Seven world records grew in one vegetable patch

Guinness officials verified seven world records at the 2026 National Giant Vegetables Championship, held September 25 to 27 in Worcestershire, England, where some 65,000 visitors came to look at enormous produce. Graham Barratt, 67, hauled a 1,000-plus pound pumpkin in on a truck. It did not break the record, but it earned him a separate one for the world's tallest cucumber plant, at nearly 25 feet. His pumpkin measured 130 inches around. "With pumpkins, the skin thickness matters," he said, and shared his method freely: feed the soil with liquid seaweed. Peter Glazebrook, 82, has grown giant produce for four decades and this year took the record for heaviest sweetcorn kernel, at 0.8 pounds. Vincent Sjodin claimed two, including a 57-pound beetroot. Every grower, asked for a secret, gave roughly the same answer. You need the right seed. Then you do a lot of hard work and hope the weather cooperates.