Carmel Wins the 2008 Tomato Contest

Our tomato contest ended on November 1st. Congratulations to Carmel for winning the 2008 Tomato Contest. The winning tomato was Marianna's Peace, weighing 27 oz with a girth of 16.5 inches. Carmel will be keeping the tomato glass trophy for another year. She has won this contest two consecutive years.

Many thanks to those who participated. It has been fun and for me, even when I don't win, every year has been a learning experience. I am sure I will be trying something different next year!

My Competition Tomato

I am disapppointed that my biggest tomato, which I submitted for the competition only weighed 17 ounces. It was an heirloom, type Delicious. I have several Big Zac plants with plenty of fruits but I didn't get anything bigger than the Delicious one.

Although I didn't win, I enjoyed tending our garden and our harvest this year has been the best since we started gardening. Our two Tomato Success Kits produced the most fruits.

Dave's Submits His Soldacki Tomato for Weigh-In

On Saturday (9/6/08) after tennis, Linda and Raf performed the measurements of Dave's tomato for the competition.

Dave had brought a Russian Beef Steak called Soldacki. It didn't look completely ripe as it still had a shade of yellow-green. He had taken this one off the vine by mistake (See his post below). It looked like it could have used a few more weeks on the vine.

Anyway, the tomato weighed 19.9 oz with a girth of 14-7/8 inches. It was bigger than Linda's entry, but didn't beat Carmel's.

Carmel's entry is still on the lead.

My Russian Soldacki That I Prematurely Picked

By Dave Davisson

I was asked to relate the story of my 1st weigh-in tomato of this season by Zack, so here it is :

I was looking down at my garden and realized that it was time to do a tomato harvest. I got to my competition tomato's and realized I should pick a couple of the smaller fruit (ripe, I didn't want it go to waste).

Well, I had this one tomato that was ripe just above one of my tomatoes that was going to be a big one. Problem was that it's feeder branch was trapped tight to the tomato and it was trapped tight to the tomato cage (see picture, the tomato I was going for is next to the tennis ball, the weigh-in is below) not wanting to cut or harm the tomato I was picking, not thinking, I cut the branch lower. I did not notice until after that I had cut my big weigh-in tomato free also (being connected to the feeder branch also), early ... not fully ripe, darn. The tomato variety is a russian extract beefsteak tomato called "Soldacki". It ripens quickly after picking, eat it within a few days after picking or make salsa before it starts to go to goo. Good if you screw up and pick early. Maybe I'll get another biggie, but this hotspell we just went though has all my tomatoes turning earlier than I'd like for a BIG tomato.

Hope we see a 3 lb. tomato someday!

Linda's Heirloom Pineapple

On Saturday, August 30, Linda brought to the tennis courts her Heirloom Pineapple tomato for official weigh-in. Tina performed the measurements.

This beautiful tomato weighed 17.4 oz with a girth of 12-3/4 inches, not big enough to beat Carmel's Marianna Peace.
Linda had brought other tomatoes to eat, we sliced and diced them all and served them with the other goodies for RAT (Refreshments After Tennis). I love home-grown tomatoes!

Carmel's entry is currently in first place. Participants are beginning to harvest their tomatoes and I anticipate more entries will be forthcoming to challenge Carmel's Marianna Peace before the season is over.

Linda's Garden

Here's an email from Linda describing her tomato garden:

Zack,

Believe it or not, I managed to get these pictures to you!
They were planted on March 29, 2008. (Yes, Bill helped.)

We planted 1 of each of these: Cherokee Purple, Guiseppi Big Boy, Heirloom Pineapple, & Mortgage Lifter.
The Cherokee Purple wasn't getting enough sun so Bill moved it to a sunnier spot. It is much happier and now has some baby tomatoes on it.
The real tomatoes are on the Heirloom Pineapple. They aren't as big as I hoped but they sure are pretty.



I think I will bring them tomorrow. With this heat, I don't think they will last on the vine another week. So, bring your measuring devices!
See you in the morning.

Linda

Carmel Submits an Entry

On Saturday, Aug 9, Carmel brought in her entry for the Giant Tomato Contest, the first entry in this year's contest. The tomato was an heirloom type Marianna Peace.

Dave and Bob performed the official measurements while the rest of the SHIT group observed. The data obtained which will be entered in the official log are as follows:

Tomato Type: Heirloom Marianna Peace
Weight: 27.0 oz
Girth: 16.5 inches

This tomato, like all of her tomato plants this year is grown on a raised bed.

It's Harvest Time!

We have started picking ripe tomatoes from our garden. Our Success Kits are producing lots of fruit. I am hoping to get some big ones for the competition soon!

Our garden is a jungle

Our twelve tomato plants are flourishing and all of them have fruit. My two Big Zacs are healthy. It is too early to tell if any of the fruits will be big enough to win the competition. My biggest Big Zac fruit is about the size of a ping-pong ball.

I have another competition tomato in a tub of the Delicious variety. This variety is supposed to be a record holder, and the biggest one on record was over 7 pounds! However, mine is not doing very well. I have one fruit and lots of blossoms, but the leaves are starting to turn yellow already. I suspect it caught some kind of disease.

It looks like our two Tomato Success Kits that we purchased online will be producing lots of tomatoes for eating. We have harvested some already and a lot more are appearing on the vines. We didn't plan these to be for competition. We just wanted to see if the kits were as good as advertised and so far they have exceeded our expectations. They will be producing a lot more eating tomatoes (maybe 20% more) than the rest in our garden.

This year may not be a good season to grow tomatoes according to other competitors I have talked to. However, I heard Raf has a giant mutant tomato the size of half of his butt from what he told us. I can't wait to see it (his tomato, that is) at the weigh-off. Also, Linda says she has some good candidates for the weigh-off.

Upside Down Tomato Planter

By Dave Davisson

I've been curious about these upside down tomato kits for a long time, so I decided to finally try one out. I got online and found out how to make your own kit for cheap and had to do it. Total cost for this was less than $5 ( that's plant, pot, and soil), everything bought at ... gasp, Home Depot.


What you'll need:

- tomato plant (less than 10" tall)
- hanging pot planter (plastic, 14" if possible)
- soil (regular potting mix)
- weed cloth (8" square)
- drill w/ 3" circular cutout bit or a sharp knife
- hanging hook


Pretty up option:

- 2 or 3 herbs or flowers (4" pots)

Okay, first you are going to mark a 3" hole on the bottom of your hanging pot. If you have the drill and attachment, this is cake (knife ... be careful and take your time), simply make a 3" hole in the bottom of the planter (in the center would be best, lol). Next, in the center of your piece of weed cloth you are going to make a 3" X, and make the according cuts. Carefully thread your tomato plant through the
X 'til it is flush with the top of the soil (the weedcloth). Do the same thing again through the bottom of the planter, you may want to shift the weedcloth one direction or the other (it is to keep the soil from draining out the 3" bottom hole).
Now you can flip it over and fill with soil, in the top half you can also plant in herbs or flowers for added decoration. I planted basil and thyme on the top half.

My Apologies in Advance

Greetings Fellow Tomatoans!

After viewing your blog, I must admit:  I may be playing in a league beyond my abilities and maturity level.  :)  You guys are serious about this tomato growing business!  I have a total of 9 plants.  Some came from the Napa Farmer's Market, Sonoma Farmer's Market, Osh, Costco and Home Depot.  I have planted 3 plants per half-barrel.

I used organic planting soil that a friend of mine sells.  He tells me the stuff is amazing... we'll see about that!  I also picked up some Jobe Fertilizer Stakes and some crazy liquid fertilizer that looks like trouble!  I've picked the first set of flowers and the bottom limbs off each plant.

After a long day of planting, I thought I'd do a bit of celebrating... which was perhaps THE contributing factor in the development of my "secret fertilizer" that may be the determining factor in this contest.  Depending on my success, I may be looking into bottling this elixir for sale at local retailers... stay tuned!

 

So now you have an idea as to what you are up against:  a highly competitive competitor competing against capable contestants!!!  A man that knows no limits, no bounds and is willing to go that EXTRA MILE in hopes of capturing the coveted Glass Ta'Mater.  :)

Looking forward to seeing and eating some of the fruits of our labor.  In all seriousness, one of the most rewarding things of living in California is the Tomato Season.  Let's grow some fruit!!! 

-Raf

My Tomatoes for Eating and for Competition

-By Dave

Well, I finally got most of the garden in (watermelons will wait 'til they get a bit bigger), trying a new soil mix and a few other ideas. You were interested in the varieties that I decided to plant this summer, specifically my competition tomatoes, they are as follows:

-competition tomatoes-

Soldacki - russian extract
Bloody Butcher - beefsteak
Yellow Brandywine - beefsteak
Copia - beefsteak (?)

-eating tomatoes-

Early girl
Mandarin Cross

right now they are just babies, but the bloody butcher already has a tomato on it, I will probably pinch it and any other blossoms off, as the plants are really too small to support any tomatoes as of yet. I would also like to see some more size and to start structuring the growth of the plants before allowing them to fruit.


I also have some peppers, pumkin, and sunflowers in the tomato garden area. To keep bugs down and for the sheer pleasure of it, I will also be planting some X-20 & X-19 marigolds. These are not your average marigolds, they will grow on an average of 3' tall and bloom profusely. I usually plant them like a fence around the garden entire, I have noticed ever since I started planting marigolds of any sort, that have never really had any problems with insect pests. As a side note: I have not grown any of these varieties before, should be fun to see how they do! I am enclosing a couple of garden pictures, nothing too exciting, too early for anything impressive.

Our Tomato Success Kits

-By Zack

I have never won this tomato contest in all these years, although I try hard every year to come up with the biggest tomato. I hope to have better luck this year. I purchased two Tomato Success Kits online. The kit includes a self-watering planter, a special soil mix, fertilizer, a support cage and a red plastic mulch. The vendor says this kit will produce 30% more yield than plants grown in-ground. We’ll have to see. I planted a Mortgage Lifter and a Big Beef in my kit and Louise planted a Cherokee Purple and a Caspian Pink in the other.

Besides the success kits we planted 8 tomatoes in-ground and 2 in half-wine barrels. I laid Red Mulch around most of my tomatoes. Red Mulch was developed by USDA and has shown to improve the growth rate and yield of tomatoes.

I also planted a couple of Big Zac tomatoes in our garden, one in a half-wine barrel and one in-ground. This heirloom has been known to produce fruits that weigh 4 pounds or more!

Dave's Garden

I was asked by Zack to write a quickie on planting tomatoes, so hopefully this will be of use to people who have ... gasp! Gophers, damn, I hate the little buggers. Where we live our hills are swiss cheese wih pocket gophers, nasty little buggers. Anyway, we have a dog, so 100% of the commercial stuff for killing gophers (of the ones that actually work) will kill our dog, not good. There are the gopher stakes (battery pulse) didn't work very well for me last year, so I'm going back to what works. I get pre-made wire baskets (any good nursery will have them, come in a 1gal.,3 gal.,5gal.) and place them under the ground with the plant inside of the wire basket. You can make your own out of chicken wire and spend a half hour cussing and swearing ... or buy the pre-made ones with directions on them, me I am lazy. I am going to include some photos of the process for anyone interested. Hope this helps!

Dave Davisson

ps. note the deep well and berm to hold the water. I use this method over drip irrgation if possible. I tend toward deep watering once every 3 days to a week (depending on the weather, hot or not). Plus it makes you look at your plants, so you see how they are responding to your methods.

Giant Tomato Contest Rules

Our not so well thought-out rules:

1. The contestants as a whole will serve as the judges and will need a majority decision if a judgment needs to be rendered.

2. Rules can be changed by majority decision of the judges.

3. Tomatoes submitted for consideration must be grown by you on your own vines.

4. Greatest individual weight will be the deciding factor, not **circumference or size, in determining the winner.

5. No "doctoring" allowed. This means no injecting or implanting materials to falsely increase the weight or size of the tomato.

6. Digital photos are the suggested and encouraged method of substantiating the progress of your tomatoes. Submit all photos to Zack for publication.

7. Tomatoes become candidates for judging when you submit them in person, to the majority group for official weigh in.

8. Official scale will be provided by anyone who has the most accurate scale. **Circumference will be used if competing tomatoes have such similar weight that the scale can not establish the winner.

9. Weigh-in will be on Saturdays at the Millennium Sports Club tennis courts, at around 11:30 AM after Saturday High Intensity Tennis. The officials conducting the weigh-in are normally the members of this tennis group. Please notify the competition director at least 3 days in advance if you are bringing a tomato for official weigh in.

10. (4/18/07) A contestant winning two consecutive years cannot compete to win the third year.

11. (4/18/07) This contest is by invitation only.