Half Moon Bay's world champion pumpkin weighs in at 2,346 pounds

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-Off marks start of arts & pumpkin festival

The Safeway Half Moon Bay World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off kicked off the pumpkin festival in the city by the coast on Monday. This year's winner hails from Santa Rosa. Last year's winner is back this year, but he doesn't have a pumpkin this time.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - Half Moon Bay crowned a new champion pumpkin grower Monday as the coastal city kicked off its beloved pumpkin festival. 

The winning grower went head-to-head with the grand prize winner in last year's competition, losing by just a few pounds.

This year, the Santa Rosa man, Brandon Dawson, secured the top prize with his winning pumpkin that weighed in at 2,346 pounds.

Though the growers KTVU spoke to said the art of growing the pumpkin is more than half the fun, there was huge money on the line for the pumpkin growers. 

The winning prize: $9 per pound of winning pumpkin, and if their pumpkin sets a world record, the grower wins $30,000.

Last year's winner was back in the competition this year, but he doesn't have a pumpkin this time. 

"This year my pumpkin was growing about 40 pounds per day, it got a little pinhole in the blossom, and air eventually got in, and then it rotted. 

While he wasn't participating in this year's weigh-off, his family welcomed their own little "pumpkin" this year.

"We did welcome another baby this year, so that was my pumpkin," Gienger said.

Pumpkins of years past

By the numbers:

Last year, Gienger's behemoth of a pumpkin, affectionately named Rudy, took home the big prize. Rudy weighed in at 2,471 pounds. For comparison, that's about the same weight as a full-grown rhinoceros. 

Gienger is from Minnesota, and he's no stranger to big wins.

He's taken home the top prize in Half Moon Bay four times. He also took home the grand prize for a world-record-setting pumpkin in 2023. It weighed a whopping 2,749 pounds.  That's about 600 pounds more than a Volkswagen Beetle. 

The current world-record pumpkin was grown by a pair of twin brothers from the United Kingdom. That pumpkin weighed in at 2,819 pounds this month. 

It's not just growers who attend the weigh-off. Pumpkin fans came out in full force. 

KTVU spoke with a mother and daughter who now attend the annual weigh-off as a family tradition. They drove up from San Jose, so they get an early start.

This year's weigh-off is their third. 

"This is our third year. We stop and get a coffee, breakfast and we pick our spot," Prescilla Flores told KTVU. 

Growers behind this year's biggest pumpkins

What they're saying:

Mike Alves is a California grower from Willows who wants to see the top prize go to someone from the Golden State this year. He and his wife Jolene have been coming to the weigh-off for years. He says pumpkins require diligent care. 

"It's like raising a child. I plant 5 plants, and I spend probably an hour to an hour and a half per plant per day. It's a lot of water, you feed them every day, give them a little something to eat, just like a child, and they just keep growing and growing," Alves told KTVU. 

Alves brought a huge pumpkin this year. His pride and joy weighed in at more than 1,700 pounds this year. 

It wasn't enough to take the grand prize.