Halloween may conjure up spooky thoughts for some but for Frank Smith it brings back fond memories of his glory days as a top gardener. It’s been 53 years since the Coventry pensioner broke the world record for heaviest pumpkin, which came in at an incredible 204lb and eight ounces.

The feat saw him crowned Pumpkin King by the Coventry Evening Telegraph which covered the news at the time, as well as earning him a cup and a mention in the Guinness World Records book of 1970, both of which he still treasures today.

Before 1970 the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded was in 1913 at a mere 50lbs. Sadly, Frank no longer holds the record, which today is held by Travis Gienger of the US, who grew a 2,749lb monster recently.

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CoventryLive visited Frank, 89, recently to find out more about his achievements. He said it took six boys to even move it, but even they couldn’t take it to the official weigh in by themselves. So, they lifted the pumpkin onto the roof rack to transport it with their car.

However, the pumpkin was so heavy that it broke the roof rack. Frank said he had to call AA and they brought a low loader trailer to slowly transport the ‘big one’ to the train station to weigh it.

It wasn’t the only giant Frank managed to grow. A year later he grew a pumpkin weighing 156lb which saw him crowned king of the pumpkin growers at a champagne lunch in London.

Weightlifting champion Louis Martin was pictured holding Frank’s pumpkin over his head in a national newspaper, but according to Frank he and another had to help Martin get it over his head because he couldn’t lift it on his own. Frank still has the newspaper clipping.

He told reporters at the time that there was ‘no special formula’ for growing large pumpkins, it was just ‘sheer hard work’. “You have to keep them well watered and make sure they get as much sunlight as possible,” he added.

The weather was against him in 1971, the year after he broke the record. “Lack of rain and cold weather during the growing season kept the weight down,” he said.

Frank said he was always keen on gardening, but it was also an escape at a point where there were lots of redundancies in his area. He described gardening in the allotment as his ‘therapy’ alongside golfing.

Frank’s gardening skills became so well known that a professor at The Leningrad plant institute wrote to him around 1971, asking for pumpkin seeds because he believed there was more nutritional value in pumpkin seeds than carrots. In return, Frank asked this professor for gourd seeds,to see if he could grow a gigantic gourd.

After potting the baby gourd, Frank returned from holiday to see it had grown so big that it had poked a hole through the greenhouse’s ceiling.

Naturally, Frank has many gardening tips for any aspiring gardener that would like their allotment to grow record holding vegetation.

His main suggestion was not to propagate the vegetables early, but keep all of the mini seedlings as they gave nutrition to the larger pumpkin.

Frank recalled having to bring in a bulldozer just to fill the soil that the giant pumpkin required, as well as the hundreds and hundreds of small pumpkins.

This pumpkin army had required 30 gallons of water every three days and 17 tons of manure.

Sadly, Frank later gave up gardening for playing golf at Maxstoke Park Golf Club, where he became their golf captain in 1990.

Looking back, Frank said that if he could do it again, he would build a massive greenhouse to see how big he could grow a pumpkin under better conditions.

As for what became of the famous pumpkin, it had the same fate as many of its smaller cousins. “I gave it to Birmingham children’s hospital and they made a Halloween lantern with it,” he said. “The kids had great fun.”

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Source: coventrytelegraph.net