[Anyone] A great pick

[Mike in Taos]

t would make one hell of a salad.

A Queens woman has taken homegrown fruits and vegetables to a whole new level by cultivating a 6-foot-long zucchini in her backyard.

Green-fingered Apollonia Castitlione grew the giant Long Italian zucchini during the warm summer months using nothing more than fertilizer, water and a little TLC.

"I've
had my vegetable garden for 26 years, but I never saw anything so
spectacular," said Castitlione, who's 5 feet tall. "I didn't put
Miracle Grow on it, nothing, just a little bit of 5-10-5 fertilizer,
water and my time."

Castitlione, 48, said she noticed the giant
fruit was growing longer than usual last month when it suddenly shot up
a couple of inches in as many days.

She then went on vacation to Boston for the weekend and returned to find it had shot up another 1.5 inches.

At last count, the zucchini was just over 6 feet - nearly 2 feet shy of the world-record 7-foot, 10-inch zucchini grown in India three years ago.

"There's no secret, I guess it was just luck," said Castitlione, who lives in Glendale, Queens.

"I went to look at it one day and was like, 'It's a little long,' then a few days later, I said, 'Oh, my God, what's this?'

"I was so in shock, I grow them every year, but never more than about 4feet.

"I decided I wasn't going to touch it and just let it grow."

She said several friends gave her zucchini seeds, but she doesn't know who gave her the special one.

The
home-care worker also grows tomatoes and string beans but says this
fruit will not be making its way to her dinner plate anytime soon.

"I'm going to save it and use the seeds for next year," she said.

"It's getting hard, so wouldn't be good to eat anymore and it's starting to grow very slowly.

"It's still hanging off the vine and I'm watering it.

"It's so straight, it's so perfect. Usually, some are really crooked."

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