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The 51st Annual Safeway World Championship
Pumpkin Weigh-off

2020 contender being driven to the scale
Giant pumpkin being transported by forklift to the official scale on stage

World's Biggest Top Prize – $9/Pound

1st place prize money will be awarded in a “pay-by-the-pound” system with the champion receiving a hefty $9 per pound, in addition to a Pumpkin King Champions Ring, a Mel Mello Sr. Grand Champion Growers Jacket, two nights at the posh luxury hotel The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay, and a starring role in the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival and Great Pumpkin Parade..

World Record Mega-Prize

The Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off is offering a special $30,000 mega-prize for the world record breaking pumpkin at the prestigious Half Moon Bay event. To receive the $30,000 mega-prize, the grower must break and hold the world record at the conclusion of the Half Moon Bay Weigh-Off. If two or more growers happen to break the world record at Half Moon Bay, the prize money would go to the grower of the heaviest pumpkin. The current world record heavyweight champion pumpkin is 2,749 pounds held by Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota set at our 50th annual weigh-off event on October 9, 2023! Here's how the $30,000 breaks down: the winner receives a world’s biggest $9 per pound plus the difference to get to a total of $30,000.

heading prizes

Top Prize Money

1st place prize money will be awarded in a “pay-by-the-pound” system with the champion receiving a hefty $9 per pound.

Prize Money

1st Place — $9 per pound
2nd Place — $3,000
3rd Place — $2,500
4th Place — $2,000
5th–10th Place — $1,000 each
11th–20th Place — $200 each

Special Prizes

  • World Record Pumpkin — $30,000 (total)
  • 1st Place Pumpkin — in addition to $9 per pound:
  • Biggest California Pumpkin — $1,000
  • Biggest Coastside Pumpkin (Montara to Pescadero) — $1,000
  • Joe Cotchett Family Most Beautiful Pumpkin — $1,000
  • Special GPC plaques and ribbons will also be awarded

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GPC Affiliation

Great Pumpkin Commonwealth siteHalf Moon Bay serves as an officially sanctioned Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) site. The GPC is the major sanctioning body overseeing Giant Pumpkin growing competitions with more than 70 weigh-off locations throughout the world. “Our relationship with the GPC gives pumpkin growers added incentive to bring their biggest to Half Moon Bay and puts us in the mix for a potential world record,” said Cameron Palmer of the Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off. “Giant pumpkin growers bring extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm to their craft and we’re delighted to support and be part of their organization,” said Palmer.

Growers chat at dawn the day of the event
Growers chat at dawn the day of the event (top); lineup for judging of Most Beautiful Pumpkin award (middle); and a massive pumpkin on forklift for transport (bottom)
lineup of three most beautiful pumpkins
massive pumpkin on forklift for transport

Weigh-Off Notes

  • The first weigh-off was held in 1974 when officials from the City of Half Moon Bay including then-Mayor Melvin Mello challenged Circleville, Ohio, which then proclaimed itself “Pumpkin Capital of the World", to a weigh-off competition to determine the world's biggest pumpkin.
  • John Minaidis of Half Moon Bay won the first weigh-off with a 132-pound pumpkin.
  • Prize money for the Weigh-Off is underwritten by Safeway.
  • Keys to growing giant pumpkins: superior seed lineage (from a previous giant), rich soil –– prepare using compost, treat with fertilizer (about every other day), profuse amounts of water (keep moist, not too dry or too soggy), mild (not extreme) temperatures (preferably around 90 daytime and 60 at night), long days with plenty of sunlight (but not direct sunlight), bury vine in the soil to promote rooting, and lots of time in the pumpkin patch “TLC" (most of the growers add to the lore with their own secrets).
  • Every Columbus Day, about 50 accomplished, veteran growers from Washington, Oregon, California and points east gather for the Half Moon Bay weigh-off to swap seeds, secrets and tips, hoping to capture the coveted title and the cash and notoriety that go along with it.
  • Seeds are planted in the spring (April for most growers). Seeds from a giant pumpkin are about the size of a peach pit.
  • Giant pumpkins can gain as much as 50 pounds a day, on their best day.
  • Once they're cut from the vine, big pumpkins lose an average weight of 6-8 pounds a day.
  • Seed varietal used to grow giant pumpkins: Atlantic Giant
  • The official weighing will be conducted by the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office of Weights and Measures, using a 5-ton capacity digital scale.
  • Every fall, thousands of Bay Area residents visit the coastside to pick pumpkins from the rolling fields of orange along State Highways 1 and 92.
  • Depending on conditions, anywhere from 2,000-4,000 tons of pumpkins are grown annually by about a dozen commercial growers in the Half Moon Bay area. They ship pumpkins all over the United States and sell to many of the large retailers in the Bay Area.
  • The pumpkin boom can be traced back to growers in the area who began to plant pumpkins in the 1930's. In the early 30’s, teenager John Arata and his brother Clarence began planting pumpkin seeds to to feed the family’s hogs. One day, they were hauling some of their pumpkins along Highway One back to the farm when a passing motorist stopped and asked if he could buy a few. The Arata’s sold the pumpkins for a quarter and a booming pumpkin-picking business and tourist attraction was born.
  • The current world record heavyweight champion pumpkin is 2,749 pounds held by Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota set at our 50th annual weigh-off event October 9, 2023!

How It All Began

Sometimes a little seed can go a long way. What started out in 1974 as a fun, light-hearted contest between Circleville, Ohio and Half Moon Bay, California, two cities proclaiming to be the Pumpkin Capital of the World, has grown into Half Moon Bay’s Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, the Super Bowl of pumpkin weigh-off competitions worldwide.

Lore has it that while visiting Half Moon Bay in 1974, Frank Barnhill, then mayor of Circleville, Ohio, was deeply impressed with the prolific and passionate local pumpkin-growing culture. He met with members of the Half Moon Bay City Council and they agreed to have their two proud pumpkin-loving cities square off in the first head to head pumpkin weigh-off, hauling the largest local gourds to their historic city halls for the official weighing competition. Once concluded, the two mayors got on a phone call to announce their respective winning weight and grower. To formalize the proceedings, county ag representatives officiated both weigh-offs to make things official. That first year, Half Moon Bay’s biggest pumpkin, 132-pounds, grown by John Minaidis, won by one pound. Half Moon Bay brought home the coveted title of Pumpkin Capital of the World and a legend was born.

GPC World’s Top Weigh-Off Site Award

In 2019, Half Moon Bay’s Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off was named as the first ever recipient of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth’s (GPC) World's Top Weigh-Off site award spanning a 25 year period from 1993-2018. “This inaugural award was presented to the weigh-off site that has weighed the ten heaviest pumpkins in the history of the site being part of the GPC,” said GPC Historian Jack Larue. “In 2018, the GPC sanctioned 114 weigh-off sites worldwide,” said Larue. The top ten pumpkins weighed at the Half Moon Bay site have a total combined weight of 20,414.0 pounds for an average weight of 2,041.4 pounds. The Ohio Valley weigh-off site came in second place with a top ten total combined weight of 20,282.0 pounds for an average weight of 2,028.2 pounds. In third place was the Stillwater Minnesota weigh-off site with a top ten total combined weight of 20,168.0 pounds for an average of 2,016.8 pounds.

Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off Past Champions

2023 — Travis Gienger, Anoka MN (World Record Pumpkin) 2,749 lbs
2022 — Travis Gienger, Anoka MN (North American Record Pumpkin) 2,560 lbs
2021 — Jeff Uhlmeyer, Olympia WA 2,191 lbs
2020 — Travis Gienger, Anoka MN 2,350 lbs
2019 — Leonardo Urena, Napa CA 2,175 lbs
2018 — Steve Daletas, Pleasant Hill OR 2,170 lbs
2017 — Joel Holland, Sumner WA 2,363 lbs
2016 — Cindy Tobeck, Little Rock WA 1,910 lbs
2015 — Steve Daletas, Pleasant Hill OR 1,969 lbs
2014 — John Hawkley, Napa CA 2,058 lbs
2013 — Gary Miller, Napa CA 1,985 lbs
2012 — Thad Starr, Pleasant Hill OR 1,775 lbs
2011 — Leonardo Urena, Napa CA 1,704 lbs
2010 — Ron Root, Citrus Heights CA 1,535 lbs
2009 — Don Young, Des Moines IA 1,658 lbs
2008 — Thad Starr, Pleasant Hill OR 1,528 lbs
2007 — Thad Starr, Pleasant Hill OR 1,524 lbs
2006 — Joel Holland, Puyallup WA 1,223 lbs
2005 — Joel Holland, Puyallup WA 1,229 lbs
2004 — Joel Holland, Puyallup WA 1,229 lbs
2003 — Steve Daletas, Pleasant Hill OR 1,180 lbs
2002 — Kirk Mombert, Harrisburg OR 1,173 lbs
2001 — Steve Daletas, Pleasant Hill OR 1,016 lbs
2000 — Kirk Mombert, Harrisburg OR 940 lbs
1999 — Jon Hunt, Elk Grove CA 991 lbs
1998 — Lincoln Mettler, Eatonville WA 974 lbs
1997 — Sherry LaRue, Tenino WA 868 lbs
1996 — Kirk Mombert, Harrisburg, OR 808 lbs
1995 — Jack La Rue, Tenino WA 875 lbs
1994 — (tie) Joel Holland, Puyallup WA and Pete Glasier, Sequim WA 696 lbs
1993 — Joel Holland, Puyallup WA 740 lbs
1992 — Joel Holland, Puyallup WA 722 lbs
1991 — Cindi Glasier, Denver CO 602 lbs
1990 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 544 lbs
1989 — Mike Pezzini, Prunedale CA 530 lbs
1988 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 432 lbs
1987 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 429 lbs
1986 — Arthur Quint, Castro Valley CA 526 lbs
1985 — Arthur Quint, Castro Valley CA 438 lbs
1984 — Norm Gallagher, Chelan WA (World Record Pumpkin) 612 lbs
1983 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 408 lbs
1982 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 307 lbs
1981 — Francis Collings, Petaluma CA 337 lbs
1980 — Tom Borchard, Salinas CA 275 lbs
1979 — Francis Collings, Petaluma VA 349 lbs
1978 — Francis Collings, Petaluma CA 298 lbs
1977 — Ray Chiesa, Half Moon Bay CA 200 lbs
1976 — John Minaidis, Half Moon Bay CA 208 lbs
1975 — John Minaidis, Half Moon Bay CA 273 lbs
1974 — John Minaidis, Half Moon Bay CA 132 lbs
The Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off
51st Annual
Heavyweight Championship of Gargantuan Gourds

October 14, 2024 - 7am to 2pm
Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA