Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 205 Entries. Saturday, January 4 View Page Rebel. Not only can he grow big tomatoes, he can lay a 100’ tree out exactly where he wants it!   Saturday, January 4 View Page You see, Rebel isn’t a lumberjack for a very good reason! Now the idiot needs to purchase a new 1,500 gallon water tank for his garden! See a Rebel cry!   Saturday, April 25 View Page Cooking and enjoying a fire in the fire pit before the hot summer bans it all. We got some chicken thighs and salsa verde going in the dutch oven.   Saturday, April 25 View Page Some vegetables to top it off.   Saturday, April 25 View Page This is Kodiak Mustard from Wallace Organic Wonder 5 weeks after planting. Just prior to that I amended with 100 lbs alfalfa pellets and 25 lbs Capril lime and tilled in. Today, foliar sprayed with liquid kelp. Also threw down a 5 lb bag of Epsom Salts magnesium in my 60' x 35' garden spot.   Saturday, April 25 View Page OK! This is the tomato seed line up for this year. Not messing around. Going with only 1 Big Zac, the remaining are crosses and Domingo's. Also, experimenting with some generic Domingo's and Bezrazmernyi from Delectation of Tomato company. Bezrazmernyi from Russia translates to "Dimensionless or Enormous." Who could go wrong with that? Where would we be if it wasn't for experimenting outside the box.   Saturday, April 25 View Page First few popping up. I run the heat kind of high 95-102F. Came home from work to find my seed heaters turned off so they sat wet and cold for 4 days. Cranked it up and after 3 days the first few are popping up. First up are several 6.66 Big Marley's. I expect the Domingo's to take a few days longer. Won't be long before I have 80+ seedlings up. From that I will transplant 75% of those to 5" pots. Throughout May I will narrow things down. The plan is 40 in the garden.   Saturday, April 25 View Page Eating tomatoes in the house. Transplanted those today. Also, large sweet peppers. I will need another table or two for the competition tomatoes on deck.   Saturday, May 2 View Page I have ridden my mountain bike every week for the last two years, usually 15-25 miles. Since the pandemic, everything is closed outdoors. Even remote mountain trails for biking and hiking, you know, because the fresh Oregon mountain air is dangerous. The occasional biker I pass might sneeze in my face. But after two months I found some open trails, and even with the drive, it was worth it. And nobody sneezed in my face because there was nobody.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Competition tomato seeds coming along at 14 days. Third row from the left is a mostly no show 5.71 Lambchop. Not to worry. Three came up in the other tray. Far left 7.64 Spaziani that I started several days later than the others. 2nd row, some nice looking 9.65's. Far right two rows 6.66's. All the other rows everything in between.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Same tray outside catching some natural light. There is an empty spot on the right. Rookie mistake! Never ever try to help the seed shell off the leaves! Destroyed one 6.66.   Saturday, May 2 View Page The other tray. Two and half Lambchops, third row from left. 5/8 9.65 Porkchops, A bunch of 7.64's double stacked far left. Far right two rows, 6.66's. The very front empty row are some cherry tomatoes I started two days ago.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Back to the first tray. Bottom three, 2nd row from the left are the Big Wixoms. Sharing the same row as the 9.65 Porkchops. The largest starters of both trays. A few 6.66's Big Marley's far right close but.. Either way, the crosses are king with the starts. But, we are not making a salad, only the heaviest tomato.   Saturday, May 2 View Page I know I showed this last week, but real happy with the Kodak Mustard. With 3 weeks before I cut and till, I don't think it'll make it to flower. That's where you want it. Either way, it will be 3-4 feet tall and a lot of biomass.   Saturday, May 2 View Page Rebel's flag.   Monday, May 11 View Page Some of my 7.64’s are growing bent over. But don’t you know that’s a sign of unusually large fruit? Went they hit the garden I’ll force those baby’s up!   Monday, May 11 View Page Here is another photo of the 7.64’s. Not sure what that’s about. Not wilting. The stem is firm. No ferts. They will be transplanted to larger pots on Wednesday and put into the greenhouse.   Wednesday, May 13 View Page I’ve lived here for 28 years and have never seen a slug so large! It’s been hanging out around the pump house and have seen it about for two weeks.   Wednesday, May 13 View Page I can’t and won’t kill it! The other day I found it wrapped around a block of mouse poison. Thought it would kill it for sure. Had it identified as a banana slug without spots.   Friday, June 5 View Page Last rototill day before I plant the tomato plants. Included are some amendments: 25 cu.ft. of Perlite, 50 lbs of kelp meal, 8 yards of compost (50% mint, 25% chicken, 25% steer).   Friday, June 5 View Page Tomato plants dying to be put into the garden....next week.   Friday, June 5 View Page I need to narrow it down. There are 60. Forty into the garden and 3 for the 5 gallon bucket challenge.   Friday, June 5 View Page It snowed! Just on my garden.   Friday, June 5 View Page Ahhhh.. Perfect. I think I will put my rows north and south or lengthwise this year. Instead of the usual east/west.   Sunday, June 14 View Page Prepping for planting tomato plants. I put down solar mulch and boards. Then measured for plants 4’ and 7’ apart. Then heated a briquettes chimney with a torch to quickly melt out holes where I measured.   Sunday, June 14 View Page Here the old grey haired Garden Rebel is making holes.   Sunday, June 14 View Page I can knock out about 8 holes before I have to re-heat again. That’s enough squatting for one day. Time for some fishing!   Sunday, June 14 View Page Went to the local pond and caught the largest bass of my life! Well, only the third bass I’ve ever caught so..   Sunday, June 14 View Page My son went with me. “I’ll fish my way!” he says. Just waiting for him to fall in. Never did. To be young, daring, and have good balance again. He landed a couple anyway from shore.   Sunday, June 14 View Page These are the amendments I put into my planting hole. Yes, 4 WOW starter paks per hole. Up from 2-3 last year.   Sunday, June 14 View Page Chris Konieczny, this is some planting advise for you. Sprinkle this around your plants and it should keep the critters away this year.   Sunday, June 14 View Page Porkchop, this is for you. Sprinkle this around your plants. Should keep Lambchop away.   Sunday, June 14 View Page And here we have it! Forty-three comp tomato plants. Planted in the pouring down rain of course. Three 5 gallon bucket tomatoes also. Next up will be drip lines and temporary fencing. Something tells me I should of installed fencing first. Warm weather is finally here this week.   Saturday, June 20 View Page Enjoying some local Rebel hard cider for my birthday, sons high school graduation, nieces Stanford graduation, and Fathers Day. A great day to be alive.   Sunday, June 21 View Page Just for fun a few first truss pre-blooms. Probably won’t take as they were just transplanted last week. This one is from a 6.66 Big Marley.   Sunday, June 21 View Page Another 6.66.   Sunday, June 21 View Page This one is a Big Wixom cross.   Sunday, June 21 View Page And a 6.54 Porkchop “Frank the Tank”.   Sunday, June 21 View Page Here is a beast emerging from the 5.74 LaRue (5.95 Konieczny). Looking for the magic seed this year.   Sunday, June 21 View Page But all is not well. Many of my plants are suffering from what I think is mosaic virus. After some research online I think it occurred when someone me aphids snuck into the greenhouse when I was out of town. I read they can transmit this virus. Leaves and flowers stunted, especially the 9.65’s and 5.71’s. And here I though it was caused from Porkchop smoking while harvesting seeds.   Sunday, June 21 View Page Here’s another from the 9.65. Totally sucks. Read you can’t spray it away. Never had it before. Hopefully it grows out? It’s weird. 4/7 of the 9.65’s have it, 4/5 5.71’s have it, none of the Frank the Tanks have it. None of my 6.66’s have it and I have like 12, a couple of my 7.64’s have it, none of he LaRue plants have it. I have never seen this disease before. I’ve been transplanting my diseased ones with extra potted ones I was going to terminate soon.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page Ailsa Craig giant onion flowers. Grown from the largest onion last year into seeds this year.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page Seed started Ailsa Craig onions coming along.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page Onions have been an easy grow for me. Always think early. In the ground by the end of March. I end up giving away most of them.   Wednesday, June 24 View Page A first megabloom from the 6.66. Now, this one didn't take and I'm not surprised. Plants have been in the ground for only two weeks. The plant decided, "nope, I'm not ready". You can tell when it doesn't take when the stem begins to crack right before falling off. It was expected. The largest flower doesn't necessarily mean the largest fruit. When the plant grows large I'll choose a 3-4 fused somewhere in my many growth tips. It will be the largest flower in the groups of flowers in the next month. The root system is large then and the plant will be ready. My plants went into the garden 1 week older this year which didn't help with first megablooms. We will see. There are plenty of large first megablooms in the patch that will be ready for pollination in the next 7-10 days.   Thursday, June 25 View Page My 5 gallon bucket plants are nicer that my garden plants! Must be the greenhouse. From left: Bezrazmernyi (Giant Russian Herloom), 7.64 Spaz Domingo, 6.66 Spaz Big Marley. First time container growing. All have nice megablooms on top and should be ready in a week or so.   Thursday, June 25 View Page Diary note: Foliar application of Lithovit to tomato plants today.   Thursday, June 25 View Page Bezrazmernyi megabloom in 5 gallon bucket.   Thursday, June 25 View Page 7.64 Spaz Domingo in 5 gallon bucket.   Thursday, June 25 View Page 6.66 Spaz in 5 gallon bucket. This is a lot of fun! Up to this point. The tough part I would think is the later in the season while carrying fruit. I really don’t know what I’m doing.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Five gallon bucket challenge plants. Never seen anything like it. Just planted them two weeks ago and they are up to my chest. From left to right: 6.66, 7.64, and Bezrazmernyi Russian Heirloom. The first large megablooms are now emerging and should be open in 5-7 days.   Saturday, June 27 View Page The plants have doubled in size since planting in the garden two weeks ago. The first megablooms should be open on 75% of them in 5-7 days.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Just a sampling of whats to come. This is from the 5.71 Lambchop. There a couple more that are similar.   Saturday, June 27 View Page 7.64 Spaziani Domingo.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Quite impressive this year is the 5.74 LaRue (5.95 Konieczny)   Saturday, June 27 View Page Not all have big blooms right off the bat. This 6.66 is one of a few that has regular singles. Oh well. This one will produce a larger tomato down the road later in the season. Patience.   Saturday, June 27 View Page Tomato count: 6.66 Spaziani Big Marley 14, 7.64 Spaziani Domingo 7, 9.65 Porkchop 4, 5.71 Lambchop 3, 5.74 LaRue Domingo 4, Big Wixom cross 3, 5.08 LaRue 3, 6.54 Porkchop "Frank the Tank" 2, Generic no name Domingo 1, 8.65 Schenk the only Big Zac 2.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Happy 4th everyone! I was supposed to put my drip lines in today but not happening. Between cooking and relaxing it will have to wait. Watering by hand for now.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Bucket challenge going well! Still can't believe how well these things grow in a 5 gallon bucket. Nice first truss megablooms on the tops of all three.   Saturday, July 4 View Page First bucket is the Bezrazmernyi Russian giant. Never grew them before. Unusual nice big megabloom. Fuzzy leaves.   Saturday, July 4 View Page 2nd bucket challenge is a nice fatty from the 7.64.   Saturday, July 4 View Page In the 3rd bucket we have a nice 6.66. Pollen flew on this one today! Don't know what to expect. Surely don't know what I'm doing with these buckets. I just know not to over love them.   Saturday, July 4 View Page The 6.66 has been far and away the biggest early producer. May have something to do with the fact I have 14 of them and have home court advantage! When there isn't a large first truss megabloom, there are these super multiple singles on the first truss. I counted at least 35 on this one. There are several more the same. I'm curious and will let them grow to see what I'll get.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Out in the garden. On this 7.64 I see the second truss flowers on the main forming. Not bad but not like the first truss megabloom. Probably a 2-3 fused in a couple of weeks. I'm experimenting this year and micro surgery cutting off the little ones around it. This is just encase the blurry first truss in the background doesn't make it.   Saturday, July 4 View Page And this is after.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Oh, and about the 7.64 megabloom. It's following the same path as its mom!   Saturday, July 4 View Page And right next to the 7.64 is this 5.71 Lambchop! Pretty excited about this one. It's as big as it looks. Going to have to tie up the stem so when it goes over 9 lbs it doesn't snap right off.   Saturday, July 4 View Page ...and right next to the first Lambchop is a second Lambchop! This one is standing straight up.   Saturday, July 4 View Page And this is why I don't cut off secondary's or suckers. This is a first truss megabloom on the first secondary, or sucker, from the base. From the 9.65 Porkchop. I've been struggling with the 9.65 all season and I don't know why. It misses NY. But I still hold out hope as the season rolls on.   Saturday, July 4 View Page This Porkchop loves Oregon! Here we have a 6.64 Porkchop Frank the Tank.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Oh boy! Wrap around ball of flowers. Hope this 6.66 takes. The stem thinks it'll go 10 lbs.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Not to be outdone with its ball of flowers is an impressive BIG WIXOM. Great weather for the next week. Not too hot or cold. Dry. Hope some of these early mega's take and grow. Good luck everyone!   Sunday, July 5 View Page Typo. 6.54 Porkchop Frank the Tank, not 6.64   Tuesday, July 7 View Page Good 4th   Wednesday, July 8 View Page The 6.66 may of pollinated.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page The 7.64 starting pollination. Probably the largest early megablossom I've ever grown. I counted at least 12 fused in the ball of flowers. Quite a few haven't opened up yet.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page It's grow time! One of two first pollination's this year! This one is the 7.64 dap1. Swelling little fruits all over in there. Notice I don't get greedy and start pulling off the dead petals.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Another 7.64 still in pollination mode.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page This 5.71 Lambchop is crazy! Not sure whats going under there unless I get a mirror. A lot of pollination going on under that umbrella. A lot more going on in the garden.   Saturday, July 11 View Page First, I do have a few pollinated and several tomatoes growing in the garden. Some are in the process of pollination including this huge 5.71 Lambchop! Friggen beast of a flower. Hope it translates into a friggen beast of a tomato!   Saturday, July 11 View Page 7.64 Bucket tomato. The largest flower I've ever tried to pollinate this early. It just keeps opening up more flowers.   Saturday, July 11 View Page It's a bouquet of tomato flowers! It just keeps opening up more from the bottom. 14? 16? It's a perfect flower, round, with everything attached perfectly. Of course the hardest part is yet to come. Anybody can grow a flower.   Saturday, July 18 View Page Now back to the real garden. I have several growing but never mind those. There is this plant called the Big Wixom cross by Chris Konieczny. I am hoping this will be the result he is hoping for.   Sunday, July 19 View Page Three tomato plants grown in a 5 gallon bucket. 6.66, 7.64, and Bezrazmernyi Russian heirloom. The 6.66 in the front has a fist sized one that has a touch of BER. I'll cut back on the watering. The 7.64 in the middle has one pollinated and started. The third one had a first truss megabloom but didn't take. Looking at a nice one emerging on a secondary.   Sunday, July 19 View Page 7.64 5 gallon bucket. Looks like it all took at 4 dap.   Sunday, July 19 View Page 7.64 backside. Pretty excited here except for the physical challenges of how this will grow into the stem. Everything is fused and nothing separate. It is what it is.   Sunday, July 19 View Page 7.64 side view. I am not touching it. Fingers for reference. Not measuring it. Guessing about 8" at 4 dap. Out of all the 7.64's in the garden, this one in the bucket had to be the largest megabloom. If only I could of grown it in the garden.   Saturday, July 25 View Page Went on an epic mountain bike trip the last few days. Nothing like tearing up the old body.   Saturday, July 25 View Page Oregon's finest.   Saturday, July 25 View Page Thinking about what next to do with my tomato plants. I cant get away. Actually, three days of not even a garden contemplation. What a relief.   Saturday, July 25 View Page Reality is never too far away. The three 5 gallon plants. One tomato has a healing BER, one is growing OK, the other hasn't pollinated yet.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The first 5 gallon tomato growing with a drying BER on the opposite side. The 6.66 Big Marley. Never water a ton of water at once. Now 1 gallon every two days with light fertilizer each time.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The second 5 gallon tomato is from the 7.64 Domingo. Front view. Right at 10 dap and 11.25"   Saturday, July 25 View Page 7.64 back view.   Saturday, July 25 View Page 7.64 side view. I haven't really seen a real difference yet in growing a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket v.s. the garden. Still a long way to go. Not sure what I'm doing. Just slow and steady.   Saturday, July 25 View Page A closer look shows this massive bloom! Just for the record it is on the third secondary up from the bottom, first truss. Never cut your secondaries at first. I have already started cutting half the tips growing and cutting other blossoms. The problem is we are in the upper 90's close to 100F the next couple of days. A blazing hot sun and heat doesn't do well for pollination.   Saturday, July 25 View Page So I had to get creative and put an umbrella up to shield from the sun. Will it be enough? I don't know.   Saturday, July 25 View Page And there you have it. One battle out of many going on. All we want is to have one winner. One to feel good about for the season.   Sunday, July 26 View Page There was a missing photo with description for the previous photo’s. It’s the Big Wixom.   Thursday, July 30 View Page This Chris Konieczny Big Wixom megabloom is huge! It looks like most of it took. For the record it is the first truss, third secondary up from the bottom.   Thursday, July 30 View Page Now here is something pretty cool. This 6.66 Big Marley cross didn’t necessarily produce a giant tomato, but giant trusses with triple the tomatoes! The huge trusses were all over the plant. I picked the largest and cut down the rest as well as trimmed down the plant. There were at least 30 flowers but 11 took and are growing. The tomato at the bottom is a multi bloom. I had to make a hammock so the whole thing doesn’t snap off. This would be a great completion next year! Total weight.   Saturday, August 1 View Page Tomato plants and umbrellas. Nearly overwhelmed.   Saturday, August 1 View Page 5 gallon bucket.   Saturday, August 1 View Page Hammock   Saturday, August 1 View Page Hammock   Saturday, August 1 View Page Hammock   Saturday, August 1 View Page Hammock. Everything looking good. Everything here are first truss megablooms pollinated the second and third weekend of July. I figure 35 more days plus for all of these. They are all measuring 18.00'-19.50".   Saturday, August 1 View Page Permanently branded with my rear mountain bike disc brake pattern. Last week I crashed while going downhill. Upside down in a pile of logs, I feel this searing pain on my calf. Thought the gears had sliced into my leg. Hours later I see this and it hasn't changed. A week later it hasn't changed. Fine with me.   Saturday, August 1 View Page Drenched tomato plants with molasses and mixed in powdered kelp 0-0-17.   Saturday, August 1 View Page Every summer our field is ablaze with queen Anne's lace or wild carrot. A western weed if you will. In a couple of days it will be a full moon. Around midnight on the full moon it is super bright and pretty cool to walk around in. Then soon after I mow it all down before it becomes too much of a fire hazard.   Thursday, August 6 View Page One of my larger tomatoes (7.64) was coming along nicely. But it always bugged me if was fully fused or not. There is nothing like getting to the finish line just to find out you have two tomatoes. So in an impulsive snap of my scissors I cut it off.   Thursday, August 6 View Page So I don’t know. It snapped when I broke it in half. Held together by the smallest of margins. The stem had brown in it but it was dry and not rotten. Not sure what causes that. Oh well. There’s a quarter sized new pollination on the same plant so not all is lost.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Nice hike yesterday to the top of Black Butte on the east side of the mountains here in Oregon.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Looking north over the Cascade mountains. Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, and the farthest you can barely see Mt. St. Helens.   Saturday, August 8 View Page My wife. What a tree hugger! Some of the largest and oldest Ponderosa Pines I've seen. I'm guestimating 400-600 years old.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Tomato garden. Overwhelmed is an understatement. I started growing these things as a less time consuming hobby than growing pumpkins. Well, it's double the work considering I plant more and more plants every year. Trimming off new growth. Tying up branches. Forget the weeds. There will have to be weeds. There are 25 in hammocks at various stages. A lot of new ones in the last week.   Saturday, August 8 View Page So right off the bat we have the 7.64 5-gallon bucket challenge tomato. Perfect tomato with no issues. It keeps surprising me with its growth.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is the backside of the 7.64 bucket. Currently at 25 dap. and fully fused. Keeping right up with the largest in the garden. I don't get it. I thought growing in a bucket would produce fist size one at most.   Saturday, August 8 View Page 7.64 bucket backside. I may of already submitted this. There was a computer glitch right at the same time when I was posting.   Saturday, August 8 View Page 5.74 LaRue at 25 dap.   Saturday, August 8 View Page A 7.64 around 30 dap. This one was the first pollinated and will be the first to blush.   Saturday, August 8 View Page A lot of hammock ones are in this stage. I'd say the second wave of tomatoes. The end of September and beginning of October will be a busy time picking and weighing.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is a beauty off the generic 3.42 Domingo. A Domingo not from any of the typical giant genetic lines and ordered online. I always like the 4 leaf clover shape.   Saturday, August 8 View Page 8.65 Schenck, the only Big Zac in the garden.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Hey! It's Rebels nest. Nest of 11 tomato baby's all on one truss.   Saturday, August 8 View Page And inside that next is a bassinet of growing tomatoes! Boy, they are getting so big! The one at the bottom was a megabloom that is probably a 3 lb tomato. The rest are 1-2 lbs. And we have weeks to go. I'm going to have to reinforce the hammock. This is off the 6.66 Big Marley. This plant grew some super large, triple the size trusses.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Here is my only Big Wixom at 12 dap. She Rebel wanted to name it "The Jurassic", so it is. It was doing fine until we had a rare August rain and just like that it got some BER. Since the cure of BER is always experimental for me, I sprayed some Calcium Chloride mixed with Dunkels on it. It seemed to stop dead in its tracks and hasn't worsened over the last few days. Either way, Jurassic will have some battle scars.   Friday, August 14 View Page Tomato’s Tomato’s everywhere! More hammocks every day. I’m running out of supplies. Most are in this stage to finish off the year. Thought I would give the 9.65 Porkchop some representation. About 10 days old,   Friday, August 14 View Page The oldest one out there is this 7.64. Pushing 40 days. I really don’t have anything the write Eddy about. It’s just one of those things, you do everything you think you’re supposed to do. Plants look good. It’s supposed to be over 100F the next two days. Still there’s no place I’d rather be than wondering the garden, micro managing every plant.   Friday, August 14 View Page Here we have a 5.08 LaRue Domingo. I like it’s shape. There is another tomato at the bottom that fuses it together. It’s middle age and still has a few weeks left.   Friday, August 14 View Page Here’s another Domingo from the 5.74 LaRue.   Friday, August 14 View Page Most of my excitement hasn’t been on individual tomatoes in the garden, but the unexpected. Like all these on one truss! Eleven all together. The one at the bottom is over 20”. From the 6.66 Big Marley. Being it’s second year out as a cross you get all kinds of anomalies. I’ll take this one and grow it again next year. Not just this truss, but all the trusses were mega sized. I cut them off to feed this one.   Friday, August 14 View Page The 6.66 with its bassinet of tomatolings.   Friday, August 14 View Page The Jurassic. AKA Big Wixom. What started out as a huge promising megabloom now has some challenges. It’s gone through it’s BER time period and is now healed. Now the stem is splitting into three ways as each tomato expands. Structurally it’s a mess. One of the most unique tomatoes I’ve grown for sure. There is another similar tomato growing on the plant with the tomatoes being rearranged more in a big triangle. It’s doing well. I’ll leave them both on the plant. I’ll keep the seeds for sure. This new Big Wixom has the potential to grow some monsters, hence The Jurassic.   Friday, August 14 View Page Of course who would of ever expected my largest tomato would grow out of a 5 gallon bucket? Either something is really wrong in my garden or this is the magic 7.64 that I happened to put in a bucket. It’s at 31 dap. I hope it has a couple of weeks left, but with over 100F the next couple of days, I don’t know. I’ve thrown a big tarp over the greenhouse and set up a fan. I’m more excited about this than anything. Thanks Tomato Tim for suggesting a 5 gallon bucket challenge. This is equivalent to the AG 150sq./ft comp. I would think,   Tuesday, August 18 View Page 7.64 grown in a 5 gallon bucket on plywood update. Currently at 35 dap. I put a tarp over the greenhouse letting in less light, keeping the area cool. I also put a fan creating constant air flow during these hot summer days. Watering with diluted water soluble kelp every two days. Really difficult to measure being in a sling and slippery, but what I got was 26.25"x 25.50"x 23.0". It is still growing and grew from 25" to 26" in 3 days. Approaching my PB of 7.64, so hopefully I can squeeze at least 10 more days out of it.   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Screw the garden! It's bigger than anything I have out there. All that cost of garden prep and planting. All I needed was a bucket and premium soil. Next year a larger greenhouse full of tomato plants in buckets!   Saturday, August 22 View Page I’ve been unplugged from the world on a 5 day permit only, high elevation, long ass uphill/downhill mountain top, not for sissy’s backpack trip. As long as my legs will carry this old body uphill, I’ll be there.   Saturday, August 22 View Page Pure bliss at 7,000 ft. Nobody around. The only extras I brought was a flask bourbon and a folding camp chair to sip it in.   Saturday, August 22 View Page One of the day hikes was to a place where much of the obsidian supply for Native American arrow points come from. They used to mine it here and trade it all over the west. It was a spiritual place.   Saturday, August 22 View Page The snow recently just melted so wildflowers were everywhere. You’d think Porkchop had landscaped it.   Saturday, August 22 View Page It took everything in my power to stand on the edge of this cliff.   Saturday, August 22 View Page Just for the record, last week I did pick and weigh my first 5 gallon bucket tomato from a 6.66 Big Marley. The BER is healed and dry.   Sunday, August 23 View Page I'm getting several distinct variations of the 6.66 Big Marley with it's F2 year. Two plants are producing very large singles way too heavy for the plant to hold. This truss has 4 fifteen to eighteen inch tomatoes. I set them on a log.   Sunday, August 23 View Page This one has 11 tomatoes. Most are 15-16" except the bottom one is easily over 20". The bottom one is starting to blush and I'll pick the whole thing this week. I'll pick it, spread it out on a table, weigh the whole thing. I definitely will grow the seeds of these with the hopes that a megabloom will form with these types of fat tomatoes in it. Otherwise, a good producer of large tomatoes.   Sunday, August 23 View Page I have a few 6.66's that are multi bloomed like this. Still a long ways to go. The 6.66 was late into the season last year so I would expect all the others to be also.   Sunday, August 23 View Page There are 17 6.66 plants. Some are producing some fast grow fatty's like this one.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here's a nice three way 6.66 at 21.50". All the 6.66's seem to be later season with large plants. When they do take this time of year they are fast growers with a large plant systems behind them.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here is The Jurassic. A freak of a monstrosity from this Big Wixom. The stem splitting into three ways. Unfortunately, it is not fused. Such a large blossom. I'll grow it out anyways and plant it again. That's what happens when you mix genetics. Sometimes you get Frankensteins. Sorry Chris, I'll keep trying. I know the big potential is in there somewhere.   Sunday, August 23 View Page But, on the same Big Wixom plant as The Jurassic is this fully fused one. Hope to grow this one big and carry it to the finish line. One of the other Big Wixoms I have are growing huge singles that I'll grow out and eat.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here is what Porkchop refers to when he says "there are bombs out west". This 5.08 LaRue Domingo is no exception. Measuring 26" circumference and 26" across the top. I can't get a measurement top to bottom, but I'll guess 22-23". There is also a medium tomato on the bottom fusing it all together. The cool thing about this one is that it's young and has a long way to go.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Rookie mistake alert! Five days ago I made a change on my watering system to increase watering times. Well, I didn't push start. So my entire tomato garden wasn't watered for 5 days. Several tomatoes prematurely turned red including this one. So I pushed start. Hopefully, I don't blow up the rest. So much for consistent watering. It's the 5.74 LaRue at 24.50" and 40 dap. Usually I can squeeze out 10 more days. I'll weigh it for GPC and get on the board. Hope to get 5 lbs.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Big onions ready to go.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here is the bucket that the 7.64 is growing in for reference. Nothing special.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here is the 7.64 bucket at 40 dap busting at the seams.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Here is her backside. Looks good all over. We are in the home stretch!   Sunday, August 23 View Page Reached another milestone on the 7.64. So for those who care it's 27.00"x 26.50"x 23.00. Very awkward to measure. It's not a ball and there are a lot of air spaces in between everything. It's been growing .25" per day.   Thursday, August 27 View Page Time to pick this truss of tomatoes. There are 11 on this 6.66 Big Marley vine.   Thursday, August 27 View Page Man this sucker is heavy! It was like delivering a baby when I cut it off the plant. Heading down to the market to get it weighed.   Thursday, August 27 View Page I carried it a pillow case. A couple of tomatoes broke off when I pulled it out and put it on the scale. The stores regular digital scale was too small at this vegetable stand so had to use this scale. So a tad over 18 lbs!   Thursday, August 27 View Page While there I weighed my 2nd tomato, a 5.47 from the 7.64.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page Picked this 8.65 Schenk today. A big brown spider came running out of the center of it and ran up my arm. I threw the tomato and screamed like a little boy. This 5.59 lb. tomato is beautiful but will never count because it’s not one tomato, it’s two. Needs to show one continuous flesh.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page But none the less, I weighed a 6.52 off of the 5.08 LaRue.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page The only good thing about being in the mid 90’s every day for the next 10 days are the warm evenings and nights for tomato growth. Hot days will really hurry things along whether I like it or not.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page The 7.64 bucket tomato is almost ready. It’s in the little greenhouse with a fan keeping the air moving. No doubt it’ll get over 100F in there the next few days so need to keep a close eye it.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page Top side looking down.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page What a journey coming down to the wire! Will it beat Doug Smiths 6.85? Probably not. I don’t know. It’s 27” x 25.50” x 19”. Do the math. Too many spaces. I have been giving it more water trying to swell that baby up. It’s working as there are starting to get cracks in the flesh. Risky, but that’s what I gotta do! Crazy mutant tomato.   Friday, September 4 View Page Five gallon bucket tomato. If it wasn’t for this event it would of just been a non memorable 2020 garden season.   Friday, September 4 View Page I’ll take it. Could I of left it on a couple more days? Sure.   Friday, September 4 View Page A lot more still going on. This from the 6.66. Pretty young yet. I think I can squeeze out several more inches. The scaring on the right was early BER that healed on its own.   Friday, September 4 View Page Another heavy truss of tomato’s from the 6.66. Only six in this one. The one at the left is 20”.   Friday, September 4 View Page Haven’t been a real fan of the big ribbon vine, caterpillar megablooms this year. Just over 5 lbs with this 5.71 Lambchop but it is in two parts and not fully fused. Beautiful tomato.   Friday, September 4 View Page Here is another result from one of the largest megablooms I ever had that was a ribbon vine. The vine is split three ways and its not fully fused. Sigh. What could of been if they were rearranged a little differently. 29” around so I just look at it and pretend. Off of the Big Wixom and sprayed early on with hormones.   Friday, September 4 View Page I still have another tomato on this plant from the Big Wixom. This one is fully fused and has a chance to grow a decent sized one.   Friday, September 4 View Page One last pose with the bucket bruiser before I cut her loose. I went for broke and flooded the soil and drip pan to swell it up. It worked. There were cracks in the skin. No leaking of course.   Saturday, September 5 View Page From the other 6.66 Big Marley plant with the large heavy trusses of tomatoes. This AM I found the largest tomato had rolled off the piece of firewood the vine of tomatoes were sitting on and broke off. I weighed this 6 tomato truss on my home scale and it was 12.5 lbs. The largest green plant be had a diameter of 22.0” and weighed 3.72 lbs.   Saturday, September 5 View Page ...the largest green tomato was 22”...   Thursday, September 10 View Page Choking smoke from nearby forest fires. This is at noon. No clouds, just smoke. Some pristine forest and stream areas where we frequent just an hour away are totally burned.   Thursday, September 10 View Page For those interested, these are the roots from the 5.91, 5-gallon bucket tomato.   Thursday, September 10 View Page I cut it half and was surprised to see just tiny roots evenly dispersed throughout. The dampness was even throughout the soil.   Thursday, September 10 View Page Our power had been out for nearly 4 days due to high winds. I lost a lot of older tomatoes due to no water since my well runs on electricity. Still have some younger ones but nothing to lose sleep over.   Thursday, September 10 View Page A 6.66 I hope keeps gonig.   Friday, September 11 View Page A nice 5.07 “single” off of the 9.65 Porkchop. The largest saucer shaped tomato I’ve ever grown. I’ll keep the genetics.   Friday, September 11 View Page The 5.07. Ironic I’m rinsing forest fire ash off of my red tomato’s just to put them in the smoker.   Friday, September 11 View Page We’re pretty safe here in Oregon compared to most of you guys. No hurricanes or tornadoes. Never a worry from Mother Nature. Our place is right between the town of Lebanon and Lacomb. Fires 15 miles to the north, 20 to the south. Zero% contained. Better go to Wally World and pick up some totes. If the choking smoke isn’t warning enough.   Sunday, September 13 View Page Here is what is happening in Oregon. We have lived at our location for 28 years. Never a worry. Out in the peaceful country five miles from a rural town. This fire was started by an arsonist 100 feet from our small forest that is right next to our house. Three roadside fires were stared on our road. Never mind nearly ever house one this 5 mile long road has a Trump sign or American flag. Oh no, nothing to do with that. Luckily a passerby notified the sheriff and fire department and the put it out. I will be spending my first day of my first vacation this year packing our vehicles with important items.   Sunday, September 13 View Page Still hope to get one over 7 lbs. with this 6.66. Really growing the last three days with 2”. I’ll blame it on the choking smoke and ash covering everything.   Saturday, September 19 View Page Not a weigh off contender by any stretch of the imagination, but this tomato has an example of "gold glitter" that covers that is internal to the skin of the tomato. All of my tomatoes in the garden have this. Any idea from anybody? I will post a closer picture in the next photo.   Saturday, September 19 View Page Here is the "gold glitter" or added competition bling. It has occurred on both older and younger green tomatoes. And no, I don't have heavy metals in my well water. I just thought it was interesting.   Saturday, September 19 View Page Here is another. It is occurring on both covered and uncovered tomatoes. Sure makes the tomatoes shiny on a sunny day!   Saturday, September 19 View Page It's no "Jack LaRue" (Notice I'm using the new descriptive terminology for giant tomato growing) but hoping to sneak one in before the September 30th deadline.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Ready to pick my largest of the year! It’s no Jack LaRue so I’ll settle for a Garden Rebel. 27.50”c.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Here we have it! It was like delivering a baby except for the mess, plus I didn’t have as many tears. Better cut that stem before I take it to the store.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Here is the blossom end. When it was 10 dap it developed BER after a sudden heavy rain. I let it go and kept it dry. Didn’t apply anything to it. Back to a normal watering schedule and it dried up. What you see is the scab over and it never looked back. The other cracking is from swelling after our first Fall rain.   Thursday, September 24 View Page What do I do with all the other tomato’s that don’t make the cut? I smoke’m! Then freeze them and make awesome pasta sauce during the winter.   Thursday, September 24 View Page In the eating tomato garden. I can’t get enough of these Chocolate Stripes heirloom. They are the best eating tomatoes I’ve ever eaten! Of course I can’t help but keep my eyes out for the largest ones. Now, only if I can get seeds. All I have picked have only immature seeds. Too much nitrogen.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Here is another. Seriously, if you like eating tomatoes you’ll never regret growing these. They blow up in your mouth with long lasting sweet flavor. Chocolate Stripes.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Ok, back to the comp garden. Chis Konieczny’s great cross should get some recognition. I grew three plants. Two of the plants grew 2-4 lb singles.   Thursday, September 24 View Page On this other Big Wixom plant I got huge megablooms. I sprayed Cytokinin on both of the huge megablooms right when they were pollinating and right after.   Thursday, September 24 View Page I picked both. They turned out pretty cool! Lots of character and plenty of mater bling. Now, was it the Big Wixom or the cytokinin? I’ll never know. One is fused, the other isn’t.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Fortunately, the non-fused one weighed 4.86 lbs. The fully fused one weighed 5.?? Better take it to the store with my 6.66 just to make it official.   Thursday, September 24 View Page So here ya go. Big Wixom, two of the most beautiful tomato’s I’ve ever grown. Hopefully I have some seeds. I’ll grow it next year.   Thursday, September 24 View Page Big Wixom 4.83. The non fused was heavier over 5 lbs. Happy with the results.   Thursday, September 24 View Page ..:and 6.97 lbs from the 6.66 Big Marley. Should of left it one more day right?   Saturday, September 26 View Page Another from the 6.66. Fully fused at the bottom and right at 27". Should make it another 7 days to the weigh-off. The deer and mice have discovered a way in the garden. At this point of the season they can have it except for the few stray covered tomatoes in hammocks. Overwhelmed with ripening tomatoes from plants that didn't produce the big one. The deer are helping me clear things out.