Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 149 Entries. Sunday, January 11 View Page Welcome to PA_J's 2015 Giant Tomato Diary!!   Sunday, January 11 View Page A few minutes ago I planted some Carolina Reaper seeds. This marks the first thing planted for this upcoming season.   Sunday, January 11 View Page I have some very interesting Giants and giant crosses for this season that I'm very excited about. This lineup represents almost completely different sources for giants. There's some Big Zac crosses along with quite a few pedigreed seeds including the Big Zac line I've been growing myself since the 2012 season.   Sunday, January 11 View Page Two days ago I purchased a larger roto tiller. This is a 2002 MTD front tine with a 5 HP Briggs and Stratton engine. It was owned by a gentleman who is a automotive mechanic by trade and the condition of the tiller reflects that. I can't wait to start digging in the dirt with it!!   Friday, March 6 View Page Early morning photo from yesterday. Lot's of snow on the ground outside but also lots of planning for the upcoming season going on inside.   Monday, March 16 View Page I decided to move up my seed planting one week earlier than in seasons past. This morning this very handsome man named Jack and myself planted my giant and heirloom seed lineup.   Saturday, March 28 View Page Here's my germination area. The top left are giants and heirlooms and the top right are dense planting of some heirloom tomatoes for sale in early May.   Saturday, March 28 View Page A closer view of my giants and heirlooms.   Saturday, March 28 View Page A closer look at the dense planting of some heirlooms.   Saturday, March 28 View Page Here in Eastern PA on the border of new Jersey we have am overabundance of Italian mom n pop pizzerias. Here's my lunch from yesterday at a place called Matey's. One of my favorite pies of all time.   Friday, April 10 View Page Things are moving along now...I have everything to the exception of one small part tilled at this point. I just purchased a pallet of bagged manure. Black Kow is a a really good brand with a higher percentage of aged manure than most other brands.   Friday, April 10 View Page Here are the plants as of today. I have an oscillating stand fan on them on the same cycle as the lights being 16 on/8 off. To the exception of the tomato plants there are also two bell pepper plants as well as two tomatillo plants under the lights as well.   Tuesday, April 14 View Page Plants are growing well. I now have two fans on them. One o oscillating and the other stationary. This is a photo of the top shelf.   Tuesday, April 14 View Page Here is the bottom shelf. A total of 45 tomato plants with another added to the giant lineup to make a total of 27 plants growing for strictly giants.   Tuesday, April 28 View Page I'm finished tilling amendments into my plots. I've expanded the overall size of my growing area in order to accommodate more plants for giant growing and Healthy number of heirlooms. I will also be crossing some Big Zac strains with a couple of very large Russian strains this season.   Tuesday, April 28 View Page Here's a photo of the other side of the area showing the smaller extension on the north side of the patch.   Tuesday, April 28 View Page The plants are inside a mini greenhouse getting hardened off to be planted in approx. ten days.   Wednesday, April 29 View Page I finished pinning down the weed barrier over the tomato growing area. The area without any is going to be used for a couple tomatillo's and some pepper plants.   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Another view, this one showing the north section of the growing area. Six tomato plants will be planted here.   Monday, May 4 View Page Since the weather here has been more like late June instead of early May I've been planting my tomato plants starting on the 2nd. I have approx. half of my 45 plants in the ground so far.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here is a view of the expanded main planting area. I began planting the tomatoes on May 2nd and finished planting the last one on the 10th. 41 plants are now in the ground with some miscellaneous transplanted in pots including some pepper plants.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here is the ""L"" portion of the planting area. It has mostly Mac Coy's, Foss and Zaczilla plants.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page This is my pond. I use the water from it to water my plants due to the water in it being free of chlorine.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here is my compost tea setup. I'm running two air pumps supplying air to 3 five gallon buckets.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here is a 4.46 Diehl plant. Most of my lineup is approx a foot above the soil line at this time.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page One of my 8.41 Mac Coy's.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Here's one of my Zaczilla plant's. Everything is looking really healthy and is growing very well.   Saturday, May 16 View Page Well looks like I might have a double on one of my 5.30 Mc Coy plants. The plant is currently eleven inches tall.   Saturday, May 16 View Page Ahh nothing like a trip to my local Tractor Supply Company for some supplies.   Monday, May 18 View Page Here's part of the tomato area with mostly Mac Coy's and Zaczilla plants.   Monday, May 18 View Page Mega bloom forming on my largest Zaczilla plant.   Monday, May 18 View Page An opening Double on one of my 6.25 Meisners.   Monday, May 18 View Page A forming mega bloom on one a Delmar plant.   Thursday, May 21 View Page An overview of the main part of the tomato lineup. I just finished foliar and bottom feeding compost tea to the plants.   Thursday, May 21 View Page Another photo of the main area but closer to ground level.   Thursday, May 21 View Page An opposite view of the main growing area.   Thursday, May 21 View Page The section where the majority of the Mac Coy, Diehl and Zaczilla plants are.   Thursday, May 21 View Page Here's the largest mega bloom I have currently. It's on a Cherokee Purple plant. Since the tomatoes from that strain average approx a pound to a pound and a half I'm going to go ahead and grow this as a giant simply due to how large the mega bloom is. If all goes well this could go over four pounds. I'm not quite sure as to the fused bloom count on the mega bloom as of yet but it's at least four blooms if not five.   Thursday, May 21 View Page Here is a bloom on one of the tomatillo plants. They are similar in shape to tomato blooms but with a more rounded peddle edge and are larger.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page Here's a shot of thee main area. All plants are doing great. Weekly foliar feeding of Compost tea and Dunkel's to the plants are resulting in them being extremely healthy.   Tuesday, May 26 View Page Here's another photo of the smaller area where I have the Mc Coy's, Foss and Zaczilla plants. I have quite a few doubles and a triple mega bloom on some of the plants. So far so good.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here is the same photo location I use on each diary update in order to measure growth. Everything is doing extremely well and is very healthy despite very dry warm weather.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Another location I use each update to measure progress. This is the other tomato area where mostly Zaczilla, Foss and Mc Coy's are at.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here is a tomato growing on one of two plants I have growing from a very large beefsteak I purchased at a grocery store last fall. As you can see it's from a single bloom. The bloom was very large so I decided to keep it and grow it as a giant to see just how heavy I can get a tomato from a single bloom.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here is the tomato growing from a five fused mega bloom on an unexpected plant. This is the Sputnik plant I have pointed out earlier. The mega bloom was too large to ignore so I'm growing it out as a giant. This is going to be very interesting.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here's what appears to be a triple on one of my 7.10 Foss plants. The plant is very healthy and strong so I'm really excited as to what this could develop into.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here's a triple on one of my 5.30 Mc Coy plants. Another super healthy and beefy plant that has the capability to grow this out. We shall see.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here's a tomatillo husk containing a growing fruit. I have many of these now that are growing. I look forward to making salsa with them.   Saturday, May 30 View Page This photo shows the Lilly pads and a water Iris in my pond.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Here's a photo showing the two tomatillo plants along with the Jarrahdale pumpkin plant in the background and Red Warty thing plant in the foreground.   Sunday, May 31 View Page Here is a photo of the tomato growing from a six fused bloom on a Pink Berkley Tie Dye. Like I have said in the past, this is not grown normally for competition but with a mega bloom of this size I could've pass it up. We'll see how she performs. WHo knows what could happen here.   Monday, June 1 View Page We're getting some good rain now. Starting yesterday evening and now today. The forecast is for rain, sometimes heavy to continue throughout most of tomorrow. We have been extremely dry and I'm very happy we're starting June off with some much needed precipitation.   Friday, June 5 View Page Here's the normal shot that I take of the main growing area. Everything is healthy with some nice tomatoes growing on some competition plants already.   Friday, June 5 View Page Here's the other photograph viewpoint I always take. This is the area where the majority of Mc Coy's, Zazilla's and Foss's are at.   Friday, June 5 View Page A nice sized mega bloom forming on one of my Zappa's.   Friday, June 5 View Page A tomato growing from a double bloom on one of my Zaczilla plants. The tomato is approx five days after he first visible growth was observed.   Monday, June 8 View Page We have received moderate to heavy rain since approx. 6:00 PM this evening. My rain barrel is full as well as the many five gallon buckets I put out to catch rain coming of the patio roof. I figure I have caught about 70 gallons so far.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page It was a very nice sunny day today ( 6/10 ) with relatively low humidity and dew point levels. It reached 86 F. Tomorrow we are predicted to reach 91 F with high humidity so I gave the tomato plants a deep watering this evening. Many large mega blooms are forming, Excellent! I'll be getting photo's up of them tomorrow or Friday.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here's the main tomato area. Everything is exploding with growth.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here's the other growing area where the Mc Coy's Foss's and Zaczilla plants are located. The first plant on the left is a 5.30 Mc Coy that is now growing a tomato from a triple fused bloom. I pruned it yesterday morning.   Friday, June 12 View Page Yes I know this is the same photo but I forgot to mention that the pruned plant on the right is an 8.41 Mc Coy growing a tomato from a triple fused bloom. I also pruned this plant yesterday morning.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here is the pruned 8.41 Mc Coy plant.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here is the tomato on the pruned 8.41 Mc Coy.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here is the pruned 5.30 Mc Coy plant.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here is the tomato growing on the 5.30 Mc Coy plant. Very interesting underside shape to the tomato.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here is an opposite view of the main growing area.   Friday, June 12 View Page Here' an opposite view of the area where many of the giants are located at.   Friday, June 12 View Page A sea of tomatillos growing in their husks.   Friday, June 12 View Page A shot of the pond this morning.   Friday, June 12 View Page Water lily blooming in the pond.   Friday, June 12 View Page Clematis vines blooming on the arbor.   Friday, June 12 View Page Began potassium schedule on all giant plants with tomatoes currently set and growing.   Friday, June 12 View Page I've also been side dressing the tomato plants with an organic granular fertilizer as well as feeding with synthetic weekly.   Friday, June 19 View Page Here is the side growing area where Mostly Zacilla's, Mac Coy's and Fosse's are located. Comparatively to the last time I photographed this area there is notably more plants that have been pruned due to having a mega bloom set.   Friday, June 19 View Page Here's the usual photo I take of the main growing area. The plants on the left and going down the line are all competition plants with many of them still not yet producing a mega bloom worth using. They are growing into some of my heirloom plants. I have to get these plants at least trimmed down to allow more air flow in this particular area. With close to fifty plants it keeps me very busy.   Friday, June 19 View Page A slightly different view of things.   Friday, June 19 View Page An opposite view of the main growing area.   Friday, June 19 View Page Now on to the tomatoes I have set. Here is one on a Mc Coy 6.88 plant at 11 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page The last tomato photo is fro a triple fused bloom. Here is a Mc Coy 8.41 from a triple bloom also at 11 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page Another Mc Coy 8.41 at 11 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page A Mc Coy 5.30 from a triple fused bloom at 12 DAP. This is the fastest growing out of my lineup so far. It's performance has been impressive thus far.   Friday, June 19 View Page Here is a underside shot of the tomato from the last entry.   Friday, June 19 View Page a Zaczilla at 7 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page A Foss 6.16 from a triple fused bloom at 8 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page A Meisner 6.25 from a four fused bloom at 12 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page A 6.25 Meisner from a triple fused bloom at 10 DAP.   Friday, June 19 View Page Yesterday evening I went to the Schnecksville Fair. It's a little community fair located in the extreme northern rural exurbs of the Lehigh Valley metro area.   Friday, June 19 View Page Enjoyed the sheep judging.   Friday, June 19 View Page I did make a pig out of myself with what I ate at the fair. LOL!!   Friday, June 19 View Page Nothing runs like a Deer   Friday, June 19 View Page I've started a new potassium schedule for the competition plants.   Sunday, June 21 View Page I took today to catch up on pruning. Quite a few plants had grown very quickly due to the rain we've been having. Always remember to prune any branches and or leaves that are close to or are touching the ground in order to lower chances of disease.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Busy busy busy with fertilizing and general plant maintenance. Hot and humid here today. Highs in the low nineties with dew points in the low seventies. Whew!!   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Here's a nice three fused bloom on one of my 6.25 Meisner plants.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Here is the largest tomato I have going at the moment. This is on one of my 5.30 Mc Coy plants. Growth has been impressive so far. I now have it in a hammock and covered fully by two white wash cloths. I will begin to take measurements in a couple of days and will post them here.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Here is the usual photo I take of the main growing area. Everything is doing very well including my pepper plants, small pumpkin plants and heirloom tomato plants.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Mammatus clouds this evening after very severe weather occurred south of us in Philadelphia and the surrounding area.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is one of the two photo's of the tomato growing area I take at each update. Here is the main growing area.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here's the other photo I take each time showing the other growing area where just competition plants are located. Here you can see many white wash cloths used to shield the tomatoes from the sun.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is a tomato growing one one of my Mac Coy 8.41 plants. It's increasing in size quite nicely.   Friday, June 26 View Page Another shot of the same tomato.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is the largest tomato currently growing. It's on one of my Mac Coy 5.30 plants. I've shown this tomato before in earlier updates. As you can see it's moving along nicely.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here's another photo of the tomato this time showing a bit of the underside.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is a tomato on a plant I just pruned this morning. It's on one of my Delmar plants and is from a three fused bloom.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is a tomato on one of my Meisner 6.25 plants. It came from a four fused bloom and is the second largest tomato growing at the moment.   Friday, June 26 View Page CORRECTION; The previous photo shows the tomato on one of my Foss 7.10 plants and is the second largest tomato growing so far.   Friday, June 26 View Page CORRECTION; The previous photo shows the tomato on one of my Foss 7.10 plants and is the second largest tomato growing so far. Here is another photo of it, this one showing the underside.   Friday, June 26 View Page A tomato on one of my 6.25 Meisner plants. This is from a three fused bloom.   Friday, June 26 View Page Here is a photo of the underside of the previous tomato.   Friday, June 26 View Page My new Step 2 garden cart. It has a decent sized storage area under the seat to hold pruners, twine, tape, gloves, etc. It even has a beverage holder. Excellent!!   Monday, June 29 View Page Much plant maintenance today. I spent a solid three hours amending soil with slow release granular fertilizer along with fungicide spraying. We've had close to two inches in the last three days so now is the time to step up the fungicide application rate.   Tuesday, June 30 View Page Funnel cloud approx. 8 blocks from my house. At least five funnel clouds along with quite a b it of damage occurred in the metro area this afternoon. There is still damage occurring in the far east part of the metro area as of this writing. We received pea sized hail for approx two minutes along with just a little rain so we got really lucky here in my immediate area despite the funnel cloud.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Happy 4th of July everyone!!!   Monday, July 6 View Page Septoria leaf spot is amongst my plants in a pretty big way. I've been spraying Daconil at double strength for a solid week on the competition plants. This has slowed the disease down to close to zero.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page More rain!!   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Dew point in the mid seventies today with partly cloudy skies. Did I just move to New Orleans???   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here is one of my larger tomatoes at the moment. This is off one of my Mac Coy 5.30 plants. It's growing in both circumference and at the bottom. It's very lumpy. It's currently measuring 18 2/8 inches at 30 DAP   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here's another shot of that tomato. As you can see he's quite lumpy.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here's another one of my larger ones. This is on one of my Mac Coy 8.41 plants. This one is a bit more dense and solid then the first one I posted. It's also 18 2/8 inches at 30 DAP.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here's another shot of the previous tomato.   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here's a tomato that's on one of my Foss 6.16 plants. I'm impressed by his growth so far. He has grown 1.5 inches in 24 hours to 16 1/2 inches at 23 DAP. This is the first tomato I have officially named this season. He will now be known from this day forward as J. Robert Oppenheimer named after the theoretical physicist who will be forever known as the father of the Atomic bomb. BOOM!!!! Explosive!!   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Here's another photo of Oppenheimer on the plant.   Thursday, July 9 View Page Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project headed by Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer.   Thursday, July 9 View Page To honor that historic event I present to you Trinity. Trinity is from a six fused bloom on one of my own 4.46 Diehl plants. The six fused bloom is the largest I've had so far this season. Trinity's growth is impressive as it should be. He is at 5 DAP   Thursday, July 9 View Page As you can see Trinity is going to be quite large.   Thursday, July 9 View Page Trinity is from my 4.46 LB Big Zac from 2013 pictured here.   Thursday, July 9 View Page On the 2nd we went to the Kutztown Folk Festival held approx 20 mts southwest of here in Kutztown, PA. It's a celebration of all things Pennsylvania Dutch. Dutch meaning German. Food, food and more food along with Amish and Mennonite crafts and collectables. I go every year.   Thursday, July 9 View Page An Amish buggy hanging out at the folk festival while it's horse was being cared for and fed. I didn't see any sign of Lebanon Levi or any other member of the Amish Mafia.   Sunday, July 12 View Page What did ya have for dinner?? Glad you asked. I had bacon wrapped crab stuffed sirloin. Delicious!! Arby's isn't the only one that has the meats!!   Sunday, July 12 View Page Trinity continues to grow rapidly. A hair short of 12 " CC as of this evening.   Sunday, July 12 View Page The garden's new mascot; Dr. Edward Moolenbeek the praying mantis.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page More rain...........   Tuesday, July 14 View Page Here's Trinity as of a few minutes ago. I apologize for the dark quality of the photo. As I was measuring CC and taking the photo it began to pour rain so I rushed. Trinity is now 12 7/8 ". A better photo will be taken as soon as I can get back outside.   Tuesday, July 14 View Page Here's another shot of Trinity. I was able to get back outside between downpours. He's increasing in size rapidly.   Thursday, July 16 View Page Today marks the seventieth anniversary of the Trinity test conducted by the U.S. military under the code name Manhattan Project. This was the first detonation of an atomic bomb in world history.   Friday, July 17 View Page Here is my only Zaczilla. It's quite dense measuring 19 " CC at 34 DAP.   Friday, July 17 View Page Oppenheimer has slowed but still looks impressive on the plant. He's currently at 19 " CC at 32 DAP.   Friday, July 17 View Page Here's Trinity this afternoon. In this photo you can see the interesting growth occurring both on top and underneath in the form of lobes. He's currently measuring 14 2/8 inches.   Friday, July 17 View Page Here's one of my Jarrahdale pumpkins currently on the vine. When finished growing they take on a blue color.   Friday, July 17 View Page Here's my one and only Red Warty Thing so far. Hopefully I'll have a few more going shortly.   Saturday, July 18 View Page That about sums it up.   Sunday, July 19 View Page We're under an excessive heat warning until tomorrow evening at 8:00 PM. Today's high is expected to reach 94 F with a dew point at 74 F. As I write this the temperature is 91 F and the humidity level is set at sauna level.   Monday, July 20 View Page Here is Trinity as of this afternoon. CC is 16 6/8 inches at approx. 18 DAP.   Monday, July 20 View Page Here's an underside shot of Trinity.   Monday, July 20 View Page Here is a tomato I haven't shown yet. It is on a Delmar plant on the third truss. Growth has been good. Measurement is 17 6/8 " at approx. 21 DAP. This is one of two tomatoes sitting on Delmar plants that are side by side with one another. Because of this I'm calling them the Delmar brothers. This is Brother number one.   Monday, July 20 View Page An underside shot of brother number one.   Monday, July 20 View Page Here's Delmar brother number two. Measurement is 18 2/8 " at approx 21 DAP.   Monday, July 20 View Page Here's an underside shot of brother number two.   Thursday, July 23 View Page Our heatwave broke. We are going to have a very nice day with temp's in the low eighties accompanied by low humidity. I checked on all the plants and everything is looking good. Trinity continues to increase in size quickly as well as the Delmar brothers. On that note I believe I'll head to the lake to enjoy this weather!