I'd say it is likely a perfect combination of environment, soil amending, fertilizer, and care! I'd love to see a picture of a tomato plant with that many toms on it!

"What do you think?" About what? I'm thinking college algebra is not a lot of fun....

"...ranging from small to large." Small we can generally understand, but how large is large? Large cherry tomato, say bigger than 1"; large slicer, 4"; beefsteak, 6"; even bigger?

Over 70 tomatoes on a 5' plant is not that unusual, especially if it is a determinate or cherry variety. Which brings us to the next question:

What variety?

Are you wondering if your treatment of this one plant made a difference? Are all 15 plants of the same variety? If yes, then maybe. If no, then probably not.

There really isn't enough information in your post to speculate, especially when your question is rather vague.

Betsy

Good question. I'm not sure of the variety, but it's Not the small cherry or grape tomatoes. It's the "regular" large-size tomatoes. We took the seeds from last year's harvest. Eleven of the 15 plants are from last year's seeds.

This 70-plus tomato plant also has a ton of yellow flowers.

A photo of this plant probably wouldn't wow you much because we don't have much garden space, so each plant is separated by only 2.5 feet, instead of the usual 3. So the tomato plants just look like one big mosh of leaves all growing into each other. A plant's branches extend into it's neighbor's space and vice versa.

I don't think the green tomatoes would stand out much against the green leaves, unless a closeup photo were taken, but then you'd see just a few tomatoes instead of all 70. Maybe when the tomatoes redden, it might become a really good photo, I hope.

Were they heirloom tomatoes you go the seeds from?

Yes, what varieties did you get the seeds from? And are all 15 plants from the same batch of seeds, or are they all from different plants/varieties?

If all 15 plants are the same variety and are all being grown under exactly the same conditions, I'd say you definitely have an outlier in this individual plant. But if they are all different varieties, this particular variety might just be very prolific and/or a perfect fit for your growing conditions. Either way, you may want to save seeds from the plant to see if you can duplicate your results next summer.

"Eleven of the 15 plants are from last year's seeds."

Ooohkay. But are those 11 all one variety and if yes, is the loaded plant one of those 11?

Information! We need information!

Betsy

Well, I don't know the variety (and I'm not sure what heirloom means) but I went outside this morning to do a more thorough count. I had thought that maybe yesterday's count of 68 tomatoes may have been overblown--maybe I was mistakenly including some tomatoes from the neighbor plant's branches. But no, there was no mistake. I actually undercounted yesterday. This morning I counted 84 tomatoes, small to medium size. It wouldn't surprise me if there are upwards of 90 tomatoes on that plant.

Its 6 closest neighbor plants all have tomatoes in the 20's count and the 30's count, but they're bigger, rounder tomatoes. I bet the 84-count plant is a different variety--either that or it's somehow a mutant.

The shape of the toms on the 84-count plant isn't as round as the toms on the other plants. The shape is just slightly oblong, by which I mean the height of the tomatoes is ever so slightly greater than the width of the tomatoes. Kind of reminds me of the shape of tear drops but no way as oblong as tear drops. Just slightly oblong. There is no way this variety is the "cherry/grape" tomato variety. These tomatoes are much, much, much bigger than the "cherry/grape" variety of toms, but they're smaller than my other "regular" tomatoes.

I'll take a picture soon. Will photobucket.com or some other sites accept a 1.2 to 1.9 megapixel image? I don't want to put the photo on Google Plus, Facebook, Flickr, etc. I'd prefer the Photobucket and ImageShack places--if they'll accept megapixel-sized images.

Hi Zoysia,

Do you remember which variety you grew last year? It really would be most helpful if you could remember.

The way that I include a photo is to crop it so it's not too big and save it to my desktop. Write a message and go to "preview" message and then it offers you a box to check to add a photo. Using "browse" I find the picture on my desktop and click on that.

Linda

"Heirloom" varieties are generally considered those that have been around for at least 50 years, and most importantly to the matter at hand, are "open pollinated" (OP), meaning they come true from seed each year. Contrast this to "hybrids", which are the result of a cross of two other varieties and don't come true from seed.

If you had OP varieties last year, the seed you saved is likely to grow into the same variety. This would allow you to save seed from the plant this year (and in future years) and continue to grow this very productive plant for years to come.

If you had hybrids last year and saved seed from them, then who the heck knows what you've got. Hybrid seeds don't come true when you save the seed -- you might get something similar to the original plant or you might get plants that are totally different; no way to tell if they are worth growing until you grow them out and taste them. If this productive plant is a hybrid throwback, these 84 tomatoes might taste great ... or they might be really bland because they include the gene that contributed high productivity to the cross but not good taste.

Hopefully they will both taste great and come true from seed so you can continue to grow this productive plant in your garden in the future.

Kathy

That explains it! Thank you so much kathyb912_IN, labradors, bets, and getyourleash. From the great information you provided, I think this especially productive plant must be a cross between last year's "regular" big tomato variety and last year's cherry/grape tomato plants. We grew 4 or 5 cherry/grape tomato plants last year (I can never remember if they're called cherry or grape tomatoes, but you know what I'm talking about: the small tomatoes whose plants keep producing small toms long after the big tomato plants stop producing).

So I guess this year's 84-count plant whose toms are much, much bigger than cherry tomatoes but smaller than "regular"-sized tomatoes is a cross between last year's regular plants and last year's cherry tomato plants.

If the tomatoes taste good, I'll let you all know. Sure hope they're good. And sure hope the seeds from this 84-count plant will produce true next year if the tomatoes are tasty.

Oops, duplicate message deleted.

This post was edited by ZoysiaSod on Sun, Jul 21, 13 at 13:06

Triplicate deleted.

This post was edited by ZoysiaSod on Sun, Jul 21, 13 at 13:09

Great news. We picked our first 2 red tomatoes on Thursday of last week. They came from the plant that's apparently a cross between last year's "regular"-sized big tomatoes and last year's cherry/grape tomatoes.

Even better news. Those 2 tomatoes taste dee-lish! They're so juicy and flavorful. I was surprised how good they are, after reading I might be disappointed. I hope their seeds produce true next year. Wow, that 84-count plant (it probably has over a 100 toms on it now I guess) not only produces tasty tomatoes but it produces them fast. We have another 4 toms ripening red right now, and, although we have lots of toms on our "regular," big-sized tomato plants, they're all still green as of today I think.

By the way, the size of the first 2 red toms on that 84-count plant was about 1.5 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. They're pretty round. I guess each tomato is about the size of 2 ping pong balls.

Any luck with the pictures yet?

It's the old "A picture is worth a 1000 words"