Green-fingered volunteers at Sutton Community Farm “went a bit over the top” growing unusually shaped vegetables – and ended up with produce almost as tall as themselves.

The gardeners decided to let their crop of tromboncinos grow longer than necessary for a bit of fun – and were shocked by the size to which the phallic veg swelled.

The outsize tromboncinos, a summer squash described as something between a pumpkin and a courgette, were harvested at the Wallington farm on Wednesday.

Showing off his produce that towered over the height of his colleagues, the farm’s 32-year-old head of production, Joris Gunawardena, boasted that he grown even bigger squashes in the past.

He said: “To be honest, I’ve definitely grown bigger. But these are still magnificent. We were supposed to harvest them smaller for eating but we went a bit over the top.

“Some of us are going to a festival soon so we will take them along for a talk that we are going to give while we are there. There isn’t much you can do with them if they grow big – they don’t taste as nice.”

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Joris pictured with one of his impressive tromboncinos

Casting her eye over the sizeable squashes, farm manager Charlotte Steel, 33, said: “Every year we try and grow something that is quite a lot of fun.

"Admittedly, we have never grown something quite so strange as these tromboncinos. Previously we have just let our tomatoes, and other things, go a bit wild.

“There’s a lot more to the farm than growing strange-shaped produce. We take a lot of pride in the fact that we have got a vegetable box scheme that feeds 200 families, and we’re the biggest community farm in London.”

Here is Mr Gunawardna's colleague squatting her squash: