Carol and Dave Stelts Won the Giant Pumpkin World Weigh-Off in Canfield, Ohio, With a 2,565.5-Pound Pumpkin and a $12,250 First Prize

The scale at Parks Garden Center in Canfield, Ohio, settled on 2,565.5 pounds for the heaviest pumpkin of the day, and the grower behind it was Carol and Dave Stelts of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. Their entry took first place and the $12,250 top prize at the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers’ annual world weigh-off, according to the club’s release dated Oct. 11. It was also the couple’s largest pumpkin ever, Farm and Dairy reported.

A Field of 41 Giants and a Purse Above $70,000

The club said 41 giant pumpkins were entered. The top 10 weighed a combined 22,120 pounds, an average of 2,212 pounds each. Second place paid $9,250 and third place paid $7,250, and 30 growers earned prize money. The overall purse topped $70,000, the release said.

The weigh-off also covers more than pumpkins. The club listed giant watermelons, giant tomatoes, long gourds, field pumpkins, sunflowers, marrows and bushel gourds among the categories. The release named the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth as the contest’s sanctioning body.

The club’s 2026 weigh-off page laid out the schedule. Pre-registration closed Oct. 7, pumpkins could be dropped off from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, and the main drop-off opened at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, with the event starting around 10 a.m. The page also said new prize money was available for eligible pumpkins over 2,000 pounds, and that exhibitors were invited to a potluck in the back warehouse.

In its release, the club praised “the incredible dedication and knowledge of the growers who compete here.”

The Second-Place Pumpkin Set an Ohio Record

The Stelts’ win came 52 pounds ahead of a backyard grower from northeast Ohio. Adam Momirov, a 42-year-old mail carrier from Osnaburg Township, took second with a 2,513-pound pumpkin that broke the Ohio record, according to a Yahoo Life story republished from Backyard Garden Lover. The piece said Momirov won $9,250 and began growing giants just five seasons ago after seeing seeds at a local greenhouse.

His first pumpkin, in 2022, weighed 1,088 pounds, and his personal best going into this season was 2,273 pounds, the story said. He started his seeds indoors in April and used fans and alcohol on the pumpkin’s skin to keep it dry and limit cracking. A crack that reaches the inner cavity can disqualify an entry.

The story paraphrased Bill Hendricks, a director of the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers, as saying pumpkins of this size take extensive research and dedication, not just good weather. Momirov planned to cut the pumpkin open with his two children and donate the seeds to the club, which sells them to fund education programs and competition prizes.

How the Stelts Grow a Ton of Pumpkin

Dave Stelts has been at this for decades. He started growing with his father, Jim, in Leetonia, Ohio, in the 1970s, when their biggest pumpkin weighed 131 pounds, Farm and Dairy reported. He returned to the hobby in 1994, and Carol joined him as a partner in 2003. The couple now grow eight pumpkins a year on about 10,000 square feet.

Their method starts with the ground. According to the article, Dave tilled and crowned the field so water drains to the edges instead of pooling, and the couple prepare soil four years ahead, rotating plots and planting cover crops such as mustard and winter rye along with compost. They test the soil regularly and stay off it entirely, Dave said, so it never gets compressed.

Seeds are saved from the previous year’s pumpkins and started indoors in April, then transplanted about ten days later. Plastic mulch, a polytunnel, a mini-greenhouse and soil heating cables keep the young plants warm and dry until late May. In June, the blossoms are close-pollinated.

Once a pumpkin takes off, the growth is hard to picture. Dave said the biggest pumpkins add 50 to 60 pounds a day for a couple of weeks. The pumpkins are ready by early September.

A Season of Tornadoes, Rain and Lost Pumpkins

The 2,565.5-pound winner came out of a difficult year. The couple planned to attend eight contests but lost three pumpkins, so they made it to five, Farm and Dairy reported. They took first at the Michigan State Fair in September with a 1,998-pound pumpkin and finished the season eighth in the world.

The weather did not help. The article said the Stelts dealt with six tornadoes this year, and record late-summer rain combined with heat and humidity made disease a serious problem. “Every year, it seems like it gets a little worse with the weather,” Carol said. The couple have considered building a greenhouse.

The win extends a long run in Canfield. Dave Stelts also won the giant pumpkin class in 2023 with a 2,376.5-pound entry, and that year’s top ten averaged 2,136 pounds, according to an earlier Farm and Dairy report. This year’s top ten averaged 2,212 pounds. The club’s homepage, which bills the group as “One Of The World’s Premier Giant Pumpkin Clubs,” also promotes beginner and advanced grower seminars and a seed auction.

Where the Pumpkins Go Afterward

The prize money is not the only reward for the couple. Farm and Dairy said the pumpkins are harvested for seeds and then sold to community groups and businesses for displays, including the Pittsburgh Zoo, and the Stelts have taken 25 pumpkins to Dollywood in Tennessee over the years.

Other growers have posted big numbers this season too. Minnesota grower Travis Gienger’s fifth win at Half Moon Bay came with a 2,389-pound giant, and Woody Lancaster set a Topsfield Fair record with 2,598 pounds.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: “Giant pumpkins linedup” by Nick Ares is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons).