Paton brothers smashing records with their pumpkins
Everyone loves monster veg and last weekend four British records were broken, including the biggest pumpkin ever grown in the UK.
Gardeners from all over the country converge at The Jubilee Sailing Trust Autumn Pumpkin Festival in Southampton, which is well-known for its mammoth veg.
The event, sponsored by Thompson & Morgan, ended in triumph again for the superstars of the monster pumpkin growers, twins Stuart and Ian Paton, also from Southampton.
They broke the record that they set last year for the heaviest pumpkin to be grown in the UK.
Their entry weighed in at a massive 2269lbs or 162 stone – this in itself beating the 2016 entry by a clear 15lb.
Ian said that producing a giant pumpkin is no mean feat – he and his brother Stuart spend on average three hours a day tending to their pumpkin patch, often using 100 gallons of water to keep the pumpkins irrigated.
For the first time, the pumpkins were kept at a constant 18°C, even during the night.
Matthew Oliver, of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hyde Hall garden, in Chelmsford, beat the record for the heaviest outdoor-grown pumpkin with a 1498.4lbs whopper.
Last year, he famously hollowed out his giant pumpkin – which had weighed in at 1333.8lb – and then rowed it across the lake at the RHS garden!
Other UK record breakers at the weigh-in were Steve Bridges, who took the prize for the heaviest UKgrown squash (457.3lb) and David Maund with his 176.5lb field pumpkin.
Paul Hansord, of event sponsors Thompson & Morgan, said: “We’ve been sponsoring the Autumn Pumpkin Festival event in Southampton for many years and it’s always exciting when a record is beaten, so this year we’re thrilled to see four records broken.”
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