The very large tomato thread
 

I would like to start this for those of us who are interested in huge tomatoes, for eating and for competition growing, either for fun, or for a record.

PA Julia introduced me to this mindset, last year I grew a few plants just to see what we could do. Out of five plants we grew six tomatoes over 4lbs, two over 5lbs, the biggest was 5.51lbs.

We should try to compile a list of the largest fruiting varieties. I have grown both Big Zac and Terhune, for production of many fruit, and severely pruned to grow a monster tomato. I was very surprised that BZ grew mostly nice shaped tomatoes from 1-1.5lbs, but when you select a fused blossom and cut off the other they get huge. Terhune is more misshapen, but they still range 1-2lbs when grown for production, and get huge when a fruit is selected.

What other very large fruiting varieties could do the same, OR MORE?

You have just a couple of options if they are to be certified; State Weights and Measures, your state fair contests, you cannot weigh them on your scale, even if it is stamped, if you want it certified.

Surly some Tomatovillian can break the world record 8.42lbs

Here's a few tomatoes from this year to start this off, mine were grown hydroponically in smart pots, and 10 gallon grow bags, the 5.51 came out of a 10 gallon GB.

Here's a very important tip. Make sure your tomato plant is robust before you choose your tomato, YOU NEED VERY RAPID GROWTH.

Tip two, do not prune your plant until you select your tomato, then prune off all branches besides the branch that your tomato is on, top that one.

Another tip, for soil, a soil sample is a good start, FEED IT, know what you are adding and why. If your doing hydo, follow the directions, push some much harder than others, BUY A TDS METER. I am also being strong armed by my new grower into looking at surfactants, facilitators.

Remember, lets share strains, and ideas, and make this a Tomatoville project.

I've never tried to grow a huge tomato, Mark, but the varieties have produced fruits larger than 2 pounds for me are:

Alice's Egypt - 2 lb. 4 oz.
Anna Margaret's Heart 2 lb. 3.9 oz.,
Believe It or Not - 2 lb. 8.1 oz.
Belmonte Costoluto - 3 lb. 0 oz., 2 lb. 3.5 oz., 2 lb. 5.2 oz., 2 lb. 6.8 oz., 2 lb. 9 oz., 2 lb. 5.8 oz., 2 lb. 7.7 oz.
Brandywine, Heart-Shaped 2 lb. 3.6 oz.
Butler Skinner - 3 lb. 0.9 oz.
Church - 2 lb. 5.9 oz., 2 lb. 6.4 oz.
Copper River - 2 lb. 2.5 oz.
Eastham Pink Heirloom 2 lb. 6.4 oz., 2 lb. 3.5 oz.
Georges' Greek Beefsteak - 2 lb. 2.9 oz.
Hawaiian Pineapple - 2 lb. 1.5 oz., 2 lb. 2.6 oz., 2 lb. 1 oz.
Hays' Tomato - 2 lb. 0.5 oz.
Hoy - 2 lb. 8.7 oz.
Joe's Pink Oxheart - 2 lb. 3.2 oz.
Mayo's Delight - 2 lb. 1.2 oz.
Sakharny Slon - 2 lb. 3.3 oz.
Sibirskiy Velikan Rozovyi - 2 lb. 4.1 oz., 2 lb. 3.5 oz.
Slankard - 3 lb. 0.5 oz.
Work Release Paste - 2 lb. 3.2 oz., 2 lb. 6.6 oz., 2 lb. 1.3 oz., 2 lb. 5.2 oz., 2 lb. 9.5 oz., 2 lb. 2 oz.

Some photos can be found in my "Scary Big Tomatoes" thread:

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19474[/url]

Maybe some of these would be worth exploring. WRP is the only one I still have seeds for.

Kath, which of those produces many fused blossoms? Do any produce multiple, more than two fused together?

I think of a fused blossom as multiple fruit, even if that is not the competition standard.

German Giant was my biggest last year. This year, Orange Jazz, Jazz, Giant Roo, Mikhalych, and Strawberry Margarita made the largest fruit, ranging 1.5-2 pounds.

I'd planned on growing Delicious and Church, but it looks like Big Zac offers the most potential. There's a market for F2-F8 seed from the biggest of the Big Zac and a few other large varieties. [URL]http://www.gianttomatoseeds.com/index.html[/URL]


I'd like to try this, maybe with a Church and a Big Zac. Mark, you save any F2 from your big ones?

The grow diary from the World Record. I would have yanked that sick looking plant in June, never knowing.

[URL]http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2014&grower=56605&action=L[/URL]

I've met and talked to Dan(the world record tomato grower) a couple of times. I think he started with giant pumpkins before he started growing giant tomatoes. Many giant tomato growers grow other giant vegetables as well.
I don't know if I can mention other sites on this site, but if you want to PM me, I can give you the name of a site where other giant tomato growers have a forum. You can even obtain seeds from some of these growers.

Almost everyone there is pretty nice a few are not, I left that site because some jerk was attacking me, cussing, demeaning, and it went on and on.

Ricky, I did save seeds. I seriously think some varieties mentioned here may steal the show. I was shocked when I grew Terhune, here;s something to consider too, I did not prune that plant down to a single tomato, it also had a 4.3, and a 2.5, that takes up a lot of energy.

If you want some seed just PM me an address, I will send 4-5 seeds
Mark

A quick check and it looks like the Colorado state record is 3.41 pounds. Working with some good stock would put me a leg up on that, thank you very much.

[QUOTE]Almost everyone there is pretty nice a few are not, I left that site because some jerk was attacking me, cussing, demeaning, and it went on and on.[/QUOTE]I've read through a few months of postings on their 'Tomato Board' and while there's some excellent info, it's cliquish, unmoderated, and badly needs spellcheck.

3.41lbs? You should take that out.
I always enjoyed it when I got a larger tomato, but it is really fun to try to grow one intentionally, I just never tried, or even really thought about it.
I also thought BZ was a good tasting tomato, and Terhune was sweet, and good too. The three tomatoes on the Terhune weighed out at about 12.5lbs, so that's good too. lol

[QUOTE=Ricky Shaw;514100]A quick check and it looks like the Colorado state record is 3.41 pounds. Working with some good stock would put me a leg up on that, thank you very much.[/QUOTE]


I'll make a note to send you (via MMMM) some good stock.

You're going to need a bigger knife. ;)

Hey Tormato, don't forget AKMark here, I don't want Ricky to make fun of my little tomato.

Regardless, I'd forward on half of all the good prospects to you. This is about Team Tomatoville! Unless of course there's a book or movie deal, then my percentage would be a little higher, as you would expect.

I think a 3.5 is very doable in Colorado. I'm doing some serious scheming presently and a soft side 6x8 greenhouse is now a certainty in my life.

Thank you Tormato for the consideration, I'm even more stoked now.

So if I get this straight you:

(1) push the plants initially for solid vegetative growth and to increase the likelihood of the initial fused bloom event, then once that starts to form and is defined, you

(2) clip everyone else off except for the stem with the precious orb. Then you

(3) missouri any new growth that pops up

(4) all the while on as much of a Canseco-Bonds diet as they can tolerate.

Gonna give it a shot with [I]Hoy.[/I] Container volume stays the same I imagine?

My theory is to make a big bushy plant that needs a big well formed rootball, then we instantly divert all of the support energy into a single topped stem with one tomato on it. Hoy sounds great, I have been leering over list that Kath left for us

Ricky your just being nice for now, but I wonder how a little competition will mold your benevolence. lol This should be a lot of fun.

Could you force blossoms to fuse by rubber-banding them together? Does that work?

You would have to end up with a single stem somehow. I like Terhune up here because it throws a lot of fused blooms, one last year was 4 fused together.
I am sure others like BZ may actually be better, but I was surprised, at any rate. I was going to cross the two anyway early in the season this coming spring, that way I will get a chance to try them in 2016.
If you want some, I do have quite a few.

The most detailed article technically I've run across, but usable tips and insights that help even a novice like myself.

Thought this was of interest, "Ripe tomatoes only have a short shelf life and as soon as they begin to turn red, the weight and size gains generally halt. Then it’s time to have the tomato officially weighed, photographed, documented, witnessed and certified as a world record!"

Russ Landry, Maximum Yield Gardening Jun2014

[URL]http://maximumyield.com/attack-of-the-giant-tomatoes/[/URL]

This is good stuff too, I think this is very helpful.

[url]http://www.haifa-group.com/files/Guides/tomato/Tomato.pdf[/url]

I would be curious to see how well an over-wintered hydroponic plant would do at making big tomatoes. You could put one plant in a livestock trough, maybe on wheels, or moved with a forklift, and just move it into a protected environment in the winter. You wouldn't have to worry about trying to give it supplemental lighting, just wheeling it into a heated garage in sub-freezing weather would be enough to keep it alive. Then when spring came, instead of starting from a seed, you could be starting with a root ball the size of a bushel basket. The plant would be like a tree if you let it. I would think that all that energy going into one fruit would grow a red basketball, even without a fused blossom.

I think that may be a great idea for a person in the South were the summer heat is horrible, they could have a great jump on things in the spring.
That's worth a try

Been reading, got some BigZac F1 coming that I'll practice with over the winter. That next level is all about the fused blossom and getting it on the 1st or 2nd truss.

I'm comfortable that the HG 4-18-38 is a good foundation, but thinking I might need a little something extra. Any thoughts on a bloom enhancers?

[QUOTE=AKmark;514043]Kath, which of those produces many fused blossoms? Do any produce multiple, more than two fused together?[/QUOTE]

It's really hard for me to remember, Mark, but looking through my notes and pics, the ones that were likely to be fused were:

Believe It Or Not
Butler Skinner
Church
George's Greek Beefsteak
Slankard

Big Zac F1 (danke RS) and Hoy (danke cloz) will be my horses. Are there others I should consider for my stable?

On a side note, has anyone used this stuff or other products from the Haifa Group?

[url]http://amzn.com/B00F4K4JNA[/url]

Gerardo, look at the nutrient uptake on that site at different stages. Also look at the Potassium Nitrate study. We have used a K boost which is very similar just a different company. I am wondering with the mix you looked at, if a guy can run that through an injector with calcium in the same stock tank, that's a no no with most formula's I know of.
Here's a great site that may help when piecing together a complete mixture.
[url]http://www.smart-fertilizer.com/articles/fertilizer-solubility[/url]

Great site Mark. I've been digesting the Haifa Tomato info and I really like the specifics per growth stage, plus the adjustments based on your particular growing situation.

Those Polyfeeds are quite appealing. It would be a lot of fun to fine tune the parameters just to see how far I could get it.

Which varieties with fused blossoms? I can't make a list but almost exclusively large pink fruited PL varieties and always on initial blossoms, the next flush of blossoms, rarely.

Carolyn, who had no use for the large monster fruits that were malformed to an extreme so removed those fused blossoms ASAP, much to the chagrin I'm sure of Marv Meissner who wrote the book on how to grow big ones and is still a friend.:)

Carolyn

[QUOTE=carolyn137;516036]...much to the chagrin I'm sure of Marv Meissner who wrote the book on how to grow big ones and is still a friend.:)

Carolyn[/QUOTE]

I ordered his book from Amazon. Used. Let's just say shipping was more than the product itself.