A green-fingered gardener is celebrating after growing a giant cucumber – which is a staggering 41 inches long.
Jean Stacey, 76, grew the whopping fruit in her back garden in March, near Peterborough, Cambs.
The hefty cucumber has an impressive girth of 5.5 inches at the tip and a mouthwatering 9.5 inches around the base.
Jean and her husband Douglas, both in their seventies, have written to the Guinness Book of Records in a bid to claim the title of the world’s longest cucumber.
She said: ”We have had loads of people looking at it. I couldn?t believe it has got so long.
”I have to show my friends a photo because they don’t believe me when I tell them how long it is. They are amazed when they see it.
”My husband kept on saying to me ‘You want to cut that off’ but I said I?m going to leave it to see how big it will grow.
”It looks like it’s stopped growing now but I don’t think it will be good for anything when it comes down.”
Retired sales assistant Jean planted the cucumber in her greenhouse in April at the same time as some tomato plants and used identical feed for both.
It is still attached to the vine although the immense weight of the cucumber means it is expected to drop at any second.
The current record for the world’s longest cucumber is held by Alf Cobb, who grew a 36.1 inch long cucumber in his greenhouse in Holme, near Newark, Notts., in 2008 at the age of 92.
Cucumbers contain 90 per cent water and germinate in warm-weather at temperatures between 16 and 41 degrees celsius.
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