Noah Devisser's massive pumpkin was growing at a rate of nearly 20 kilograms a day when he noticed tiny cracks opening on its surface — a potential death sentence for a gourd of its girth.

"The rate of growth required to get this big is very hard for the fruit to maintain without blowing itself apart," Devisser said.

So for a few days, he backed off his watering to slow the growth. The walls held.

His cautious cultivation early in the growing season paid off this Friday, when the pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 508 kilograms at the Spencerville Fair Mammoth Pumpkin Stake, enough to smash the previous 478-kilogram record.

"I don't think it matters how big you've ever grown before. Every time you get another big one, the biggest you've had, it's impressive," Devisser said.

Noah Devisse

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