Pete Rondeau, of Coventry, left, gets assistance with his giant pumpkin from Ron Wallace, of Coventry, the 2006 world record setter, and Joseph Jutras, of Scituate, the current world record holder.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

WARREN — If Linus wanted to see the Great Pumpkin, the blockhead should have headed to Frerichs Farm yesterday.

A pumpkin big enough to have its own nickname — “The Beast of the East” — weighed in at 1,568 pounds during the 15th-annual weigh-off of the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers.

But, good grief, the pumpkin was disqualified because it had a hole in the bottom and was losing a small amount of fluid. And the first prize ended up going to Joseph Jutras, of Scituate, who had a 1,507 pound pumpkin.

The Beast of the East is still the heaviest pumpkin weight so far this year but its proud papa, manufacturing engineer Steve Connolly, of Sharon, Mass., had hoped to set a world record. He came up short because Jutras squashed the competition last year with a 1,689-pound pumpkin.

Before Jutras’ giant, the world record holder had been another Rhode Islander — Ronald Wallace, of Coventry, who tipped the scales with a 1,502-pound pumpkin in 2006.

“Charlie Brown would have to come to the Rhode Island weigh-off to see the biggest pumpkin,” said Don Langevin, of Norton, Mass., who wrote a three-volume set of books titled How to Grow World-Class Giant Pumpkins.

So is it too soon to start talking about a new local dynasty?

Not if you ask Dave Stelts, president of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, a collection of 68 weigh-off sites and supporting clubs and growers worldwide. “The Southern New England group is a world-class organization,” he said. “They are much like the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox: They are making their own dynasty.”

Of course, pumpkins don’t pay like the Patriots. Yesterday’s winner received $3,500. But Stelts said, “It’s not about winning money.” He said, “This is a family sport” — or, as the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth’s bylaws put it, a “sport/hobby.”

While the group doesn’t have a corporate sponsor yet, Stelts noted this is prime time for pumpkins. “If you have the biggest, best pumpkin, you are the man for the month of October,” he said.

And while pro sports contend with controversies over steroids and doping, pumpkin growers rely on “good-old organic gardening” ingredients like water, leaves and cow manure, Stelts said. “It’s Gardening 101 times 10,” he said.

Yesterday’s weigh-off began when Joshua Olson, 7, of Warren, plopped the first pumpkin he’s ever grown onto a scale, which registered a weight of 5 pounds. Soon, men in orange shirts were hauling bigger pumpkins to the scales on canvas carriers, and then a 60-horsepower John Deere skid steer started bringing in the big boys.

Ronald Newman, an agricultural marketing specialist with the state Department of Environmental Management, said about 4,000 people attended the event throughout the day. When asked why Rhode Island is becoming an epicenter of giant pumpkin growing, Newman said, “We may be small in size, but we are big in every other way.”

Jutras, who’s in the cabinet business, said, “The biggest thing is we have a network of growers who are willing to help each other out. We can learn from each other’s experiences.”

Langevin said the world record for the biggest pumpkin had been broken each year in the previous 10 years.

Stelts discussed advances in growing methods and the selection of seeds, which can cost $850 or more if they’re proven winners. He said it’s only a matter of time before someone raises a 2,000-pound pumpkin. “As long as there is the drive to get better, I don’t think there is a ceiling,” he said.

efitzpat@projo.com