First advice I'd give you is to keep your sense of humor. The second thing would be to arrange to have more direct sunlight. My experiments this year directly link size of fruit to the amount of time with direct sunlight on the plant. If you want a world record or just "a very, very big tomato", ya gotta get more sun. There isn't any fertilizer that will compensate for lack of sun. I had one Giant Tree plant this year that got about 7 hours of direct sun and my largest was 1 lb - 6.25 ounces.

I concur with ted and would add: Know your seed source as to who would more likely have seed with the attributes you want.
Without starting a forum war (grin) Delicious has claim to the record I believe sponsored by Miracle Gro, in the 70's, or 80's Since then it has been grown by many gardeners and I guess altered in some small way as to affix a name to it.

I am waiting and waiting for the big NAR's to ripen so I can scoop it out and use it as it's own bowl!!!!!

Ted gave you good advice - keep your sense of humor. ;) Very important!! And don't plan to make this any "matter of life or death" because the odds of success are a long shot.

You don't have near enough sun. 6 hours is the minimum, the very minimum for tomatoes. For your goal, 10-12 is needed.

Tomatoes grow best in the ground. So if you use a container it will have to be a BIG one like a 1/2 whiskey barrel or larger and make sure it has drain holes in the bottom. And you will need a good quality, soil-less potting mix to fill the container, preferably one with moisture control and fertilizer added. Additional fertilizer - most any well balanced will do if fed on a regular basis because it will leach out of the container. Since it is fruit you are after try to avoid high nitrogen fertilizers and focus on the middle number - the phosphorous.

As already mentioned, the Delicious record is an old one, it was a one time thing, hundreds have tried to duplicate it and failed, and much has happened since then in the world of tomatoes. So try it, have fun doing it (that's important - the fun part), and also grow yourself some real, eating, normal, tomatoes at the same time so that you also have the enjoyment of actually eating a tomato. ;)

Dave

PS: many previous discussions here on giant tomatoes you might want to review. I linked one of them for you below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best varietiey for huge tomatoes...?

you should find some good tips on this book
anyway, its not easy to get over 2 pounds: you need sun, skills, luck, and probably some big zac seeds

Here is a link that might be useful: book

Dont waste your time trying to grow a really big tomato from the variety (Delicious) this variety is the biggest con trick ever inflicted upon tomato growers by the company responsible for it, the one tomato that held the world record was a complete fluke of nature and will probably never be repeated again in our lifetime,many people who have even had seeds out of that very same tomato have tried since to grow big toms from the resulting progeny and all they got for their efforts were toms weighing six or seven ounces at best, and that was from some of the best experts on the subject.

You would be far better armed to try something like Big Zac who is known to produce regular big ones and is a fairly reliable variety, other than that, Phil's fantastic, or The Dutchman, have been known to turn out three or four pounders fairly easily, but (Delicious) is a definate No"-NO"

I'm wanting to stick to heirlooms from now on but the Big Zac did catch my eye when I saw it. Maybe I'll just grow one or two Big Zac plants in the front somewhere in full sun, and grow the Delicious variety in with the rest of the maters in not-so-full sun (they still yield good amounts considering the low sun they get, I've had a few hundred fruit so far from 9 plants, including the unripe ones still on the plants).

Thanks for the advice on "Delicious", any more adivce is welcome...

>>all they got for their efforts were toms weighing six or seven ounces at best, and that was from some of the best experts on the subject.

Well, I don't consider myself an expert, and I don't purposely try to grow large tomatoes, but the three or four years when I've grown Delicious from traded seeds, there have always been tomatoes close to 1 1/2 pounds, or just under 2 pounds. Average size was more like 12-14 oz.

I'm not sure how one gets a tomato to be larger than usual except to grow a large variety and feed it well. This year the NAR got rather large yet tasty and with only six hours of direct sunlight daily. The plants were pruned to four stems or less and only Serenade was used to keep the blight down. Production was good and they're still going strong. The largest was from a megabloom and weighed in at a bit over 2 1/4 pounds. The largest single bloom tomato was 1 3/4 pound. Take a look.........

My advice is to use lots of leaves, grass clippings, horse or cow manure and straw this fall in your tomato holes for next year. It will rot pretty well by next summer and makes super fertilizer.

I would throw those Delicious tomato seeds as far as I could in the direction of a landfill, since they will NOT give you anything remotely close to a world record size tomato.

I would buy some Big Zac Hybrid seeds and use the largest most vigorous plants from the packet of seeds....and prune to ONE main stem and ONE tomato located near the bottom of the vine. Plant in full day sun and keep watered (preferably from below the roots)......or better yet, plant on top of a natural spring if possible, and that will keep the roots constantly moist and cool.

If you insist on trying a OP tomato variety....try one each of the popular large ones, such as Ultimate Giant, etc. and use the same growing procedure as above.

Good Luck!

I had a few this year that weighed in at 1&1/2 lbs......
plenty big enough for me..... I love the way you can't find bread big enough for a tomato sandwich that the tomato does not stick out on all 4 sides!!!!!
Is this a wonderful counrty or what??

You mean like this?

That is EXACTLY what i'm talking about!!!!

ddsack.......I have never seen a Delicious with that flat shape and that red color. I have raised Delicious from several sources over the years, and mine were always more round and orangish-red colored. Never raised any of them much over a pound, and most were well under a pound too.

Just my experience with Delicious. Whatever yours is in the picture, it looks great:)

dsack
I see you live in Minnesota,Z3.
I'm curious to know if you grew that tomato this year. The only ripe tomato I've gotten this year was a Not So Big Beef. It was a whopping 6 ounces.

I love that pic with the bread. I want at least a small amount of fruit that size, if they will grow well here in my garden, and then I'll set aside a separate plant along with a Big Zac or two and try and grow a monster.

Greenthumb, I got the seeds from a local farmer's wife who saved seeds from her garden. I have no idea what her source was and have not grown Delicious from other sources. It has been my experience, that any really giant tomatoes rarely have a perfect shape, either because of fused blossoms, or because of they tend to put more growth into developing big shoulders. I really can't remember if smaller fruit were more round looking, because it's been a few years since I grew it.

jwr - No, that picture is NOT from this year. I have gotten enough ripe from the big heirlooms this year to give me all I can eat, but I fear with this cold snap, I will have over half my crop still green by the time I have to rescue them from frost. Very poor growing conditions this year, unlike the last 3-5 years. My best producers have been JD's Special C-Tex, Vorlon, Earl's Faux, and Gary O'Sena.

Catman - I probably still have some seeds of my Delicious variant, though they may be a little old by now. If you want some, send me an email through the GardenWeb site and I'll see if I can dig around and find them.

{{gwi:1380231}}
these are a couple of my gems this year.... pass the bread

I had one more comment about large tomatoes. I treat the large tomato issue like a football coach would treat a game.

"Do you want ONE touchdown, or a DOZEN fieldgoals?"

Rhetorical question ??? - "Why do YOU grow tomatoes?"

but we still strive for a DOZEN touchdowns.....

No, Mikey, we strive to win! Touchdowns and fieldgoals are merely the tools and the paths.

"Why do YOU grow tomatoes?"
Because I'm a sick woman...a very sick woman.

Sue...an admitted tomatoholic