My Personal Best Big Zac

[meathead320]

Hi All,

This is my first post here. Been growing Tomatoes for several years. I started with Giant pumpkins, but only get limited results with them, as I have very little yard space to work with for the next year or two still. Will move when my wife is done with school (as we only live 5 minutes from university now).

So, I started growing Big Zac in 2008, and had a better year than last year (got a late start last year, and the cold weather was a killer). Big Zac is the only "giant" variety I grew, the rest are heirlooms I grow for flavor.

I used the 8ft fence posts for steaks, and used strips of pantyhose to support the plants. Pruned to one main vine, and all secondaries were topped after first two leaves. I think it’s called the Missouri pruning method.

Only one fruit stay per cluster, and allowed only 4 tomatoes per plant. First tomato at about 30" up the vine. All of them turned out huge. The best one I took these two photo’s of. They were allowed to ripen completely on the vine, and did get some cracking when we got a big rain. They did not rot there however, just developed scars.

There was one thing that was odd about them however, at least the two largest ones. While overall they tasted great, and were turned into a very good salsa, I did find and cut out several weird "crystal" like things. These crystals were tasteless, and about the consistency of a watermelon rind. Anyone have any idea what they were?

I cannot find photos of the crystal things, but here are two pics of my biggest tomato so far. I did not compete with it, as it is a single blossom tomato and likely not as heavy as the mega-bloom ones. I did not get an official weight on it. Took it to work and impressed friends and family.

[dustdevil]

That is a very big tomato. Did you ever weigh it?

[kath]

Hi, meathead, and welcome to Tomatoville! Those are some big 'maters! Couldn't get any of my Big Zac seeds to sprout this year, but was planning on growing them for the 1st time. Can't help with the crystal mystery as I've never seen that. Going to try the Missouri pruning this year with plants that I have to grow closer than I'd like. It supposedly helps to avoid sunscald when you're pruning to a single vine. Wish you luck this year with your garden-maybe you can grow even bigger Big Zacs! Do you know how much they weighed?

[Duh_Vinci]

WOW!!!

I've never grown tomatoes for the sheer size, but I bet it is tons experimental fun! And I too want to know approximately what it weighted?

Regards,
D

[meathead320]

Well, I used an old kitchen scale said 5 lbs. 2 oz., that later turned out to be very off as what it siad was 5 lbs. turned out to be only 3 lbs. 15 oz. at a local deli, and gets more off the heavier things go. So no official weight.

I'd say for sure it was well over 3 pounds, might have been around 4. She was a brute.

If I get one that big again I will take it to a certified scale at a store and get an official weight.

The one in the above pics I just took around and showed off to people.

[veggie babe]

Welcome to TV, good luck on your toms this year.

Neva

[matertoo]

Welcome to Tomatoville!! Looks like you grew some whoppers. Looking forward to reports of more this year.

Happy Matering,

Paul

[meathead320]

Thanks guys.

After doing some reading here on, and from other online sites, I am going to try to stablize this line.

I do not really know if I had real hybrid Big Zac plants, or the OP variety that was being sold under the name for a while, before TT got things worked out.

If its the hybrid, it is supposed to have only two parents, so should not be impossible to get worked out if thats the case.

If its the OP imposter, that is even better for my uses. Until known it will just get a number.

What I happened to like was that as a single blossom fruit it looked like a tomato, an not a tumor.

I am also interested in a few other varieties known for throwing giant single blossom fruit.

[OneoftheEarls]

I'm interested in an OP Zac, I have 20 varieties over a pound to trade...any luck with stabilizing Big Zac? I heard there are F7s out there...

Earl

[b54red]

You might want to try Neves Azorean Red. I grew two plants last year and they each made 30+ fruits with some weighing nearly 2 lbs. I can imagine if you kept them to one stem and only a few fruits they would get really huge.
Another you might want to try is a heart called Donskoi which averaged fruit over one pound with the largest of 2 pounds with only limited pruning. I think it might get huge also with your method of growing.
They were both fantastic tasting tomatoes and I have seed saved if you would like to try them just PM me.

[BigdaddyJ]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9499829@N02/3810498773/

Congrats! My biggest BZ was in 2003 at 3.2 pounds.

[Timbotide]

Congratulations on growing that huge tomato. I would love to grow one half that
size. Any special fertilizer secrets you could share with us