How big is Oxford’s biggest pumpkin?

Strange things have been going on of late at the Botanic Gardens.

No, I’m not talking about the mysterious glow pouring from the potting shed, or the shrill cackle occasionally overheard at reception – in the vegetable patch, something even more monstrous has just been cut free.

In the gloom of a chill October night, a spectral figure creeps about the cabbages. I catch the flash of a knife, a burst of lurid orange, a glimpse of green fingers. A piercing voice reverberates in the mist:

‘Hello mate! Are you here to see the big pumpkin?’ Jim looks up from his handiwork, his face dwarfed by a pumpkin bigger than a space hopper.

Like some alien midwife, he has just severed the umbilical cord between this enormous orange spawn and its origin, the earth.

Parting the tangle of foliage, I see the unnatural orb in its full glory.

At over a metre in diameter, this is the largest pumpkin the Botanic Garden has ever grown. Jim tells me that it’s likely to weigh as much as a small man.

Another large specimen

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I collect myself, and ask a few questions.

Why is it so big?

“It’s a species called Atlantic Giant that’s been specially bred for its size. They can exceed 6ft in diameter. The largest Giant Pumpkin ever grown weighed as much as a cow” says Jim.

How long did it take to grow? Does it need special attention?

“It was planted on the 30^th April. It has to be elevated so that it doesn’t rot or collapse under its own weight”.

How are you going to weigh it? Have you got a crane?

“It took two men to lift the thing up this morning. We’re thinking of putting it on the scales in a huge flowerpot.”

What are you going to do with it?

“Usually we give our produce to local charities, but donating this would be a bit of a double-edged sword – it doesn’t taste good, it’s going to rot, and it’s difficult to get rid of.

In the States they often blow them up.  I want to try it out as a conical boat on the Cherwell.”

Why have you also got a ginormous lime in the glasshouse?

“Top secret.”

Jim and his pumpkin.

The grand pumpkin weigh-in is happening at the Botanic Gardens today, on 31^st October.