After seeing his older brother Henry win the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-off at the Roland Pumpkin Fair five times previously, it was finally Cornie Banman's turn to take top prize Saturday. The Schanzenfeld resident's 1,660.5 pound monster took first place, and broke the Manitoba grown record he set last year of 1,522 pounds.

Cornie and his wife Helen

After growing for about seven years, and coming in second place in 2018, Banman was pretty pleased to take first.

"Well, I finally did it... I must have done something right," said Banman shortly after being declared the 2019 winner. "Lots of water, though, hardly any rain. I pumped water on to it, at least 250 gallons per day. No, it feels good to be first for a change."

He explained it was a very challenging growing season considering how dry it was until the beginning of September.

"In the beginning, they were just standing in the garden doing nothing, and I was almost ready to till them out, and then my wife convinced me to just leave them," noted Banman. "Then July 10th we pollinated it, and then we started it growing good... and then it went up to thirty-three pounds a day."

Banman estimates he poured about 25,000 gallons of water onto his pumpkin patch over the course of the growing season.

Cornie's older brother Henry won the weigh-off in 2004, 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2013, so needless to say, there is some friendly sibling rivalry between the two.

"He often comes over in the evening, and we look at them (the pumpkins), and I go over to his place and look at his," said Banman. "This year he had no luck, and I did."

And what is Banman's secret to growing such big pumpkins... not much. Other than watering extensively, he takes a self-described "natural" approach without using fertilizer in any way.

2018 and 2017 winner Charlie Bernstrom from Lancaster, Minnesota placed second with a pumpkin weighing 1,326 pounds. Third place went to Helen Banman, Cornie's wife, who grew a pumpkin weighing 1,296 pounds.