The most expensive Halloween pumpkin in history has weighed in at a record-breaking 1,333.8lb (605kg) – the heaviest pumpkin ever grown outdoors in the UK.
A Pricey Pumpkin
The pumpkin scooped first prize for biggest outside grown pumpkin and second prize overall at the 2016 Jubilee Sailing Trust Autumn Pumpkin Festival in Southampton.
The pumpkin was grown from the world’s most expensive pumpkin seed, bought by seed merchants Thompson & Morgan last year for £1,250. The seed was taken from the current world record holder, grown in Switzerland and weighing in at aneye-watering 2,323lb (1,054kg).
RHS gardener Matthew Oliver sowed the seed at Hyde Hall, in Essex, and grew it on all summer at the garden. The resulting pumpkin, with a girth of 4.5m (15ft), needed a lorry to get it to the Southampton show.
Halloween
If you’re tempted to try growing a giant pumpkin yourself next year, start with seed from a supersized strain like ‘Atlantic Giant’ – you’ll find the seed on our seed racks right now at the garden centre here in Surrey.
Then once you’ve germinated the seed next spring, spoil it rotten with gallons of water and plenty of feed. Be warned: though you’ll have a monster pumpkin in time for Hallowe’en, it may not fit on the doorstep!