Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 10 Entries. Thursday, January 4 View Page My three entries for the indoor giant tomato contest at 37 days from seed. The RW Cephei continues to look like the healthiest and most vigorous plant, but there are no signs of bud formation yet.   Wednesday, January 17 View Page I've had to tie down plants because they grew up too close to the light and there is no room to increase the space between the bulb and the vines. Several leaflets are scorched. I've also added cheesecloth in strategic locations. The Domingo megabloom is a 4X, but is looking like a dud. The RW Cephei plant is still very healthy, but the growing tip split into 3 stems. I removed two of them, and tiny single flower buds are developing on the remaining stem. We’ll see if maybe a megabloom will develop on a second truss in a couple of weeks. The Big Zac plant, on the other hand, has developed an impressive ribbon/fused stem, with a 3X+ megabloom developing. I trimmed back excess leaves and suckers. That Big Zac bud is the one pictured.   Friday, February 9 View Page Blossom end rot! Even with one of the most expensive potting mixes available. I'm thinking at least these two mistakes: 1) Using filtered, rather than plain tap water; 2) Leaving the heating cables on 24-7; I have remedied both. We'll see if additional fruits take. Updates for each plant - Domingo - Picture shows three tomatoes. The black one on the far right got bad BER right from the start. It's gone now. The other two came from the megabloom shown in my last photo. They were very slow to set fruit, as there was almost no pollen available. Then one on the left also got BER, so I removed it this morning. The one in the center might be my only hope for a 1-lb. tomato from this indoor giant tomato project. The RW Cephei vine is directly under the light and is pretty much scorched, leaves and buds. Not expecting anything from that. The Big Zac vine had the beginnings of a massive megabloom that never fully developed. But there is a much smaller 3X blossom that took. The fruit is growing, slowly, so we'll see how it does.   Monday, March 12 View Page About two weeks ago took a photo of the tomatoes in my winter indoor giant tomato growing project. I forgot to replace the fabric shading the Domingo fruit. Bad sunscald (metal halide light scald rather) resulted and the fruit started showing signs of ripening within a couple of days. Now it's about half ripe and most definitely done growing. This may reach only a half pound or so. The RW Cephei plant is just starting to set fruit and the single Big Zac fruit is growing very slowly and won't even reach a half pound. With the deadline (first day of Spring) just around the corner - I will say that I will never attempt to grow indoors again with such a cramped and limiting space. The power bill alone...   Monday, March 19 View Page Well, here is my only entry for the Winter Indoor Giant Tomato Competition: Domingo (0.548 Thurber 2018)(3.420 Thurber 2017) That's right, just over 1/2 pound, harvested on March 16, 2018. This was the fourth tomato to set fruit. I removed the earlier ones because of blossom end rot or because they were growing even more slowly. I still have a Big Zac fruit growing, but it is barely the size of a tennis ball. There are also four RW Cephei fruits that are growing, but they are all smaller than ping pong balls. Need More Space . . .   Monday, March 19 View Page Here is another look at the Domingo (0.548 Thurber 2018)(3.420 Thurber 2017) Looking for MUCH better and bigger results in six months months or so!   Wednesday, June 20 View Page Weather has been cooperating and I'm getting some promising megablooms on tomato vines in my giant tomato project! Nothing monstrous, but several in the 4X-6X range. Attached picture is of Domingo (3.420 DT 2017). For others and a short video, please see my blog post: https://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/inducing-tomato-vines-to-produce-megablooms/   Monday, July 30 View Page I had a lot of nice megablooms early on. See blog post: https://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/inducing-tomato-vines-to-produce-megablooms/ Right now the most promising tomato, photo included is: Big Zac (1.246 DT 2016)(7.10 Foss 2014) But at the modest rate it is growing, I doubt it will even hit 3 lbs. The heat is making it quite challenging to get blossoms to set fruit. I also have a couple of giant pumpkin plants growing, but fruits are rotting on the vine and I cannot keep up with squash bugs. Only one pumpkin is actually growing, albeit slowly.   Saturday, September 1 View Page First two pound tomato of the season is from the variety Hercegovac. No, this is NOT from one of the 50 tomato giant tomato project vines in the high tunnel, but from out in the middle of the open field: no pruning, no thinning, no removal of lower leaves, minimal tying up, no shade cloth, and no fertilizing, aside from a little manure added last Fall. I am almost convinced that all that pruning and thinning and removing of lower leaves is not only a waste of time, but quite counter-productive. My giant tomato project has been quite a flop this year, despite putting a lot of time and effort into pruning, thinning, removing leaves and suckers, tying them up, etc. Here's a quick tour of the high tunnel on August 7th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFpvWzaJOE&t=91s   Saturday, September 1 View Page With the giant tomato project, I prune to only two stems and thin to one tomato per truss. On this Hercegovac vine, I did none of that. Within the frame of this picture, there is probably at least 12 lbs. worth of tomatoes. Maybe next year for my giant tomato project, I will at least cut way back on the pruning and thinning. And of course take better care of the soil.