Gardener grows giant record-breaking onion weighing nearly 9kg

A photo, shared on Instagram, shows Griffin, a farmer from Guernsey, holding the onion that looks even bigger than his head

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Published: Tue 19 Sep 2023, 4:01 PM

A gardener in the United Kingdom has grown a giant onion weighing nearly 9 kg that might break the Guinness World Record.

The vegetable was displayed at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show held in North Yorkshire from September 15 to 17. According to the flower show, the “eye-watering enormous onion” weighed 8.97 kilograms on the first day of the show and “stands to be a new world record”.

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A photo, shared on Instagram, shows Griffin, a farmer from Guernsey, holding the onion that looks even bigger than his head.

The present record for the heaviest onion is 8.5 kg. It was grown by Tony Glover from the UK and the vegetable was weighed at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show on September 12, 2014. Gareth Griffin’s onion is almost 0.5 kilograms heavier. However, the record is yet to be verified by the Guinness World Records.

The weight of the onion grown by Gareth Griffin was measured at the National English Honor Society (NEHS) Giant Vegetable Competition during the flower show. Other vegetables weighed at the competition included huge cabbages, beetroots, and marrows, according to The Independent.

On growing an exceptionally large onion, Gareth Griffin told BBC that he developed the interest after watching his father. Griffin had been trying to break the record for the heaviest onion and said that he “really got into it” after going to the world championships 12 years ago.

“I nearly got it in 2014 but was a couple of ounces off the record. I've tried ever since and this year it went well. I suppose it’s quite a bit bigger than a football and more of a rugby ball shape,” he said.

Griffin shared that he tried two different techniques to grow the vegetable that involved 24-hour lighting and an automatic irrigation system. Once fully grown, he transported the onion carefully by ferry and kept it “well cushioned in a box”.

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