Doug the ugly New Zealand potato could be world's biggest

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Colin and Donna Craig-Brown were weeding their plot successful New Zealand erstwhile Colin’s hoe struck thing immense conscionable beneath the soil’s surface.

As the mates knelt down and began digging astir the object, Colin wondered if it was immoderate benignant of unusual fungal growth, a elephantine puffball. After Colin pried it retired with his plot fork, helium scratched distant a spot of the tegument and tasted it.

“We couldn’t judge it,” Donna said. “It was conscionable huge.”

And not precisely pretty. Donna describes its quality arsenic much of an ugly, mutant look.

But it’s rather perchance the largest murphy connected record. When the mates lugged it into their store and enactment it connected their aged acceptable of scales, it weighed successful astatine a singular 7.9 kilograms (17.4 pounds). That’s adjacent to a mates of sacks of regular potatoes, oregon 1 tiny dog.

In the weeks since their antithetic find connected Aug. 30, the couple’s murphy has go thing of a personage astir their tiny workplace adjacent Hamilton. They’ve named the murphy Doug, aft the mode it was unearthed, and Colin adjacent built a tiny cart to tow Doug around.

“We enactment a chapeau connected him. We enactment him connected Facebook, taking him for a walk, giving him immoderate sunshine,” Doug said. “It’s each a spot of fun. It’s astonishing what entertains people.”

A much authoritative weigh-in astatine a section farming store enactment Doug astatine 7.8 kg. The existent Guinness World Records introduction for the heaviest murphy is simply a 2011 monster from Britain that weighed successful astatine conscionable nether 5 kg. The mates accidental they’ve applied to Guinness to person Doug recognized and are waiting to perceive back.

Guinness didn’t instantly reply to a petition for an update connected the application.

Colin said helium doesn’t person immoderate concealed gardening tips. Usually they propulsion a clump of cattle manure and straw onto their plot and spot what happens. He said they’d been increasing cucumbers successful that country of their plot earlier the weeds took implicit and hadn’t planted immoderate potatoes. Doug indispensable person been self-sown, and rather perchance increasing for a mates of years oregon more.

“It’s a enigma to me,” Colin said. “It’s 1 of nature’s small pleasant surprises.”

But Doug hasn’t proved an casual complaint to look after. As the mates showed the murphy off, it began drying retired and losing weight. Mold started increasing from its wounds.

“He was getting a spot pongy,” said Colin, referring to the potato’s smell.

So Colin cleaned up Doug arsenic champion helium could and enactment the murphy successful the freezer, wherever it remains.

But Colin whitethorn not beryllium done with Doug yet. An amateur brewer, Colin said he’s keen to crook Doug into a bully driblet of murphy vodka.