Pumpkinfest's Leon Homan moves a Cucurbita maxima. PHOTO: CROWN EQUIPMENT CORP.

With the annual Halloween observance on 31 October, global attention focuses on jack-o'-lanterns and other pumpkins including those needing a forklift for relocation.

The Giant Pumpkin Growers of New Bremen, for example, drew 16 forklift-movable entrants for the Pumpkinfest 2011 competition at the Crown Pavilion, along the banks of the Miami & Erie Canal. Most weighed more than 1,000 lb. (450 kg).

"The largest pumpkins are [species] Cucurbita maxima," says Robert Precheur at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Columbus, Ohio.

New Bremen-based Crown Equipment Corp provided forklifts - including a C-5 Series pneumatic tyre unit - to move the pumpkins.

Organisers of the two-day New Bremen Pumpkinfest weighed the pumpkins on 24 September, with the winner registering 1,370 lb. (617 kg). A segment of The Weather Channel's "Pumpkin Palooza" television show featured the New Bremen Pumpkinfest.