ELY  — A Minnesota man who has already tried his hand at cultivating giant pumpkins has now grown an 8.4 pound tomato.

Dan MacCoy of Ely hopes his tomato will eventually be certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest ever. The previous record belongs to Gordon Graham of Edmond, Okla., who set it in 1986 with a 7.75-pound fruit.

MacCoy weighed his tomato on a deli scale at the local grocery store late last month while a representative from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth looked on. The group oversees the hobby of world-record fruit growing.

MacCoy started out trying to grow big pumpkins, but fell short of the record. So he decided to focus on tomatoes instead.

He’s extracted the seeds from his latest endeavor and will share them with others.