The fascination with growing giant vegetables never gets old. Whether it’s giant pumpkins, zucchini or tomatoes some of us are driven to see just how big we can get our favorite veggie to grow. A few weeks ago a customer came up to us at the Farmer’s Market in Arcata and asked us which variety she should grow to get the biggest tomato. This was a good question and a great starting point for growing the biggest tomato, because variety choice is critical and where it all begins. Here are a few varieties to consider, they are all indeterminate which means they grow large vines and produce all season long, some are open pollinated and some are hybrids. The Guinness Book of Records winner is from an open pollinated variety called Delicious which won the record in 1987 weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds and 12 ounces! Other varieties that are promising are Giant Belgium, Giant German, Big Zac, Hillbilly, Super steak hybrid, Goliath, Dutchman and Wolford’s Wonder.

Variety choice is just the beginning, the real work, and it will be work, is in the growing. As any good gardener will tell you it all starts with the soil. You will want to double dig your tomato holes mixing in well rotted compost, manure, coir and a good organic vegetable fertilizer. When you plant your tomatoes you can bury the stems right up to the top most set of leaves. This encourages roots to sprout out all along the stem. More roots means more and bigger fruit as the plants can take up lots of nutrients and water with all those roots. You will want to stake your tomatoes as the vines can get really tall. Choose two main vines and pinch off any others as well as the suckers that come up where the leaves meet the main stem. You want the plant to concentrate all its energy on the vines you choose. Remove all the foliage on the bottom foot or so of the plant just to be sure no diseases can get a foot hold there.

The next step is watering, deep, even and consistent is the way to go here. I can’t tell you how much to water because it is going to depend on your soil and the micro-climate in your garden. You want to be sure the water is reaching down into the root zone which can be 2 feet down. The best way to know this is to dig down and look. Another way to ensure that water is getting to the root zone is to bury a 1 or 2 inch wide piece of PVC that has been drilled full of holes about a foot away from the main stem and reaching down 2 feet. To water fill the opening at the top and let it trickle in. In addition to simply watering you want to be feeding the plant each time too. A great all around and inexpensive organic fertilizer is fish emulsion with kelp. Add the recommended dose to a gallon of water each time you water. Which reminds me, if you have access to fish guts and other parts, put that right in the planting hole when you plant your tomatoes, but beware that dogs, bears and raccoons may dig up your plants!

So, now the tomatoes are in, they are pruned and staked, the next step involves more pinching and pruning. This is where the fun begins! You want to pinch off the first few flower clusters, yes completely off, you want the fruit to develop higher up on the vine and the first few flowers are set low on the vine. Next begin looking for double flowers, these are called megablooms and can be anywhere from two to 5 or 6 flowers all clustered together. If these are successfully pollinated they will produce a multi-lobed fruit with the potential to get really large. Sometimes the megablooms don’t get completely pollinated and they abort. To prevent this you can help them along by hand pollinating them with the pollen from another flower. Just take a flower from another cluster and gently rub it on the megabloom.

After the flowers begin to set into fruit, choose the largest one or two from each cluster and pinch off the other smaller fruits. Eventually you will have 5 or 6 chosen ones for the vine to concentrate all its energy on. Now pinch out the growing tip of the vines so they concentrate on ripening really big fruit rather than continue to spend energy producing more flowers and fruit. One thing to point out here is that you want to make sure there is enough foliage cover to protect the growing fruit from sun scald…that is why you leave two vines to grow. Continue watering and fertilizing right up to the time of picking your giant tomatoes. At their peak of growth the fruit can gain a half an inch in diameter per day.

Imagine, at 3 or 4 dollars a pound for tomatoes what you could earn for a 5 or 6 pound tomato!