The man who has just grown the world’s biggest onion has said he hopes he can beat the record again next year too. 

Gareth Griffin’s 8.97kg vegetable won first prize in the onion category of the National English Honor Society (NEHS) Giant Vegetable Competition.

For Mr Griffin, who has grown vegetables for three and a half decades, it is a a record he is immensely proud of.

“There is a giant veg kind of community that all challenge each other to grow a record vegetable - whether it’s the longest parsnip or longest carrot or heaviest beetroot,” he told Moncrieff. 

“But I only grow onions to try and get a record and I have managed to achieve it this year.”

Despite this, Mr Griffin’s career as a giant vegetable grower has not always been easy and for a number of years he gave it up entirely.

“Then my father started challenging me in the local shows and then he was beating me,” he said.

“So, I gave it up for a few years but I’ve got back into it since he died.”

How to grow a giant onion

Unlike most seeds which are planted in the spring, Mr Griffin plants his in October and for six weeks leaves them to grow under an artificial light that warms them 24 hours a day.

“Then, I repot them and repot them until I plant them out in February into a polytunnel,” he explained.

This year, he has grown “two beauties” that are the largest he has ever grown and he thinks the weather this summer might have played a part in their extraordinary size.

“I think the cold August may have helped,” he said.

Mr Griffin does not plan on eating his record breaking vegetable; instead he plans to harvest the seeds, replant them and perhaps break the record again next year.

“Then, I’ll have the same kind of DNA as the onion that broke the world record,” he said.

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Main image: Gareth Griffin.