SANTEE, Calif. —
The big boy is back in town!
“It's just like this amazing land of giant thing that people don't see," said Jim Frederick.
Jim Frederick loves pumpkins, but not just any old pumpkins - giant ones.
“‘Is it real?’ and ‘how long did it take to grow that thing?’ - those are two most common questions,” said Frederick.
Last month Frederick, who’s been growing pumpkins on and off since he was a little kid, took his prized fruit to compete in the state's annual pumpkin weigh-in in Irvine.
“Moving this thing is extremely difficult,” said Frederick.
Weighing in at 1,531 pounds, the pumpkin took second place in all of Southern California and is now the biggest pumpkin ever to be grown in San Diego County.
This year was the first time Joshua and Andrew Frederick helped their dad in the family's patch.
“They actually talked me into growing [it] this year as a family,” said Frederick.
“[We tried] fertilizing it, taking care of caterpillars and watering it to get more pounds,” said one of his sons.
It reportedly only took 85 days for the pumpkin to reach its peak size. If you're doing the math, that means it grew a whopping 45 pounds every single day.
“It's quite exciting,” said Frederick.“That's why I like to do it, because it's not boring, because you go out there.”
While Frederick is happy to have broken the county record, for him, it's also about passing along a family tradition.
“Spending time in the garden - it's not something kids these days do very often, but it teaches them stuff [they] won't see in a video game.”
The pumpkin can be rented or even sold. Previously, they've sold pumpkins for several thousand dollars.