Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 50 Entries. Tuesday, January 24 View Page I'm going to be doing a side-by-side test between two strategies for growing giant tomatoes: 1. Huge Plants vs. 2. Heavy Pruning Gordon Graham used the Huge Plant approach. Giant Pumpkin growers (a different beast, I realize...) use this approach quite successfully To the best of my knowledge, nearly all of the recent giant (3+ lbs.) tomatoes have been grown using the Heavy Pruning approach. Briefly, my Huge Plant strategy will involve: • An extra early start (see pic - 12 seeds started on 12-16-2011) • Transplant up to 4-gallon pots as needed • Transplant into a heated hoop-house type structure two months early (not built yet), around March 1st • Feed plant heavily, especially the roots, until around August 1st • Trim off all blossoms until around mid-August • Set 3-5 fruit from good megablooms • Once fruit are set, gradually terminate all vegetative growth and focus on feeding just the fruit (no more nitrogen) • Thin to the fastest growing, most promising looking tomato My Heavy Pruning strategy will be similar to what other growers use: • Use the same number of plants of the same lineages (a paired experiment) • Start seeds in mid to late April • Transplant in late May • Keep plant trimmed to 2-3 stems • Use the Missouri modified pruning method (summer sun is pretty intense here - I don't think a little extra leaf surface will hurt) We'll see how it works out! Gotta get that hoop house build SOON... Sunday, February 5 View Page I transplanted the 12 (insanely early, 7-week old) tomato seedlings for the HUGE PLANT part of my giant tomato experiment up to 4-gallon pots yesterday. More details and pics will be posted at my blog - link from www.gianttomatoseeds.com. Tuesday, February 28 View Page Recent pic of plants at 72 days along. These 12 constitute the HUGE Plant portion of my giant tomato project. Planting time for the Heavy Prune portion is still several weeks away. Tuesday, February 28 View Page Tallest vine is about 40", Big Zac (4.20 Diaz 2011). It has a strong root system developing along the buried stem as well. Tuesday, February 28 View Page I'm pruning off all buds and blooms, including nice looking ones such as follows from Delicious (6.51 Meisner 2011). Sunday, March 11 View Page I put my first tomato plant - a Delecious (6.51 Meisner 2011) - in a small hoop house today. This one's a backup and has a 3X megabloom that looks like it may be setting fruit. I also moved my 12 "Huge Plant" seedlings to the hoop house. The tallest of these is 54", including the 4-gallon jug it's potted in. Pics are posted at my blog, which links from my homepage: www.gianttomatoseeds.com Thursday, April 5 View Page Constructing a high tunnel - anticipating being able to warm the soil and prevent frost. So, I planted four giant pumpkin seeds. I have space to grow only two. We'll see which ones sprout then grow best. Here are the selectios - Thursday, April 5 View Page Here are the seeds, filed and planted on 4-01-2012 - Thursday, April 5 View Page And here are the four gallon jugs into which I moved the germinating seeds on 4-03(I'm concerned that I made the medium too rich) - Thursday, April 5 View Page I've moved my 12 giant tomato plants from the small hoop house into the high tunnel. The tallest plant was Church (3.36 Perry 2008) at 62.5". This one and two others (both 60" tall) suffered frost damage at the growing tips, which had been pressing up against the plastic during a frost event of 27°. In the smaller hoop house - Thursday, April 5 View Page The shortest of the 12 plants was Big Zac (5.35 Lyons 2010 at 35". All plants have some slight to moderate leaf damage or disease. I'm now 5 weeks behind schedule in getting these into the ground. Been pretty busy... Moving giant tomato plants into the high tunnel - Thursday, April 5 View Page The shortest of the 12 plants was Big Zac (5.35 Lyons 2010 at 35". All plants have some slight to moderate leaf damage or disease. I'm now 5 weeks behind schedule in getting these into the ground. Been pretty busy... Moving giant tomato plants into the high tunnel - Sunday, April 22 View Page So here's the latest pic of the four pumpkin plants. Second true leaves are starting to grow. Sunday, April 22 View Page And here's the just completed high tunnel where they will be transplanted within 2 weeks. It's 52'X14'. Lot's of other stuff going in there as well. It's going to be crowded before the plastic comes off in mid to late June. Saturday, May 26 View Page First round of giant tomato plants are finally in the ground. Saturday, May 26 View Page Dozens of fruit have set, which I plan to prune off as the first part of the HUGE plant vs. heavy pruning experiment. Saturday, May 26 View Page The healthiest of these 11 plants is Brutus Magnum (6.25 Meisner 2011). Saturday, June 9 View Page Finally, 68 days after seed sowing, I got the 1600 McConkie 2011 and 1243 Colbert 2011 pumpkins in the ground at the new county-leased parcel. The 1600 McConkie has a very classic "double ribbon vine". I could not bear to discard the plant. Even sitting for weeks in a 4-gallon jug, it's growing better than those transplanted 19 days ago. Perhaps it will supply some useful pollen? Saturday, June 9 View Page Here's another pic of the 1600 McConkie in the ground Saturday, June 9 View Page A closeup of the main growing tip of the 1600 McConkie. Saturday, June 9 View Page And another of the 1600 McConkie, clearly showing the flattened vine. Saturday, June 9 View Page Here's the 1243 Colbert ready to go in the ground - slowest growing of all four plants. Saturday, June 9 View Page And here's the 1243 Colbert in the ground. This 0.84 acre plot of land has been neglected for two years and is horribly overgrown with weeds. It will be a major challenge to get these pumpkins to do well. Sunday, June 24 View Page I've pruned off several female blossoms over the past few days. I let one open this morning on the 870 Fox 2011, but to no avail. No male blossoms available. So no pics. Probably would not have mattered anyhow - record high temps, 100+, pumpkins are really suffering. Monday, July 2 View Page I pollinated my first two pumpkins of the season on July 1st. Both were on the 870 Fox 2011, both were on secondary vines, and both were about 7' from the stump. Neither the 870 Fox nor the 1382 Bryson 2011 had male flowers available, so I had to transport blossoms more than 5 miles from the larger field. It's been very hot, so I don't know if the pollination will take or not. Monday, July 2 View Page Here's the 870 Fox pollinated by the 1600 McConkie 2011 - Monday, July 2 View Page And here's the one pollinated by 1243 Colbert 2011 - Monday, July 2 View Page I've not been able to justify putting a lot of into growing giant pumpkins so far this year, but I did manage to get shade cloth put up on the high tunnel framework. Monday, July 2 View Page Some of the first ripe fruits from "giant" tomato, Big Zac? (4.20 Diaz 2011). Obviously I mixed up the seed. I'm just letting the plant produce. We'll see in a few weeks if it's matched pair also produces cherry-sized tomatoes. Getting megablooms on most of the giant tomato plants, but fruit set is very spotty among all 1200+ tomato plants. They just don't like this kind of heat. And no relief in sight. Monday, July 23 View Page I've pollinated around 25 pumpkins on 4 plants so far this season. The temperature almost every day over the past 6 weeks has reached 93° or higher. I've finally resorted to placing bottles of ice around the blossoms as soon as I've attempted pollination. Monday, July 23 View Page Finally I'm starting to see a couple of pumpkins starting to grow. Here's one on the 870 Fox 2011. I'm optimistic about the potential of pumpkins on this vine, as they are all elongated like this. It is pretty late in the season, however. Monday, July 23 View Page And here's one on the 1382 Bryson 2011. There are none which have taken yet on the 1600 McConkie 2011 or on the 1243 Colbert 2011. Tuesday, July 31 View Page I'm finally getting pumpkins growing on 3 of the 4 vines, though none are growing as fast as the charts. This morning I took rather extreme measures to try to get something going on the 4th. I got up extra early and harvested 10 unopened male blossoms from the 1382 Bryson 2011 and transported them 5.4 miles to the other site. Using a fine artist's paintbrush, I pollinated a female blossom on the 1243 Colbert 2011. I then used bottles of ice and a towel to hopefully give the pollen a chance to take, as the high temperature was predicted to reach 98. Tuesday, July 31 View Page Here's a pic after pollination. Wednesday, August 15 View Page I finally settled on one pumpkin on each of 4 vines. Here's the 870 Fox 2011 (1382 Bryson 2011 pollinator). It quit growing so I've removed it. The plant has a bad case of powdery mildew and I'm guessing that may have affected the pumpkin. Plus it's been getting far too much spillover irrigation water. Wednesday, August 15 View Page Here's the backup (now primary) on the 870 Fox. This one was open pollinated on about August 5th. Wednesday, August 15 View Page Here's the 1243 Colbert 2011 (1600 McConkie 2011 pollinator on 7-25-2012). This is a healthy looking vine, but the pumpkin is probably too little to late to be a contender. At least a dozen pollinated pumpkins aborted on this plant before this one finally took. Wednesday, August 15 View Page Here's a pic of a very round and very white 1382 Bryson 2012 (870 Fox pollinator on 7-20-2012). I wish I had had a lot of space to grow this one - it's the most agressively growing plant I've ever seen! Wednesday, August 15 View Page And fourth, the 1600 McConkie 2011 (1243 Colbert Pollinator on 7/14/2012). This one was a double ribbon vine, but this part of the vine looks fairly normal. This is the largest of the 4 pumpkins but is still growing more slowly than my giant pumpkins of last year (when I had much more time to devote to this form of recreation...) Wednesday, August 15 View Page Here's my most promising looking tomato so far - a 3X MegaMarv at about 14 DAS (Days After Setting fruit). It's looking pretty promising that I might finally be able to crack 3 lbs. this year, but a Super Giant looks out of the question. Still hoping though... Saturday, September 1 View Page Finally got a tomato over 2 lbs. this year: Oxheart Giantissimo (2.294 Thurber 2012). More pics posted at: http://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/oxheart_giantissimo_2-294/ Still have a fair chance a 3 lbs. this year, but nothing looks like it will get much bigger than that. Tuesday, September 4 View Page Picked a new personal best two days ago: Big Zac? (2.802 Thurber 2012) from Big Zac? (4.20 Diaz 2011). I've decided not to get it certified (would be a new state record), since I have a Church which measures to 2.99 lbs. and, at 39 days along and cooler weather, may still have a little growth left in it. More pics of the 2.802 at: http://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/new-state-record-largest-tomato/ Tuesday, September 4 View Page Yesterday I picked: Brutus Magnum (2.006 Thurber 2012) from (6.25 Meisner 2011). What is notable about this one is that it was grown off a cutting I took on 3-26-2012. This makes 3 days in a row that I've picked a tomato weighing over 2 lbs. - I wonder what's waiting out there today? Friday, September 7 View Page Here's a picture of tomatoes grown from Unknown (4.905 Leadbeatter 2012). Rod, from Nullamanna Australia, generously shared these seeds with several growers here. There are 8 tomatoes in this picture. All together they weighed 9.23 lbs.! Looking for a good name for this one... Friday, September 7 View Page Here's one of Leadbeatter's sliced. Largest to date has been 1.662 lbs. with no pruning or thinning. This variety obviously has some real potential for growing giants! Taste is excellent as well. Friday, September 7 View Page This year I've had very little time or other resources to put into growing giant pumpkins. I pulled up the 870 Fox planted because my second backup rotted also. Need the space for Fall crops. The only pumpkin of note is on the 1243 Colbert 2011, fruit pollinated on 7-25-2012. I'll be lucky if it hits 300 lbs. I've been neglecting the patch so much that I haven't even bothered taking pictures since the 11-day old one shown here. Maybe next year... Tuesday, September 25 View Page Here's a pic of the new official Utah state record tomato on the scale at the Division of Weights and Measures. Church (3.208 Thurber 2012)(3.36 Perry 2008) more pics at: http://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/church-3-208-dt-2012/ I've had several others over 2.5 lbs. this year, but it doesn't look like anything left on the vine will approach 3 lbs. Already anxious for next year with new ideas and new seeds coming... Pumpkin growing pretty much a bust in 2012 - I just couldn't justify the time and expense. Sunday, September 30 View Page State weigh-off yesterday. I did not even bother submitting a pumpkin. Haven't measured mine in a couple of weeks. Biggest is probably less than 300 lbs. I just could not justify the investment of time. Compared to pumpkins, the tomato competition was much less popular - just 6 competitors. Here's the largest submission, which I picked 8 days earlier on 9-21-2012. Big Zac (2.602 Thurber 2012)(5.35 Lyons 2010). Certified weight, 8 days off the vine, was 2 lbs., 8.2 oz., or 2.513 lbs. This is a weight loss of about 0.43% per day. Sunday, September 30 View Page I also displayed the 3.208 Church, which, 16 days after harvest, weighed in at 2.945 lbs. This works out to a weight loss of 0.51% per day. I tracked weight loss of the 2.802 Big Zac for 13 days also, and it lost 0.45% per day. So with this admittedly small sample size, I think it's a decent ball-park estimate to assume a 0.5% weight loss per day for refrigerated tomatoes. Wednesday, December 5 View Page It's finally time to pick my biggest tomato, 103 days after fruit set. It's about 50% ripe, but is rotting faster than it's ripening now, so it's gotta go. I have an appointment to get an official weight in the morning. My best estimate/guess is: 4.38 lbs. More pics and calculations from measurements at: http://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/anticipation/