Giant veg will amaze you!

And the world champion squash is announced. It's then going for cattle feed.

No problem - we'll agree to disagree! I used to go in for photographic competitions in a club and that was very competitive - but not in a nasty way, thankfully!

Though I enjoy 'Bake Off' and 'The Great Pottery Throwdown', I don't like the idea of sending someone home each week, which must be an awful experience even though they enter knowing the rules. I do hate it when the person cries.  I wish they would come up with another format for these programmes.

Sorry I don't agree with most of what you've said, I don't see giant veg growing as art as its to competitive, to me competition is a negative, not only because I don't get the rewards that others do from it, but maybe because looking at it from the outside I see the nastiness and othering that comes fabout due to it.

I wouldn't try and stop people doing it, though, just as I wouldn't things such as football which I loathe with a passon.

I don't see art as competitive, to me competitiveness and art are mutually exclusive, I think we create because it fulfils a very deep need in us, our brains operate in a highly symbolic way and we expressive this through creativity. I just don't see where competition comes into it, or if it even should, maybe I'm more of an art for arts sake person, I'm not saying that praise for what we create is bad or unwelcome, I just don't see the need for competition.

Marianne72 said:

We express our humanity through many kinds of creative experience - 

We do indeed.

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The more I glace at the thread title, the more I hum it to the tune of 'Empire State of Mind'.

I think you misunderstand. These competitions are not about feeding but just for relaxation and fun, also the getting together of people with like interests. We express our humanity through many kinds of creative experience -  giant veg growing is another form of art. You would'nt say the arts are time wasting, because they are about different types of human experience. Yes, these people get very competitive and 'serious' about  strategies and there is also learning through the art of growing, but that's not the point. We all need some fun in our lives.

Taken from the linked article:

Maggie Walter, from Plymouth, took home a £1,000 prize after her 3.95kg (8.7lb) aubergine was judged the heaviest.

She said she "never expected" to win and described the victory as a "nice surprise all round".

Taken from the linked article:

Maggie Walter, from Plymouth, took home a £1,000 prize after her 3.95kg (8.7lb) aubergine was judged the heaviest.

She said she "never expected" to win and described the victory as a "nice surprise all round".

Giant Veg is normal in Alaska; due to almost twenty-four-hour daylight during the summer. Same, probably, true for Lapland.

To me thats totally pointless, all that time, energy and care going into one giant, when you could have so much more edible foods, why grow one enormous pumpkin when you could have half a dozen smaller ones that would keep you in soup for the winter, or pies, but personally I think pumpkin pie is vile!

It must be a man thing, I just can't see women bothering although they might encourage a partner to keep him out from under their feet.

By the way, they are not grown to eat, just for the fun of the competition.

I think everyone who's ever grown courgettes must have unwittingly grown a giant Martian willy!

I remember hearing a few years ago when they were covering giant vegetables on telly that there is fearce competition between thhe growers and that they try and keep their 'Secret recipies' that they feed the veg a big secret from each other.

TheCatWoman said:

For some reason I'v always thought of growing giant and other show veg and flowers as a male thing, maybe its because whenever I see them featured it's always older men who've grown them?

I hdan't thought about that but the winners are all men. It must be a middel-aged willy-waving contest: "Mine is bigger than yours!" 

I always think the same, would they be all woody and inedible and what would you do with it all? The size of some of those pumpkins you could keep a food bank in pumpkin soup for a month.

For some reason I'v always thought of growing giant and other show veg and flowers as a male thing, maybe its because whenever I see them featured it's always older men who've grown them?

I wonder if they have any taste to them. Also, reading the comments, they take an immense amount of water, which might otherwise have grown a number of veg. Still, if the massive veg has some taste, that balances out - but would you manage to eat it before it went rotten?

I was pleased to see sunflowers in the competition. I wouldn't mind growing them to a huge size. 

I must admit, whenever I see giant vegetables, apart from being impressed at their size, I always think they look really unappetizing and inedible. 

It’s very easy to grow a giant courgette. If you miss one on the plant by accident they end up humongous!