Gardener Peter Marston had no idea what he was growing when he planted a handful of seeds he had been given as a present in his Nottinghamshire greenhouse.
As the first green shoot came through, he decided to treat the plant as a cucumber but was amazed and delighted as it grew and grew – and became what is believed to be a record-breaking climbing squash.
It turned out that Marston’s mystery vegetable was a tromboncino squash and at the Malvern autumn show on Friday it was declared a European record.
Marston’s squash is 173cm (68in) long – 2cm longer than the previous record, according to organisers.
Tromboncino squashes, which originate in Italy, arguably make the best eating if picked young, small and tender. However, if allowed to keep growing they can often reach a metre long and can be used as a winter squash in stews and soups.
Marston insisted there was no secret to his success: “I thought I would treat it like a cucumber because that’s what I knew how to grow. I’m a bit old-fashioned like that. I don’t experiment a lot.”
Marston, however, will not be eating his tromboncino squash. “I don’t really go for unusual vegetables to eat,” he said. “I’m a meat and veg man – but normal veg.”
Instead he will use this feted squash to try to create an even bigger specimen for next year.
Marston, 74, from Radcliffe-on-Trent, is no stranger to large vegetables. At the national giant vegetables championship last year he took an award for a hefty kobra gourd believed to have broken the British record.
