How to Grow a Big Fat Tomato

[TomatoNut95]

So, has anyone ever actually grown a tomato that weighed over 3 lbs? Or even 2? I'll read on some beefsteak varieties about their record weights and I can get jealous. HOW does one achieve such greatness from their tomatoes?

My record weights are:
Mr. Stripey:
1lb 1oz
1lb 3.6 oz
1lb 5oz
1lb 5.6 oz
Aunt Ruby's German Green:
1lb 3.4oz
1lb 1.2oz

This year I'm hoping to get fruits that are closer to 2lbs. I know environmental conditions that affect your fruits can't be controlled but I assume that proper soil and fertilize is a helpful factor.

What are anybody else's record size and weight tomatoes and how do you feel that you achieved it?

[pepperhead212]

The largest tomato I ever grew was less than an ounce under 2 lbs - KBX, which was also one of the best tasting. A few others were over 24 oz, but barely tasted like tomatoes, despite being "heirloom" varieties. And most had those white strips of flesh throughout, which I do not like in tomatoes. I never remove all the other fruits from a plant, to make a single fruit grow huge - I just pick them when they ripen. I'm not in a contest, and just growing one tomato (or any vegetable) on a plant, just to get it large, seems wasteful.

[applestar]

I really think your best chance for growing sizable tomatoes start with the seeds, even with same variety name.

Some hobby gardeners and boutique vendors have been selecting for large size fruits to collect seeds from for years, and these seeds are genetically prone to grow large fruits. (I do save remarkably large fruit seeds separately.)

The vendors specializing in large fruit size tomatoes and other vegs will have a separate category page on their website for these cream of the crop genetic lineage seeds.

Some opt for weight value, some for circumference, and some limit to “perfect shape” (culling out tendency to form those pithy cores), and others will also select for flavor.

…FWIW for this year, I’m growing seeds from “ Wes VGB.R’21 BIGGEST ” which if IRC, was grown from 2014 biggest Wes seeds last year? Mine is a modest and casual effort. To be serious, you should grow a good number of the saved large fruit seeds each year, then save seeds from the biggest of those to select for your own lineage.

[TomatoNut95]

I had no idea that pulling off all but one of the fruits on the plant would expand the size of that one fruit. I agree that I would rather not do that and waste fruit. I will definitely try @applestars idea of saving the seed from the biggest fruit on the plant.

This year I'm growing Giant Pink Belgium. The description said the variety is said to produce 5lb fruit, while the person selling the seeds said their personal best was 3.3lbs.

[applestar]

I’m aware of several, but I guess in a gesture of returning a favor, I’ll post this link as one example, since I got some of my original big fruited tomato seeds from this guy (and learned that there exists such a pursuit in the first place)…

BIG Tomatoes (2+ lbs.)
https://www.delectationoftomatoes.com/s ... s.%29.html

I was trying to grow “Michael’s Portuguese Monster” also obtained from from him in same batch as the “6 Pound Giant”, but so far no show ….

I checked my notes to see if I had obtained my first Wes seeds from them as well, but that one was one of my introduction to the “tomato seed stash collection” from “TZ” — a member of our forum:
Gardening Forum - HelpfulGardener.com Viewing profile - TZ -OH6

Sadly, he hasn’t been here in a long time, but some of our best archived discussions are his posts.

It’s not inconceivable that he had originally obtained HIS first seeds from the other, or, in fact, vice versa.

[TomatoNut95]

That Delectation of Tomatoes website is AWESOME!! I fell in love with practically everything on the 2lb+ list when you showed me that link to the 6lb Giant. I'd love to have the Brutus Magnum but, of course, its sold out. Can you imagine holding a six pound tomato in your hands????

I see from reading the description of those big fat beauties that some are born through double or triple blossoms. Very rare do I encounter those when growing beefsteak types. So I feel that @applestar is correct about the genetics of saving seeds from the largest fruit on your plant in order to achieve those monsters. I will definitely do that this year when I work with GPB.