Three-year-old Sig Carlson is barely as tall as the giant pumpkin he’s checking out at the weigh-off competition Saturday held by the Puget Sound Giant Pumpkin Growers at Christianson’s Nursery in Mount Vernon. Scott Carley of Langley, B.C., won the $1,000 prize with his entry weighing 1,427 pounds. Competitor Joel Holland says it takes “Good soil, good seed, good luck and good weather and thirty years of practice” to grow these monsters. His winning Washington State Fair entry set a record two weeks ago at 1,621 pounds. His pumpkin Saturday, 1,254 pounds, came in third behind Cindy Tobeck’s 1,301-pounder.  (Alan Berner/The Seattle Times)