Carmel Submits Her Giuseppi Beefsteak

Carmel brought to the tennis court deck her first tomato entry for weigh-in in our 2007 Giant Tomato Growing Contest July 24th. The tomato was a Giuseppi Beef Steak, weighing 2 lbs -3.4 oz (35.4 oz), with a girth of 18 inches. The plant was grown in a wine barrel with Stan's secret soil mix and plenty of TLC.

Since this is the first weigh-in of the season, Carmel has the lead, and it will be hard to beat. This Beef Steak already beats last year's winner, Dave Davisson's Caspian Pink, which weighed 24.7 oz.

Zack, Rudy and Carole were the weigh-in officials. Carmel brought some digital photos to prove that her tomato came from her vine and was a legitimate entry.

Tell Us About Your Garden!

The registration for the contest is now closed. There are nine people competing:

Zack
Louise C
Larry
Karl
DeDee
Carmel
Cyp
Carole
Rudy

Those who have not signed up on the blog please do so. This will allow you to post a topic for discussion; you can tell the group about your garden and post photos as well.

I have four competion tomatoes in the ground which I planted mid-April. I have one Mortgage Lifter in a container. I hope my plants will do better this year. I prepared my 4' x 8' garden (with Dave D's help) by rototilling into it chicken manure and grass clippings last December, then added compost and peat moss from Home Depot just before planting.

Louise's garden is the same size as mine and was prepared the same way.

Giant Tomato Growing Contest 2007

Welcome to our fifth season of growing giant tomatoes. This competition is to see who can grow the biggest tomato, and the winner gets to keep the glass tomato trophy for one year until the end of the next season, at which time the new winner gets to keep it. The trophy is shown in the photo.

Here are the not so well thought-out rules for the tomato growing contest.

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.

The 2006 Giant Tomato Growing Contest is over!

And the winner is, for third year in a row, Dave Davisson, with his Caspian Pink entry weighing 24.7 oz, and 16-1/2" girth. I have asked Dave to do a write up to share with us on how he does it, and maybe we can give him some competition next year. Dave gets to keep the glass tomato trophy for another year. Congratulations, Dave!

Dave's Caspian Pink Weighed in at 24.7 oz and takes the lead.

Saturday, 9/10

Dave and Carmel both brought in entries for weigh-in. Carmel's was a no-name red tomato presented on a nice platter. Dave had three big ones, all Caspian Pink, and all three easily beat Carmel's entry. At the end of the weigh in, Dave offered his biggest tomato to Carmel to take home and Carmel accepted to show her husband Stan what a competition tomato should look like.

Carmel's entry: No Name Red Tomato, 8.3 oz, girth 10-1/4"

Dave's entry:

Caspian Pink No. 1, 18.8 oz, girth 14"
Caspian Pink No. 2. 19.2 oz, girth 15-1/2"
Caspian Pink No. 3, 24.7 oz, girth 16-1/2"

Onome, the club manager and Larry did the honors of measuring and recording the entries.

Louise's Old German II Leads!!

On Saturday, 9/2, Louise C submitted another tomato, an Old German, for weigh-in. This one beat her first entry, and now it is the winning tomato. Larry took the measurements: Weight 17.1 oz, girth 13-7/8".

Loaded!!!

Hello! Well, I don't think it's going to be the biggest off my tomatos, but this one of my Caspian Pinks (close to 2lbs.) should be ready to weigh this weekend or next. Hillbilly looks as though it's going to put out some whoppers too, but it's a little behind the caspian. All of my tomato plants are loaded (most have between 15-20lbs. of tomato's hanging and getting ripe), 'bout time to start making salsa! I will notify Zack when my weigh-in tomato is ready.

Dave Davisson

Cyp's Red Beef Steak at Weigh In

Cyp brought his Red Beef Steak on Sunday, 8/27 at RAT for official weigh in. Larry did the measure- ments as witnessed by John and Carmel. The nice tomato weighed 15.2 ounces with a girth of 12-5/8" --not heavy enought to beat Louise's Old German entry.

With Cyp's permission, Carmel sliced this beautiful tomato and we ate it with beer!

Zack

Louise's Old German Got Weighed!

On Saturday, 8/26, Louise Chavez brought her Old German at the club for official weigh-in. Carole and Larry made the measurements and they came out to be:

Weight: 16.4 oz
Girth: 15-5/8"

Louise's entry is now the leading tomato, but the season is still early and I am sure more weigh-ins will follow.

Zack

Carmel's Tomatoes

Dear Tomato Contestants!

This is one of my Tomatoes that has been growing very rapidly. I expect it to be in contention for FIRST PRIZE!!!!! My husband, Stan has been watching it closely and feeding it healthy fertilizer, a special one from Argentina that is very hard to get. See you at the scales!!!!

Carmel

Cyp's Tomato Plant

Cyp has submitted this photo of his plant. The type of tomato is still a secret. He said he will provide more info later.

Carole's and Gayton's Entries

Carole brought in two tomatoes last Saturday, 7/29, for weigh-in. Hers was an Early Girl weighing 12.5 oz , girth 11-1/4". The other one was Gayton's entry, a Big Boy weighing 12.8 oz, with a girth of 11-3/4".

Gayton's Big Boy is the one to beat but the season is early, and I am sure there will be a lot more weigh ins coming up.

The photo shows Carole, grandaughter Lily and Larry who was officiating the weigh-in.

My Caspian Pink and Hillbilly

Latest pictures

Looks as though I may be doing some weigh-in's with my eating tomatos! The two I have pictured are... caspian pink & hillbilly, what's everybody else got?!

Dave Davisson

Dave Davisson's Garden

Hello!

Thought that I'd try and post a picture of the garden and give you folks a peek at what's going on in the backyard. Both of my competition tomatoes have fruit, but they are both a bit behind my eating tomatoes, lol. Hope you folks enjoy the pictures (if I do this right).

Dave

Louise's Old German

How am I going to harvest my tomatoes? Do I have to climb the pine tree? This tomato plant is bigger than me. The question is "How big will the tomatoes be?"

Louise C

Larry's plants are looking good!

I have beef steak (2), better boy (2), yellow pear and sweet 100 tomato plants. I got them at Mid-City nursery, Walmart, and Home Depot. I am also testing out 3 potting soils. I have Kellogs in one container, supersoil in another and a Walmart brand in the 3rd container. I hope something comes out of this.

Larry

Welcome, Hank

Hank, a retired Coast Guard like me, is from Alameda. He has joined the competition!

My six competition tomato plants all look promising. My Mortgage Lifter is the healthiest and will probably give me the biggest fruit. Whether it will win is another story. Win or lose, it will be consumed. Oh how I love home grown tomatoes.

I will post a photo of my garden soon.

Zack

2006 Participants

To date we have the following people competing this year:

Larry
Zack
Louise B
Louise C
Carole
Carmel
Dave D
Cyp
Rudy

It is not too late to sign up.

Make sure you check out the links. You may find some good hints there on how to grow the big ones.

Zack

Louise C's Garden

I thought I would enter a photo of my garden. Maybe there is a prize for the most beautiful garden. I like to have flowers to look at while waiting for the tomatoes!

Louise C

Tomatoes, Tomatoes at Leneve

Hello!

Hope I'm doing this right, just a test run but the blog site looks good! I'll look forward to checking out what happening with other peoples tomatos. My two competition tomatos are: Old German, and Black Pineapple, hope they do the job for me. The rest of my tomatos are for eating:).

Dave