A British seed company has purchased a single pumpkin pip that comes from the biggest specimen ever grown after beating off fierce competition from around the world.Seed supplier Thompson and Morgan paid £170 for the inch-long seed on an online auction, about 400 times higher than what is normally paid by specialist growers for giant pumpkin seeds.
The company are hoping that the seed will produce record breaking pumpkins.
The seed itself is around three times larger than the an average pumpkin seed.
The seed was sold by American pumpkin grower Ron Wallace who last year claimed a world record for his enormous pumpkin that weighed 2,009lbs.
Suffolk-based Thompson and Morgan saw off 67 rival bids and paid over the odds for the seed because it hopes to use it to grow an even bigger pumpkin.
Thompson and Morgan are currently speaking with a number of British growers before choosing one they will work with on the pumpkin project.
Paul Hansord, managing director of Thompson and Morgan, said: "If you want to grow a really huge pumpkin you need to start with record-breaking, genetically proven, premium seed.
"The price for a giant pumpkin seed is usually around 46p so this seems quite extortionate compared to that but we are paying for the pedigree. It was a frenzied bidding war but we are happy we managed to clinch it."
Bidding on the European Giant Vegetable Grower's Association auction lasted for four hours.
