Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Or­di­nary-sized crops ap­pear to be off the menu for Princes Town farmer Sha­heed Ali, who yes­ter­day har­vest­ed a 100-pound wa­ter­mel­on, less than a month af­ter grow­ing a 600-pound pump­kin in his gar­den.

With a cir­cum­fer­ence of 70 inch­es and a length of 45 inch­es, Ali has once again sur­passed his own record.

In 2024, he grew a 94-pound wa­ter­mel­on, but says this lat­est har­vest marks an­oth­er step for­ward in his on­go­ing ex­per­i­ment with over­sized crops.

Ali, who was ac­com­pa­nied by his wife Jas­mine, ex­plained that it took about 63 days for the wa­ter­mel­on to reach its mas­sive size, and de­cid­ed to har­vest it as the vine be­gan to with­er, sig­nalling the end of its life cy­cle.

“It is the same brand of wa­ter­mel­on. What we did dif­fer­ent­ly is that we im­proved on the fer­til­i­sa­tion as well as the wa­ter­ing. I in­tro­duced a dif­fer­ent method of wa­ter­ing by us­ing the drip tape. The oth­er one was over­head sprin­kler but this time it was the drip tape,” he said.

De­spite break­ing his own record, Ali said this lat­est feat has not quenched his thirst for big­ger and bet­ter.

“I will def­i­nite­ly be try­ing again,” he said, adding, “The world record is 350 and a half pounds, this same va­ri­ety of wa­ter­mel­on.”

How­ev­er, he not­ed that the grow­ing con­di­tions in that ju­ris­dic­tion—Amer­i­ca—were dif­fer­ent than T&T.

“Their soil qual­i­ty, fer­til­i­sa­tion, even their am­bi­ent light­ing is dif­fer­ent. They have longer light­ing hours over there.”

His next project tak­ing root in the gar­den is a gi­ant toma­to, which he hopes will sur­pass his pre­vi­ous at­tempt of two and a half pounds.

“I be­lieve with some en­hanced fer­til­i­sa­tion and I got some new equip­ment that I would be us­ing a much big­ger toma­to.”

Un­like the gi­ant pump­kin, he said both the wa­ter­mel­on and the toma­to are ed­i­ble.

Re­flect­ing on the wide­spread at­ten­tion his gi­ant pump­kin at­tract­ed, Ali said he al­so re­ceived vis­its from Princes Town MP Aiy­na Ali and Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rat­ti­ram.

From large pump­kins to wa­ter­mel­ons, toma­toes, ochroes, limes and cu­cum­bers, Ali’s fas­ci­na­tion with over­sized, un­usu­al pro­duce knows no bounds.