100 kilo watermelon wins largest fruit award in Spain

On August 23, Antonio Gonzaléz Casillas has took the title producer of the largest fruit in Spain in the Rufino Pineda Mendoza contest, held in the town of Villanueva de la Serena, in Extremadura.

This is not the first time Antonio has won the award and with this year’s 100 kilo watermelon Antonio has broken the record he set in Spain last year, when he won the contest with a 92,2 kg fruit.

Five people were needed to help place the watermelon on the scale when the turn came to weigh it. Antonio has won the contest countless of times and says that the secret to obtaining these extra large fruits is: “much pampering, a good soil, drip irrigation and ideal weather conditions.”

This year is the 58th edition to the contest organised by the Association of Festivities of San Bartolomé Apóstol, and since those early days, the measurement of the fruits presented have increased astronomically. At the beginning the heaviest watermelons weighed about 12 kilos and the melons just 4 kilos.