Big year for giant pumpkins

This fall’s harvest marked a good year for Northern California pumpkin growers. The proof is on the scale.

Brandon Dawson of Santa Rosa took home the top prize at the 52nd annual Safeway World Pumpkin Championship Weigh-Off, held Oct. 13 at Half Moon Bay. His monster gourd weighed in at 2,346 pounds, besting the runner-up by more than 300 pounds.

For his pumpkin-growing efforts, Dawson won $21,114 ($9 a pound) plus a $1,000 bonus for the largest California-grown pumpkin.

Dawson, an engineer for electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive, said he applies his precision skills to pumpkin growing, carefully monitoring water, sun and nutrients.

Ironically, this champion was not the biggest pumpkin Dawson has grown. He lost the 2024 contest by only six pounds, 2,465 compared to the winner’s 2,471. In 2023 and 2024, pumpkin champion Trevor Gienger trucked his prize gourds to Half Moon Bay from Minnesota. (That included 2023’s world record holder at 2,749 pounds.) Instead, this year’s contest was dominated by California pumpkin growers.

The entire top 10 was from Northern California, including second-place Brian Werner of Gridley (2,017 pounds), sixth-place Randy Warren of Auburn (1,356 pounds) and eighth-place Karen and Ron Root of Citrus Heights (1,279 pounds). That’s a whole lot of pie!

This was quite a month for Werner and his Butte County pumpkin patch. Earlier this month, Werner won his first Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival weigh-off with a 2,147-pounder – a new festival record. For his Half Moon Bay runner-up finish, Werner got a check for $3,000. That’s on top of the $7,000 he won for the Elk Grove championship.

As for more portable pumpkins, local patches and nurseries are overflowing with Halloween prospects. These pumpkin specialists stock as many as 30 different varieties in a variety of colors, shapes and skin textures. (Not all pumpkins are smooth orange!) For example, Green Acres Nursery & Supply stocks white Lumina, striped Lil’ Pump-ke-mon, blue Jarrahdale and wart-covered Lunch Lady (an extremely bumpy pumpkin).

According to farm forecasts, this was a good season overall for pumpkin growers – at least in California and Texas. Both states saw enough rain (or available irrigation) early in the season followed by dry weather. That yielded a “strong and high-quality harvest,” said farm reports. In NorCal, good pumpkin-growing conditions mean lots of pumpkins for local shoppers.

Most pumpkins in local supermarkets were grown in Sutter or San Joaquin counties. Other states weren’t so lucky. Drought conditions in Tennessee and neighboring states produced a 20 to 30% drop in their pumpkin crops.