SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man who’s loved giant pumpkins since childhood is trying to set a state record for the second time with a nearly 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) gourd he’s been tending with scientific precision.

39-year-old Matt McConkie says the pumpkin he’s growing for Saturday’s 12th Annual Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh Off should beat his own state record set in 2014, which was a pumpkin weighing 1,817 pounds (824 kilograms).

McConkie, who surprisingly isn’t a farmer by trade, but rather a real estate broker, says he started competitively growing pumpkins nine years ago. He bought a patch in South Ogden and started studying the craft.

He will use an all-terrain lift, forklifts and a flatbed trailer to get the pumpkin to the weigh off.