Cornwall gardener grows whopping 23kg cabbage - but Covid robs him of prize

A gardener from Cornwall has missed out on a prize after growing his biggest-ever cabbage.

Nathan Mitchell, from St Day, has managed to grow a colossal cabbage weighing 23 kilograms.

The 30-year-old managed to grow the whopper at his allotment in Carharrack near Redruth.

He has been gardening for several years but believes his current crop - including his giant cabbage - are his best yet.

Nathan was hoping to display his cabbage at the St Day Horticultural Show this month - but the event was cancelled because of Covid.

Instead, he is now thinking of donating the vegetable to a nearby animal park.

"A lot of preparation goes into the soil and different manures and different feeds," he said.

"Then throughout the year, I've got different feeds of composite T, high nitrogen feeds as well.

"It's really important that pests don't get in, too. When they create holes in the leaves, it makes the cabbage light."

With his father working as a gardener, Nathan grew up around greenhouses.

But he never really found his passion for planting until he returned from university, where he trained to be an architect.

After discovering his love of growing produce, Nathan turned his skills for designing structures to super-sized vegetables.

"Even if the cabbage is really big, the taste isn't really affected," he added.

"But the main problem is there's probably a lot of pests inside of it. So you'd have to do a lot of cleaning to get it to an edible standard."

What is the largest cabbage on record?

• In 2012, Scott Rob from Alaska grew the biggest cabbage ever recorded in the world - it weighed 138lbs.

• In 2014, legendary grower David Thomas, from Leedstown, beat Bernard Lavery's 1988 British cabbage record with his Cornish Giant which weighed 124.8lbs.

Nathan said the 24 hour sunshine in Alaska has "something to do with" the record-winner, but joked Cornwall is not too far behind.