jucker Farm announced yesterday, as Swissinfo reports.

The pumpkin belongs to the “Atlantic Giant” variety, and its grower Isler set three other Swiss records – for the heaviest specimen of the “Bushel Gard” variety, weighing 136.6 kilograms, the tallest sunflower, 7.695 metres high, and the heaviest watermelon, which weighed 97.2 kilograms.

Other Swiss and world records in giant vegetable growing were also broken. The Mayer family from Detlikon, also in the canton of Zurich, now holds the world record for the heaviest sweet potato, a single tuber weighing 13.6 kilograms, while Jirg Wiesli from Doseville, in the canton of Thurgau in northeastern Switzerland, set the world record for the longest chilli pepper, 54.3 centimetres long.

At the “Bihlihof” farm, a total of 18 giant pumpkins were measured. Sixteen teams applied for the contest, among them two breeding teams and two families. Among the 18 specimens measured were 14 orange pumpkins of the “Atlantic Giant” variety and four green pumpkins. The current Swiss record for the heaviest pumpkin is 1,054 kilograms, while the world record is 1,278.8 kilograms. During yesterday’s contest, different types of vegetables were transported to the scales with a forklift.