Dan Woodland
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

It's bean a thrilling day at the National Giant Vegetables Championship, where growers from across the country have been competing across 33 categories.

The winners were announced just after midday and included an ecstatic Maggie Walters, who secured a huge £1,000 prize after "unexpectedly" placing first in the giant aubergine category.

Meanwhile, Ian Paton from Lymington won first place in the heaviest pumpkin category - but despite its size, it is only the second-largest in the world. Take our quiz to guess how much the heaviest weighs.

Today's accolades also saw seven new Guinness World Records provisionally awarded, ranging from the heaviest beetroot to the longest tromboncino.

If, like me, you're wondering how it's done, here are three top tips from a 15-time world record holder.

For many of the contestants it's been a gruelling few months spent juggling long hours, hose pipe bans and "bonkers" weather in a bid to grow the perfect plants.

As our science correspondent writes, much of the UK had an exceptionally hot and dry summer and some parts of England could stay in drought until next year.

We're now bringing our live coverage to a close - thanks for joining us, you can read the story here.

Tara Mewawalla
Live reporter

Image source, Helen Hutchings-Cox

Helen Hutchings Cox has seen her fair share of heavyweight vegetables.

The 33-year-old has visited three vegetable shows so far this year and she tells me they can get very competitive: "Everyone keeps their secrets as to how they get their giant veg absolutely perfect."

Helen lives in Romsey, Hampshire, doing a mix of work for nature charities, wildlife conservation, gardening, writing and social media - her Instagram account has racked up 147k followers.

But it wasn’t always this way. In her 20s, Helen spent her days in London at an accountancy firm, and says she fell in love with gardening while training in horticulture alongside her corporate job.

"Gardening was my happy place and it really helped me balance my stress."

This year, she says growing conditions have been very difficult due to the droughts across England and Wales, with "a lot of allotments going crispy".

"I’m hoping it’s been a bit of a wake up call for people," she says.

The UK endured five widespread heatwaves during this year's warmer months, with the first breaking the May temperature record by more than 2C when it hit 35.1C in London.

Another in June broke the temperature record for that month too - with Lingwood, Norfolk reaching 38.0C on 26 June. The previous June high was 35.6C, in the historic summer of 1976.

July and August brought further heatwaves - including one that lasted for three weeks in some locations and another which delivered the highest temperature of the year - 38.1C at Kew Gardens.

The intense heat occurred partly because of how dry it was for much of the summer - with some areas seeing no measurable rainfall for more than two months.

Image source, PA Media

Climate change has created challenges for many farmers and giant veg growers alike. But some winemakers have fared better.

English wines have garnered significant recognition in recent years, and there are even examples of European winemakers buying up real estate in southern England.

One Somerset winemaker Sandy Luck told the BBC West of England last month that this year's warm summer meant her vineyard was "ahead of the game this year". Long hot days helped ripen the fruit and keep disease at bay, she said.

More sun also means more sugar in the grapes, which means higher alcohol content. This allows English winemakers to produce still red wines, where traditionally the cool climate has limited them to drier sparkling varieties.

A hot dry summer in 2025 meant Luck's vineyard produced some "very good looking still reds" from the Pinot Noir grapes, she says, instead of using them for fizz.

But it hasn't been good news for all vineyards.

Sam Lindo from Camel Valley near Bodmin previously told BBC South West he might not be able to match the flavours of the company's normal crisp wines because the heat had made the grapes riper.

Tara Mewawalla
Live reporter

Image source, Kevin Fortey

Event organiser Kevin Fortey says the produce is sometimes given to foodbanks after the show, and afterwards any waste is composted and recycled into the ground.

But some mammoth vegetables have ended up having a second turn in the spotlight. Kevin tells me he went to a "vegetable rave" at a green grocers in London last month.

They were playing "all types of veggie reggae", he adds. Giant onions, courgettes and a parsnip were used in another advert, while a host of vegetables starred in mockumentary Swede Caroline.

And some giant cabbages will take to the screen again in a major upcoming series that I am not at liberty to name.

It wasn't just marrows, pumpkins and onions on show at this year's competition.

Show organiser Kevin Fortey came away with the heaviest luffa, a vine plant with edible fruit that can be dried and turned into a sponge, and the longest tromboncino, a tall heirloom squash.

Growers also turned up with supersized kohlrabi, a crisp, knobbly vegetable whose name roughly translates to "turnip cabbage" from German.

Margaret Robinson, from Leicester, also brought along exotic vegetables that included karellas (bitter gourds), caiguas (South American vegetables that tastes like cucumber) and the horned melon (a spiky fruit with bright green flesh).

Sadaf Maruf
Your Voice news editor

Image source, Abi Baldwyn/ BBC Your Voice

While it's been a tough year for arable farmers, the prolonged high temperatures have helped one veteran cherry grower near Stratford-upon-Avon produce one of his best crops.

Richard Baldwyn, who has been growing cherries for 23 years, tells BBC Your Voice they've "ripened very quickly and evenly" in the heat, and so became "easier to pick".

He says the weather "worked in their favour" when the unprecedented heat hit in June - England's hottest on record - and that just weeks earlier the cherries were "behind where we were last year".

"They are not sweating it out like us humans," he says, adding that the cherries would be "a really good sweetness and very juicy".

Image source, Abi Baldwyn/ BBC Your Voice

Alistair Binney
Reporting from the competition

Ian Paton from Lymington won first place in the heaviest pumpkin category.

He says his pumpkin is the second-largest in the world, "which is absolutely fine because I had the biggest in the world as well".

He describes this one as "slightly smaller" than his previous record breaker.

In previous years, he has done the growing with his twin brother Stuart but he retired last year, "so it's been hard work".

Paton describes spending "four, five, six hours in the patch every day for two months" but says "it's well worth it when you get a beast like this".

"My competition is mother nature," Paton says, explaining that he enjoys the camaraderie of the show. "There are some other big pumpkins here... that's what it's all about: personal bests."

Having difficulty visualising exactly how large a 5kg luffa is?

We've rounded up some photos of this year's record breakers so that you can take a closer look at the behemoths looming large over this year's competition.

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Fiona Lamdin
Reporting from the competition

Here I am with the winner in the pumpkin category.

At 1,258kg (2,773 lbs), it's thought to be the second-heaviest pumpkin ever grown in the world - roughly the same weight as a Fiat 500e.

Three bathtubs of water per day were needed to get pumpkins to this size, but the competition's organisers said the owner of the winning pumpkin did not flout this summer's hosepipe ban.

Instead, he used his own lake, which collects rainwater, to quench his squash's thirst.

Alistair Binney
Reporting from the championship

Sebastian Suski is the record consultant tasked with the giant responsibility of weighing the competing vegetables and entering the data.

He also holds the record for growing the world's longest cucumber - a feat he says "actually changed my life".

Six months later he started judging at the Malvern competition and was later approached by the Guinness World Records to be a consultant for them.

"So for the last few years now I verify hundreds of world records across the world," he says.

"For me it's really special, it's changed my life completely."

Suski, from Southampton, broke the world record back in 2022. His cucumber measured 3ft 8in (1.12m).

If sliced up, the 17lb (7.7kg) fruit could have made more than 400 cucumber sandwiches.

He previously told the BBC that his secret of growing the supersize fruit was the selection of seed and the watering.

"Make sure you've got plenty of soil and keep watering correctly. I never, never use cold water - use warm water on your plants," he said.

Tara Mewawalla
Live reporter

Image source, Kevin Fortey

The championship’s humble roots can be traced back to a South Wales pub in the 1980s, when Mike Fortey, an electrician from Cwmbran set up a competition to exhibit giant pumpkins.

His sons, Gareth and Kevin Fortey took on the legacy when their father passed away in 1996.

Over four decades, the popularity of the show has grown - and this year 50,000 spectators are expected to attend the Malvern Autumn Show.

"The pumpkins were getting bigger. Because they couldn’t get them through the pub doors, they had to have them outside in the car parks," Kevin tells me.

"When I was a kid… we’d have a blanket put in the back of the car [to carry the pumpkins]. And now they’re on trucks and forklifts."

The project manager, who lives in Wales, has secured 15 Guinness World Records with his brother and says the competition has engaged with a "worldwide audience".

Image source, Kevin Fortey

Theo Whyte
Farming reporter

Image source, PA Media

The challenging conditions this summer has put Britain’s food security in the headlines – but what is food security, and why does it matter?

Food security is defined by the World Bank as when all people, at all times, have "physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food".

As an island nation which imports much of its food from abroad, this issue has at times loomed large on the national imagination.

Prof Elizabeth Robinson, who leads the London School of Economics' Food Security Lab, says around one in eight UK households is currently experiencing food insecurity.

She tells me that it's primarily driven by poverty and the high cost of food relative to income. But, Robinson adds, "climate and weather extremes are making things worse."

"Extreme heat and drought push up the price of fruits and vegetables in particular, making it harder for households to afford a varied and nutritious diet," she says.

The UK imports four-fifths of its fruits and vegetables, Robinson says. "In the context of climate change, which makes global supply chains increasingly unreliable, it is hard to argue that the UK is sufficiently food secure."

In comments to the BBC, a spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that it's working with farmers to "strengthen domestic food production and make supply chains more resilient".

The spokesperson adds that the prime minister has set out a £65 million package to assist farmers with "these challenging conditions".

Plot-holder Tim Gillett, from Essex, says this summer's extraordinary heat has been a struggle for some of his fruit and vegetables.

"Fruit trees have hated the hot spell," the Walton-on-the-Naze resident says. "Starved of water, young trees have died and established trees have yielded fewer and smaller fruit.

"Quince and pears, which are being harvested in the next few weeks, are a lot smaller than in other years and there are a lot fewer of them."

The 65-year-old's brassicas - including favourites like Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, kale and cabbage - have been hit hard too, and are small when by this time "they should be big and healthy".

But, he says, it's been an "excellent year for tomatoes", as the drought has meant no blight this year. In fact, Tim won second prize in Frinton Horticultural Society's Autumn Show for his tomatoes a fortnight ago.

Satellite images show impact of heatwaves and drought on UK landscapepublished at 13:21 BST

13:21 BST

By Barbara Metzler, Mark Poynting and Phil Leake

BBC Verify have been using satellite imagery to investigate the effect on the UK landscape from this year's summer.

We can see parts of the country are suffering from "vegetation stress" where the development and growth of plants, grass and crops can be severely affected.

Experts have said the combination of next-to-no rainfall and prolonged hot weather is likely to cause significant issues for the farming industry and have an impact on agriculture and food supplies.

You can swipe on these graphics below to take a look:

Malcolm Prior
Rural affairs producer

Livestock farmer Tom Church, carrot farmer Ben Poskitt and potato grower Nick Deane have all faced a gruelling summer.

Deane, who also grows vining peas on his land in Norfolk, says this year would be "scarred in the memory".

"I remember being in the field, trying to move pieces of machinery and irrigation pipes" - a punishing task in a heatwave, he tells the BBC.

The heat and drought saw yields fall and crop quality take a nose-dive, especially those that need significant water to grow, Deane adds.

For Poskitt, costly irrigation proved key to keeping his carrot crops going on his farm in Goole, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

"We had such long periods of hot weather, there's a lot of stunted growth in the crop."

Since carrots don't grow in very hot temperatures, the crops were mainly being irrigated "to keep them alive", he says.

Church, who farms cattle and sheep in Bedfordshire, says his biggest worry throughout the summer was the effect of the drought on his livestock.

Limited rainfall and long stretches of days with temperatures over 30 C "was relentless in affecting the animals’ welfare," he explains.

At the same time, he adds, the threat of wildfires on his dry pastures increased feelings of "anxiety and helplessness" throughout the summer.

Anna Boyd
Live reporter (and disappointed allotment owner)

Trudging to my allotment with a barrow full of water in June, I realised it was going to be impossible to keep my plants alive.

I’ve been tending an allotment for more than 25 years and can’t remember a dry spell like it.

With no mains water on site, supplies I’d collected in butts over the winter and spring soon dwindled.

In the end, a combination of rock-hard ground and masses of sun-loving pests saw me admit defeat.

All credit to some of the other hardy plot-holders who lugged water - in buckets, bottles, and old milk containers - from home for weeks on end.

I did start a few brassicas (kale, broccoli and cavolo nero) at home in pots. Since we’ve had some rain they’ve been put in the ground back at the allotment.

I’m not expecting a bumper crop - but with only a few measly squashes to show for the rest of the growing year, anything will do.

Alistair Binney
Reporting from the competition

Competitor Michele Thomas from Pembrokeshire says she's heard that 30% of entries this year are women, "which is amazing".

She says there are "definitely more women competing", with the number having "doubled since 2023".

She knows many women who grow vegetables, but not all are competing. What she says to them is: "Let's take some of the top prizes".

Pumpkins have been Thomas's best performers historically but she only has a small one this year because "my main pumpkin plant really suffered in the heat" and "threw up lots of anomalies that I've never seen before," she says.

She describes the conditions as "very challenging".

Her best outcome this year was fourth place for her aubergine, which she says she's "really pleased with".