Eddie Zaychkowsky has been growing pumpkins on his rural property northeast of Calgary for almost two decades, but never anything quite like the giant surprise the summer of 2018 brought.
“[It’s] 2,255 pounds,” Zaychkowsky said, showing off his proudest achievement in the pumpkin patch. “It’s the biggest one ever grown in Canada. We had days of over 60 pounds in a 24-hour period that this thing gained.”
Zaychkowsky figures it might have grown even bigger if Alberta hadn’t been hit by heavy smoke drifting over from summer wildfires in British Columbia.
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“We ran into a snag at the beginning of August when all the forest fires hit because it took away the sun,” he said. “We were running at [gains of] 40 pounds a day and it dropped to six.”
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