A gardener was spurred on to make a record-breaking pumpkin weighing nearly 70 stone after his first effort was labelled 'pathetic' by his own mother. Richard Le Sueur, 66, made it his mission to try and grow the biggest pumpkin he could in 2011 and created one tipping the scales at 11 stone and 8 pounds. He entered it into a competition but his mother Elaine Le Sueur, 93, told him his entry was rubbish after it was dwarfed by a competitor's 35-stone monster. The grower spent nearly a decade honing his craft and has now smashed the record by nearly double for the biggest pumpkin grown on the channel island of Jersey. His creation, weighing in officially at 69 stone and 9 pounds, was so large he needed a forklift to transport it to the Royal Jersey Agricultural Society's show.
Richard, a retired builder from Jersey, said: 'I happened to grow one that was 165lbs and I thought it was quite good so I put it in the show and went on holiday.'When I came back my mum said it was pathetic, the local record was 500lbs that year. It was like a red rag to a bull.'I kept growing and learning every year, and this year the weather was perfect.'It was growing at 28lbs a day, it was growing night and day during the time when you couldn't sleep under your sheets. The 1,000lbs mark has to be beaten now.'
Richard said there was no hidden trick to growing such a big pumpkin apart from taking the care to get everything done properly. He added: 'Last year I used too much fertiliser and they just imploded you've got to get the right amount.'It's all about getting a good seed to start with, it's the genetics basically.'You need to water it all the time and provide a bit of fertiliser I had seaweed sat on the soil, about six inches.'The guys who grow the really big ones grow them indoors where they can control the light and the heat. Mine is the size of a kitchen table.'It's a lovely colour, a proper orange. A lot of the really big ones are creamy but this one is the right colour so the genetics are really good.'Richard said there was no hidden trick to growing such a big pumpkin apart from taking the care to get everything done properly.
