Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

Scott Cully, Sara Mussen & Michael Anthony Natiello contemplate pumpkins and Newton

Gravity, it seems, will always win. Whether it’s in the war against wrinkles, when you drop your buttered toast, or when you’re carving the world’s heaviest pumpkin. Here on earth, we’re all a slave to it.

And while Chris Stevens’ 1,810.5 pound world record-holder did succumb to Newton’s most famous force, the other two fabulous pumpkins are still on view here at The New York Botanical Garden, and should be around through Friday.

Carver Scott Cully

Micheal Natiello

Carver Sara Mussen

And here’s hoping Scott Cully‘s heroic effort will be considered great by another book: The Guinness Book.

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

Scott Cully was out at the reflecting pool in front of the Leon Levy Visitor Center bright and early this morning to begin carving Chris Stevens’ World Record-breaking giant pumpkin.

Here’s some shots (and a short video!) from our early morning rendezvous.

Head below the break for some exclusive shots from this morning’s seed harvesting and carving extravaganza!

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

Yep, that’s right ladies and gents. The giant pumpkins are so big, a man can fit inside. Matthew DeBacco from team-pumpkin.org climbed inside Steve Connolly’s 1,674.5 pounder this morning to harvest some seeds. He reported that it was nice and warm, and that if it were on the Lower East Side it would rent for about $1,500 a month!.

Check it out!

When life hands you three giant pumpkins, you might as well carve them into jack-o’lanterns! Really, really big jack-o’-lanterns.

This Friday and Saturday, World Record-holder Scott Cully (who will be carving the current World’s Heaviest Pumpkin) will be joined by Michael Anthony Natiello, the carver behind the 500 pumpkins decorating The New York Botanical Garden‘s Halloween Hoorah and creator of the Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze at the historic Van Cortlandt Manor.  Michael will be carving the 1,725 pound runner-up pumpkin.

Natiello’s collaborator Sara Mussen will be on hand on Friday to carve the third pumpkin, a 1,674.5 pounder grown by Steve Connolly.

Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.

Do you have giant pumpkin fever? Can you not wait to dig your trowel into the earth and take a stab at growing your own World Record-setter?

Us, too! So we went straight to the source and asked the growers of the three behemoths currently calling The New York Botanical Garden home for their best growing tips.

Here’s what they had to say:

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

The world’s heaviest pumpkin is calling The New York Botanical Garden home for just a few more days. And while its entrance was grand, its exit will be spectacular!

Beginning Friday, October 29, world-renowned pumpkin carver, and current holder of the Guinness Book‘s World Record for largest jack-o’-lantern, Scott Cully will be at the Botanical Garden to carve the 1,810.5 lbs beauty. The carving, which will take approximately one hour per 100 lbs. will continue through Sunday, October 31 (also known to some as Halloween!).

What will the pumpkin end up looking like, and will Cully break his own World Record? Only time will tell. But we do love daydreaming here at the Garden. So to get your imagination going about what the great pumpkin might end up looking like, we thought we’d share a few pictures of Cully’s past creations.

Learn more about the giant pumpkins here, here, and here. And to plan your visit for this fascinating Garden experience, click here.

Thomas C. Andres is an Honorary Research Associate at the Garden.

I am especially excited that three record-breaking pumpkins are on display this month at The New York Botanical Garden. The heaviest one is not only the heaviest fruit ever grown, but also the heaviest fruit in the plant kingdom! The scientific name of the species, Cucurbita maxima, says it all. How did this all come about?

First, I should explain my relationship with these plants. I work here at the Botanical Garden with Michael Nee on the taxonomy of the genus Cucurbita. This group of a little over a dozen species includes the squashes, pumpkins, and certain kinds of gourds. They all originally grew wild in the tropical and subtropical Americas. Five of the species were domesticated and represent some of our oldest New World crop plants. This means that Italy not only didn’t have tomatoes before Columbus, but no zucchini!

Wild Cucurbita fruit are like a baseball in size, shape, and even almost in hardness. This is quite large for a wild fruit, although nothing to write to the Guinness Book of World Records about. So how could a fruit that is so hard and so big travel around enough to form new populations? Wild Curcurbita do often grow in flood plains, and float during floods, but they would then only float in one direction: downstream.

A tale of megafauna, Columbus, selective breeding, and the pursuit of the one ton pumpkin. More below.

Justin Wollenhaupt is a Marketing Associate.

Anyone who thinks Halloween Hoorah–The New York Botanical Garden‘s annual celebration of all things Halloween and pumpkin–is just for kids clearly did not see the look on my fiancé’s face on a recent Saturday. Maybe it was the generous wine samples we had just enjoyed at the Edible Garden’s finale weekend, or maybe it had to do with the fact that she’s been bringing up having children more often, and more insistently.  Either way, her expression of delight as we walked through the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden was unreservedly enthusiastic, and, to a man who has been dealing with the daily headaches of having just moved into a fourth-floor walk-up, this change in mood was entirely welcome.

She had visited the Botanical Garden before, but never at Halloween Hoorah time, and we had a blast checking out the hundreds of carved and sculpted pumpkins lining the paths of the Children’s Garden. The artist who made them, Michael Anthony Natiello, must absolutely love his job. Either that, or he has nightmares of an endless conveyor belt of pumpkins.

Learn more about the Halloween Hoorah, the giant pumpkins, see a photo gallery, and a video after the jump.

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

The Guinness World Record-holding giant pumpkin is here!

The pumpkin, grown by Chris Stevens in New Richmond, Wisconsin weighs 1,810 1/2 pounds.  It will be on display at The New York Botanical Garden through Halloween along with two other giant pumpkins.  The second weightiest of the group (shown at right) clocks in at 1,725 pounds and was grown by Ken Sweet in Washington, Michigan.  The third gourd in the giant pumpkin trio was grown by Steve Connolly in Sharon, Massachusetts and weighs 1,674 1/2 pounds.

Pictures cannot convey how impressive these amazing, sustainably-grown ‘Atlantic Giants’ are. So come see them for yourself! The pumpkins will be on display around the reflecting pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center through Sunday, October 31.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 29, 30, and 31 renowned pumpkin carver Steve Cully will be at the Botanical Garden to carve the record-setting gourd. Cully will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Jack ‘O Lantern which he already holds!

To plan your visit and learn more about the pumpkins and the Garden, click here. And for eleven fun facts we learned about giant pumpkins from the growers themselves, click here.

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

Here are some fun facts I learned about giant pumpkins from the farmers that grow them.

- During peak growth, the pumpkins can add as much as 50 pounds of weight per day.

- The pale color of the pumpkins has been genetically selected for because the farmers think it looks nice. The pale salmon color also contains tinge of blue that highlights the genetic heritage of the Blue Hubbard squash.

For more fun pumpkin facts and an exclusive photo gallery head below the break.