GWENT giant vegetable growers scooped a plethora of awards with their prized crop in the Malvern Autumn Show.

Held at the weekend, the UK National Giant Vegetables Championship is Britain’s most prestigious vegetable growing competition that took up residence at Malvern for the first time last year.

Cwmbran’s Kevin Fortey, 36, and his brother, Gareth, have enjoyed much success with their giant vegetables and entered 17 categories.

The brothers won three first place awards with a marrow that weighed 155lb (70.3kg), a beetroot that weighed 35lb (16.05kg) and a 15.84lb (7.2kg) radish.

They also scooped four second place prizes in the categories for heaviest parsnip, heaviest tomato, heaviest celery and heaviest melon.

Their entries into the heaviest water melon, heaviest cucumber, and heaviest carrot were awarded third place.

Mr Fortey said: “We are happy with the results as it is the most first places that we have been awarded in one competition and it was against people from all over the UK.

“We have had a very good year and it was great to meet people in the competition who are just starting out and to share tips.”

Also at the show was Newport’s Ian Neale, 71, who was awarded first place for his mammoth celery weighing 72.3lb (32.8kg), his melon that weighed 19.6lb (8.9kg) and a carrot that weighed 19.4lb (8.8kg).

He also scooped second place in the categories heaviest radish, heaviest watermelon, heaviest tomato, heaviest cucumber, longest cucumber, and heaviest cabbage.

While his heaviest potato entry scooped third place.

He said: “I am aiming to do better at next year’s show, but we need the weather, so if it is sunnier then expect even bigger produce.”

First place vegetables are awarded a £60 prize, second place are awarded £40 and third place are £20, but Mr Fortey said it isn’t about the money, but the taking part, as it is a very expensive hobby with him paying out around £1,000 a year just for plant feed.

He explained that their bumper year is a combination of using Mycorrhizal Fungi that created a mass root system in their vegetables and using Shropshire Seaweed as fertilizer along with sheep wool compost.

“I think we have found the winner combination so hopefully we can grow even bigger vegetables for next year,” he added.

Mr Fortey’s son, Jamie, aged eight, was also pleased that his sunflower was awarded second place in the junior class, with a head circumference of 60”.

Growing giant vegetables is a family tradition with Mr Fortey’s father, Mike, being the founder of the British National Pumpkin Championships in the 1980s.

For more information visit www.giantveg.co.uk, follow @GiantVeg on Twitter or like www.facebook.com/Giantvegcommunity