A couple of amateur gardeners have grown a basketball-sized grapefruit in their backyard that’s now classified as the world’s largest such fruit.
Mary Beth and Doug Meyer from Slidell, La., were officially handed the Guinness World Records plaque for the largest and heaviest grapefruit on Tuesday after it had been certified earlier in the year.
The fruit came in with an official measurement of 3.6 kilograms and measured 73 centimetres in circumference, nearly the size of a regulation NBA basketball. It eclipsed the previous record, set in Brazil back in 2006, by 385.6 grams and 3.2 centimetres.
“It’s been quite an adventure,” Mary Beth told CTV Channel on Wednesday. “It was something that we didn’t set out to do, but it happened and we enjoyed every minute of it.”
The Meyers said one of their grandsons noticed the gigantic fruit in their backyard more than a year ago and kept monitoring it until it approached the world record.
As the grapefruit grew, the couple did not give it any special treatment, but eventually had to build a sling for it as it was too heavy for the tree branch. They also protected it against frost during the winter months.
Now that the grapefruit has been certified as the largest and heaviest, the Meyers don’t have any plans to enjoy it as a snack.
“We’ll probably keep it in our freezer and bring it out from time to time to show friends,” Doug said.
They do intend to one day get the seeds out of the fruit, but likely not for another 10 years.
While the grapefruit is impressive, it pales in comparison to the heaviest pumpkin, which weighed 1,054 kilograms and was grown in Switzerland back in 2014.
With files from The Associated Press
