Giant vegetable grower eyes up pumpkin glory

The pumpkin can put on as much as 13kg a day during peak growing season

A man who grows giant vegetables is hoping an impressive 362kg (800lb) pumpkin will squash the opposition at the Giant Veg National Championship.

Graham Barratt from Gloucester has already set multiple world records for giant vegetables including cucumbers, pea pods and celeriac.

His latest entry, a giant pumpkin, is so heavy it will need to be lifted by a forklift and carried on a lorry to make it to the Malvern Autumn Show on Friday.

"I pollinated the flower on the 18th of June and the pumpkin puts on 20lb to 30lb, 9kg to 13kg, a day - it takes a very short time for it to grow," said Mr Barratt.

Mr Barratt regularly breaks his own records

"The plants started in April and that gets the engine going, then you're feeding it and getting nitrate into it - from June until now it only stopped growing two weeks ago," he added.

All of the giant pumpkins are taken back to Primrose Vale after the show and used in the Halloween show.

Mr Barratt is also hoping to "break a record or two" for the tallest cucumber vines.

"The world record at the moment is 6.47m so I'm hoping this will be 6.48m at least," he said.

Competition in the giant vegetable world has been growing in recent years and many of Mr Barratt's records only stand for a couple of years before either he or another grower breaks them again.

"I would call it a sport and I think you'd be very hard to find any sport that has so many variables, there's so much chance and so many things that can go wrong, " he explained.

Crops with exotic origins have done particularly well in this summer's hot weather

"It's a test of your resilience and resolve. Things you've got really good hopes for can really let you down and then other things kick off that you weren't expecting."

This summer's hot dry weather has also played a part in this year's crop.

"Anything that has an exotic background has done particularly well," said Mr Barratt.

"From that point of view, it's been good. From other points of view, it's brought some stuff on a little too quickly."