Double the value – this salad star is truly a two-cumber!
It is a case of grow one get one free for one lucky gardener who has managed to nurture a monstrous double cucumber.
After planting the seed in March this year, little did Arthur Clark know his cucumber plant would produce such a rare and impressive sight.
The siamese salad vegetable – we've dubbed it a two-cumber – was grown in Mr Clark's greenhouse in the back garden of his home in Freshwater Road, Cosham.
Mr Clark, 70, who has been growing his own for 10 years, said: 'There's nothing I've done different to make it like this, it's just one of those freaky things. It's the first time I've ever seen a double one.
'I cut it down the other day and weighed it – it was three pounds. Now, that's sandwich size.'
Green-fingered Mr Clark, who lives with his wife Maureen, 66, was given the plant by brother-in-law Bob Hodges after two others in his greenhouse were not living up to his expectations.
He was astonished when one of the cucumbers began to take on gigantic proportions.
'It was all covered up with leaves and everything. One day I pulled them back and saw it. I couldn't believe it,' he said.
'I called my wife up the garden and she was pretty surprised too when she saw it. My neighbours are amazed.'
Mr Clark's granddaughter Jade Yallop, 23, took a picture of the cucumber and sent it in The News.
She said: 'He can't wait to fill his sandwiches with them.'
The News' gardening expert Brian Kidd explained the reasons behind the conjoined cucumber lie in its early development.
He said: 'What has happened here is at a very early stage instead of one cucumber being able to be produced, there were two side by side.
'They were both pollinated at around the same time, probably by the same insect. That's what makes it a dual cucumber, it looks very amusing.'
FREAKS OF NATURE
1. This spud only has eyes for you. Brenda Watson, of Priory Road, Fareham, pulled a heart-shaped spud out of her bag of potatoes – just in time for Valentine's Day.
2. Europe's biggest ever pumpkin, weighing in at more than 100 stone, needed to be moved around by forklift truck at the 2008 Pumpkin Show in Netley, near Southampton.
3. A rabbit-shaped tomato was home grown in Japan. The tomato figure appeared in the home garden of a 75-year-old resident in Buzen, and soon became the talk of local residents.
4. One quacking find was this duck-shaped potato dug up by four-year-old Zachary Clouter at his family's allotment plot.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
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