Stroll through your local neighborhood and you may see 10-pound jack-o’-lanterns galore, but Plainfield resident Phil Groenewold’s yard is turning heads with a striking 2,492.5-pound pumpkin on display.
The feat broke an 11-year-old state record by 347 pounds at the Bluegrass Championship Weigh-Off in Kentucky on Sept. 12.
Groenewold shared that there wasn’t one distinguishing factor that led to the pumpkin’s success. However, he picked the pumpkin two weeks early to ensure he could make it to the championship in Kentucky. Care and attention were two primary ingredients in Groenewold’s high-performing routine, which consisted of using the right seed, adding nutrients to the soil and watering the plant with 80 gallons per day…