CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio – Dr. Bob Liggett, of Circleville, has told friends and neighbors countless times that he wants to grow a pumpkin that tips the scales at 2,000 pounds.

“To think you can get a pumpkin so large out of a seed that’s half the size of your thumbnail is still so amazing,” Liggett said, “but we still haven’t reached what we want – a one-ton pumpkin.”

Liggett holds the Circleville Pumpkin Show record with a pumpkin that weighed 1,964 pounds, a record he set in 2014, but 36 pounds shy of his ultimate goal.

Liggett, a 15-time winner of the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In at the annual Circleville Pumpkin Show, captured first place among 27 entrants at last week’s show with a pumpkin that weighed 1,837.5 pounds. It is the third heaviest winner in the contest’s history. Liggett has entered this contest 29 times.

“It’s a relief that it’s over,” Liggett told the crowd during the weigh-in. “When the pumpkin stopped growing when we had that first real cold spell, I wish the Pumpkin Show was the next day. You’re just waiting around hoping that one of the little spots won’t develop into a problem, like a peach on the counter. Once it quits growing you want to get it weighed.”

Second place winner was John Pritchard with 1,438 pounds and third went to Brandon Wiggins with his pumpkin weighing 1,347 pounds.

“The 90-degree weather really caused problems with a lot of the growers,” Liggett said. “I was really glad we had the 27 pumpkins that we did. I’m really pleased about that. We had some really nice ones considering the weather. Wiggins was a new grower and he did it all himself. He’s a young guy and is the future of the Pumpkin Show. We need to keep the young people interested in the club.”

Liggett had three pumpkins growing on vines this summer, but lost two earlier in the year.

“Evidently I didn’t spray for insects at the right time because they got bacterial wilt which is brought by cucumber beetles or squash bugs,” he said. “The other one was from a world record seed (2,702 pounds) and it grew so fast the blossom split and I lost it. The seed from this pumpkin has done well for other people in the past.”

Rounding out the remaining pumpkins weighing more than 1,000 pounds were Steven Thornhill (1,205.5 pounds), Dawn Wagner (1,199), Ryan Sheets (1,017.5) and Ryan Morrison (1,005.5).

Sheets, a first-time grower from Ashville, Ohio, and his wife, Miranda, shared their growing secrets with others.

“Fertilizing it, having the right seed, having the right soil are the main things,” Ryan said. “You have to be out there every day watering it.”

Pritchard, who finished second in the 2021 contest, said he was happy with the result.

“We tried to move the pumpkin because it was growing so fast in August that it was going to grow over the vine and as we moved it we snapped the stem but it still grew to 1,438 pounds,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with it. You have to deal with the ups and downs.

“The event is really more about the hobby than the results. I’ve got some really good friends that I’ve met through this, Ryan Morrison, Steve Thornhill – we talk all the time and it’s really fun.”

Every one of the growers in this contest is local and comes from within a 25-mile radius of Circleville.