2013 - Biggest tomato Competition

Got a Mega bloom on my Red Brandy Wine....

 

A couple of early contenders on Brandywine Black -

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And Im thinking we should have a prize for ugliest fruit of the year..

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As all my 'indoor' toms are grown in polytunnels because my (heated) greenhouse is devoted to providing plants for polytunnels and outdoor planting (+ wanting to avoid the fiasco resulting from last year's weather leaving me with masses of stuff that couldn't be planted out), so my 'big' tomato plants are only 300mm high and in 0.5 litre pots.

As the UK National Giant Vegetables Championship isn't being held at the Royal Bath & West Showground at Shepton Mallet in late August/early September this year, having been re-located to Malvern Autumn Show (28 – 29 September 2013), I guess some serious big tomato growers will also be aiming for a later date for their big toms. http://www.threecounties.co.uk/article/national-giant-veg-competition-moves-to-malvern/

 

Two each of "Big Boy", "Better Boy", "Early Goliath", "Big Zak" and "Delicious" all potted on along with some of my "normal" tomatoes....... I would have done more but arthritis and back pain have taken their toll............ I hate getting old!

 

weighed my chocolate cherokkee, no foto, it got to 379 grams and ived now eaten it

also have a brandywine, not sure if its yellow or pink

choclate cherokee now doesnt set any flowers, must be too hot

 

First flower on the first "Big Boy" is a megabloom!

The Big Boy grown from my saved seed is coming on really well, catching up fast considering it was sown about 2 months later than the others, really chunky and I have high expectations for/from it.

Better Boy, Early Goliath and Delicious all in flower now, Big Zak just starting to produce trusses, all looks promising so far!

 

Brandywine black is coming on, the ugly megabloom could be a monster !

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Meanwhile the Burpee BigBoy (Part of the evil Monsanto empire I believe) is catching up

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I've got more megablooms!

One on one of my Big Zak's and another on one of my Delicious, a San Marzano is trying to emulate a triffid, getting huge, giant plum toms?

Most of my toms are in flower now, later sown Big Boy (from my saved seed) is about to flower, I hope you guys can beat it cos I have high hopes for it.

I will start feeding now as I have some fruitlets

 

Try measuring the girth to get an indication of the weight. This is Marvin's Magic Table I posted last year:

Plus from this post last year, an indication of sub-15" diameter weights http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...ng-competition-2012.39418/page-10#post-585569

12 5/8 ozs 12.5" girth
13 ozs 13.75" girth
14 1/8 ozs 13.5" girth
14 3/8 ozs 14.25" girth

 

Nice one OxfordNick...looking good

I've just been to measure my Early goliath....(got wet through in the process )....couldn't manage to hold the leaf up and a tape measure and a camera but it's roughly 4" across....the rest of the plants are flowering nicely

 

Managed to measure my Early Goliath

 

Measuring them can get compulsive - adjusting the tape to find the position where the girth's the largest, taking notes each day, checking morning and evening to determine whether it grows 24/7 or just during the day, monitoring them for any colour change that could mean it's reaching maturity and wont grow any larger, etc.

 

Had the first of the biggies for lunch today - brandywine black:

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247 gramms, 31cm girth.

-- not quite ripe, but very nice. I would say that there are fruits atleast 1/2 as big as that coming on, so should be a good year.