Giant Pumpkin Disqualified From State Fair Because Of ‘Thumb Size Hole’

A giant pumpkin that may have earned a state record at the Alaska State fair was disqualified today due to a small hole.

According to Fox News, J.D. Megchelsen was hoping that his giant pumpkin would break the 1,287 pound record that was set in 2011. Unfortunately, Megchelsen discovered a “thumb size hole” while transferring the pumpkin.

Megchelsen said: “It’s not going to count… It’s a bummer, but it’s the rules.”

The Boston Herald reports that giant pumpkins have to be free of rot and soft spots in order to be eligible for competition. Megchelsen thought that he had a winner, but, when the massive vegetable was lifted off the ground via a boom truck, he noticed a small hole on the bottom.

The pumpkin weighed in at 1,500 pounds on the crane, but the farmer estimated that the competition scale would have marked the pumpkin at about 1,420 pounds. But that doesn’t really matter much now.

Pam Elkins, the pumpkin farmer’s sister-in-law, told the Peninsula Clarion: “It’s just killing him… He eats, sleeps and dreams pumpkins. All he does is pumpkins.”

Megchelsen set his first giant pumpkin record in 2004 when he grew a 700-pounder. He set another record, 942 pounds, in 2005, surpassed the 1000 pound mark in 2006, and in 2011 he set the current record for an Alaska pumpkin at 1,287 pounds.