Pumpkin pros battle for gourd glory — What’s their secret?

Each year, the great pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere

He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one

You can look all around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see

But what does it take to grow the greatest pumpkin of them all? Meet Tony Scott, a semiconductor engineer from upstate New York

Scott prides himself on growing gourds the weight of a small car. Most people, the first question they ask, is it real

And I ask, well, where would you buy a fake pumpkin this big, right? You know, it's real

Yes, it's partially in the genes of the seed, but a ton of TLC is a requirement

The bigger that they get, they get really oddly shaped because of the weight, and we keep it covered

We don't let the sun hit it at all, typically during the growing season

Experts say a giant pumpkin starts off with the perfect seed. Many competitive pumpkin growers

use Atlantic Giant. Watering is key These big guys can guzzle gallons of water in a day Once they start to expand growers start thinning the herd One of the reasons is that when growers are making a giant pumpkin

they actually do something to the plant, which is that they take off all the other growing pumpkins

So each plant only has one pumpkin that it's funneling all of its sugar water and resources into

And that helps make it extra big in a way that you might not see in the wild

Because of gravity, they tend to grow wide instead of tall. To get the color they desire, Scott covers his giant pumpkins with a tarp during the day

Experts say this protects it from sunlight. The sun causes the pumpkin to ripen, making the skin hard

When you're growing that fast, anything can happen with this thing. It could crack, it could blow out the rear of it

That's all happened to me, and it typically happens. I only grow two, and I usually lose one because you push them pretty hard

Despite his best efforts, Scott's 1,931-pound pumpkin only took third place at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh Off

The winner, Travis Geinger of Minnesota with a gourd weighing in at 2,471 pounds

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Jack Henry