破世界纪录！罗得岛农夫种出3156磅巨型南瓜
罗得岛一位农夫打破了世界最重南瓜纪录。10月10日（周六），南新英格兰巨型南瓜种植者协会在罗得岛沃伦市弗雷里克斯农场举办年度称重赛，来自格林镇的罗恩·华莱士种出的南瓜重达3,156磅。据比赛官方称重员约翰·鲁索确认，这一成绩比此前的世界最重南瓜纪录高出近300磅。活动从上午9点持续到下午5点，称重赛、美食车和现场演出吸引了大批观众。华莱士在巨型南瓜界早已是传奇人物：2012年，他种出了人类历史上第一个超过一吨的南瓜——2,009磅，在托普斯菲尔德博览会上打破世界纪录，博览会官员将其比作田径场上“跑进4分钟一英里”。2024年秋天，他的父亲理查德·华莱士在同一称重赛上以2,261.5磅创下北美纪录，超越了儿子罗恩前一年种出的2,230磅南瓜。弗雷里克斯农场称重赛自2000年起每年举办，是巨型南瓜竞技圈的重要赛事。种出这样的庞然大物既是运动也是科学：顶尖种植者把南瓜的种子血统代代追溯，为防蜜蜂串粉而把花朵扎紧、人工授粉，精心侍弄每天能长一英尺以上的藤蔓。旺季时，巨型南瓜一天可增重45磅——大部分是水分，而每年的好收成往往跟着好天气走。
Rhode Island Grower Smashes World Record With 3,156-Pound Pumpkin
A Rhode Island farmer has smashed the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. At the annual Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off on Saturday, October 10, hosted by Frerichs Farm in Warren, R.I., Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed in a pumpkin at 3,156 pounds — surpassing the previous world record for heaviest pumpkin by nearly 300 pounds, according to John Russo, the competition’s official scale weigher. The event ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and drew crowds with the weigh-off, food trucks, and live entertainment. Wallace is no stranger to giant-pumpkin glory. In 2012, he grew the world’s first one-ton pumpkin — a 2,009-pound behemoth that shattered the record at the Topsfield Fair, a feat fair officials compared to breaking the four-minute mile. His father, Richard Wallace, set a North American record with a 2,261.5-pound pumpkin at the Frerichs Farm weigh-off in the fall of 2024, topping the 2,230-pound pumpkin Ron had grown the year before. The Frerichs Farm weigh-off has been running since 2000 and is one of the premier stops on the competitive giant-pumpkin circuit. Growing a pumpkin that size is a science as much as a sport: top growers trace their pumpkins’ seed lineage back generations, tie blossoms closed and hand-pollinate to control parentage, and coax vines that can grow a foot or more a day. In peak season, a giant pumpkin can put on 45 pounds a day, most of it water — and the best results each year tend to follow the weather.
图片来源：Nick Ares 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0（Wikimedia Commons）（南瓜称重赛资料图）
