A Shandong woman grows cabbages half the height of a person? These vegetables are so big that you will doubt your life!

Recently, a piece of news about "Auntie from Shandong grows cabbages half a person's height" became a hot topic.

It is reported that on November 14, a lady surnamed Gao from Zibo, Shandong Province, posted a photo of a "super-sized" cabbage she had grown online. It was half the height of a person when standing upright. Ms. Gao said that this cabbage was about 70-80 centimeters tall and tasted harder than ordinary cabbage. Two cabbage leaves were enough for our family to cook dinner. Netizens couldn't help but complain: This is real cabbage!

In fact, "giant" vegetables are not rare. Every year, there are amazing farmers or planting enthusiasts who break the world record for "giant" vegetables. The following "giant" vegetables are big enough to make people doubt life. Let's take a look!

A slice of tomato stuffed throughout the hamburger

Tomatoes are a vegetable that we never tire of eating. Over thousands of years, humans have cultivated many different varieties, including the most common ordinary tomatoes that are about the size of a palm, and the "mini" cherry tomatoes that are often eaten as fruits. The giant variety that has dominated the tomato world for many years is the beefsteak tomato.

This variety of tomato was first bred by American farmer John Heinrich Seiter at his Marathon Farm in New York. It can weigh more than 450 grams and have a circumference of more than 15 centimeters. I believe that if your family has a normal appetite, you can cut a beefsteak tomato in half, make one half into sugar-mixed tomatoes and the other half into scrambled eggs with tomatoes, which is enough for the whole family.

Beefsteak tomato vs. cherry tomato size comparison

Don’t be too happy, Beefsteak Tomato, because a bigger “giant” is born!

In 2015, after 20 years of collaborative research, British plant breeder Simon Crawford and American grower Paul Thomas finally developed a new variety of giant tomatoes called Gigantomo. Gigantomo plants can produce giant tomato fruits that are more than 25 cm wide and weigh 1.3 kg. Gigantomo is 12 times larger than ordinary tomatoes, and one Gigantomo can feed about 4 people.

If you cut a slice from a Gigantomo horizontally, it would be enough to fill a whole hamburger or sandwich! It is reported that each Gigantomo plant is 1.8 meters tall and can produce 11 tomatoes!

Imagine that each Gigantomo weighs 1.3 kilograms, and 11 of them weigh more than 14 kilograms, which is almost as heavy as 4-6 newborns combined. Therefore, the Gigantomo plant must be supported by a bracket, otherwise the plant will be bent by its own fruits.

One slice of Gigantomo is enough to fill a whole burger or sandwich

Gigantomo's dominance did not last long. On July 15, 2020, the Giant Pumpkin Alliance, a world-renowned giant fruit and vegetable certification organization, measured that a single giant tomato cultivated by Dan Sutherland in Walla Walla, southeastern Washington, weighed 4.896 kg, more than four times the weight of a normal Gigantomo! On October 8, 2022, the Giant Pumpkin Alliance measured and confirmed a giant tomato weighing 5.284 kg and with a total circumference of more than 82 cm at the Harvest Festival in Stillwater, Minnesota, USA.

A large tomato weighs 4.896 kg at the Stillwater Harvest Festival

A cucumber longer than your arm

The tomato industry is so close to a clear winner, and the cucumber industry is also getting anxious. How long are the cucumbers you usually see in the market or supermarket? Probably about the same length as a fried dough stick, right? (ps: Except for the big fruit from Tianjin) Let's take a look at the cucumbers in the world that are longer than the big fruit from Tianjin!

In September 2011, a cucumber grown by Ian Neal from Wales was exhibited at the Bath & West showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. The cucumber was 107 cm long! It was longer than the ruler used by teachers in class, and was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world record for the longest cucumber.

Ian Neal with his 107cm cucumber

In August 2022, the National Vegetable Association of the United Kingdom confirmed a 113.4 cm long cucumber in Southampton, Hampshire, which was 6.4 cm longer than the cucumber planted by Ian Neil in 2011, thus breaking Ian Neil's world record for the "longest cucumber". This cucumber was planted by local Sebastian Suski, who said that he and his wife took care of this cucumber together. Due to the high temperature in summer, in order to ensure that the cucumbers are not harmed by the high temperature, they planted the cucumbers in a multi-tube tunnel.

Sebastian Suski with his 113.4 cm long cucumbers

We have to know that some of the world's more amazing records may not have entered the "sight" of Guinness yet.

In January 2016, 13-year-old Keegan Meyers from Australia began to grow heirloom striped cucumbers on his own Borda Family Farm. He fed the cucumbers a "healthy food" made of a mixture of cow dung, worms and fertilizer in the greenhouse. In April, when the Australian Giant Pumpkin and Vegetable Association came to Borda Family Farm to pick them, they measured a striped cucumber that was 130.5 cm long. When the cucumber stood up, its height was even equivalent to the standard height of an 8-year-old boy! However, what Keegan Meyers felt sorry for was that although the cucumber was long, it was too mature to be eaten and eventually became feed for chickens on the farm.

Keegan Meyers and his 130.5cm cucumbers

A giant pumpkin that weighs more than two grown pigs!

Compared with tomatoes and cucumbers, the cultivation history of giant pumpkins is much longer.

The cultivation of giant pumpkins originated from the agricultural tradition of North America. As early as 1857, Henry David Thoreau, an American writer who worked as a land surveyor, grew a pumpkin weighing 56 kilograms. In 1893, at the Chicago World's Fair, William Warnock from Ontario, Canada, set the first world record for giant pumpkins. The pumpkin he grew weighed 166 kilograms, which was roughly equivalent to the weight of two or three Asian adult men with a height of 175 cm. In 1900, at the Paris World's Fair, William Warnock broke his own record again. A pumpkin weighing 180 kilograms was exhibited at the fair and won a bronze medal. In 1904, William Warnock broke his own record again, and this record remained for decades.

Giant pumpkins at a community festival in Auburn, Alabama, USA

In 1984, Norm Geller in Washington, USA, planted a giant pumpkin weighing 276 kg. In 1989, Gordon Thomson in Ontario, Canada planted a giant pumpkin weighing 342 kg. In 1996, Gerry Chalk in Pennsylvania, USA, planted a giant pumpkin weighing 513 kg. In 2002, Charlie Horton in New Hampshire, USA, planted a giant pumpkin weighing about 607 kg. In 2007, Joe Jutras in Rhode Island, USA, planted a giant pumpkin weighing 766 kg.

Noam Geller and his 276kg pumpkin (1984)

Gordon Thomson's 342kg pumpkin (1989)

Gerry Chuck and his 513 kg pumpkin (1996)

Charlie Horton and his 607kg pumpkin (2002)

Joe Jutras and his 766kg pumpkin (2007)

In 2014, the "weight" of the giant pumpkin reached a historic high of more than 1 ton! The giant pumpkin grown by Ben Miller in New Zealand weighed 1,054 kilograms! Do you think that's the end? In 2021, the pumpkin grown by Stefano Cutru in Italy weighed about 1,226 kilograms, or 1.22 tons, which is heavier than two adult domestic pigs combined.

Ben Miller and his 1,054-kilogram pumpkin (2014)

A giant pumpkin weighing about 1.22 tons grown by Stefano Cutru (2021)

Cauliflower with leaves spread out to accommodate a 1.8-meter-tall man

When it comes to the following vegetables, students from the north and south may start to argue. Students from the south: "It's cauliflower!" Students from the north: "I don't care, it's cauliflower! Cauliflower!" Then we will just call it broccoli.

Cauliflower also has a world record. In July 2013, Peter Glazebrook, a vegetable grower in his 70s in Nottinghamshire, UK, grew the world's largest cauliflower. It weighed 27.5 kg and was 182 cm wide, 20 times heavier than the cauliflower sold in supermarkets. Cauliflower belongs to the cruciferous family. Based on this width, if this cauliflower is fully spread out and laid on the ground, a person 180 cm tall can lie on it! Peter Glazebrook also said that the "cauliflower cheese" made from this cauliflower is enough for the whole family to eat for several weeks.

Peter Glazebrook and his giant cauliflower

The previous world record for cauliflower was held by Alan Hattersley of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England in 1999, who grew a cauliflower weighing about 24 kilograms. Speaking of the secret to growing such a huge cauliflower, Peter Glazebrook said that the cauliflower was grown in a greenhouse and first fertilized with calcium nitrate, which helps its cells grow. When the weather warmed up in March, high-potassium fertilizer was used to make the plant "stronger."

Because it is so huge, people hang this cauliflower up for display

Would you like to try some giant vegetables?

References

1.ELEANOR HARDING FOR THE DAILY MAIL. Unbe-leaf-able! Married man grows world's largest cauliflower which is SIX FOOT wide and weighs 20 times more than normal[EB/OL].[18 Nov 2022].https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2614284/Unbe-leaf-able-Married-man-grows-worlds-largest-cauliflower-SIX-FOOT-wide-weighs-20-times-normal.html.

2.Janick, Jules (2008). "Giant Pumpkins: Genetic and Cultural Breakthroughs".

3.Giantpumpkin. World Records[EB/OL]. [18 Nov 2022]. https://www.giantpumpkin.com/world_records.php.

4.RHS, BUPA, Mr Fothergills. Sebastian Suski earns world record for longest cucumber[EB/OL]. [18 Nov 2022]. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-62722906.

5.Guinnessworldrecords. Heaviest tomato[EB/OL]. [18 Nov 2022]. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-tomato.

6.Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus. Cambridge University Press. Beefsteak tomato[EB/OL]. [18 Nov 2022].

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/beef-tomato.

7.Worldrecordacademy. Longest cucumber: Keegan Meyers breaks Guinness World Records record[EB/OL]. [18 Nov2022]. https://www.worldrecordacademy.com/nature/longest_cucumber_Keegan_Meyers_breaks_Guinness_World_Records_record_216236.html.

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Author: Qu Shiyi, School of History, Wuhan University

Editor: Guru