Barton Mills: ‘Bet you can’t beat this’ - supersized pumpkins weigh in at 250kg

Stuart Holden with his huge pumpkins. Stuart will be entering the largest into a competition.

Stuart Holden, of Barton Mills, has no previous giant vegetable growing experience, but through a bit of shear luck, Googling and “well rotten manure” he stumbled upon the perfect formula, with each coming in at an estimated 250kg.

The 28-year-old farm worker, who lives in Wiggin Close, said: “I bought the seeds online. I was only looking to grow a 50 pound one. It just kept growing and it wouldn’t stop.

“In August it was growing four or five inches a day, it was mad, you could almost see it getting bigger.

“One of them is still growing – I never thought they would get so big. I have grown squash in the past, but no giant vegetables.

“Me and my friend had a bet to try and see who could grow the biggest jack o’ lantern. That’s £25 in the pocket.

“His stopped growing at 96 pounds, but mine kept going and going. I usually grow chilli peppers and tomatoes.”

As for how he managed the gigantic feat, he said: “I got some tips from the internet, it said use well rotten manure, a special fungus and I used plenty of water.”

Stuart, who works on Piggy Green Farm, intends to enter both his pumpkins, which together weigh the same as a blue whale’s heart, at the Soham Pumpkin Fair this Saturday.

He admitted it has become a little bit of an obsession, with his recently moved in girlfriend not knowing what to think.

“If any cold weather is predicted at night I will wrap them to keep them warm, they have got this far and I don’t want to lose them now.”

To move the abnormally sized vegetables to Soham, in Cambridgeshire, Stuart will be using a one tonne engine hoist, before moving a trailer underneath them.

As for the competition this Saturday, Stuart was quietly confident, with organisers telling him that only eight others had made it over 150kg.

See our gallery of giant pumpkins here