PRIZE gardener Paul Rochester has proved he knows his onions when it comes to producing a bumper crop.

But it needed some help from Forties' big-band great Glenn Miller to put his produce In the Mood for success.

The machine operator from Seaham, County Durham, revealed the surprise secret of his success after lifting a world title, plus £1,000 in prize money.

Judges at the World Leek and Onion Championship could not fail to be impressed by the pick of his crop, a 15lb 6Âoz onion.

It was judged best onion in the annual show, at the Northern Club, in Ashington, Northumberland.

While he used all the green-fingered tips learned from his late father, Wilfrid, in the propagation of his champion vegetables, it was the added extra of playing his Glenn Miller tapes while nurturing his allotment crop that may have tipped the scales.

Good nutrients, soil conditions and watering techniques may all be required, but it seems that renditions of tunes such as Pennsylvania 6500 and Tuxedo Junction added the vital missing ingredient.

Mr Rochester's Miller-inspired best was an ounce heavier than that of runner-up Des Watson, from Horden, County Durham.

"My onions have been getting in the mood and coming up bigger for four or five years, since I started playing the tapes while I tend them," he said.

"I've got a tape player at the allotments with the speakers in the tunnels and every time I go down there, I put Glenn Miller on."

Mr Rochester spends much of his spare time tending his crop at allotments in Northlea, Seaham.

He has previously won prizes at New Seaham Conservative Club, where he is a member, but this is his biggest win to date.

"I've been doing it for four years now, and even my leeks seem to be doing better," he added, perhaps sparking a rush by fellow plot-holders to the music store nostalgia section