Fort Wayne man sets world record for tallest sunflower, first in the U.S

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A Fort Wayne man has set a new world record for the tallest sunflower.

Alex Babich immigrated to Fort Wayne from Ukraine in 1991. He says that when he began gardening, he never imagined how far the journey would take him.

“I started growing just organic vegetables to show my kids you can grow stuff organically and reap the reward later,” Babich said.

Seven years ago, he grew his first sunflower, which is the national flower of Ukraine.

“It was 13 feet tall, then the following year we planted a sunflower and it was 15 feet tall, and I was like ‘this is pretty cool, let’s see how far we can go with this,” he said.

In 2022, Babich set the U.S record for the tallest sunflower, measured at 25 feet. The following year, he beat his own record by a foot. That’s when