Overview

• Alex Babich, 47, grew the plant in his Fort Wayne backyard after immigrating from Ukraine in 1991.
• Officials measured the stalk on Sept. 3 using a 40-foot cherry picker with about 85 witnesses and a Guinness representative on video.
• The height of 35 feet, 9 inches exceeds the prior record from Germany by nearly five feet.
• Babich attributes the result to years of selective breeding, seed swapping, indoor starts, a custom feed, and a home-built scaffold.
• The sunflower, nicknamed Clover after his son’s good-luck clovers, will feature in a documentary titled Bloom as he shares seeds with the public.