The 9-year-old last year won with 50 spuds and this year his seed potato produced 54.
Asked his secret, the keen football player says ‘‘I learned to grow potatoes on Minecraft, and, just like Ronaldo, practice makes perfect’’.
The comp saw 55 entrants given one seed potato from the same batch with the same-size grow bag, for collection from November 4, with no rules on how you grew them.
At last Sunday’s grand weigh-in, Queenstown’s Aaron Simpson was thrilled to win the ‘total weight’ category, with 2398g, as the last time he tried to enter ‘‘I killed the thing so I didn’t turn up with anything’’.
As to his secret, ‘‘well, it’s a secret, but lots of potassium and try and keep the nitrogen down’’.
Comp volunteer Susan Bagley won ‘heaviest spud’, a 253g whopper, though she stresses she didn’t weigh her own entry — ‘‘my 2IC did that’’.
As for her secret, she quips ‘‘total neglect’’.
‘‘We were moving, we didn’t have time to do anything.’’
The winner of the uncoveted wooden spoon was Emily Murnaghan, whose seed potato didn’t produce even one single spud.
‘‘I just let it do its thing,’’ she gives by way of explanation.
All spuds grown for the comp were donated to local charity Baskets of Blessing.
- Philip Chandler
