The winner of the 2018 Dorset Naga Chilli Growing Challenge has been announced.

Alex Rhodes-Hench, a budding horticulturalist from Bournemouth, won the competition after he picked 927 red chillies off a single plant.

Joy Michaud, owner of Sea Spring Farm in West Bexington, runs the event every year. She said: “He grew a superb plant. It was a tough competition, but none could live up to Alex’s plant.

“Super-hots are notoriously difficult to grow but with the Dorset Naga you are capable of being enormously productive.”

Mr Rhodes-Hench said: “I entered just to see if I could do it really. I have been growing chillies for several years now, but this is the first year I have entered. I tried growing a plant in each of the last two years, but they were never big enough to enter the competition.

“I started growing chillies because I like spicy food. I then started to make my own sauces and chilli powders. I use them for cooking and to stitch up friends who can’t handle the heat.”

The Dorset Naga used to be the hottest chilli in the world but has since been superseded by other super-hot chillies.