Your Biggest Tomato of 2020

[Shule]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
There are a few advantages to leaving some of the stem on.

1. Some varieties split if you take the stem off.
2. Fruits will dehydrate less with the stem on.
3. I believe the stem is supposed to help fruits in storage to have better taste. (More like vine-ripened. I believe that's why some fancy tomatoes in the grocery store still have some vine attached.)
4. Some stems are just super hard to get off; so, it's easier to leave them on.
5. I think it increases shelf-life for some kinds of tomatoes.

[Shule]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
I think I'm growing about 140 tomato plants (and about 90-something varieties). Most of the vegetable garden is tomatoes, this year. I'm also growing other kinds of plants.

[EdieJ]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention] Dixie Golden Giant is definitely yellow. I take the stems off because I put my tomatoes on the counter stem-side-down and with part of the stem sticking out it wouldn't sit flat.

[JRinPA]

Are there orange tomatoes? Or only Yellow and Bicolor? Always learning here, thanks.

Today I shared a few tomatoes with another gardener. A bb, a cp, a soo, and a few little ones. She exclaimed, Oh, a yellow! And they do look yellowish to me. I told her the name but I do wonder if it is properly considered orange, or yellow, or what.

There are two more big ones on that plant, looking about 1-1/2 lb ea and just starting to blush. Same truss.

[Shule]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
There are a lot of variants of orange. The hard part is finding a true yellow tomato (I believe Lemon Boy F1, Limmony, and Medovaya Kaplya are true yellow, but some tomatoes look true yellow some years and orange-ish the next, especially cherries; so, it's hard to tell).

Many of the variants look true orange to me, but not everyone perceives tomato orange colors the same. The same is true for the color of honeybees (they look very orange to me, but some people say they're yellow).

[EdieJ]

Kellogg's Breakfast/KBX, Orange Oxheart and Sweet Tangerine are all varieties we have grown that are definitely orange. DGG and Lemon Boy are true yellow for us. Golden Jubilee and Livingston Yellow Oxheart are a darker gold. And I've seen many others in catalogs.

[Shule]

Here's the picture. I'm not sure if it's bigger than the others I pictured in this thread, actually, but comparing the weight to a 24oz loaf of bread by heft, I'd say it's a little heavier than the bread.

Taste-wise, it has a cherry-like taste similar to Esterina F1, except not nearly as sweet (although it is sweet) and slightly more tart, with some red tomato flavor. Unlike Esterina, it has some of a certain taste that extra ripe red tomatoes sometimes have in my garden, and a little of the taste that Matina had for me in 2017 in dry conditions without black plastic.

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[HL2601]

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Here is a great example of the orange vs yellow dilemma. The tomato is named Goldie. However when friends come to my garden they always exclaim at what a pretty orange tomato this is!

[JRinPA]

[mention]HL2601[/mention] Well duh that's because it is orange! A very nice orange. Or...lots of mile high-poxia make your friends grasp at the only colors they can remember. The ones they find important. Orange and Blue. And that is far from blue.

Lots of tomatoes here I have never heard of before. And all with cut stems...Everyone cuts their stems...everyone but me!

[pondgardener]

I have had bigger ones over 2 lbs in previous years but this one is a good size to fill a bun. My little helper grandson is going home tomorrow and I can finally get back outside to work more in the garden. The variety of tomato is named "Anna Margaret's Heart"

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[EdieJ]

Pulled the 2nd DGG, it weighs 1 lb 14.5 oz. Pink Ponderosa weighs 1 lb 13.4 oz. Big Zebra is only 15.5 oz. but the taste ... Oh yeah!! Like a sweet ripe kiwifruit without the fuzzy skin. Yummm.

[Toomanymatoes]

Ontario Zone 6a

Biggest so far, Persimmon 1.75 lbs. Grown in a 20G fabric pot.

There was some discussion of yellow tomatoes. I am growing Azoychka this season and it is very yellow. Nice tasting tomato.

[JRinPA]

[mention]HL2601[/mention] hey what is the tomato in your avatar pic that is colored kinda like a nectarine? I don't think I've ever seen a tomato that color before.

I took down most of my tomatoes in the past week. Definitely no more big ones this year for me. I'd say it usually the first or second truss for me that has the biggest ones for the plant, so that is early August.

[mention]Toomanymatoes[/mention] I'd love to see a pic of that 20 gal fabric pot from some point during the summer. 20 gallons, that's big, how do you water something like that?

[Rockoe10]

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[JRinPA]

Hey [mention]Rockoe10[/mention], what made you pick it at 50% ripe? Was it going bad?

[Rockoe10]

The pests were getting really bad. I'd find a tomato eaten ever morning. So i started picking all the tomatoes this year early to beat the pests to it. I need to make some changes for next year to prevent that from happening again

[slugworth]

Heatwave since spring limits the big ones here to just over 1 pound.
I bet the huge ones mentioned were from cooler growing conditions.

[Rockoe10]

The heat wave was pretty bad this year for sure. Most everyone i know around my area was complaining how poor their tomato plants were doing, and were happy if they could get anything close to a pound.

My plants curled pretty bad, but i contribute any success i had this year to mulching my beds. It makes a wonder of a difference.

[NarnianGarden]

My largest and most impressive this year was Great White Blue. Nice mild taste, and the largest fruit was pretty too.. Haven't weighted it, but could be about 700-800 gr.
Trying to post a photo at some point..

[Shule]

Heatwave since spring limits the big ones here to just over 1 pound.
I bet the huge ones mentioned were from cooler growing conditions.

Try giving your tomatoes extra potassium (e.g. potassium sulfate). That should increase their fruit size in the heat some. It doesn't work for some varieties, though.