
Wasco Nursery and Garden Center employee Tom McIlvaine has been growing giant pumpkins for 14 years and this year produced by far the largest he has ever grown — a pumpkin weighing 1,148 pounds.
His pumpkin took third place in the state at the Great Pumpkin Weigh Off on Oct. 3 at Didier Farms in Prairieview. According to Wasco Nursery and Garden Center, the pumpkin grew at a rate of about 34 pounds per day through the summer and early fall. It has a circumference of 171 inches.
McIlvaine grows his pumpkins in the fields at the nursery, where he has worked for years. He drives an orange truck with a license plate reading "pnknman."
The pumpkin will be on display through Halloween at Wasco Nursery & Garden Center, 41W781 Route 64, six miles west of Randall Road, in St. Charles. The nursery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.


