MONTHS of careful nurturing, green fingered expertise and not just a few prayers, came to a head for Mike Elston last night when he unsheathed his giant parsnip.

Gently brushing away the compost, he laid it on his back lawn and reached for the tape measure.

Would it measure up to the super 12ft specimen he grew in 1996 to take first prize in class at the Malvern Autumn Show?

Well, today he'll know the judges' verdict, as all the longest, heaviest, best looking and most bountiful fruit and veg come under official scrutiny in the Harvest Pavilion on the Three Counties Showground.

Giant vegetable growing has really caught on in the last few years, magazines have been full of stories about it, but Mike's an old hand.

As a complete volte-face from his day job as an electronics design engineer, he disappears into the potting shed at night to offer TLC to his fibrous friends.

Planted as seeds in February and March, his longest parsnip, longest carrot, heaviest tomato and heaviest carrot have reached their peak just in time for the area's last major show.

"I'm not sure how I'll do this time," said Mike warily, "because you never know what the others have been up to. But I'm quietly pleased with the parsnip, which looks pretty good."

He's been growing big veg since he was a lad and knows all the tricks of the trade.

"Well-rotted horse manure is the best," was his advice. "Dig it into the ground in October and you can't go wrong."

Of course, there's probably a lot more to it than that, but when you get to championship level competition is fierce and secrets are not readily given away.

One tip he did pass on, when it comes to growing heavy carrots, was to snip off the main tap root when the leaves are about five inches tall. That way the roots multiply and you end up with a carrot looking like a large bunch of heavy fingers. Each root adds weight and you can produce a specimen weighing upwards of 4lbs.

Long root vegetables are not grown in the ground, because of the obvious problems of removing them from it.

"I grow mine in 20ft lengths of four inch sewer pipe," Mike explained.

"I put a slit down the pipe through which compost and water are fed.

"In fact you don't feed them much at all, because the aim is to get the vegetable to develop a long root to by going searching for nourishment."

The pipes are set at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizontal and when you want to remove the veg, you simply wash all the dirt out carefully and there is your extra long carrot, parsnip or whatever.

Transporting them is also a bit of a laugh, but provided they are kept damp they will remain quite pliable.

Once a long veg dries out it will shrink and in the world of competition where every centimetre is vital, that could be disastrous.

The Elston household in St Andrews Road, Malvern, is actually quite a hotbed of "giant" growing. Daughters Charlotte, aged 15, Fern, 9, and son Josh, 12, have all entered the largest sunflower classes at the Autumn Show and have also had a go at vegetables in their time.

The only member without green fingers is mother Heather, a former model. Indeed, the rest of the family would probably be happy if Heather kept clear of the garden altogether.

A few years ago, Mike was carefully nurturing a giant runner bean. But, when he went out one morning, it had disappeared.

Heather ruefully admitted she'd picked it by mistake the night before and he'd eaten it for supper.

Prayers were certainly in order that day.