For the third year in a row the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetable Championship made its sizeable mark on the Malvern Autumn Show 2018. The visiting public, commercial and Giant Veg growers all had something to take away from the weekend with CANNA experts on hand, a magnificent array of Giant Vegetables on display and a stunning carved pumpkin garden.
With almost 600 entrants into the Giant Vegetable Competition, it was no mean feat for our growers to come away with 26 awards. Three of the growers exhibiting were sponsored by CANNA and the team are very proud to say that all three took away prizes - with a total of 26 placings between them!
David Thomas
- Heaviest Cabbage: 35.7 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest Cantaloupe: 8.04 kg (1st place)
- Longest Cucumber: 0.886 m (1st place)
- Heaviest Cucumber: 10.34 kg (2nd place)
- Heaviest Red Cabbage: 19.3 kg (3rd place)
- Heaviest Onion: 4.86 kg (4th place)
- Heaviest 3 Onions: 13.9 kg (4th place)
Peter Glazebrook
- Heaviest Raddish: 11.3 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest Tomato: 2.5 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest 3 Onions: 18.2 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest Potato: 1.9 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest Cucumber: 2.5 kg (1st place)
- Heaviest Onion: 6.52 kg (2nd place)
- Heaviest Parsnip: 4.52 kg (2nd place)
- Heaviest Aubergine: 1.98 kg (3rd place)
- Heaviest 3 Rhubard sticks: 1.72 kg (3rd place)
- Heaviest Leek: 5.9 kg (4th place)
- Longest Runner Bean: 0.792 m (4th place)
- Heaviest Kohl Rabi: 13.8 kg (4th place)
- Heaviest Swede: 15.7 kg (4th place)
- Longest Cucumber: 0.78 m (5th place)
- Heaviest Carrot: 3.04 kg (6h place)
- Heaviest Bell Pepper: 0.52 kg (4th place)
Mark Shepherd
- Heaviest Leek: 6.2 kg (3rd place)
- Heaviest Onion: 4.6 kg (5th place)
- Heaviest 3 Onions 11.78 kg (6th place)
- With an unfortunate incident involving an early frost and Marks greenhouse, Marks show Dahlias and Chrysanthemums were not alive
Not only did our growers win, some of the CANNA UK team proved that size really does matter with John-Paul Beard taking 2nd place in the Heaviest Pumpkins with his weighing in at 421kg. Although Peter Geyelin did not enter his monster pumpkin decorating the CANNA Pumpkin Display Garden, it was safe to say Peter would have blown the rest of the entries out of the pumpkin patch! After being too heavy for the scales on site, it was later announced his pumpkin weighed 618.8kg
Two of our sponsored growers David Thomas and Peter Glazebrook gave seminars, during which they explained how they go about growing their giant vegetables. They also revealed some clever tricks that they have developed over the years to keep successful cultivations going for multiple years without seed and answered questions from the audience.
For the first time CANNA Research had an area at Malvern which showed the benefits of using natural predators and explored deficiencies in plants along with how to counter them. With varied displays including microscopes to take a closer look at the animals within and insights into root development and growth, there was an intellectual buzz from everyone exploring new information and exciting visuals. The Research teams very own Nicolette also gave a wide-ranging seminar discussing the control methods available for fungal and insect pests that steps away from chemical pesticides as another possibility to attending growers.
Crowds of people gathered around Simon, the CANNA pumpkin carver, as he worked his magic carving detailed faces into pumpkins, adding arms and legs before carefully setting each pumpkin delight in place on the CANNA Pumpkin Display Garden leading the way to Peters giant 600 Kg monster pumpkin.
Visitors to Malvern Autumn Show 2019 should not miss CANNA as the only way from here is to grow bigger and better! Remember, Size Does Matter.
