AURORA, Colo. — For the third weekend in a row, the Colorado state giant pumpkin record has been broken.
Brad Bledsoe, a fire medic with Aurora Fire Rescue, grew the first giant pumpkin in Colorado to weigh over one ton, coming in at 2,083 pounds. The record-breaking pumpkin was weighed at a Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off hosted by Nick's Garden Center and Nursery on Saturday.
“I really wanted to be the first person in Colorado to grow a one-ton pumpkin,” Bledsoe said. “I feel that’s important to get to, and hopefully they’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger.”
The pumpkin was awarded the state's first place distinction by The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, an organization aimed at cultivating the hobby of giant pumpkins and other giant fruits throughout the world.
Before serving as a firefighter for the city of Aurora, Bledsoe worked at a nursery, where he was always around plants. He started growing giant pumpkins four years ago.
“We started growing a pumpkin in the front yard and we ended up having a 195-pound pumpkin,” he said. “The neighborhood was invested. They loved it. We took it to the weigh off and my daughter, who was 4 at the time, asked me why my pumpkin was so small. That got my competitiveness going.”
The firefighter's kids named the three giant pumpkins he grew this year after the Sanderson sisters in the movie "Hocus Pocus."
Bledsoe continues to break his own record, as the first pumpkin he weighed off in September weighed in at 1,955 pounds. The distinction was short-lived as another grower presented a pumpkin that weighed 21 pounds more in a weigh off the next week.
Bledsoe's second pumpkin, Winfred Sanderson, was the one that broke the state record on Saturday.
His third will be weighed on Oct. 12 at Fort Collins Nursery, where Bledsoe has big hopes for the weigh off.
"I think potentially three state records could fall this weekend in Fort Collins. I think the [Utah, Wyoming and Colorado state records] could all fall," Bledsoe said. "The pumpkin I'm bringing is a little, measures a little bit bigger than the one that just broke the record. I'm optimistic, 50/50. 50/50 on my odds, more optimistic for the other growers, but hopefully we can just be one pound heavier than them."
The current state record for Utah is 2,289 pounds. That was also set in 2024, according to Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers. The current state record for Wyoming is 2,064 pounds. That was set in 2023, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
The world record for a pumpkin is 2,749 pounds, set by Travis Gienger in Minnesota in 2023, according to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.