Huge tomatoes this year

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Tony Fields

Tony Fields

That's How I Roll
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A plant came up on its own this year next to my garage.

We had decided not to plant a garden because of my health
this year so this plant was a welcome sight. A cantelope plant
also came up. This one plant produced 15 cantelopes.

The tomato's were huge and there are still 8 or 9 still on
the plant...still green. I have already pulled 7 from the vine.
It has grown to around 6 foot in diameter.

I will get some pics of the plant tomorrow.

Here's a slice on my sandwich I'm eating...and they taste great.

It's larger than the bread and the bread is large.
 

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Nice! What is that a better boy?
 
I always buy heirloom tomato plants. The German Johnson ( kinda vulgar name if you have a mind for it ) is a huge imperfectly shaped delicious fruit. Last year we got clouds and rain all summer so we had plants the reached 15 feet tall with no fruit. This year was better. We got about a dozen off 3 plants. The one Sweetie 100 plant made more than we can eat. Afraid they would screw up a paint ball gun LOL Cyan pepper didn't produce as many as I would have liked but at least they are hot. Last years hot peppers weren't good at all. A green bell pepper has better flavor. I'll add this about volunteer plants... At the beginning here, I thought "I'll have my garden spot wherever I want". First 2 years nothing did very well at all. Surprisingly, at beginning of 3rd spring, a volunteer tomato came up in a unexpected place and did very well. I thought, "Thank God for the guidance". 25 years later and my little postage stamp of a garden spot is still where I was shown to put it.
 
It has been an amazing year for tomatos. I still have 50-60 on the vine! I grew Roma, Big Boy and Early Girl tomatoes. Red and yellow bells, jalapenos and cajun bells and cilantro and onions.

Been harvesting since August and been canning like a mad man.

I made 2 dozen jars of a variety of salsas
A dozen jars of pepperoni pasta sauce
A dozen jars of pickled peppers and cucumbers
and a dozen jars of strawberry preserves. (Daughter actually canned these)

First season for planting a lot of veggies and it payed off well. I'm stocked for winter! :cheers:

Hope everyone had a bountiful harvest!
 
the problem is the free range chickens LOVE the dainged "maters". ( sorry, I was raised n s w Ga, the mater sandwich capital of the world)!.... I get what the chickens don't get! you guys in IND> I could fertilize my dirt with YOUR dirt!!!!..... gardens. remember, what the veggies plant likes for sunlight. also, the maters need to catch full wind to pollinate. soil pH can affect how the plant takes up available nutrients..... planting the same type veggies on the same area year after year can cause problems, especially if " nematodes" are in your area.....
and WOW that is a big tomatoe!!!!!
not sure wht this year, but my pepper plants havn't been up to snuff.
 
One year, before we moved out here, I had a great crop of better boys. I like those because that's what my grandfather grew in his garden and they are very good. After that growing season was over, come the next spring, I did not plant another garden, because we knew we'd be moving at following summer. Anyway, shortly before we moved, I happened to check where the garden was the year before, and lo and behold, there were ALL my better boy plants AGAIN! I have never in my life seen tomato plants come back a following year, but those did. Dangdest thing I ever saw.
 
A good demonstration that God (nature, karma, whatever you want to call it) will provide for you, if you plant the seeds.
 
goldfish65 said:
A good demonstration that God (nature, karma, whatever you want to call it) will provide for you, if you plant the seeds.
Click to expand...
Yep, someone helped you out, that's a great story, and an impressive tomato! we planted ours late this year due to weather, and we're still getting a huge yield, I wasn't sure we'd get anything when we planted them, I almost didn't bother, now I'm up to ears!
 
I have tried and tried out here since we moved out here in 2002 to no avail. My tomatoes will get about halfway through the growing season kicking butt and suddenly stop and rot off the vine, so I just gave up.
 
Tony Fields said:
A plant came up on its own this year next to my garage.

We had decided not to plant a garden because of my health
this year so this plant was a welcome sight. A cantelope plant
also came up. This one plant produced 15 cantelopes.

The tomatoes were huge and there are still 8 or 9 still on
the plant...still green. I have already pulled 7 from the vine.
It has grown to around 6 foot in diameter.

I will get some pics of the plant tomorrow.

Here's a slice on my sandwich I'm eating...and they taste great.

It's larger than the bread and the bread is large.
Click to expand...

Tony, just a couple miles east of you by jonesville.

ours got HUGE too. I got over a dozen gallons of cherry tomatoes this summer and we canned 64 quarts of tomatoe juice, that's after we fried some up as green tomatoes and gave a bunch away. I'm not sure what it is, but this year's tomato crop was just outstanding. Banana peppers had a very good year too. We got 5 and 6 pickings of the same plants, usually we get maybe 2. out lettuce didn't amount to crap, neither did our berries.

our cucumbers did awesome as well, we made 9 different types of pickles and relish with over 80 pints of total.
 
I had two volunteers come up this year.

A tomato which just grew in my wife's flower bed it is about 6' tall and still producing tomato's.

The second was a pumpkin that just grew from under my picnic table.
The grand kids carved their pumpkins on the picnic table last last year, the plant is about 7' long and 3' wide right now.
 
The beautiful, mild mid western summer with plenty of rain helped a bit. I had a few problems the third week in August with some cracking tomatoes but it stopped when the temps came back down.

First time planting in a raised garden box as well. We used dirt from the low areas on our property to fill it....black and loamy as you can get.

I think I'm going to build two more next year. Super easy to work them since you don't have to bend over and it seems like the bugs were not very bad.
 

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AHhhhhh homemade salsa...... use it in chili, my tortilla cheesy eggs, ya name it!!!!!!
rusty ratrod: having been a native Ga cracker. be sure ya don't try to plant tomatoes in same ground next year.... Nematodes attach the roots and will kill the plant.... or....maybe your had other problems....
 
Thanks Tony........that is quite the tomato plant. Looks like some randy tomato plant was was messing around with a pumpkin plant last fall.

I am still making it. I have a nice batch of tomatoes and peppers that will be ready this weekend and I will probably get one more batch of veggies to ripen in 10 days.

I've made 3 kinds of salsa so far
Chili's Style Salsa
4 Pepper Salsa
Pineapple pepper salsa

I'm gonna make one more flavor - 5 alarm fire using Jalapenos, Cajun Bells, Chili peppers and 3 kinds of bells.

My wife prefers the Pepperoni Pasta Sauce I make but it takes about 40 lbs of tomato's to make a gallon of sauce. I love salsa, so we have some battles as it takes way more tomatoes to make her sauce than my salsa.

So I get the next batch and she gets whatever is left in the garden.
 

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