14 DAY TRIAL // This past Sunday, a freakishly big pumpkin grown by two brothers was officially crowned Britain's heaviest ever. The pumpkin, a photo of which is available next to this article, tips the scale at 1,884 pounds (854 kilograms).
What's interesting is that, by the looks of it, 53-year-old Ian and his twin brother Stuart Paton from Pennington, Hampshire, are anything but done growing pumpkins weighing about as much as 10 full grown men put together.
On the contrary, the twins are hopeful that one day, preferably in the not-too-distant future, they will manage to set a world record. To do so, they will have to grow a pumpkin weighing more than 2,032 pounds (921 kilograms), which is the current record.
“We want to get the world record at one point and that's what we do it for. I think we will get there in the end,” grower Ian Stuart told the press in a recent interview, as cited by Daily Mail.
Introducing Britain's heaviest pumpkin ever
Apart from the fact that it's the heaviest to have until now been harvested in Britain, the pumpkin grown by 53-year-old Ian Paton and his twin brother Stuart is nothing short of impressive size-wise.
Thus, it is said to stand about 4.5 feet tall (nearly 1.4 meters) and have a circumference of 17 feet and 4 inches (approximately 5.3 meters). As Ian Stuart put it, “It's absolutely enormous.”
The brothers planted the record-breaking pumpkin earlier this year, in April. Until the time was right to harvest it and show it to people at the annual competition at the Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley, Hampshire, they did nothing but nurture it.
“The secret behind it is that we feed them well, if you want to grow anything you've got to feed it right. If you feed your pumpkin properly then you're going to end up with a big one,” Ian Stuart explained in a statement.
The previous record holder
It is understood that, last year, a Dorset farmer named Mark Baggs was the one credited with growing the largest pumpkin ever to stick its roots in British soil. The pumpkin that he unveiled at the annual competition in Hampshire weighed a whopping 1,582 pounds (717 kilograms).
By the looks of it, farmer Mark Baggs tried to set another record this year. However, the pumpkin that he grew for this year's competition was outshined by the one grown by the 53-year-old twin brothers from Pennington, Hampshire.
Interestingly enough, word has it that, in preparation for this year's competition, the brothers planted a total of seven pumpkins. Of these, just this one stayed alive long enough to establish a new record. According to the two brothers, the other six died while desperately trying to fatten up for the competition.
