“It’s extreme gardening,” Young says, strolling through the remnants of his pumpkin plot. He stops at a smooth spot in the dirt the size of a minke whale. It’s where Young grew the second-largest pumpkin the world has ever seen.

The “big guy,” he calls it, weighed in at 1,662 pounds. In the last decade, big-pumpkin growing has gone from a farmer’s hobby to a regulated, worldwide competition. The boom in gourds has been fueled mainly by the Internet, which makes seeds and growing advice widely available. This year, nine pumpkins outweighed last year’s world record holder. Young’s missed being crowned king gourd by only 27 pounds…

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