The Grow Hub’s Giant Veg Project

A major focus of our efforts at the Grow Hub this year has been to see if we could cultivate impressive (and possibly award winning…) giant veg. 

We were inspired by our friend and fellow grower Kevin Fortey, three times World Record breaker, current World Record Heavy Beetroot holder, and all-round legend in the giant veg community.  Taking after his father Mike Fortey, Kev is a passionate advocate of growing your own.  He mentors growers all over the country, encouraging people to be ambitious and setting their sights on growing veg as big as possible!

Kev is a fan of hydroponic growing, and it’s no wonder.  After a spate of watching his veg being hampered by a root disease, he realised that hydroponics could provide a way around persistent fungal attacks.  Since his first trials with hydroponics, he’s had some absolutely fantastic successes using flagship HydroGarden products.  He even used the VitaLink and ROOT!T ranges in his World Record breaking grows!

Knowing what Kev has achieved, we reached out and asked him for his advice.  And, armed with his wisdom, we embarked on our own giant veg growing adventure, proudly becoming part of the competitive but supportive UK giant veg community. 

Following Kev’s recommendation, we cast our net wide by planting a variety of different vegetables.  Some classic root vegetables seemed like a great place to start, so we got hold of seeds to grow beetroot, parsnips, carrots, and swede.  But we also decided to turn our hand to celery, cabbages, pumpkin and marrow. 

We began in our small propagation tunnel, planting our seeds in 10cm square pots with VitaLink Pro Soil and VitaLink PlantStart.  Once they were established, we transplanted them into beds.  Taking full advantage of the Grow Hub site, we planted some of our veg inside the polytunnels, and some outside.

Biobizz Fish Mix was our nutrient of choice when we first put the plants in the ground.  As they started to develop, we routinely sprayed them every week with a mix of Botanicare Cal-Mag, SuperThrive and SB Plant Invigorator.  This potent mix of nutrients was like rocket fuel for our veg.    Our marrow vine grew 6 metres long!

But, as always with growing, it’s best to expect the unexpected.  You can imagine our surprise when we discovered that it was the giant veg inside the tunnels that was mysteriously being munched, rather than the plants outside.  One by one, our carrots developed some extremely suspicious bite marks, and we scratched our heads…until we noticed a small, rabbit-sized tear in the back of the polytunnel!

We repaired the tunnel and replanted the carrots, but we were careful this time to place a mesh around them to keep them safe from sneaky little thieves! 

But it wasn’t just pests that caused us concern.  Though the polytunnel helps us to control some environmental factors, it doesn’t solve the problem of excessive heat.  Everyone knows that plants go dormant and stop growing when it’s too cold, but the very same thing can happen when it gets above a certain temperature.  Plants like it to be temperate and consistent!  But in August, it became hot – too hot.

We were worried about what would happen to our leafier vegetables in particular.  We didn’t want them to wilt.  We had to improvise.  Grabbing some summer parasols, we created a nice, shady area for our cabbages to prevent their leaves from being scorched.  And our efforts paid off.  Our giant cabbages kept growing strong, and actually reached a whopping 1.2m in width!

By the beginning of September, it was clear that our giant veg project was turning out to be a success.  So much so, in fact, that we wanted to take it out into the wider world.  It was our Grow Hub manager Iana who spotted the opportunity for us to put our competitive foot forwards: we decided to pit our produce against other giant veg growers at the UK Giant Vegetable Championships at the in the Malvern Autumn Show!

We submitted a grand total of 6 vegetables to compete as the heaviest vegetables in their respective classes – a red cabbage, celery, a parsnip, swede, and a pumpkin.  One of our renowned long chillies (viva la Chilli Challenge!) was entered into the ‘longest’ category.  And, on the 27^th September, Iana, Tom, Ben and Erin transported the veg to Malvern – no mean logisitical feat – and submitted the product of our hard work to the intense scrutiny of the Malvern judges!

The community of competitive growers at Malvern comprises some really proficient experts, so we were definitely the newbies on the block.  Nonetheless, we felt very welcomed, and we gave it our best.  But the most truly giant of the giant veg really were huge: pumpkins of fairy-tale proportions, and marrows the size of barrels!  It was a testament to the amount of effort and knowledge the giant veg community puts into their growing.

Despite our novice status, we did manage to stand out in two categories.  Our giant celery – weighing a total of 24.8kg – netted an impressive second prize, and our giant swede scooped up a respectable third place.

Iana was really pleased with how Malvern went.  She said,

“It was fantastic.  There were so many interesting things to see, from a 400kg pumpkin on a forklift, to three carrots so uniform-looking, you’d be convinced they were fake!”

Overall, our venture into the world of giant veg has been enormously educative and lots of fun.  Malvern was a huge highlight, and a fantastic way to round off the project.  We cannot thank Kev Fortey enough for his guidance in this project – truly instrumental to our success!