A grower from Gloucestershire is behind one of the Guinness World Records broken at this year's Malvern Autumn Show.
The CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship is a standout highlight of the seasonal show, which takes place every September at Three Counties Showground just over the Gloucestershire border and attracts over 65,000 visitors across the weekend.
Competition was fierce, with 597 entries from 169 growers across 33 classes, with medals and world records up for grabs, as well as a £1,000 prize for heaviest aubergine – and there were a total of seven Guinness World Records broken in 2026.
Despite this year's difficult growing conditions due to the heatwave temperatures and prolonged dry weather, participants broke Guinness World Records including longest tromboncino, tallest cucumber, heaviest sweetcorn kernel, and heaviest beetroot.
Graham Barratt, who grew the record-breaking tallest cucumber plant, which reached a whopping 7.598 metres, is from Abbeydale in Gloucester, and is no stranger to the spotlight having broken several Guinness World Records in previous years, for everything from largest elephant garlic bulb to longest luffa.
Graham explained to SoGlos how he grew this year's record breaker: 'I usually grow giant cucumbers for Malvern and won a first prize for the longest this year. Because I had spare plants, I decided to plant three in my long polytunnel to have a try at the Guinness World Record title for the tallest plant. The existing record was 6.49 metres. It is highly impractical to grow these vertically, so I trained them up a 2.5 metre bamboo cane, then along a steel cored washing line.
'I placed a tape measure next to it so that I could monitor its progress. As the cucumber vine grew, I removed side shoots and flowers to maintain the plant in growth mode, rather than letting fruits develop. Once a fruit starts to grow, the vine growth slows down dramatically.
'On the day of the show it took four people to move it into a flatbed truck kindly transported by Tom Ford at Allstone. We carefully coiled it around the big pumpkin and gasped a sigh of relief. The new record measured in at 7.5 metres and my day was made. Along with two other first prizes, I was absolutely over the moon.'
Show manager, Kate Dufton, added: 'The whole team at Three Counties Showground are jumping for joy with the sheer number of entries and world records broken at this year’s CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship.
'Each year we welcome entries from across the country from emerging and existing growers, and this year we have processed 597 entries!'
The Malvern Autumn Show, and the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, return from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 September 2027.
