PALMER -- Growers vying for the title in the Alaska State Fair's Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off must face down the Alaska garden axis of evil: slugs, moose and cloudy skies.
But a rare opponent surfaced this year in the quest for the cruciferous crown.
The sun.
Even weigh-off champion Steve Hubacek, a Wasilla dentist who won the cabbage competition and a $2,000 pot Friday night, conceded defeat to the summer's record-high temperatures.
Hubacek seemed a little disappointed that his winner -- the 92.15-pound "Maxilla from Wasilla" -- failed to make his 100-pound goal. He'd grown a previous record-holder of 127, after all.
The sensitive art of freakishly large cabbage growing isn't immune from the specter of climate change.
"This year was a tough year. I thought with all the sunshine… but it was too warm," he said. "It's disappointing because you start off the year thinking world record, but then you see the temperature go up to 80 degrees."
A festive scene prevailed Friday evening in the fair's livestock barn as a few hundred onlookers packed bleachers and ringed a fence surrounding the arena. Cabbage fairies clad in green costumes smiled as grimacing members of Palmer's Boy Scout Troop 367 hefted the unwieldy vegetables onto a scale monitored by the state Division of Weights and Measures.
Hubacek's closest competition, Salcha's Brian Shunskis, was blessed with slightly lower temperatures at his garden near Fairbanks. Shunskis looked to have a potential winner in "Surprise," but the leafy green hulk came in at a mere 83.85 pounds.
The cabbage put on a good show in the weeks leading up to fair season.
"Every time he turned around, it was surprising him," wife Annette Shunskis said. "He thought it was going to be a dud and it turned out to be a big head."
Keevan Dinkel, the young Wasillan who won the entire competition as a 10-year-old in 2013, placed third this year with his 75.2-pound self-titled "Dinkel" the cabbage.
Nobody got close to Palmer grower Scott Robb's world record 138.25-pounder from 2012.
Robb didn't enter a green cabbage this year. He was too busy trying to get good at red cabbages. No such luck: He lost by 10 pounds, even more than last year.
Red cabbage just doesn't come with the thrills of its freakishly large green cousin.
"It's boring," Robb said before the competition got underway. "The greens, you can go out there and actually measure growth. The reds just sit there and sit there."
The upcoming class of cabbage growers was well-represented Friday, with 12 entries in the junior division.
Jenna Abbott, 8, took the division with 57.55-pound "Big Ugly" -- fertilized twice monthly with Miracle-Gro. Biggest challenge: a late-summer hailstorm.
There was no prettiest cabbage competition, but Palmer's Steve Brown and wife Eva Cohnen-Brown would have won hands-down. The Great Northern variety they entered won raves for its dark green, crinkled leaves and spotless beauty.
The couple, married for 28 years, planted the seeds for their entry on Valentine's Day. The secret to the cabbage: a shady spot that kept it from the sun. The secret to the marriage?
"Fertilize each other with love," Brown volunteered, prompting an "awww" and a soft look from his wife.
Cabbage played a powerful role in the life of another couple sitting in the stands.
Dale and Dianna Bass drove an RV all the way from Florida, where they once ran an orange and grapefruit orchard, just to arrive at the fair's opening day last month -- and then get up close with the enormous cabbages.
"I wanted to see the mammoth pumpkins and the mammoth cabbages with my own eyes," Dale Bass said. "We've been at the fair virtually every day for this moment."
The trip took four weeks. They went through Calgary for the Stampede, through Banff and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. The RV got to Alaska in mid-July.
"We start home tomorrow," Bass said. "After this weigh-off, I feel like my trip is complete."