I would love to. I am an avid tomato grower. What would be considered a "giant" tomato. I will be growing some pink ones this summer which are supposed to have 1-2 lb. fruit. I would love to hear your suggestions.

I'm growing Big Zac (the current world record holder at 7lb 12 oz I believe), Mortgage Lifter and others. "Giant" tomatoes can be grown from several beefsteak varieties. It's more of "how" you feed it (ie: picking one particular fruit to grow while eliminating others), not so much the variety. I plan to add more Indeterminate varieties in the future just because I love eating and raising tomatoes. It's fun and challenging!

hardeng if growing Big Zac as world record holder i think you got scammed since another post in this forum and the guinness book its self said it was the delicious variety.
But my guinness book is bit old but the weight matches the one you claim as big zac. But since the record was set before big zac was sold to the publicly i think this also proves you are wrong.

My soil isn't up to the quality of breaking records yet, and both Big Zac and Delicious are proven record holders, so it doesn't really matter to me which variety is currently holding the record. Fact is, there are a number of Beefsteak varieties that are capable of breaking the world record if given the correct nutrients and care.

hardeng what records did Big Zac set?

Here's the info I have, and the link to where it was obtained from:

http://www.exhibition-seeds.co.uk/acatalog/Tomatoes_G.html
(World Record)

http://www.reimerseeds.com/big-zac-tomato.aspx
(New Jersey Championship in 1995 and 1997 and won the Week's Giant Growers Contest in 1998)

I hate point this out but the sites you linked to contradict each other.

http://www.reimerseeds.com/delicious-tomato-guinness-record-holder.aspx say the world record variety is delicious,
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/beefsteaks2.htm say the record holder is delicious and
http://www.mrtomato.com/seeds.html
says delicious to.

the only site google lists with big zac as world record holder is
http://www.exhibition-seeds.co.uk/acatalog/Tomatoes_G.html

Just by simple numbers of websites exhibition seeds
blip on big zac is wrong.

this gardenweb thread even says you are incorrect
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/giants/msg0716513713421.html?6

Maybe you should do some more research on giant tomatoes.

Graymatter, your chastising tone is unappreciated.
My point, as anyone can tell from the initial post in this thread is that I'm enjoying growing Giant Tomatoes for FUN.
Big Zac is DEFINITELY in the class for world records, in fact it's the 3rd largest on record (according to Joe Heimbold, the New Jersey event's organizer).
Yes, Gordon Graham holds the Guinness World Records title for the heaviest (Delicious variety) tomatoÂa 7-pound 12-ounce whopper grown back in 1986.
So yes, Big Zac was apparantly only the 1997 New Jersey champion at 6.16lb.

Hardeng,

You have just been introduced to Chickenman but have no fear all at this website are not looking for someone to put down. In fact I think he is really the only one that does that as a matter of practice. Just do a search on this site under graymatter1234 and you will see.

He just registered yesterday and often goes by aliases. He has also been kicked off this site several times. Also Delicious is his favorite tomato and he thinks is the biggest when we all know its really Supersteak.

I am not one that dislikes controversy but I don't like to see new people to the forum get the idea that this is a joker forum much like the newgroups have become.

Now go out there make us proud and grow us some Bigger BIG ZACs!

Greg

hardeng looks like you incorrect again. The 6.16 big zac is the 6 biggest in an all time chart listed online.

Also if new that delicious was the world record holder why did claim it was big zac.

As for you soil being not in condition to set a record do even have any idea what it would entail to get your soil to that level since i doubt anyone living does.

Thanks Greg.
I'm not overly impressed with the Zacs, so next season I'm going to concentrate my efforts on some other beefsteaks. I plan to try 1884 and a few others.

Hardeng,

I am growing Neve's Azorean and Tidwell German this year. They are supposedly big but this is my first year trying them. If you need seeds I should have some at the end of this season. These variaties are supposed to be good tasting so even if they don't yeild a 3 or 4 pounder you still have something to be proud of :-)

Another fella on the forum sent me Delicious, Big Zac F2 and 6 Pound Giant. I couldn't grow them this year but next year I will try some and see how big these fellas get.

Chickenman if you want some seeds I will be happy to share and if your in MD you should come to our tomatofest August 26th. I think many folks would like the meet your notorious self :-) You can try some of my homebrew and tell us stories of large tomatoes.

Greg

Where did you buy Big Zac seeds in 2006? All my previous sources report a "crop failure." I am growing two plants from seeds left over from last year.

The Big Zac that I grew last year did well. It was as vigorous a grower as Super Steak which is more vigorous than other large tomato varieties. Delicious is not a vigorous grower in my experience.

To get near record size tomatoes, it is necessary to prune off all growing points (except maybe root tips) and leave only one or two tomatoes on the plant. This forces nutients into the remaining tomatoes. These tomatoes will grow larger than normal, but will be prone to cracking/bursting open. So, you see, an important characteristic to look for in a tomato variety, to produce record size, is resistance to such cracking. You shouldn't assume that the tomato variety that holds the world record size produces the largest tomatoes under normal conditions, i.e., without pruning.

ROLMAO!!!!!!!

Greg,
I will gladly accept your offer. I will share in return. I have several varieties of tomatoes and Basil and I'm also going to plant some Bolivian Rainbow and Tepin peppers later this fall.

Is chickenman a native-speaker of english? It does not appear so.

Just curious.

Anyhow, what about when the single huge tomato gets ravished by a rat or bug or what-have-you? Isn't that rather a problem in this production of vast fruits?

: pnbrown that is why good giant growers of all kinds have strong any pest setups. and fruits are protected to the extreme in some cases of people sleeping next there plants with guns to keep larger pests at bay.

welcome back, chickenman!

These 3 pics are my baby.
Green, Giant, and still Growing!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

this is photo 2

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

this is photo 3

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

nctomatoman funny thing about you and others calling people chickenman is that real chickenman2 has been dead 3 months from a car accident.

Harvested my first today at 1lb 3.3 oz
Not huge, but for the very first fruit, it's not too bad!

I have some HOT pepper seeds to trade for delicious tomato seeds or other BIG tomato seeds, (big = 1 pound or over)

Please contact at: bluelytes at yahoo dot com I know it looks funny like that, but it cuts WAY DOWN on the spam.

Best Regards;
bluelytes

Just a quick anecdote you might enjoy. My father-in-law and I used to have a competition to see who had the first...and as the season progressed...the biggest tomato. When I visited his house one late May I saw probably a ten oz. tomato on his vine. I was stunned since we live in central Illinois. I checked closer and saw the tomato was 'tied' on the vine. LOL...the rascal!! I went to the store and bought a banana which I subsequently tied on his vine in it's place. The next day he called, laughing so much he couldn't form words. When he visited us a couple weeks later I had a store bought tomato tied to my vine...filled with lead sinkers.

This is a really old post but my experience says to grow a giant tomato grow the one your happy with.I grow about 200 giants a year and I have had little luck with Delicious,my Big Zac's I average 4 pounds ,1884 average 4 pounds.There are a number of big ones,just start with proven seed,grow a monster and have fun. than if you break the world record before me ( I hope not ) than I'll just have a new goal and that is to beat you. but remember to have fun.That is the most important record to break for me.

Hello everyone Max here, my first post. I've just planted my first giant tomato seeds for the year. it's hard to get seeds here in Australia but I've planted Monster Giant Red, Delicious, Crnkovic, Brandywine, Marianna's Peace (a strong grower last year), Giant Syrian, Big Boy, Belgium Giant and seeds from my best tomato from last year.
This is only my second year with giant tomatoes and 3rd with pumkins. All tips welcome. Thanks

Some would claim I'm out of my mind - growing 70 varieties this year that have been claimed to grow to 2+ pounds. Most of these varieties have not impressed me much yet.

So far, these are the varieties that have approached or exceeded 2 pounds:

- Porterhouse
- Big Zac
- Big Rainbow
- Mr. Underwood's Pink German Giant
- Belmonte
- Homer's German Oxheart
- Mong
- Pruden's Purple

This year I am growing some Mortgage Lifter, Big Red, and Garden Leader Monster. They are new additions to my Brandywine and Beefsteak. I have yet to receive my Trip L Crop seeds from Burgess. What is the story with the Trip L Crop and the Garden Leader Monster? I've heard the TLC is an "Italian" type tomato. True? I also have seeds for Ground Cherries, Carribean Red Habaneros, and Vine Peach I would consider in trade for any great tomato varieties!

I've ordered my Red Star, Yellow Stuffer, and Siberian Tomato seeds from Reimer (who I am not really pleased with customer service or lack there of).. Can't wait to grow these diverse cultivars. I am very interested in any advice or knowledge from experience concerning these. Also would be interested in trading seeds for them. Oklahoma is having am exceptionally warm Winter/Spring this year.

28 years ago the world record tomato was grown more or less by accident and it was a Delicious. Since then, Minnie Zacarias crossed a Pink Beefsteak and a red beefsteak. This last fall Dan MacCoy broke the world record by growing the largest Tomato ever...It is a Big Zac. Dan is from Ely, Mn. the tomato was grown in a hoop house.

My question is.....how does Big Zac taste in comparison to other heirloom tomatoes?

Big Zac is an F1 hybrid. I haven't tried it.

Funny how this thread started out with people arguing about Big Zac and concluding it wasn't the world record holder, and then years later it is.

I grew Omar's Lebanese and got medium-sized tomatoes or so (probably less than a pound). I may have watered it too much. I'd give it less water and more wood ash were I to try it again (that worked for Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, anyway).

My largest (out of about 200 varieties—not all large ones) have been Cuostralee, Chapman, George Detsikas Italian Red, Evergreen, Sweet Ozark Orange, and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye. I haven't gotten anything much over 2lbs, though, but I think Omar's Lebanese and Napa Giant are the only ones I've grown that are supposed to get bigger than 2lbs.

I'd really like to try Neves Azorean Red, Billbean, Church, and others.

I'm growing a couple Domingo plants, this year. It's one of the few giants that is said to be early! Hopefully it'll break my ~2lb record with Cuostralee. I'll probably grow Domingo next year, too.

Um nope. Domingo didn't break any personal records for me. Cuostralee still holds the title. Domingo probably needed more potassium, though.