Every fall, pumpkin growers haul their record-breaking giants onto scales, with some pumpkins weighing more than 2,700 pounds (1,225 kilograms). Yet the world's largest apple barely reaches 4 pounds (1.8 kg), and the heaviest blueberry ever grown weighs less than an ounce (28 grams). So what allows pumpkins to grow to such staggering sizes while other fruits (yes, pumpkins are fruits and even a type of berry) remain comparatively tiny?
Giant pumpkins are a specific variety of Cucurbita maxima that's been bred to grow huge — most often Mammoth and Atlantic Giant varieties. A basic reason they can grow so large is that they're indeterminate plants, Vikram Baliga, an assistant professor of practice of horticulture at Texas Tech University, told Live Science. Whereas determinate plants reach a set size and then stop, indeterminate plants grow indefinitely.
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