Twins grow giant pumpkin with 16ft circumference. That's BIG enough to kill you!

The soggy summer weather might not be to everyone's taste, but it is clearly going down well in the giant plant kingdom, especially for a pair of pumpkin-growing twin brothers.

Ian and Stuart Paton are aiming to make history by growing the biggest pumpkin in the world.

And the incredible pictures below show some of the mammoth squashes grown by the horticulturists, both 49, who hold the current British record.

Their largest pumpkin has an incredible circumference of almost 16ft and amazingly grows more than 30lb every day.

In October, the brothers, who run Pine Tops Nursery in Pennington, Hampshire, will travel to a weigh-in at the Jubilee Sailing Trust Pumpkin Festival in Southampton.

There, they will compete with other world contenders at other locations around the globe as far away as America, New Zealand and Australia.

Determined Ian and Stuart have been growing giant pumpkins since they were just 13 and hope their decades of experience will take them into the history books.

Two years ago, they set the British record for the heaviest pumpkin weighing a colossal 1,457lb - around the same weight as eight grown men.

Last year American maths teacher Christy Harpy and her husband Nick, from Ohio, set a new world record with their entry weighing an amazing 1,725lb.

But this year, Ian and Stuart hope to smash that with their behemoth pumpkin which still has over 40 days left to grow.

Ian said: 'We've been doing this since we were young kids and became fascinated with growing things as big as possible.

'Now over 30 years later we are not going to stop until we have the world record and things are looking promising with this one.'

Each giant pumpkin is given a huge 600sq ft of greenhouse space in which to grow into a giant.

Early in the growing process, growers select their favourite and terminate any other fruits to make sure one pumpkin gets all the energy being produced by the plant through photosynthesis and food.

But to make records it's not just about feeding it as much as possible.

Ian said: 'With feed people tend to think that you just give it as much as possible but it's about balance.

'If you eat as much junk as possible every day then you'll get big but you'll end up very unhealthy and possibly will get sick or worse.

'It's the same with these pumpkins. It's about having it fit and healthy with a good diet.'

The brothers cross breed plants to get the best hybrids.

'It's a bit like breeding race horses," said Ian. "You want the best genes to produce the best offspring.'

They begin with six pumpkins - each with their own greenhouses - and wait until their favourite emerges.

The effort takes a massive 400 hours of hard work over 120 days - which is when the fruits reach optimum size.