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France

Hi all,

Just an idea : what do you think about making differents vegts categories ?
Very few growers can grow all vegts cos of room or time limited. Also some people prefer to grow only pumpkins or squash while others only grow smaller vegts like carrots, onions, cucumbers etc...So all in all, it can be hard for everybody to grow the 8 vegts for "the grower of the year" competition. Awards, trophies or not just like the vegetable of the year comp.

What do you think about categories like :

-Long carrot/long parsnip/long beetroot.
-carrot/parsnip/radish.
-tall corn/tall sunflowers/large head sunflowers.
-Rutabaga/beetroot/kholrabi.
etc...
They are just examples to open the discussion.
One more time, it's just an simple idea.
Thank you
Mehdi

12/7/2010 7:19:38 PM

Netherlands, Rotterdam

For me its a stimulans to try different species ;)

Sebas

12/10/2010 2:20:12 PM

Ireland

Mehdi
I agree, it's a really good idea especially for people who are unable to grow eight different types of vegetables because of time or space restraints.
For me I think it's better than the growing of eight different veg types.
For example I don't think the growing of 8 giant veg types works because if a person cannot grow two or three out of the eight and their other entries are not high up in the rankings people wont put in as much effort as if there was three vegetables in the category.
By splitting up the categories the records for the separate classes will also fall as people will be able to concentrate more on the type of veg they prefer grow.
Just my Opinion
Micheal

12/10/2010 6:02:40 PM

France

Thanks guys.
Any more opinions ?

12/14/2010 11:14:43 AM

France

Good idea Mehdi!!
your proposal seems logical to me.
President ???

12/14/2010 4:13:09 PM

Netherlands

Nobody has to grow all 8 types. 6 types are standard and 2 types change each year to promote them. There are 20 trophies and only 1 trophy for all 8 categories combined, meaning every grower has the chance of earning up to 19 trophies even if they don't grow all of the categories.
None of the contendors for the 'grower of the year' this year grew all 8 categories.

12/24/2010 12:18:28 PM

Netherlands

Of course I have thought of your idea several years ago already and there are two reasons we did not choose this option.

1. We don't have enough seeds of all types to send to our members, meaning only the members with good connections can compete.
2. In some categories (like the first category you mentioned), there is only one or very few competitors. So winning that category would be really easy.

12/24/2010 12:20:41 PM

Netherlands

The standard categories are: pumpkin, squash, marrow, tomato, sunflower and long gourd. Except for the pumpkin and squash, the others don't take up too much space. In most climates, all but the tomato can be grown outside.
We keep on changing two categories to give different growers in different climates, etc, etc the chance to succeed. We always choose categories where we have enough seeds for everybody (we are talking about 1000s and 1000s of seeds), that can be grown outside and don't take up too much space.

12/24/2010 12:25:34 PM

Netherlands

What Micheal says about concentrating on one or two specific categories sounds very logical but is not true. Throughout the giant vegetable world, the growers who grow the MOST categories almost always beat the specialists that only grow a few.
For example, Peter Glazebrook competes in at least 20-25 categories and wins the onion competition against hundreds of specialist onion growers. The same holds true for his potatoes, runner beans, etc.
The reason is, the more different types you grow, the more you learn and can use different techniques (think outside the box) on all of your veg.

12/24/2010 12:30:57 PM

Belgium

that seems very true to me Brad

12/24/2010 12:32:31 PM

Netherlands

Now what we could do is make a long and tall category, but growers of tall corn, might not grow long gourds or long carrots and the problem will be the same as with the current 8 categories.

Mehdi, I like your thinking and it is great that you are contributing. Like me, you grow a lot of giant veg that will never be awarded other than with a listing on the egvga site.

I'll give your idea some more thought, and maybe we can work something out.

12/24/2010 12:33:04 PM

France

Thanks for your reply Brad. I hope you understand I m just trying to think and bring new idea for the Great EGVGA.
You said there are already 20 trophies for about 40 differents giants vegetables.
The idea to make categories would split the trophies to all these 40 vegts. Why offering trophies to pumpkin/squash, marrow , tomatoe, sunflower, LG and the vegetable of the year and not the cucumber, cabbage , onion, radish, parsnip, pepper, potatoe, runnerbean, rutabaga, watermelon, cantaloupe, field pumpkin, carrot etc...?
By making nice categories, each specialised grower would have a chance to earn one of these 20 trophies or even ribbons ?
I'm thinking about a guy who work hard during the whole season and break the Rutabaga EGVGA record at 60lb+, get a 100lb cabbage and a new European radish record. What an accomplishement! but no trophy for him.

How to make the categories ? maybe family ?
Here a few examples by family with 3 vegts but could be only 2 or more 3, 4 ...

1 : cucurbitacée: Pumpkin/squash/ fieldpumpkin
2 : crucifere : radish/cabbage/rutabaga
3 : solanacée : pepper/tomatoe/potatoe
5 : cucurbitacée bis: marrow/cantaloupe/ watermelon
6 : liliacée : onion/leek

Or maybe by "make sense " ?
1 : tall corn, tall sunflower, large head sunflower
2 : roots vegts : carrot, parsnip, radish
3 : Long vegts : long cuc, long gourd,runner bean
4 : deep vegts : long carrot/long parsnip/ long beetroot
5 : round vegts : pumpkin/watermelon/ cantaloupe
6 : pot vegts : onion/leek/potatoe
etc...

12/29/2010 7:39:29 PM

France

Why not a trophy for the grower who break an EGVGA record or an European record ?
By the way, we can read the EGVGA record on the site but not the European record. Where to find them ?

I'm not complaining at all , Just trying to develop and bring fresh ideas to EGVGA. It can push people to select and concentrate theirs efforts and time in theirs favorite categories or pushing growers to try and grow new vegts or even attract more new European growers to join the EGVGA.

Would love to get also the opinions of all the members !

Thank you
Happy new year and Best wishes to everybody !

12/29/2010 7:39:38 PM

Netherlands

Thanks for your input.

First of all, there are no OFFICIAL European records recorded anywhere, except for pumpkins, squash, long gourds and ones that are also world records. There is no way to find out these records either as they are simply not documented. Believe me, I searched!

As I said, I will think about your idea again. What I like about your idea is that all types of veg are recognized. The major problem remains the same: in some categories there are not enough contestants.

For this reason we cannot award anything to new EGVGA records as there is often only one grower growing them.

The reason why we do award certain categories is because we have a minimum of 20 contestants/entries in each of them. This has been our standard for adding new categories to the existing ones.

I'll see what I can come up with during my winter sleep and discuss it with the board before May.

12/31/2010 11:21:29 AM

Netherlands

PS. Who got the ER radish, where and how much did it weigh?

12/31/2010 11:22:21 AM

France

Thanks Brad. It's nice to open the discussion.
We can use this topic to ask to all European growers what do they think about it ? are you ready to grow a specific vegt category ? is this idea will help you to grow some less famous vegts ?
Please let us know your opinion guys.

Brad, ER radish was a fictif example. I believe the biggest in Europe is probably the UK record ?!?
But problem is there are many different varieties of radish : WR 68lb is sakurajima which is different than french breakfast radish or april cross etc...
How to deal with that ? same example for cucumber and many others vegts.

Thank you !

12/31/2010 1:33:33 PM

Netherlands

Our EGVGA website now has a webpage (still under construction) with very specific information on each category: http://egvga.webs.com/showrules.htm

We have used guidelines given by Guinness (which they don't keep them themselves) and guidelines used at international giant veg shows like the Alaska State Fair, Royal Fair, Toronto and Shepton Mallet, England.

And yes, the WR radish isn't actually a radish. The WR cucumber isn't a cucumber and the WR beetroot isn't a beetroot, for example.

The EGVGA only recognizes records of which we are sure they belong to the correct species.

12/31/2010 1:53:28 PM