Hausjärvi grower raises Finland’s second-largest pumpkin

A 573.4-kilogram pumpkin grown by Krista Pennanen in Hausjärvi, a Finnish municipality, was crowned the country’s champion giant vegetable, Yle reported.

Pennanen, 29, won the Finnish Giant Vegetable Championships in Mäntsälä last Saturday. Her pumpkin was the second largest ever grown in Finland. The national record is 716 kilograms, set in Kuopio in 2012.

This was Pennanen’s first attempt at growing a giant pumpkin. She planted it outdoors on May Day and cared for it every day throughout the summer. At its fastest, the pumpkin gained 22 kilograms in a single day.

It grew in an old clay field that Pennanen had enriched with horse manure and compost. She used no special irrigation system or professional-grade fertiliser. The most demanding task was repeatedly cutting back the plant’s side shoots.

A neighbour helped load the pumpkin onto a trailer with a tractor’s front loader for the trip to the competition. Pennanen said she plans to grow giant vegetables again, though she hopes to take things more easily next summer. She will share most of the winning pumpkin’s seeds with other growers through the Finnish Giant Vegetable Association, while keeping some for herself.

Before the pumpkin is cut up, Pennanen plans to show it in Helsinki and possibly in her home municipality. She also hopes to taste it and eat it if it is good.