Great topic Dan. Should make for interesting reading. I don't set out to grow specifically for extra large tomatoes but my largest ever has been 2.1 lbs. This year I think I had a Brandywine fruit that weighed just over a pound but that was the largest this year.

Jay

I had several Sunset Red Horizon/Rostova over 2 lbs.

Okay ... Porterhouse report.

For the past few years I've shared seedlings with two other fellows in my cardiac rehab group. For years, one fellow, Victor R., has grown nothing but several Big Beef plants each year for production, and one or two plants of other types only as curiosities. He buys all his seed from Tomato Growers Supply. Last year he grew Persimmon and Fourth of July as curiosities and was disappointed. He said Persimmon was too lumpy and 4th of July wasn't as good as Early Girl ... his previous early tomato.

Okay, the third fellow takes seedlings from us other two guys and grows them along his chain link fence in the backyard and piles his grass clippings at the base of his plants. His tomatoes generally are much larger than mine or Victor's tomatoes for some reason. Last year he grew some huge Big Boys, Big Beef, and Jet Stars from seedlings I gave him. His tomatoes were way bigger than mine from the same seed.

This year Victor R. planned to grow only Big Beef and Jetsetter, but agreed to grow one or two Porterhouse from the pack of seeds I bought mail order from Burpee. In fact, he started all the Porterhouse seedlings for everyone. He has a great set-up and a green thumb out of this world.

I ended up not growing any Porterhouse myself, but the third fellow grew four plants, 'cause he wanted some big braggin' tomatoes, and so I could collect some F2 seeds. He kept them segregated on a section of fencing remote from his Big Beef and Jetsetters he got from Victor.

Okay, Victor didn't like Porterhouse and won't tell me much about his results. In general, he doesn't like flattened beefsteaks with ruffled shoulders ... so I just take it for granted that's his objection to Porterhouse.

The third fellow's assessment is that Porterhouse is big and pretty, but lacked any taste. The other folks at the cardiac rehab class with whom we three share tomatoes agreed. Big and pretty but pretty much tasteless. I agree ... bland at best. And I no one saw anything much more than 20 - 24 ounces.

Okay, but I have to say ... the plants were absolutely healthy, bug-free, green from top to bottom, disease free and set fruit throughout the season outlasting the Big Beef and Jetsetter. Neither of the guys used any fungicide and no insecticide. Good genes ... poor flavor.

Such is life.

Bill

Jay

Thanks. Well I never grew specifically for the biggest tomato either. But I have always liked big ones. I like a nice big thick slice on a sandwich. Ambrosia.

But I found this place and started reading the posts when I was planting seeds. I was able to buy Porterhouse seeds but had trouble with Big Zac and skipped on them. But I kept reading all the plans for this year. I was thinking this is the place to see some big ones. And I think 2 pounds is huge.

Then I was reading here on GW and someone mentioned the new book published just this year GIANT TOMATOES. So I bought a copy and it sparked my desire to learn more. It especially sparked my desire to see some big ones or hear stories of big ones.

Right now I have plans to try to grow a big one next year. I am of course still working on my plans. I hope everyone joins in with me and we try to grow some big ones next year.

Sunset Red Horizon/Rostova sounds good. over 2 pounds maybe I can find some seeds. Where did you get the seeds. Google does not come up with where to purchase seeds. Although with more work I might have some luck.

found this:
Sunset's Red Horizon
Additional cultivar information: (aka Rostovski, Rostova)

The Rostova Tomato, also known now as "Sunset's Red Horizon" is known as "Rostovskaya Krasno Ispolin" in Russia. This Russian name literally translates to mean "Red Giant of Rostov".

Originally, Anioleka Vegetable Seeds Co. discovered this Russian heirloom tomato variety in 2000 in the backyard of Nikolai Peplenov who was a Russian immigrant who moved to Portland, Oregon in 1999. Nik, who was a friend of a friend, immigrated to Portland from the city of Rostov in Southern Russia together with his wife, daughter and a son.

Here is a link that might be useful: GW thread on tomatoes from Heirloom section

Bill Nice Porterhouse report. Sorry the taste disappointed but the size at about a pound and a half is pretty good.

No one in my cardiac rehab grows tomatoes. They want me to bring in free fresh veggies all the time. Interesting report on the one guy doing so well. I wonder what his secret happens to be.

I did grow a few Jet Star from seeds and they worked nice. I bought 2 dozen Jet Star as plants and all were terrible. I suspect they used f2 seeds. At $4 a 6 pack they can afford real seeds. No more plants from those guys. Anyway I had some that looked to be 12 ounces and maybe even a pound for one or two. I thought that was exceptional. I thought Jet Star was suppose to be a small tomato. This was my first year with Jet Star. I am pretty happy. I just harvest a huge box today. The first group is about dead and the 2nd group is about finished now. Worked out well.

From the book Giant Tomatoes the strong opinion is that Big Zac is really the one to grow for competition and also it is the only really big one that tastes good. So I will find out next year. I hope to grow some Big Zac and others so I can learn.

But in terms of my ambition to grow a big one, I really am not concerned about the flavor at all. I simply want big.

I didnt grow for size but my biggest tomato of the spring was a Jet Star that weighed 1 lb 2oz. Here it is pictured with Big Beef, Azoychka and New Big Dwarf

{{gwi:1392880}}

I grow Big Zac every year. I grew Porterhouse for the first time this year. A few plants of each. This was a fantastic year for me and it's still going strong but no 3 pounders. I usually can count on a couple three pounders from Big Zac. Not so this year. Only a couple 2's.

Porterhouse beat Big Zac this year in size and production. Quite a few over 2 pounds and all big.

Big Zac wins in taste.

I'm growing both again next year.

I never prune or do anything special regarding size. I also grow organic. But these two are the biggest varieties I've ever grown and I'v grown many of the "big ones"...

bigdaddyj

Great Report. Nice to find out what you wrote. You have renewed my faith in Porterhouse.

Can I ask you if your big Porterhouse were out in a real sunny location where they had direct sun all day from early morning to late at night. I suspect that is a problem. I do not get that full day sun. but I could do better. I am thinking about making a new tomato garden in a more sunny location. I wonder if that would help or maybe too much heat out in the hot sun. Maybe better in the cool shade. My spot does get a pretty good amount of sun. But I could move it to get more sun.

And congratulations on some nice big ones. So far you have the best of the biggest to report.

My PH plants were in raised beds in full sun. Southern exposure. They started out slow. Not as tall as many of my PL heirlooms like Brandywine and Marianna's Peace. But they were extremely bushy. I never prune. Then in June they started catching up in height to my other indeterminates and really loaded up with big fruit. I like big tomatoes that one slice fills a BLT. A fully ripe PH is a fine tomato. No it's not as tasty as a Brandywine but if I can get that many huge tomatoes from one plant it deserves a year 2 in my garden. This is the only variety that ever beat Big Zac in a season for me. (16 or 17 seasons)

Here's a pic. PH's are in the foreground. Only two are fully ripe. But when I'm out picking I pick. LOL Marianna's Peace in the backround.

I've been lurking on the Growing Tomato Forum since last winter trying to soak up some knowledge. I wanted to grow some big tomatoes so I got some Big Zak seeds and started several plants this last spring. I started them a week or two before my regular tomatoes-- Big Beef-- and selected the two most vigorous plants. On one of the plants I grew just four tomatoes, By the end of the season the largest was three and five eights pounds. The other three were over two pounds, but they were ugly tomatoes, especially the largest. It had cracks and never fully ripened. I guess the season just wasn't long enough up here. I think I have a lot of problems with diseases toward the end of the season and maybe that affected it too.

Next year I will try again with my Big Zak, but after reading though this forum I will expand my selection to try to grow some better tasting tomatoes, and improve my practices to reduce diseases.

A lot of nice looking tomatoes in the posts above!

bigdaddyj

This 2nd picture is more awesome than the first. That is one super harvest. I am really really impressed. You are doing a super job on growing big tomatoes. The PH PorterHouse really are impressive.

dustyb

over 3 and 5/8 pound is truely mind blowing. Do you have a picture. We can help you get it posted if you dont know how to do it. Posting pictures is super easy.

Did anyone else get any tomatoes above a pound. Dont be shy. You do not have to have the biggest one. Just share your story. We all are interested. I could talk about big tomatoes all night.

Here is a post from another thread on green tomatoes. He speaks of large tomatoes so I wanted to copy it over here.

Posted by tomatovator (My Page) on Mon, Oct 8, 07 at 20:44

I'm in western PA, Zone 6. Big tomatoes are coming from Big Zac, Brandy Boy, Marianna's Peace and Polish. MP and Polish are pretty much done but some early ones were well over 1 lb. Now BB and BZ have some real biggies but they are still green. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of ripe ones all summer long but because of some unusually mild weather these past few weeks the plants are loaded again. For big, good flavored, red tomatoes it is hard to beat Big Zac.

I don't have any big tomato to report, but I do have a question. I want to try just one large type next season and would love a recommendation. So far, I have Big Beef and Big Zac on my consideration list. I don't mind if it is a hybrid or not, I am just looking for large fruits, good production and decent flavor. Thanks in advance!

tomatomike

If you are only growing for size I recommend Porterhouse or Big Zac. Big Beef is an average size tomato. It's a great hybrid BTW just not a size large. I have grown quite a few large varieties over the years and BZ and PH produce the biggest tomatoes of any variety I have seen yet.

The book Giant Tomatoes strongly recommends Big Zac as the biggest and best tasting. It claims the other big ones are not as good tasting. bigdaddyj had the opposite results this year. So who knows next year. That is the fun in playing the game of trying to grow a big tomato.

Here is the biggest I got this year. I think its a ML. Could also be a CC. This is the end of the year harvest and what was hanging on the vine when I pulled everything out.

http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/58/558/2/90/66/2629290660039792618lGrfMl_th.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1392873}}

{{gwi:1392873}}

I will try to post a picture of my big and ugly tomato.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I had some good sized , and Porter House. However, I did not weigh them. I was a little puzzled by the Big Zac that I grew. Of three plants next to each other in the same row, two were pretty average and un remarkable. The third one had some above average sized tomatoes, probably well over a pound but less than two pounds. I have no idea why that was so, nutrients, water, sun, soil and everything was the same, it has to be something in the genetics of the different plants as far as I can see.

The Porterhouse that I grew produced more and bigger tomatoes than any of the others. We had a very wet spring and the first tomatoes were all bland tasting with the exception of Mereced. Later on after the rain let up, they were what I would consider normal. The Porterhouse were good and were high on the taste list for my wife and one DIL but I like a tomato that is a little stronger or a little more assertive in flavor than they were, and what I have always associated with what I would call that old time tomato flavor. What I have always called acidic, but am now told that is not the correct terminology. To me however, they were every bit as good as Big Zac.

I know and agree that taste is subjective and also varies some with soil, sun, season, climate and location but to me the best tasting of the large tomatoes for me was my Big Beefsteak and (Merced is usually about average size, a little bigger than a tennis ball) both of which are hybrids.

Most of the other clusters had more in them than this.
Bill P.

dustyb

if you go to your picture on Photobucket and under the picture are 4 listings the 3rd one is HTML. click on the word HTML and code will load into your compture memory. Now come to this Message where you are typing in your message and do a paste. the copy and past. the copy was from photobucket HTML the paste is here. this is what you will see when you do a message preview.

dustyb

please email me. Your email is not available. you can get my email very easy.

That tomato is still green at 3 pounds 10 ounces. It could have grown bigger.

I just want to say that you can take a tomato to the post office and get a weight. I have not asked them but they have the good scales. Some postoffices have a scale on a table for customer use.

above picture is the Merced by Bill P. So easy to post the pictures when on Photobucket. Notice just to the right of the picture there is the HTML. click on that and paste here.

I believe that Marvin Meisner in his book is not saying that there are not better tasting toms at the pound level. He is saying that at the 4 pound level and up the Big Zac wins out. I am sure he would agree there are great tasting toms at the pound level.

I think breaking the 4 pound level is difficult. Here is a picture of a tomato grown by Marvin Meisner author of the Giant Tomato book. I am pretty sure this tomato was 4 1/2 pounds and does not have the taste we look for.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great Reading

Dan, you've already seen my BIGGEST tomato but here it is again....:)

Neves Azorean @ 2lb 9.7 oz;

The thing of it is, I wasn't trying to grow a big tomato. I didn't pinch any blossoms and I didn't use any fertilizer. Zilch! A few of the other tomatoes on this plant were in the 2 lb range.

I've grown NAR in the past and got some real nice size tomatoes BUT, there was a fair amount of concentric cracking and disease too. They were overcrowded. The plants are monsters so give them space! I have had a couple of branches snap under the weight of the maters. This year I spaced them further apart for better circulation and I'm sure that helped. The fruits were beautiful and very abundant.. I mulched, stripped the lower growth and sprayed 2x's for diseases early on but I didn't stay on top of it so the blight has since got em:(. But not before I harvested dozens of tomatoes from one plant...pounds!!! The only other NAR I grew this year got shaded out by a giant sunflower and didn't perform as well.

IÂve never tasted BZ but I can tell you that NAR is one tasty tomato.

Ps...Dan...IÂll get your seeds off to you this week...scout's honor:)

I don't grow for size, rather primarily for taste, but here's a few to consider in addition to those above, all OP's that have given me fruits in the 2-3 pound range in the past, with no special tricks at all such as special fertilizing, disbudding, thinning fruits, etc.

*****

Neves Azorean Red, as peggy mentioned
Tidwell German
Red Barn
Zogola
Cuostralee
Large Pink Bulgarian
Omar's Lebanese
Milka's Red Bulgarian
Russian Bogatyr

......for starters

No one variety, even the ones mentioned in the above posts, is going to give large ones every year or indeed for every person because there are just too many variables as to how a person grows their tomatoes, soil, amendments used, weather in any particular season or degree of irrigation, and yes sometimes even seed source.

So good luck to all of you who do want to grow primarily for size and in addition have, hopefully, tasty tomatoes.

Carolyn

Thank You Carolyn. A very helpful posting.

Good News I just fund a web site that has contest tomatoes listed. It is listed on BigPumpkins.com they apparently keep track of contest results.

http://bigpumpkins.com/WeighoffSiteList.aspx?y=2007

This url will take you to all the states. After the listing on the states there is a click for Pumpkins, Squash and Tomatoes etc. Only 5 or 6 states have tomato results listed. I am sure it is because most states are not contesting tomatoes. But it is a new growing area for gardeners.

Anyway I went down through all the states with Tomatoes and it goes ver quickly. Most have low 2 pounds wins the contest. However there are a couple of big ones.

Marvin Meisner appears to have grown the largest tomato this year. It must be the one I Pictured above. Magnus. given at 4.57 pounds in Pennsylvania listing. And it looks like 2nd place was also Pennsylvania at 4.2 pounds. I can guess they shared seeds. Marvin is a very generous person. Then Marvin took 3rd with 3.66 pounds in Pennsylvania.

The only other really big one was in Ohio at 4.42 pounds. I want to congratulate all the participants in growing big tomatoes. It looks like a lot of fun to me and I want to try it next year.

So across the entire USA this year it looks like the top are

Meisner 4.57
Harp, N 4.42
Checkon 4.2
Meisner 3.66

Peggy, you might be able to register your NAR at BigPumpkin.com web site. I can only guess that you will need some proof of the weight. The proof might not be difficult since you have a good picture.

By the way Marvin Meisner grew a pumpkin to 1060 last year and did even better this year at 1090. Congratulations to Marvin on a great pumpkin and especially on winning with the biggest tomato this year.

However, there is a big New Jersey tomato weigh off that seems missing from this site. There is a possibility that the New Jersey Tomato weigh off has dissolved itself. The web site is a bit old.

By the way last year Canada broke above 7 pounds. This year they did well but not that well. Here are the winners from Toronto and Marvin Meisner from Pennsylvania apparently took 3rd place in Toronto.

above First Prize at 4.75 pounds

above Second Prize at 4.67 pounds

and our American Champion below The one and only Marvin Meisner.

above at 4.57 pounds.

So this must be the same tomato up in Toronto as in USA in Pennsylvania. That is a picture of Marvin's book Giant Tomatoes in the picture of him winning 3rd prize in Toronto this year.

http://www.consiglios.ca/html/TomatoHunt/winners2007.html

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato contests by state

Too bad the varieties aren't mentioned in that link.

I had a few Porterhouse that would have won some of those states and I didn't even try for big ones...:)

Well Big Daddy please give it a try next year. Maybe with just one plant. You might enjoy the challenge.

I am new to this and learning every day. But I think you can win your state prize now even without a contest. I think you can have it weighed and registered at BigPumpkin.com for your state at any time of year. You might want to get a statement from someone where you weigh it.

I would probably go with a sheet of paper all filled out on the tomato and go to the post office. they have accurate scales. then ask the postmaster to weigh it and put the weight on the paper and sign and date it. I would also get a digital picture if possible.

But if I have a big one coming I would go to BigPumpkin.com and ask there how to register the tomato. So everyone can participate very easily.

I expect I will have to do exactly that next year if I get a big one. I will find out next year the details on doing it. There are no tomato contests in New England that I know about. From Big Pumpkins dot com I suspect the closest is Altoona Pennsylvania at 500 miles by Mapquest.

Tomatoes are different from Pumpkins. You might have a ripe tomato at any time so you need to weigh it at any time locally.

My largest tomatoes this year came from Earl's Faux.
I think I had about 8 fruits that were between 1.5-2lbs and several more at 1lb and under. I was shocked, first time growing it and I'll surely grow it next year. Nice shape too, good eating.

Nice growing Daddy Long Legs. I hope and expect that you saved seeds from that plant. My personal best I would guess at between 1 and 1.5 pounds. But I never weigh them. Maybe I had a bigger one over the years. Maybe I am in the 1.5 to 2 pound range. I really dont know. I certainly never had a real world class tomato. But then like most people I never tried.

Now I Understand a few things about growing big ones from reading the book Giant Tomatoes. Next year I will have a big one. I expect or at least hope to get above 2 pounds.

I hope everyone here on GW will join into the fun of growing a big tomato.

I never grew for size before ... but it looks like a lot fun. Maybe I'll read Dr. Meisner's book and give it a try one year.
So far, I've never done anything special like feeding for size or selecting double blossoms and snipping the rest off, etc.
The single Big Zac I started this year was a flop.

I do admire a really large, well shaped tomato. Here are a few I ran across this year from my garden and from a co-worker to whom I gave some seedlings. Noting special ... just a couple of large, pretty tomatoes here.

The first one is a Potato Top from seeds TomTrees sent me from New Jersey. Tom grew his Potato Top from seeds I got
from Doug Oster in Pittsburgh. Linda, a coworker, keeps horses and her Potato Top enjoyed growing in a bed of rotted manure and straw. It's a bit over 5 inches across and weighed 1 pound 12 ounces.

And here it is sitting next to a Romeo paste tomato also grown by Linda. The Romeo grew from a plant I started from seeds bought from Peters Seed Project. Linda's plant set several tomatoes over a pound and a half. This one went 28 ounces (1 pound 12 ounces) on a postal scale at work.

Many of the Romeos on the plant I kept at home weighed over a pound with the largest weighing 1 pound 9 ounces,
so the variety has potential as a huge paste tomato!

Another one that may have potential for an extra large tomato is something that came out of a pack of Chapman seeds from TGS. Whatever it is, it's an extra large, blunt-nosed heart. The vine consistently made tomatoes over one pound, but nothing over 24 ounces yet. Maybe if I read Dr. Meisner's book, I'll get some ideas how to force one of these three varieties to throw some tomatoes over 2 pounds.

But if I ever do breed or grow some for size, I still want nice, single tomato shapes ... big, gnarly, contorted masses of catfaced double and triple fruit don't do much for me.

Bill

Our largest this year was a yellow oxheart. If this works, here's a picture of it (I inset another picture of it after we sliced it):

{{gwi:1297911}}

We should have gotten it weighed. The plants were very prolific and we had dozens that came to about 2/3 the size of this one. (And for all you who I promised seeds to, they will be getting mailed this week.) I'd love to find a red oxheart that produces like this one!

I've had several people say that Cuostralee plants produce good-sized tomatoes, but most of the ones we got were no bigger than my biggest Early Girls. Go figure! But they sure do taste good so we will try them again next year.

The best that I could ever do was back in 1992 when I got a "Delicious" variety to pump out 1 - 3lb tomato. It was exactly 3lbs and perfect in shape, not knarly. Haven't topped it since then.

edij

Nice yellow tomato. I like the yellow color. Beautiful to me.

vgkg

3 pounds is excellent. Did you save seeds from that one. Although all the seeds on that plant will have the same genetics even if the other tomato is smaller the seeds will be the same as those from the big one. This of course assumes there was no cross pollenation from another plant especially a cherry tomato with a beefsteak. I wonder what would happen then.

3 pounds is excellent. Did you save seeds from that one. Although all the seeds on that plant will have the same genetics even if the other tomato is smaller the seeds will be the same as those from the big one. This of course assumes there was no cross pollenation from another plant especially a cherry tomato with a beefsteak. I wonder what would happen then.

****

For all intents and purposes seeds within fruits from the same plant will be the same but there is genetic diversity within a variety and so slight differences sometimes can be seen in days to maturity, internode distances, leaf form, all minor things that wouldn't change what the variety itself is.

As to what happens when a beefsteak crosses with a cherry variety, small size is partially dominant genetically to large size so the resulting fruits would be larger than the cherry but smaller than the beefsteak. Color is a different matter.

Carolyn, who doesn't grow for fruit size but did have 3# fruits from Tidwell German and Red Barn a few years back with nothing special done. It was a rainy season and I think that's why they plumped up so well. ( smile) If a variety doesn't have the genetic capacity to grow large, nothing you do can make it do so. ( smile)

dangould, no I didn't save the seeds as this was just a one time challenge. Back then Miracle Grow had a $100,000 contest for anyone who could beat the world record of 7#12oz. As far as I know they haven't revived that contest so I stopped trying.

Not sure what it is about a BIG tomato that makes it appealing, but for some REASON it is. I DO have difficulty getting my mind around growing a tomato just for it size (not even considering it's taste). I don't think there's anything worse than eating a bad tasting tomato (whether bland, astringent, too 'fruity') no matter how big it is. I have always found Omars Lebanese a HUGE tomato (I didn't grow it this year, but have in past, and it's tomatoes were in the 2+ lb range with no special treatment) and they taste fantastic! Good luck to the folks attempting to grow a REALLY biggie!

Tom-

Yes I believe that Miracle Grow made the offer for 2 years and then withdrew it. However, they did hire the person who grew the world record and I am very certain that if you grow a world record and use Miracle Grow at least a little in growing it then they will come to you with a financial offer. I suspect you can still get the $100,000 from allowing them to use your endorcement of their products. But that is obviously not guaranteed.

I want to say that I want to collect suckers from plants that grow big tomatoes. I want to root them and try to grow them under similar conditions to assess their growing ability. So if anyone grows a tomato of 2 pounds, I am interested in getting a rooted cutting or just some cuttings and I will root them. I will of course pay expenses.

Carolyn, You are correct. The seeds are not the same as a rooted cutting. all the seeds will grow slightly different plants with slightly different genetics. So lets say I grow 100 plants of Omar's Lebanese or any other plant. Hopefully I will get a couple that will have a 2 pounder on it. Now my idea is to save the plant until the following year and then grow it as a competition plant and see what happens. With some luck I hope to push it to maybe 2 and a half or maybe 3 pounds and if I have a good group of them I hope I can get at least one to do better. Well obviously one in a larger group will grow the largest one.

Now if I had a farm and could grow 1000 plants I could make some progress. However, I can only grow a limited number in the yard. So I need help getting the preliminary filtering of the plants to find some good ones.

Will my idea work. Probably not. Will I have fun trying. You bet.

Let me say this about growing for size and not taste. I grow way too many tomatoes to eat. I dont sell them. I figure why not have one or two plants dedicated to growing a big one. It will not mean that I eat fewer tomatoes all summer. I have enough tomatoes and tomato juice and tomato salsa so that I do not need to make more next year. So instead of growing and putting them into quart jars, I will grow a few plants for size. I fully intend to grow all my regular tomatoes just as always.

Also I will admit that it was reading the book Giant Tomatoes that turned me on to wanting to try next year. So if anyone grows a big one. Just post it on GW and I will pop up and email you. Just make sure you allow emails from GW members.

I wish everyone the best of luck next year and I hope I have some luck also. I already have my seeds of Big Zac and I expect those to do the best but I am willing to grow other ones also.