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Growing huge pumpkins, it turns out, is a bit like why you own a race horse. The victories are great, but the real money is in the next generation.

Take the pumpkin Belgium’s Mathias Willemijns grew last year: it weighed in at more than 2,600 pounds. That set a new world record, and won Willemijns great acclaim.

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But forget all that: let’s talk about the seeds.

Willemijns yielded more than 1,000 seeds out of his giant and may have sold each seed for $150.

That’s what North Vancouver’s Jeff Pelletier heard, anyway, and he laughed when asked about it this week. Pelletier’s chuckle was because he’s grown some giants himself: First, two years ago, he grew a 1,018-pounder, and now this year, he’s grown a trio, including one that’s topping out at more than 1,200 pounds.

The thousand-pounder in 2015 was quite the product for a first-year grower. He discovered he was only the 11th British Columbian to grow a pumpkin that weighed in at four digits.