Extreme Veggies: The Biggest and Best from Around the Country
Categories: Gardens & Outdoor Living, Gardening, Garden Tours, How-To
Extreme Veggies!
What It Is: Cabbage
What It Weighs: 127 pounds!
Who Grew It: Retired dentist Steve Hubacek in Wasilla, Alaska.
How He Did It: Steve won't reveal the source of his hybridized cabbage seeds, but he starts his plants indoors in March, then moves them outside from May to September. "We have a limited time to get our crops in the ground here in Alaska," says Steve, who modestly credits the cool, dry, sunny summer for his success in 2009. Nicknamed "The Beast," his mammoth cabbage earned him a $2,000 prize at Alaska State Fair's 14th Annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off on September 5-as well as a new world record!
What It Is: Squash. In Cantonese it's known as Po Gua.
What It Measures: 5 feet tall, though after this picture was taken, the squash kept growing, and was more than 6 feet tall by summer's end!
Who Grew It: Chong Yip Siu in Manchester, NH
How He Did It: Chong bought this small plant from a Vietnamese grocery store in 2007 and planned to use it as a decoration for the trellis in his garden. He expected the squash to be the size of a baseball bat, but the weather that year (it was warm, hot and sunny which are ideal conditions), along with regular fertilizing and watering practices, yielded a trellis full of super sized squash!
What It Is: Rutabaga, a root vegetable that originated as a cross between a cabbage and a turnip.
What It Weighs: 82.9 pounds
Who Grew It: Scott Robb of Palmer, Alaska
How He Did It: No one in the lower 48-or the world for that matter-can top the size of Scott's gigantic rutabaga, which broke his own previous world record of 79 pounds.
What It Is: Armenian Cucumber
What It Weighs: 9 ¾ lbs., 22 ¼ inches long
Who Grew It: Bob Allen of Cherokee, OK
How He Did It: Bob plants his cukes in the plastic mineral tubs that cattle feed comes in. He adds a little Miracle-Gro and waters the plants a couple of times a day. While Bob and his grandson, Casey, often enter their colossal cucumbers in contests, they also eat them. When they're that large, says Bob, "they last forever."
What It Is: A hybrid of a Supersteak and Big Boy tomato.
What It Weighs: 4.11 lbs.
Who Grew It: Ralph Fields of Carneys Point, NJ
How He Did It: Ralph has been tweaking his tomato growing techniques for 10 years-and he's got the blue ribbons to prove it. He grows his competition worthy tomatoes in raised beds, and makes his own soil from a combination of pro-mix, green sand and shrimp, crab and seaweed composts. To ensure his place as the titan of tomato growers, he replants the seeds from his biggest bounty.
What It Is: Yellow Zucchini
What It Weighs: 20.25 lbs
Who Grew It: Mike Negri of Arvada, CO
How He Did It: "Plenty of water and Miracle Gro," says the 87-year-old farmer, whose been growing his own vegetables for decades. His neighbor noticed this particular zucchini in Mike's garden and convinced him to enter it in the Arvada Festival's 2007 Garden Harvest Contest. He swept the competition!
What It Is: Carrot
What It Weighs: 18.98 pounds
Who Grew It: John Evans, a master gardener and the president of Organic Bountea, a California-based company that sells all-natural products that improve soil health.
How He Did It: Quality soil is the key for this nine-time world record holder, who has grown gigantic veggies ranging from celery (49.1 pounds) to beets (42.75 pounds). John starts his seeds indoors, then moves them to bigger and bigger pots to ensure the plant's roots don't get cramped. Once outdoors, the organic grower uses raised beds to control weeds, and maximizes the fertility of his soil with compost teas and other organic nutrients. To see more of John's super-sized garden oddities, visit bountea.com>.
What It Is: Cassava
What It Weighs: 23 lbs, 8 oz.
Who Grew It: Evelyn Rose in Lakeworth, FL
How She Did: A lot of sunlight and a hands-off approach. "If you leave it in the ground long enough, it grows that big," says Evelyn, who let this cassava ripen for three years! While she and her family eat the smaller cassava, or yucca, from her garden, the bigger ones are for competition only. "The larger they grow, the more woody they taste," she says.
What It Is: Atlantic Giant Pumpkin
What It Weighs: 220 lbs.
Who Grew It: Stuart Shim of Huntington Beach, Calif.
How He Did It: Stuart's been producing competitive Atlantic Giant pumpkins since the early 90s in his father's backyard. The secret is in the seeds, says Stuart, as well as the growing conditions. "Giant pumpkins thrive best in strong sunshine, and the larger the area, the better," says Stuart, whose blog, Pumpkinmania.blogspot.com, celebrates oversized pumpkins and the people who grow them.
