Meet Madam Quexzilla Plumpkin, the 420kg pumpkin that may have been fed university science leftovers
In a terrible year for pumpkins, a Kent garden centre grew a 66-stone whopper – right next to where researchers dumped their spare microalgae.
In a summer when British pumpkin growers were grumbling about heat, drought and disappointingly dinky squashes, one patch in Kent went the other way. Very much the other way.
A 420kg (66 stone) pumpkin – officially nicknamed Madam Quexzilla Plumpkin – has been grown at the Secret Garden Centre at Quex Park in Birchington. And it may have had a little help from science.
The site hosts a University of Kent-led project investigating whether microalgae can enrich animal feed and soil to produce healthier plants and food. The algae are farmed in a polytunnel and – here’s the twist – surplus algae was regularly dumped on the neighbouring pumpkin patch.
The university is careful to say the pumpkin wasn’t part of any controlled experiment. But it says the giant’s size and quality “does suggest” the microalgae may have played a role. Which is the most academic way imaginable of saying: well, would you look at that.
Garden centre boss Liam Cowdery said the pumpkin’s wall was about six inches thick when they cut it open, and that it had kept a vivid orange colour – something he’d like to think is down to carotenoids in the algae.
Researchers now plan to trial the Quex Park algae on three farm sites growing winter wheat, spring beans and spinach. Whether any of those earns a name as magnificent as Madam Quexzilla Plumpkin remains to be seen.
