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Franco Martorana has been gardening in the Metro Vancouver area since he moved here from Sicily in 1975.

He said he used to grow small zucchinis but as his gardening skills grew, so did the zucchini.

“Every year, you learn something,” he said.

So just how big are zucchinis in his garden? Many measure more than five feet in length.

Martorana said the zucchinis grow from special seeds that originate from his hometown outside of Palermo.

Initially, the zucchini grew to modest lengths until a fellow Sicilian gave him some advice. The key, he said, was to manually pollinate the flowers.

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“I let them kiss each other,” he said.

“Every day, I see the zucchini longer and longer until I make a zucchini five-foot or seven-foot long,” Martorana said.

Since then, his flourishing North Burnaby garden has been filled with long zucchinis that often draw the attention of passersby.

He said he won a contest with a zucchini that measured seven-foot-two. The largest zucchini currently in his garden is about six-foot long.

Martorana has no interest in guarding the secrets to his gardening success, sharing his methods with neighbours.

“If they can do [it], they do [it]. That’s OK for me.”