MANHATTAN — The largest pumpkin on record grown in Kansas is on display at the Flint Hills Discovery Center for a short time this fall.

The pumpkin officially weighed in on September 8, 2018 in Dewey, OK at 1,176 lbs., a record for any Kansas grown pumpkin, according to grower, owner Jacob Marintzer of Westmoreland, Kansas.

This pumpkin beat Marintzer own official record set in 2016 of 940lbs.

The pumpkin is on display at the Discovery Center Atrium until October 5, so there is no fee to see it.

The seeds, and not the pumpkin are where the real excitement is, according to Marintzer. While the giant pumpkin is a great spectacle to behold, it’s the price that a giant pumpkin seed fetches that really makes all the work worthwhile.

The price for a pumpkin seed that comes from a pumpkin this large can run between $15 to $600 per seed. More info can be found here: www.bigpumpkins.com

The family also has a Youtube channel where they have documented the progress of their pumpkin growing process.

Marintzer described the growing process, “There is a main organization called the GPC Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth. This is the main group which makes all of the rules and regulations. Under them are all of the clubs, some states have 1 club some states have many clubs. These clubs must pay their fees to be part of the GPC and they also must have a certified scale to weigh these pumpkins. I took my pumpkin to a weigh-off in Oklahoma. I took it there and not the State fair because the state fair isn’t part of the GPC and they don’t have a certified scale so any pumpkins weighed there don’t count as an official state record.

The largest ever weighed in Kansas unofficially was 1040 pounds. I had the official state record 2 years ago at 938 pounds that pumpkin was weight in Pawnee City, NE. The pumpkin I grew this year set the record at 1176 pounds. So right now it is the largest pumpkin ever grown in Kansas. Somebody could weigh one here in the upcoming weeks and beat it but I’m not aware of any bigger at the moment.”