CANADA - Our neighbors to the north's record for heaviest cucumber has been broken just weeks after it was set. Luckily, it was by the same grower.
A couple of weeks ago the country’s record for the gourd was set at 10.58 lbs, but the bar was raised last weekend to 12.23 lbs by Port Carling hobby farmer Nathan Veitch.
So, today Canada, tomorrow the world?
“Now the objective is wanting to beat other countries and to get a bigger personal best,” Veitch told Owen Sound Sun Times, saying the win makes him want to grow even bigger veggies. “We set the Canadian record at the Bracebridge fair with a 10.58-lb cucumber two weeks ago and now we just beat our own record.”
As for where that bar is set, the current weight of the heaviest cucumber in the world, according to Guinness World Records, is 23 lbs, 7 oz. The title was granted to U.K. grower David Thomas in 2015.
The big question everyone often wants to know is how to go about growing record-setting veggies. Veitch, unlike many competitive growers, doesn’t just chalk it up to hard work and rich soil.
Veitch and his wife Jennifer, owners of ABLE Farms (named for the first initial of each of their four children) feed the plant an interesting mix, according to the news source.
“Maple syrup that we make ourselves, as well as liquid fish, liquid seaweed, and Epsom salts for magnesium,” he said.
The family has entered a number of other produce items into sizing competitions, including pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers, carrots, cabbage, and watermelons, since starting in competitive growing about six years back.
With the promise that he will be ready for next year, Veitch plans to cut into his prize to trade its seeds to other growers, or to be given to fellow Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario members.
