Gienger eyes greenhouse despite fifth Half Moon Bay pumpkin title

Travis Gienger won his fifth Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off this month with a pumpkin grown in his backyard in Anoka, Minnesota, but said he ll probably need a greenhouse to keep winning. Science has kind of taken over, and this whole greenhouse thing is just erupting, Gienger told Agweek on Oct. 19 as he drove home through Utah. If we want to pay to play, we gotta up our game. His 2,389-pound pumpkin, Rocky, won the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, on Oct. 12. Two days before that, Ron Wallace of Rhode Island weighed a 3,156-pound pumpkin at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off, the first over 3,000 pounds, according to Guinness World Records. Wallace told Guinness it was his first year growing in a greenhouse. Gienger said most of the top growers this year grew in controlled environments where vapor pressure deficit could be set, which is the mix of heat and humidity that sets how fast a plant loses wat