The World Record For Largest Green Squash Has Been Broken. Meet The Man Who Grew It
From massive, fair-worthy pumpkins to the tallest sunflower in the world, there's something so exciting about growing plants and produce so big, they actually set a world record. Farmer Joe Jutras of Scituate, Rhode Island, sure agrees, as he's broken several records over the years and is showing no signs of slowing down. It all started in 2006, when Jutras nabbed the Guinness World Record for world's longest gourd with a massive entry that measured 10 feet, 6.5 inches. The following year, he grew the heaviest pumpkin on the planet, tipping the scales at 1,689 pounds. Jumping to 2017, Jutras became the first farmer ever to snag a world's largest record in a third category thanks to his 2,118-pound green squash. As he told NPR at the time, achieving the triple crown was truly a highlight. "I've been chomping at the bit for this one," he enthused.
However, Jutras wasn't done. In October 2025, he broke the world record for heaviest green squash once more with an entry that weighed a whopping 2,200 pounds. Its dimensions were equally impressive, with a circumference of 227 inches. As Guinness reported, this winning squash was grown from an Atlantic Giant pumpkin seed created by Jutras himself and dubbed the "920 Jutras." However, it takes more than just good seeds for Jutras to achieve his record-breaking harvests. After all, you can make plenty of mistakes planting squash, and growing the biggest one ever comes with a lot more room for error.
How the world's largest green squash came to be
Jutras has long been passionate about growing gigantic produce. He began to follow his passion over 20 years ago while working as a full-time cabinet maker, and soon discovered numerous similarities between the two skills. As he told NPR in 2017, "You have to keep your eye on details. It's the little things you do through the course of a year that make a difference."
To grow his first record-breaking green squash, Jutras had to be slow and meticulous. According to NPR, he first allowed the soil to rest for an entire year, after which he planted a cover crop of mustard to act as a natural fumigant. He then layered the earth with chicken manure and covered the whole plot with a plastic tarp in order to kill off any and all weeds, bugs, and bacteria. Only then was the soil truly ready for him to plant the squash seedling, which was crossbred with a pumpkin to amp up its size.
Over the months that followed, Jutras was fully committed to his squash, using up 150 gallons of water and 15 gallons of fertilizer per day. He would also cover it with a blanket when temps dipped at night and even turned down vacation time. "My wife thinks I'm crazy sometimes," he admitted to the CBC, but it paid off. "I'm looking at her right now and laughing." Crazy or not, you can't argue with the results.