Chapter 42

What's next, a Ten Pounder?

In 2020 the world record for heaviest tomato ever grown on planet earth was broken for the third time in six years. Gordon Graham's record in 1986 had held up for over 25 years. Steve Marley and his wife, Jeanne, of Clinton, New York weighed in for the 2019 weigh offs with an amazing 9.65 pound tomato. The giant tomato world was shocked! The following is an article written by Steve on how this feat was accomplished.

How We Grew "Wilson the SlamMeR"

A world record story.
By porkchop

Ahhh the heisman, the Heisman Trophy – could I possibly be the biggest bozo on the planet? – lol. I gotta tell ya, for a gardening season that almost didn't happen, we couldn't be happier with the way this year worked out. We grew a new World Record tomato that weighed 9.65 lbs. That's slightly less than two bags of sugar, almost 10 jars of sauce; that's like 37 bottles of ketchup – depends on the bottle I guess – whatever, he was big. Me and the Ol' Lady really had a plan for this season. And it's a good thing, because spring in the northeast this year was terrible, par for the course I guess.

This is how we did it.

We knew going into the 2019 gardening season that it was going to be tough. After a fall from a ladder, I was placed on the injured reserve list most of late fall and winter, and I think both of us decided it would be best if we took the year to heal and catch up on some of the things that have taken a back seat while we've enjoyed this extreme gardening hobby. But as luck would have it, and with some cheering on from really good friends we've made in this hobby over the years, we decided to go for it and focus on growing a kick-ass tomato patch.

The goal was to put my BIgpumpkins.com "Jedi" training to use and lay out a plan to put us in a position to try and challenge the current record. The first step was to get the growing space in order. We added 1" of our own "black gold" leaf compost to the 900 sqft patch and tilled about 10" deep. I estimated on our soil "numbers" this year based on what the plants in this garden did last year. We decided to add 40 lbs of a blend of Foxfarm organic fertilizers, a couple pounds of magnesium Sulphate, 10 lbs of Wallace WOW kelp meal, and about 1 1/2 cups of boron to amend the soil. After tilling again, we built up planting hills, as we know this area gets very wet for the first few weeks that plants are in the ground. Each hill then had a big deep hole dug in the center. I mean deep, at least 24". To the bottom of the hole we added a few cups of soil conditioner, then back filled them halfway. From this point we filled the rest of the hole with the remaining dirt mixed with about a gallon of Foxfarm Happy Frog soil. Whew!...ready to plant.

At this point, around the middle of June, the ground was stocked with nutrition and the 30 day old plants were ready to go in the ground. A little organic starter fertilizer, 2 Wallace Wow season long starter packs, a tablespoon of azos, and two tablespoons of Wallace wow pumpkin MyKOs. We planted right before a rain, and we let Mother Nature water them in. The plants took off running. We are both pretty busy with work during that first month the plants are in the ground, so they don't get much attention. We learned last year, that Wow season long starter packs will grow tomatoes 5+ lbs in our soil with just water, so we weren't too worried about running out of food in that first month. Besides, this year was all about feeding "the space."

After 25 days or so in the ground, we hit a dry spell and it was time to start the feeding program. The plants were starting to take off. Over the winter, I drew out a plan that I believed would work to grow a monster in our soil. I based it on previous attempts at growing these giants. Once a week feedings to be applied after a good rain. We fed 45 gallons of secret fertilizer once a week when the plants were growing well. A light feeding over the entire space. To the fertilizer we added Wallace Wow seaweed and half strength Wallace wow humic fulvic, every time. At about the time flowers started to show up, we started our weekly foliar feed as well. Uncle Dunkels tomato turbo (competition blend), has been a staple in my regimen for years now and we start spraying when the early flowers first emerge. Around this time, the roots had reached the edges of their hills. The garden was dry enough, so we decided it was time to add compost for the roots to continue growing in. We added 2 cubic yards in and around each hill. We started supplementing magnesium shortly thereafter. I began to notice the deficiency in the leaves but was able to keep it under control by adding 3/4 cup of Epsom salts to the 45 gallon mix every week. The early rooting stage was over, the flowering had begun. We started the pruning. The plants were limited to the mains and strong secondaries. It wasn't but a few weeks after that, I noticed "Wilson." He had me at hello and the plant was immediately terminated – it was time for the big guns.

Now our big change of plan this year was to be diligent with the Wallace Wow compost tea after fruit set. It was added to the rotation with my secret fertilizer. After re-reading the ingredients in the tea, I realized it's basically the same as what we were using with the exception the tea has the active microbes. By the time Wilson was two weeks old, he was fed a steady diet of the tea. Once a week, a 5 gallon brew dumped into 40 gallons of warmed water, with Epsom, seaweed, and humic fulvic. During the 20 days of peak growth, we fed 80 gallons of this mix over the area a couple of times. We also supplemented with RAW potassium and cal-mag, "Just in case." That's about it. We really made a point to let the garden dry out this year in between waterings and rain the best we could. This included a seven day stretch at peak growth where it really got dry (the plant looked great). We kept up with nipping all the vegetative growth and the new flowers that tried to ruin our attempt at triggering the plant to "sink." We plucked off any little "maters" that we missed when they were flowers. Stuck to the plan to spray once a week, rotating daconil and copper to keep any unwanted diseases at bay. We kept Wilson from swaying in the breeze with some panty hoze – easy peezy. The big zacs didn't seem to like the plan, but the Domingo sure did. We hope this can help some of your readers come up with some plans of their own. I have a feeling next season will be a great year for tomatoes!! Best of luck in 2020, may your 10 .lb dreams come true.