attempting new world record

[pete092775]

I have ag experence but have never grown for size mainly yield.But now am going to try for size but have a few questions that i need help with. I have read giant tomatoes and the world record fell over an grew on ground no cage so why would anyone attempting a world record stake them. The vine will root where it touchs ground whichmeans more nutrient up take correct like they do in pumpkins and watermelons cover parts of the vine. Second has anyone tryied biochar and what results did they get.

[travis]

I believe the reason for staking the vine when growing for giant fruit size is to readily spot and culture the "megablooms"
which reportedly occur within the first 4 feet of vine growth, then to prune all excess vegetation and other fruit
so the nutrition is steered exclusively to the giant tomatoes anticipated from one or two "megablooms"
which in fact are multi-fasciated blossoms.

[darwinslair]

I tend to have problems with rot due to innadequate air circulation when I dont cage mine.

Tom

[pete092775]

darwin when you dont cage do you train the vine and prune back to one or two vines or do you just let it go on its own.

[Worth1]

On tomatoes sometimes the first blooms are fuzed like Siamese twins.
I dont feel that these abnormalities should be counted as big tomatoes.
They are actually two tomatoes growing as one.

Only a normal tomato should be counted coming from a normal bloom.

This is just my opinion and should be taken as such, in no way do I want to force it on everybody else.

But when I take over the world then things will change.

Worth

[dice]

why would anyone attempting a world record stake them

Slugs. _Caddy Shack_. Septoria spores bounding up from the ground
during a heavy rain and landing on the plant. Etc.

[darwinslair]

Originally Posted by pete092775

darwin when you dont cage do you train the vine and prune back to one or two vines or do you just let it go on its own.

I have to let them go if I dont cage them. I have far too much garden to be dealing with pruning. The only ones I can "let go" really are the dwarfs, and I grow them over landscaping fabric, and still give them something to hold them up. This last year I had 4 gardens, totaling a couple of acres, did them all by hand, distance between farthest ones was over 100 miles, and between them all had over 400 tomato plants.

So I cage what I can.

Tom

[pete092775]

so darwin do you think it would be possible if i had just say 6 or 7 spots say 12 by 12 or so like they do pumpkins and train them bury the end of the vine at say 10 feet so now both ends are rooted and all suckers have been removed maybe leaving one. lots of work i know but a world record will require alot of work and LUCK but look at them pumpkin guys they get near divorces over there patches thats the dedication it will take i think.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by pete092775

so darwin do you think it would be possible if i had just say 6 or 7 spots say 12 by 12 or so like they do pumpkins and train them bury the end of the vine at say 10 feet so now both ends are rooted and all suckers have been removed maybe leaving one. lots of work i know but a world record will require alot of work and LUCK but look at them pumpkin guys they get near divorces over there patches thats the dedication it will take i think.

You gotta be kidding me a divorce over a nasty smelly pumpkin?

Now tomatoes, thats another story.
If you divorce a spouse over a tomato obsession you can always get another one with a nice tomato salad.

NOT pumpkin salad.

Worth

[pete092775]

no worry here my wife ussaully in garden in the bakini so i stay in the garden only problem i have is she will eat em right off the vine and im trying to fiure out what got em but it is such a nice view.

[darwinslair]

Originally Posted by pete092775

so darwin do you think it would be possible if i had just say 6 or 7 spots say 12 by 12 or so like they do pumpkins and train them bury the end of the vine at say 10 feet so now both ends are rooted and all suckers have been removed maybe leaving one. lots of work i know but a world record will require alot of work and LUCK but look at them pumpkin guys they get near divorces over there patches thats the dedication it will take i think.

<laughing> i have to quit posting when I am exhausted.

I thought you were talking about tomatoes. I have never caged squashes and dont know why you would. The people I know that grow absolutely giant squashes DO prune them to one vine and one fruit once they have a pollinated flower. On top of that they till in a square yard of composted manure per plant. THey also build sun screens over the fruit and give it a ton of water and fertilizer once it is growing. One friend of mine even wicks raw milk into the stem below the fruit using candle wicks. Seems to work for him. Every year he gets them up to a quarter ton.

However these things taste like crap and I have no interest in growing them. <smile> I do grow some squashes up to about 40 pounds, but they are good tasting long keeper squashes. Always feel better putting a dozen of those in the basement for the winter along with all of the smaller ones.

Tom

[pete092775]

no darwin i was talking tomatoes but using the same technique on a tomatoe vine as the pumpkin, squash, and watermelon growers do it.

[darwinslair]

I have known no difference for tomatoes, but if you want to, give it a try.

My largest tomatoes and best production come from deep root systems and well supported, upright plants. I will intentionally allow plants to become a bit leggy, up to about 18" tall, when I am starting them in the spring. I plant these quite deep, leaving only the top 4" or so exposed. I have known people who do the same thing, but plant the tomato horizontally about 4" under the ground, with only the tip exposed. I suppose that the increased microbiotic activity in the immediate subsoil would be better for the plant than the deeper soils and that this would be followed by a benefit of continued rootings in the shallower soils as well.

My deeper plantings are meant to make the plants as immune as they can be to wild temperature and water fluctuations, because many of them cannot get the attention that my garden here at the house gets, but I would still try to get the plant off the ground and supported, even if you meant to do a long section of it buried, simply due to slug and rot issues.

Just me.

Tom

[carolyn137]

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19937

I think it might help to read the above thread which is all about growing large tomatoes. Near the end lubadub appears, and he's Marvin Meissner who wrote the book on how to grow large tomatoes.

Seamfaster also has a website you might ask him about, again, in terms of possible seeds for growing large tomatoes. And there are other sources also noted in that thread.

As I'm sure you know the world record is 7# 12 oz, grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond OK, and he did absolutely nothing special at all. That plant was growing just sprawled inground, and in the weeds when he found that big one.

I grow tomatoes for taste and could care less how big they are. But I do understand the challenge of growing for competitions for almost anything, be it parsnips, leeks, cabbage, pumpkins, etc. Same thing here in NYS in terms of how many of the tallest Adirondack Mts have been scaled by a single person. It's the pursuit, the challenge that's of primary importance to some folks.

As for me, I'm content to sit and watch the tomato blossoms open.

[Worth1]

I dont know somethings just not right about the world record tomato coming from Texas.

We already have so much to brag about and then yet more bragging rights with the largest tomato.

Worth