Sunnyfields Farm's Beetlejuice mosaic is the 'biggest pumpkin mosaic in the world' - how to visit

Last year, Sunnyfields Farm just outside Totton was awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest pumpkin mosaic with their Nightmare Before Christmas display, measuring at a whopping 193.35 m².

For 2024, NFU farmer Ian Nelson was determined to keep the world record and has assembled another classic display using over 10,000 pumpkins and squashes, featuring the character made famous by Michael Keaton with the sequel featuring a host of A-list Hollywood celebrities including Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega currently showing in cinemas.

It took Ian and his team of helpers over 50 hours of planning and they carefully positioned £40,000 worth of pumpkins in just seven hours to recreate the supernatural superstar and members of the public have been flocking to marvel at Beetlejuice as part of their Halloween celebrations.

Ian, who owns Sunnyfields Farm, said: “Our display this year is very much linked to the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film coming out – it’s another Tim Burton classic ‘Halloweeny’ film and we always go for topical things so we asked our customers what we should do this year and 70 per cent said Beetlejuice.

“There are over 10,000 pumpkins and squashes in the mosaic, it took about 50 hours of planning on paper and then we built it in one day with 15 people starting at 9.30am and finishing at 4.30pm.

“All of the pumpkins in the mosaic are naturally coloured, a lot of them are edible and they’re the same pumpkins we’ve got around the fields that visitors can pick up, put in their wheelbarrow and buy to take home.

“Obviously birds will go and have a bit of a peck at the mosaic, so we do replace a few, but it holds well when you see it from a distance.

“Around the field, our pumpkins are on wooden pallets, because without them, there would be hundreds rotting each day. We've gambled so much on this event so we try to take all of the risk out by putting together an all-weather site.”

A trip to Sunnyfields Farm also means that visitors can see the second largest pumpkin in the world grown by neighbouring farmer Ian Paton. The giant pumpkin, affectionately nicknamed Hagrid after the gentle giant in the Harry Potter franchise, was originally the size of a golf ball but when put on the scales, it came in at a mammoth 2,639 pounds, narrowly missing out on the title for world’s largest by just 100 pounds – the equivalent of a bag of British sugar.

Ian said: “This is a totally different strain to the pumpkins you would get in the shops. The ones you get in the shops are field pumpkins which have a hard stem, but these Atlantic giant strains have got a soft stem.

“Hagrid is only about 130 days old and he’s grown from the size of a golf ball. We grew him inside and he required about 130 litres of water a day but hardly any feed at all, just the same as a lawn or a hanging basket would need.

“We spent about three hours a day, seven days a week for three months burying the vines. We cover the vines to encourage extra roots and that helps to develop giant pumpkins.

“We grow seeds from the biggest pumpkins and we cross pollinate them to get bigger and bigger pumpkins every year and at their very peak, these pumpkins will be growing by about 70 pounds per day, but we want the world record!“

You can visit Sunnyfields Farm throughout October at Sunnyfields Farm, Jacobs Gutter Lane, Totton, Southampton, SO40 9FX. Tickets cost £5.50 at www.sunnyfields.co.uk