The Junction's 2022 Largest Tomato Contest.

I think that it will be a fun competition. We purchased some seeds that are direct descendants of some of the largest tomatoes grown and will be happy to share them with you provided that you grow them out in 2022 enter a pic of your fruit in this thread and keep a glog on the forum of your grow out.

There are seeds of:

Epstein's Big Zac F1
Domingo
Epstein's Potato Leaf
Megamarv
AH Scorpii
Belmonte
Gildo Pietroboni
Sumo
Shuntukski Velikan X Big Zac (F1, F2)
Hercegovac
Delicious
Bigzarrow

There may be more varieties added if there is much interest.

I will distribute the seeds in February for a SASE. The number of seeds will depend on how many participants there are but I am thinking that everyone should receive a minimum of one seed of each variety. You only need to grow one plant out to participate in the offer and the competition. Of course you are more than welcome to participate by growing your own seeds as well.

At this point in time there is no prize for winning other than knowing that you are the champion.

If you would like to participate, please let us know by responding in this thread. I will then PM you to give you an address to send your SASE to.

Let's make it fun and grow some BIG ONES!!!

Of course you need not get your seeds here in order to participate and join in the fun! The biggest one is the winner!

This is gonna be easy.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/21631 ... epost#n=14

Are any of the 12 varieties tasty?

I know that Big Zac F1 is tasty. I'm unsure of what Epstein's Big Zac is. (OP? F1?)

And, I know that Shuntukski Velican is tasty. I don't know about its cross with Big Zac.

Delicious wasn't.

I wasn't growing for size, so I did not overwater plants.

Tormato wrote: ↑Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:11 pm I know that Big Zac F1 is tasty. I'm unsure of what Epstein's Big Zac is. (OP? F1?)

And, I know that Shuntukski Velican is tasty. I don't know about its cross with Big Zac.

Delicious wasn't.

I wasn't growing for size, so I did not overwater plants.

Epstein's Big Zac is just called that because a person named Epstein grew a record Big Zac tomato and these seeds are a grow
out from Epstein's huge tomato.

Big Zac - Excellent, sweet flavor. Indeterminate, regular leaf vines, 80 days.

Domingo - Broke the 10lb barrier in 2020. Red flesh and clear skin with a very pleasant, balanced flavor.

Epstein's Potato Leaf - Origin not clear. Considered “Big Zac” by some, but unlike Big Zac, has potato leaf foliage, clear skin, and
blossoms that are distinctly different, although flavor is similar: juicy and sweet. May be a PL version of Big Zac grown by Epstein.

MegaMarv - Marvin Meisner, M.D. wrote the book on growing giant tomatoes, developed this variety, and grew it to 5.51 lbs. in 2011. This specimen is from 4.23 Wahl 2012 & several others have grown it to 4+ lbs. Red flesh, very good flavor, large indeterminate vines produce an abundance of 1+ pound fruit, with the occasional megabloom & resultant huge fruits; 75 days.

AH Scorpii - Large to GIANT, variably shaped, clear-skinned fruits with very good, robust flavor that would dominate a huge sandwich or make excellent sauce. Regular leaf, extra large, indeterminate vines with high yield from 85 days.

Belmonte - Clear skinned, often deeply ribbed, irregularly shaped, clear-skinned fruits with a very good, though somewhat mild flavor. Huge, regular leaf vines can be extraordinarily productive under proper growing conditions from 70 days. An Italian heirloom tracing to the town of Belmonte on the southwest coast of Italy.

Gildo Pietroboni - Red, heart-shaped tomatoes have a robust flavor with a hint of sweetness. Meaty flesh, few seeds, excellent for sauce. Regular, wispy leaf foliage, very productive, huge indeterminate vines, excellent production from 85 days.

Sumo - Flavor is very good: bright, sweet and distinctive. Regular leaf, indeterminate vines give moderate yield from 85 days.

Shuntukski Velikan X Big Zac- Objective was to increase size.

Hercegovac - Red fruits are often ribbed with some hollowness of seed locules. Very good flavor: distinctive, bright, rich – almost like tomato sauce, with good aftertaste. Regular leaf, indeterminate vine with very impressive yield.

Delicious - This variety held the world record of 7.75 lbs for 28 years and is a strong contender for breaking the new record. From 6.51 Meisner 2011←7.33 Hunt 2010←5.0 Timm 2009. Very good traditional tomato flavor. Regular leaf, productive, indeterminate vines; 90 days. Was never productive for me. One plant, one tomato that's all I ever got.

Bigzarrow - Fruits have red flesh and clear skin with very good, balanced, old-fashioned heirloom flavor. But several traits make this variety stand out: 1) unusual, often enormous megablooms, with 14+ fused blossoms documented (see photos); 2) fused blossoms result in multiple lobes that are often distinctly pointed or quite odd-shaped; 3) regular leaf vines are extraordinarily aggressive, fast-growing and thick-stemmed; 4) with pruning, extra suckers grow out aggressively, not only from the ends of flower trusses, but also even from veins of leaves - these suckers from leaves have been documented to flower and produce fruit!

Hi @MissS !
Could I request only Sumo, AH Scorpii, and Domingo please? Or do you want people who are going to grow out the whole list?

Mark_Thompson wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:15 am Hi @MissS !
Could I request only Sumo, AH Scorpii, and Domingo please? Or do you want people who are going to grow out the whole list?

You most certainly can. You can have as many varieties as you would like or only one. You only need to grow one plant of any variety in 2022. Of course growing more plants makes it more fun. I want to see what these seeds can do.

Great, I’ll send you ziplocs in a SASE that you can send back at your leisure. Thanks

I would like to try to grow some. I've grown Delicious before but didn't get too big and not prolific at all.

TessSR wrote: ↑Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:49 am I would like to try to grow some. I've grown Delicious before but didn't get too big and not prolific at all.

Great! I'm so glad to hear it. I am sending you a PM.

I would like to try Hercegovac if possible

Gthegardener wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 2:59 pm I would like to try Hercegovac if possible

Yes you may. Please PM me your address.

Hercegovac is tempting, but I'm not sure whether or not my current family situation will allow me to follow through with the extra care.

@OhioGardener you really do not need to give this plant extra care or prune it to one fruit. You can grow this just as you do your other tomatoes and use your fruit for consumption. I just want you to have fun growing some big ones and share your results and how you grew it on this forum. It does not even need to be a long blog. I want to see what these seeds from competition tomatoes do in all sorts of conditions. Hey, then we have seed to share too.

So if you want to give it a try them PM me and I will get some seed out to you at the end of January. How many seeds depends on how many people are participating.

I'm hoping to get a few of the big 'uns in my MMMM packet as well, but from the ones above I'd like to try AH Scorpii, Gildo Pietroboni, Hercegovac, Megamarv and Epstein's Big Zac.

Thanks!

@zendog You may get some big variety seeds from the MMMM but these seeds are descendants of some of the biggest tomatoes ever grown. These are competition seeds. I will be more than happy to send you your requested seeds, please PM me with your address.

Glad to have you on board.

I’m doing my homework before this summer.

I'm really interested in Bigzarro and MegaMarv because I dig fused blossoms. Could someone explain what a SASE is?

Glitch wrote: ↑Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:47 pm I'm really interested in Bigzarro and MegaMarv because I dig fused blossoms. Could someone explain what a SASE is?

Self addressed stamped envelop

@Glitch I am sending you a PM.