New Forest brothers growing 'massive' pumpkins for competition

Ian and Stuart Paton, both 63, cloned a 'monster' pumpkin they produced two years ago to grow the 'staggering' squash, expected to weigh more than 1.1 tonnes (185 stone/2,6000 lbs).

The brothers, who started growing pumpkin 50 years ago, said the 'massive' vegetable is 'definitely' setting world records this year at a weigh-in taking place next month.

Photographs of the twins' pumpkin show how enormous it is, with Ian's smiley granddaughters Etta, three, and Martha Syrett, six, perched next to it.

Martha Syrett, six, with one of the giant pumpkins. (Image: Simon Czapp/Solent News)

Ian from Lymington, in the New Forest, said he and his brother have four pumpkins to weigh this year.

"We've got two with an outside chance of breaking the record, one with a reasonable chance of breaking the record and two with a definite chance of breaking the record," he said.

"They are massive - it's ridiculous."

The record for the heaviest pumpkin in the world weighs 2,749 lbs, according to the Guinness World Records.

It was set in last year by Travis Gienger at the 50th Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off held in Half Moon Bay, California, USA.

Ian expects the two larger squash's to exceed 2,600 lbs this year.

"When we weigh them, they do weigh heavy," he added.

"We measure the circumference, we measure from front to back, over the top, from side to side.

"Then we put them on the scales.

"The two really big ones are going to be taped in about four weeks."

The twins will weigh their giant gourd at Wargrave Nursery, Reading, Berkshire, where they found out that they had achieved a new UK record.

Ian's granddaughters Etta, three, and Martha Syrett, six, measure one of the giant pumpkins. (Image: Simon Czapp/Solent News)

"It's called the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth," he said.

"They have a weigh-in starting in Australia and they go all the way around the world - they even do a weigh-in in Alaska."

Ian said his largest pumpkin was made using a seed of a 'monster' squash he grew two years ago.

The vegetable was their personal best and fell just 47lbs short of the world record.

"We make a clone of it and then we grow the clone," he said.

"Now, we have got two seeds from the clone.

"It's massive.

"They were doing 70 lbs a day, growing. So 700 lbs in 10 days - even we are staggered by it."

Of the process, Ian said he and his brother have been growing the squash for half a century and said the process has changed.

"It used to be just plant then, now it's more technical," he said, "Once you grow them once, you can't stop."

The twins' pumpkins need around 300 litres of water a day to achieve their enormous size.

They transport them to the various competitions on a four-wheel drive and a trailer.