B.C. orchardist believes he's grown the world's largest peach
Peach picked at Kelowna's Roseridge Orchard and Market beats previous record by 15 per cent
A Kelowna orchardist believes he's produced the world's largest peach.
The peach was grown by orchardist Robert Hogue, who owns Roseridge Orchards and Market.
On Monday, the peach was weighed and measured by UBC Okanagan associate professor of biology Robert Lalonde.
It came in at 810 grams.
"I'm given to understand that that is quite a bit bigger than the largest peach ever weighed before," said Lalonde.
Hogue's peach beats the previous record of 768 grams by almost 15 per cent.
"Big," said Hogue, when asked just how big his peach is. "Really big."
The results have now been sent to the Guinness Book of World Records for certification.
- Justin Bieber, The Weeknd recognized by Guinness World Records
- Winnipeg gamer smashes world record for longest playing time
- Manitoba becomes new threshing world record holder
The peach was picked late Friday night. At the time, Hogue knew he had a large peach on his hands but he didn't realize it was a record breaker, so he just put it in a cooler.
The next morning, he was at a farmer's market when one of his employees texted him a picture of the peach and told him its weight.
"And I said, 'hold it, hold, it, hold it,'" said Hogue. "And it just about accidently got sold."
Hogue credits the weather for producing such a large peach. The Okanagan had an unusually hot spring this year, followed by an unusually cool and wet summer.
"What happened is we had some hot weather after blossom, which was the ultimate for cell division," he said. "And after that, we didn't get the really hot weather in early July, which allowed cell division to keep going on at a really rapid pace."
Hogue said that being recognized as the grower of the world's largest peach would be "a tremendous accomplishment."