Oh my gourd! Aurora firefighter grows record-breaking 1-ton pumpkin

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The sounds of ducks and views of the mountains are quite normal in Brad Bledsoe's backyard. A 1-ton pumpkin, however, is a new and unique addition.

Bledsoe is a fire medic with Aurora Fire Rescue but spends his free time exercising his green thumb in his family's backyard greenhouse. He worked at a nursery before becoming a firefighter, and after a long day at work, he likes to tend his garden.

Since April, Bledsoe has been growing gigantic pumpkins.

"This is really consistent, but I always start the seeds on April 10th inside," said Bledsoe. "They're inside for two weeks, and then on April 24th, they come out here into the greenhouse. And then I build another basically greenhouse within a greenhouse to try to keep them warm at night."

Maggy Wolanske

The beginning of this pumpkin story stems from when Bledsoe's wife recommended growing a pumpkin to fill a piece of land that needed some landscaping love. Bledsoe ended up growing a 195-pound pumpkin.

"It was like the pride and joy of the neighborhood, like, this is the biggest pumpkin we've ever seen. This is so cool," he recalled.

Bledsoe brought that pumpkin to a weigh-off, where everything changed.

"My daughter, at the time she was 4, she goes, 'Dad, why is your pumpkin like the smallest one here?' And so that got my competitiveness going," said Bledsoe. "I was like, 'OK, it's time that we try to grow a really big pumpkin.'"

Maggy Wolanske

Bledsoe got involved in the competitive pumpkin growing process and learned everything he could about growing and protecting such large gourds.

"So you go on these auction sites in the wintertime, and you are bidding against other people for certain genetics that you think are going to grow," explained Bledsoe.

Bledsoe lets his family choose the names of the pumpkins. This year they decided to name the three pumpkins after the Sanderson sisters — Mary, Winifred, and Sarah — from Disney's "Hocus Pocus."

Winifred (Winnie) the pumpkin was recently crowned the largest pumpkin ever grown in Colorado, coming in at 2,083 pounds. She now sits proudly in the Bledsoe family driveway.

Maggy Wolanske

"We took Winnie last weekend, and it was the champ," Bledsoe stated. "So, we got back the state record."

However, Bledsoe could soon break his own record. He is set to take another of his pumpkins to be weighed at Fort Collins Nursery's Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off .

"Kind of a cool storyline for this weekend, though, is there's going to be three giant pumpkins — one including myself — that could beat the state record," explained Bledsoe. "But Wyoming's biggest pumpkins coming this weekend, and so is Utah's, so could be three states [that] are going to break some records in Fort Collins. Could be super cool."

Maggy Wolanske

While Bledsoe is hopeful in his pumpkin, he knows this means big competition. The current world record for a grown pumpkin is 2,749 pounds out of Minnesota.

After his pumpkins are done with the weigh-offs, Bledsoe takes special steps to ensure the following years will be successful.

"We take all the seeds and we dry them out, make sure that they're good, and we sell them to other pumpkin growers or give them to my pumpkin growing friends or potentially for myself for next year," Bledsoe said. "None of them get eaten. It's all for future crops of giant pumpkins."

Maggy Wolanske

Bledsoe's next goal is to grow a pumpkin that surpasses 2,500 pounds and breaks the world record. You can follow his progress on his social media channels .

Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.