Giant veg record-breakers reveal their secrets of success

Giant onions, supersize cabbages, ridiculously long green beans and pumpkins which need to be transported in a lorry are all part of the make-up of The Canna UK National Giant Vegetables Championship.

Staged at Malvern Autumn Show  in Worcestershire, it picks out the men from the boys as far as length, breadth and weight go and is confirmation that size really does matter as each year growers aim to break Guinness World Records.

But how do the growers do it, what sort of dedication does it take and how much room do you need?

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“The amount of space you need depends on which veg you want to grow,” says veteran record-breaking grower Joe Atherton, 70, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, who last year broke the world record for the longest turnip at 4.842m (15ft 10.6in) and the longest radish at 7.401m (24ft 3.4in) – longer than a mini-bus. He has 19 entries at this year’s show.

“I’m stood in front of one of my raised beds which is about 7ft by 5ft and I’ve got six giant carrots in it. Obviously if you’re going to try to grow marrows, pumpkins and giant cabbage you’ll need more space.

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“I grow giant radishes in 45-gallon barrel drums cut in half,” says Atherton, who confesses most of his garden is devoted to growing giant veg.

Fellow competitor and champion veg grower Peter Glazebrook waters his veg manually and hasn’t been on holiday for years, he explains.

“We don’t like to be away for more than a day from the garden. You have to be dedicated to win.”

Tips from two contenders

Peter Glazebrook 

The retired building surveyor, aged 81, holds six current world records including heaviest potato (4.98kg; 10lb 15oz), heaviest cauliflower (27.48kg; 60lb 9.3oz), longest runner bean (89.7cm; 2ft 11.31in), longest leek (1.582m; 5ft 2.3in) and heaviest sunflower head (7.046kg; 15lb 8.5oz), and over his career has gained 27 world records. He’s entering 20 categories at this year’s show and is known for his expertise in onions.

Secrets of success: “Veg like onions take the whole year to grow, so I’ll be planting onion seeds in October. In recent years I’ve been growing a lot of my vegetables in a growing medium called coir (coconut husk), but you do have to buy special feeds for coir. It’s basically a good substitute for peat. You need something that’s sterile to grow in to give you a better chance to avoid root problems.”

Challenges: “You need special equipment for leeks and onions because you are starting them early in October and you’ve got to grow them over the winter. You need heated greenhouses with artificial lighting. Giant veg are expensive to grow.

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“Climate change is also a problem – every year seems to get hotter and the challenge is trying to keep the temperature down. Onions don’t like 30-degree heat. The tops start to die back. Ideally, they don’t want more than about 24 degrees centigrade. I’ve lost a lot of onions this year.

“The hot weather also brings pests like spider mite, which can hit all the veg that are enclosed.”

Top tips: Start with summer veg like tomatoes and cucumbers, things you can grow without a lot of expensive facilities like greenhouse heating, and try to obtain the right seeds. “You can’t buy winning seeds in a shop. Get it from other growers or specialist nurseries. You can sow it in the middle of May.”

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Potatoes are good for starters if you buy tubers (seed potatoes) in spring from a specialist nursery. “The variety you need to grow is Kondor,” he suggests. “You can grow them in a tunnel or frame, but ideally they want to be outside in the garden.”

If you are growing trusses of veg like runner beans, train them so you only have one or two beans on the plant.

“Stop the plant when it gets to the top of the cane and thin the trusses so that there are only about three trusses on the plant, and when the beans have set and start to grow you can trim the trusses, leaving two beans on the truss.

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“That’s true of a lot of vegetables. You’ve got to select down so that all the energy is going into one or two fruits.”

If you are considering growing larger veg to enter in competitions, bear in mind the transportation, he advises.

“If you are thinking of growing a giant pumpkin, for instance, make sure you can actually lift it out of the garden and transport it to the show.”

Joe Atherton

The retired miner known as ‘King of the Longs’ holds six world records, largely for long vegetables including the longest carrot at 6.245m (20 ft 5.86in), the longest parsnip at 6.55m (21 ft 5.87 in) and the longest beetroot at 8.56 m (28 ft 1in).

Secrets of success: “My wife. She’s got to be into it or it’s a waste of time. It’s an obsession. You’ve got to be working on it 24/7 and if you’re not doing it, you’re thinking about it.”

Challenges: “The weather. This year has been the hardest year we’ve ever had. We’ve had four heatwaves. You have a lot more watering, try to shade your polytunnels and ventilate as much as you can.”

Top tips: “The main thing is you have to get the right seed. At Malvern there are several growers there who can get you some seeds.”

Can you eat the giant veg afterwards?

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“Some of them you can, such as onions, carrots and ripe tomatoes,” says Atherton.

“You wouldn’t want to eat a cabbage or swede because they will probably be old by the time you’re shelling them,” adds Glazebrook.

Malvern Autumn Show runs from September 26-28 at Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire.