Heaviest onion that weighs more than a bowling ball unveiled with other super veg

British competitive gardeners had a lot to celebrate in September, with at least 10 world records smashed by their prodigious produce.

Leading the way with the huge harvest was Gareth Griffin from Guernsey, who has demonstrated beyond any doubt that he knows his onions.

On 15 September, he presented the world’s heaviest onion – an eye-watering 8.97-kg (19-lb 12.4-oz) monster – at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show in North Yorkshire. (Griffin says his prized produce was placed on the floor of his motorhome surrounded by cushions on the long journey to the show from the Channel Islands!)

This surpassed the previous mark, for an 8.5-kg (18-lb 11.8-oz) specimen, which had stood since 2014.

For some context, the new record holder is around 53 times the weight of a typical brown onion and even heavier than a large bowling ball, which typically weighs 7.25 kg (16 lb).

Inspired to grow this particular root vegetable by his dad, Griffin’s casual hobby became more serious around 13 years ago after he witnessed the behemoth bulbs being cultivated by fellow record holders, such as Peter Glazebrook (more on him below).

“I am absolutely over the moon to have grown the world’s biggest onion,” Griffin told GWR. “My father grew giant onions for many years right up till the year he died, but his biggest was 7 lb 12 oz, so to have grown the world record means even more to me than it would to most people.”

An almighty Allium was just a taster of what was to come. Shortly after, on 23–24 September, the annual CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championships – for many British fruit and veg growers, the most-vaunted contest in their diaries – returned to Worcestershire for the Malvern Autumn Show.

Proof that a passion for growing horticultural heavyweights is on the rise, the National Giant Vegetables Championships received a staggering 643 entries this year – their greatest ever number of submissions.

Nestled among the hundreds of lovingly nurtured fruit and vegetables were an incredible eight world record holders waiting to be assessed by Sebastian Suski.

Suski is no stranger to the world of growing giants himself, being the current holder of the longest cucumber – 113.4 cm (3 ft 8.64 in), confirmed on 20 Aug 2022.

This was the first year that Suski had taken on the role of head judge at this hallowed horticultural showdown, but he was not fazed by the scale of the task – nor indeed some of the entries:

“I felt really honoured to be asked to be a judge at the Malvern Autumn Show this year, as it’s one of the biggest shows in the world,” Suski explained.

“The public was amazed and inspired by the enormity of the veg. To see eight new GWR titles set this year, despite the challenging weather, is incredible.”

Showing that in this game experience goes a long way to boosting chances of success, nearly all the new records were claimed by growers with previous GWR titles under their belts.