FITCHBURG — Young city resident Alistair Lehto was thrilled when the humongous pumpkin he grew earned the title of second largest one from Massachusetts and the fifth biggest overall at this year’s Topsfield Fair.
“It was amazing. It’s wild how we made a few changes and things came together,” the 11-year-old sixth grader said of the giant gourd he and his dad Scott Lehto grew on their property, which weighed in at a whopping 1,816 pounds on Oct. 2.
The Lehto family — Alistair, his dad, his mom Emily, and older sister Penelope, 14 — live on two acres in Fitchburg. Much of their land is gardens and they grow tomatoes, sunflowers, cut flowers, decorative and field pumpkins, and competitive pumpkins.
“Emily takes care of a lot of the flower gardens and us boys take care of the fruit more or less, and vegetables when we have time,” Scott imparted.
Alistair said watching his dad grow competitive pumpkins and bringing them to weigh offs made him decide a few years ago that he wanted to give it a try.
“It’s cool how they start off and then take off putting on almost 50 pounds a day,” the young man said. “It’s a lot of fun and we do it together.”
Scott started growing competitive pumpkins about a decade ago after they moved to their current home in 2014. The place they lived at before that was close to Fitchburg State University “didn’t quite have the room to do it” and then with having kids, Scott said he “wanted to be home more and backyard hobbies made sense.”
“I’ve always been interested in the outdoors, soil and plants, and studied environmental biology at Fitchburg State and currently work as scientist at an environmental engineering company doing projects relating to wetlands, stormwater and hydrology,” Scott said.
He shared that Emily “is also a plant guru,” growing mostly perennials and indoor plants.
“I personally don’t have the patience for something that can’t put on twenty pounds a day, but that’s my problem,” Scott quipped, adding “you can say Alistair was born into it and always liked playing with dirt and I’m glad he still does.”
His son was the youngest grower to ever submit a pumpkin at the Topsfield Fair when he was 8. The biggest one Alistair grew before this year’s ginormous one was a 729-pounder that he took to a weigh-off in Connecticut, where he won first place in the youth category.
The seed for this year’s pumpkin came from Steve Connolly’s Topsfield Fair winner back in 2024.
“Steve is a great guy. Most pumpkin growers are,” Scott said.
They planted the pumpkin seeds indoors in a grow tent at their home mid-April and made sure to give them “a lot of love.”
“They are started in a damp paper towel and kept at 90 degrees until the seed pops a root, usually a day, maybe two, and then it goes into soil in a two-gallon container which is kept at 72 degrees,” Scott relayed about the process. “They are planted in the ground in a greenhouse a couple weeks later in late April and early May, the goal being to get a big and healthy plant so you want the pumpkin to think its June or July and not April or May.”
He shared that “more leaves equal more energy” — and that most of their pumpkin plants end up around 600 to 1,000 square feet wide.
“Growing a pumpkin this size required months of care and attention, including regular watering, fertilizing, monitoring its growth, and protecting it throughout the summer,” Scott said. “I help Alistair early on as the plants are very sensitive when they are young. Once they get situated and the garden is tilled and amended and the plants really start running, he’s in charge and I’m the pumpkin growing consultant.”
Alistair said they tried a few different things this year when it came to plant nutrition, fertilizers and timing, and that “some years have gone better than other years.”
All of that attention to detail and extra special care paid off in a big way with his pumpkin earning him two ribbons at the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In at the Topsfield Fair earlier this month, the biggest Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Conference weigh off on the East Coast. Woody Lancaster has won first place several times and did again this year, the last time the 81-year-old will be growing pumpkins competitively as he is retiring from it.
“He went out with a bang,” Scott said of Woody, who is from Topsfield and grew a massive 2,598-pound pumpkin, a new Massachusetts and New England record that earned him $10,000 in prize money.
“Just being in the top five is a hell of an accomplishment,” Scott said with pride about Alistair’s placement. “These are some of the best pumpkin growers and simply the best gardeners I know. The real standouts in the game put in a lot of time, effort and thought and many have been doing it for decades. It’s not an easy hill to climb. Knowledge and experience are everything.”
Normally they grow two pumpkins. This year they grew three and while one pumpkin plant failed, the third plant produced a 500-pound pumpkin. Scott said their goal for next year is to grow three pumpkins and hit at least 4,300 pounds total.
“Doing so allows us to get our growers jacket at GPC Conference, the main organization behind the weigh-offs who govern the rules of the sport/hobby,” Scott said.
For now, they are focusing on basking in the glory of this year’s win. Fifth place paid out $2,100 and then they sold Alistair’s pumpkin to Haunted Overload in Lee, New Hampshire, for $800, where it was carved into a huge jack-o-lantern by the owner Eric Lowther and enjoyed by many.
“We have sold a few pumpkins to them in recent years,” Scott said. “This one took over five hours to carve as it had walls over a foot thick. They have thousands of people go through there on a single night in October and they raise a lot of money for charity as well.”
They have carving videos “dubbed to some Halloween bangers” on their Instagram account, @sleepyhollowpumpkin, and Scott divulged that all the money earned “goes right into the college fund.”
“Alistair also likes to play the stock market so I’m sure the funds will take a ride on Robinhood before they end up in a more secure location,” he said. “Does anyone have any stock tips?”
From a parent’s perspective, Scott said he is “proud of Alistair and his patience and dedication he put into this project.”
“Growing a giant pumpkin takes a lot of work over several months, especially when it comes to buying vines and weeding in July and August. Not even the most passionate growers enjoy that part of it and there were some days he didn’t want to do it and needed to be reminded of the opportunity he had.
“I’m sure a lot of kids are the same way whether its sports or whatever,” Scott said. “Sometimes when it’s hot and uncomfortable you just want to be in the air conditioning on the couch, and you just need to get after it and sort of ‘embrace the suck’ if you know what I mean. So, it’s been great to see him take on the challenge and see it through. I’m proud of what he’s accomplished and excited to see where he takes it from here.”
Alistair said a lot of people ask him about his giant pumpkin.
“They say they saw me on the news, kids, teachers, everybody. One kid at school calls me ‘The kid who grows massive pumpkins on the news.’”
Scott echoed his son’s thoughts, saying “people are so intrigued by it.”
“Friends and family cheered him on and asked about it. Most can’t believe it when you tell them how big it is and the daily growth rates and their eyes light up when they see it in person. A lot of people ask us if it’s real. I tell them the only thing odder than having a one-ton pumpkin in the yard would be having a fake one-ton pumpkin in the yard.”
He went on to say that “all kidding aside, it’s a lot of fun.”
“You certainly get to know people when you start growing giants,” Scott shared. “A lot of folks ask us how the grow has been in any single year and our harvest outlook, etc. All fun conversations.”
He also disclosed that they “become a star attraction when you drive on the highway with it going to the weigh-off,” which they did this year with help from Mark Mozinski of MJM Construction in Ashby, who brought a skid steer to help them put the pumpkin on a pallet and then a flatbed truck.
“Talk about a being a roadside attraction and distraction. ‘This must be like what Kim Kardashian probably feels like on a daily basis,’ I often think as I head up 495 North with a massive gourd,” Scott joked. “I tell people, if everything goes right from April through October, gardeners can turn into celebrities. It’s true. We’re proof.”
He said Alistair “enjoys the attention and talking about it.”
“I mean it’s cool, there’s nothing that grows faster on the planet than a pumpkin with the proper care,” Scott said. “You literally can watch them grow as they put on 300 pounds in a week.”
He and Alistair run a giant pumpkin growing seminar at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston in the spring, where they share their wisdom and go over the science of growing one.
“Giant pumpkin growers simply love to talk pumpkin. He’s no different,” Scott said of his son.
In closing, the father of two made sure to point out that they wouldn’t be able to do what they do without the support of his wife Emily and thanked her.
“One piece [of all this] that never gets enough attention and recognition is the work of Alistair’s mom, who really holds down the fort for us when we are locked into our grow. Without our pumpkin family, we couldn’t reach our goals.”
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