The very large tomato thread

[PureHarvest]

Just found my first double bloom on my one BZ plant.
I don't think I can bring myself to remove all the other blooms/small fruit though.
There are about 30 flowers and about 10 pea sized fruit already set, and I'd hate to lose those.
Decisions, decisions.
Plant is about 3-4' tall and has 3 stems.
I let some suckers go so I could take cuttings. They got away so I took suckers off of those suckers.

[lubadub]

I would be interested in some seed from a giant Terhune, if you still have some. Send me your address to lubadub@aol.com and I will send you a SASE. Thanks in advance. Marv

[AKmark]

This Terhune came in at 3.82. The tomato has a couple of things that went wrong. One of the sections did not grow at pace, it also had a wound that caused it to ripen a bit early. The next Terhune looks like it is going to be bigger, it has the shape I think we are looking for.
The Belmonster is still going, I don't see any blushing yet, I hope it holds out a bit longer, but it is surely close. It is hard to tell exactly what I have going there.

Will pick Rozovyi Myod tomorrow, it looks to be about 3lb or so. It is 3 lobes, but one never really grew, disappointed on that one.

[Gerardo]

Nice! One of my Terhune RL plants has 5 good tomatoes, although none fused blooms. About to taste the 1st fruit tomorrow. It has beautiful ridges, reddish-pink, and a big 'ol catfaced bottom. Saving seeds of course. I've got two more Terhune RL at the seedling stage. These I'll be watching like a hawk, although instead of talons I'll have electric toothbrushes.

Delicious are germinating.

I've gotten big ones from Sweet Scarlet, JD's SCT, SOTW and Larisa. No monsters yet.

[Bryanbryn]

Still a nice tomato!
Looking forward to what your bigguns will weigh in at!

I can't tell clearly from the picture but the smaller side of the tomato looks like it is a fair distance away from the stem. If this is the case, the tomato 'pulled' away from the stem from its weight. It causes the bit that the stem separated from to grow at a slower pace and ripen prematurely.
Below is an example:
image.jpg
Supporting the tomato at a small size will most likely prevent this.
Also, cover the fruit with white cloth to reflect the light/heat to slow down ripening if you already aren't doing so. It works a lot better than covering with the tomato plants leaves.
Hope this helps

[AKmark]

I saw Belmonte was blushing on one lobe, so I cut away the leaves to see. It seems to be around 5lbs, not quite knobby enough to grow a record, but it is a nice tomato.
Terhune # 2 will be next, it is looking good.

[PureHarvest]

Oh baby.
Looks like you will be setting the baseline weight here on TV for 2016!

[AKmark]

Belmonte came in at 4.85, Rozovyi Myod 3.3lbs. RM should have been bigger, oh well.

The mater in the sling is Terhune #2, it should be bigger than the first three.

Left to right- Terhune #1 R.M. and Belmonte/ Belmonster. Thanks for the Belmonster seeds Ted.

[Gerardo]

Beautiful. Congrats Mark.

Tasted my 1st Terhune Comp RL, these are not only monsters, taste and texture are just terrific too. Gobbled it all up before I even considered saving seeds.

[AKmark]

I told you guys they were good. LOL

[ContainerTed]

Mark, you are welcome. It is wonderful to see you improve on my great find. I did nothing special with my plant last year, and I got that three pound plus fruit. And best of all, it really tasted good. Regardless of the size it achieves, it still delivers on the taste.

If I run into any more with potential, I'll ship them up to you.

[lubadub]

I wonder if these "Belle" tomatoes are related to Belgium Giant? Their shape looks a lot alike.

[BigVanVader]

I'm not really in the running for biggest mater or anything but I have some that will likely beat my biggest tomato ever grown and tbh I am just showing off. Prudens Purple holds the record right now at 2.6 pounds. I imagine with single stake and fruit cull you could get much bigger than this with Orange Jazz. These are double stem and I only culled a few really ugly fruits early on, some haven't had any culling.
20160613_161022-resized-960.jpg
I should've added something for reference but these 2 OJ look to be in the 3lb range and still growing.
20160613_161127-resized-960.jpg
This is the opposite side of the same cluster. I may do a few single stem next year to try for a huge one. I now leave the floor to the real pros

[Delerium]

Not growing for size either but picked this 2.6 pounder this morning. Can't win with our 100F heat but still proud of our baby 2 pounder. I think i will grow some Big maters for the Fall garden just for fun - save some seeds from this puppy and re-grow.

[AKmark]

Awesome BigVanVader and Delerium, fun too grow the big maters just for grins