HEARNE, Texas - As the saying goes everything is bigger in Texas and local gardener Donnie Hughes is proving that after tipping the scale with his impressive watermelon.
Donnie has been harvesting watermelons in his modest Hearne garden for the last 11 years and says in all of his years of hulling, he has never seen a melon quite this big.
"It got to a certain point and I said it's going to beat that 69 pounder, and I kept watching it grow and grow and all of a sudden I said this thing is going to be over 100 lbs.," said Donnie.
Weighing in at 130 pounds this Texas size melon took nearly 3 months to grow and Donnie says everyday he'd pray no pests would get to the fruit before he could.
"I would hold my breath making sure something hadn't happened to it or eaten it, or busted open," said Donnie.
This melon is roughly 10 times the size of a commercial watermelon which normally grow about 15 to 20 pounds.
"It is by far the biggest I've ever grown or quite frankly even seen," said Donnie.
Since growing melons is only a hobby for Donnie, he says just as with all of his melons he plans on sharing this one with family and friends.
It's too big to eat by yourself of course, so we're going to have some family and friends come over and we're going to divide this up and send it home with different people family and friends," said Donnie.