From YBW.com and just in time for Halloween tonight! A giant 1,333.8lb pumpkin, which set a new UK record for being the heaviest outdoor grown pumpkin, is to be turned into a boat.
The monster winter squash was grown by RHS horticulturist Matthew Oliver at Hyde Hall in Chelmsford, Essex.
It was declared a record breaker at the UK’s official pumpkin weigh-in at the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth’s annual event at Royal Victoria Park in Southampton on 8 October, 2016.
It will now be the centre-piece of a Halloween-themed pumpkin and squash display at Hyde Hall between 22-30 October, 2016, before being turned into a motor boat!
“Unfortunately giant pumpkins are not known for their culinary properties, so we will be making this one into a boat, as incredibly they float!” explained a spokeswoman for RHS Hyde Hall.
“We will cut a lid off, hollow it out, pop an external motor on it, and send Matthew Oliver into the middle of the lake at RHS Garden Hyde Hall,” she explained.
Oliver spent the past seven months growing and nurturing the world’s most expensive pumpkin seed in the hope of breaking a new world record.
The seed, which cost £1,250, was brought at auction by Paul Hansord, horticultural director at Thompson & Morgan, an Ipswich based seed and plant company, before being handed over to Oliver to nurture.
Measuring about two inches long, the seed came from the largest documented pumpkin in the world.
Weighing 2,323 pound (166 stone), this record breaking squash was grown by Benin Meier from Switzerland in 2014.
