Giant Tomato Competition - grafted giants

[zendog]

Now that they've finally been in the ground a few week, it's time to get going on my video log for the giant tomatoes I'm growing. These are mostly from seeds provided by the fabulous @MissS and include Hercegovac, Portugese Monster (from MMMM I think), Mega Marv, Big Zac F1, AH Scorpii, Epstein's Potato Leaf and Gildo Pietroboni. Gildo isn't actually shown in this video and is growing in another row with my hearts, but I'll try to show it next time.

I decided to grow these like I grow all of my indeterminates, which includes grafting them to DRO141TX rootstocks and growing them as single stems. I'm not sure if this will help or wind up keeping them from getting to their full potential, but thought it would be an interesting test. Here is the first update on the plants:


If you have any questions, let me know.

[MissS]

This made my day! It's going to be fun to watch and see what these guys do for you. Are you going to allow them to fruit as your other plants or limit production for a single big one? Either way, it's fun to see what these plants will do.

[zendog]

This made my day! It's going to be fun to watch and see what these guys do for you. Are you going to allow them to fruit as your other plants or limit production for a single big one? Either way, it's fun to see what these plants will do.

Thanks so much for the seeds!

I think I may limit production somewhat, but I probably won't take all the "extras" off since I'm interested in trying these for flavor, etc. as well. If I do get a tomato from a megabloom that looks like it could be huge, I may take the plunge and go all in. Tough decisions.

The funny thing is I usually take all the megablooms off of my other tomatoes since they often crack, don't ripen evenly, etc.

I had a Domingo grafted seedling going as well, but a squirrel climbed over it and broke it off at the graft. Grrr.

[zendog]

I'm a bit overdue for an update and will try to do a new video this weekend. In the meantime, here is how a few of the "giants" are doing.

For some reason Portugese Monster (from MMMM) seems to be having a real issue with BER. This surprises me, since the only other plant of my 35+ varities that is suffering from BER is a yellow paste, which always gets it, but none of the other big tomatoes, including all my regular beefsteaks are suffering from it. We'll have to see how this goes with the future fruit set.

PMonster_BER.jpg

MegaMarv (from @MissS ) seems to have a lot of odd blossom end creases and folds, although I don't think all of these were from mega blooms. But they look like they are definitely headed to a big size. I'll have to see how much winds up being usable tomato flesh though.

MegaMarv.jpg

And Epstein's Potato Leaf is setting some nice fruit as well. These are much more "regular", but we'll see what we get when we get some nice megablooms. The few megablooms that formed so far didn't set fruit.

Epsteins_PL.jpg

[zendog]

No giants to harvest yet, but I harvest a nice face full of veggies including my first bitter melon of the season. Tomatoes included my first Jutland and a few Limbo paste types, plus some Rosella cherries. At this point in the season the cherries are a few here and a few there and mostly they go right into my mouth instead of back to the house.

Among the peppers are a couple of Karlo Paprika and a Bacskai Feher Paprika from MMMM seeds. I should let them go Red I guess, but I thought I'd try a few in the immature state, mostly because I'm impatient.

veggieface.jpg

[MissS]

No giants to harvest yet, but I harvest a nice face full of veggies including my first bitter melon of the season. Tomatoes included my first Jutland and a few Limbo paste types, plus some Rosella cherries. At this point in the season the cherries are a few here and a few there and mostly they go right into my mouth instead of back to the house.

Among the peppers are a couple of Karlo Paprika and a Bacskai Feher Paprika from MMMM seeds. I should let them go Red I guess, but I thought I'd try a few in the immature state, mostly because I'm impatient.

veggieface.jpg

I love the artwork. It brought a big smile to my face. Thank you, you just made my day!

[zendog]

I love the artwork. It brought a big smile to my face. Thank you, you just made my day!

I'm glad. It was fun. I was just harvesting and realized I had an interesting palette of colors and shapes.

[zendog]

My plants are really suffering this year from disease and me being away during some very hot days when they didn't get watered. So far it looks like the AH Scorpii are putting out the biggest tomatoes of the "giants", but I haven't had any good megablooms hold fruit yet so that will probably change. I'll have to get a few of these on the scale.

AH_Scorpii.jpg

[zendog]

Not specifically tomatoes, but I'm a huge fan of cover crops and I had a bed that had raspberries which had died over the winter (probably root rot) that I wanted to reclaim for fall crops. I weeded it out and removed the dead raspberries 3 weeks ago and then planted buckwheat as a summer cover crop which will also smother the weeds.

Besides the benefit as a smother/cover crop, I'll be tossing some of the leaves into salads for the health benefits. While buckwheat greens shouldn't be overdone since they contain fagopyrin that can make you hyper-sensitive to sunlight, they also are a great source of the antioxidant Rutin, which early research suggests may have various health benefits, including reducing edema (leg swelling caused by fluid retention), varicose veins, poor circulation, and possibly atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

[zendog]

Well I misread my labels in the tomato jungle and it turns out that it was Mega Marv putting out the biggest tomatoes so far. Nothing over the 2 pound mark, but here is one I harvested today. There is a larger one still hanging, so if the varmints don't get it hopefully that will get me over 2 lbs.

MEgaMarv1.jpg

MEgaMarv2.jpg

[zendog]

And when we start the biggest bitter melon contest, I'm ready for that as well. Several of these are over a pound. I was gone for a week and this is just from two vines. I haven't even harvested the others, the bumpy ones, that I grow in another row. SVB destroy my zucchini plants before I get much harvest, so bitter melons are becoming my new over producers. I enjoy them, but the rest of the family not so much. And they seem to have an even cooler response from the neighbors than when I used to bring them extra zukes.

bitterharvest.jpg

[MissS]

And when we start the biggest bitter melon contest, I'm ready for that as well. Several of these are over a pound. I was gone for a week and this is just from two vines. I haven't even harvested the others, the bumpy ones, that I grow in another row. SVB destroy my zucchini plants before I get much harvest, so bitter melons are becoming my new over producers. I enjoy them, but the rest of the family not so much. And they seem to have an even cooler response from the neighbors than when I used to bring them extra zukes.
bitterharvest.jpg

I think that you are the sole contestant and it looks like you win!!!