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21.08.2023 - 11:53 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest
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Richard G. Snyder, Mississippi State University
When I answer my office phone as an extension vegetable specialist, from time to time it’s someone asking how they can get recognition for growing a huge tomato, possibly the biggest one ever. When I ask how big a tomato we’re talking about, and the caller says 2 or 2.5 pounds, I have to hold back my laughter and gently explain that that is nowhere even close to a record.
So just how big is big? Growers in various states have set various records – New Jersey was home to a 6-pound, 2.5-ounce tomato, Oklahoma has boasted a 7-pound, 12-ounce one and Minnesota weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Del and Julie Faust currently hold the record for the heaviest tomato, having produced a tomato tipping the scale at 11.65 pounds (5.284 kilograms) in 2022.
If you take that as a challenge to your own tomato-growing prowess, read on for tips on how to nurture a massive tomato. The secrets are really nothing too obscure. What’s important is checking off as many boxes as possible to optimize the fruit size. Each step is attainable for the home gardener, but missing out on certain ones will limit your results.
Are some varieties better for fruit size? Absolutely. The best way to determine which ones to use is to look at previous winners. Genes are important.
A cherry, grape or plum tomato plant isn’t going to yield a winner. Some varieties have a genetic potential to produce larger fruit than others, including Beefsteak, Delicious, Big Beef, Big Rainbow, Dinner Plate, Giant Belgium, Big Pink, German Johnson, T & T Monster, Braggar and Brandywine, among others. All of these big boys are in the category
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Tips for Growing Impatiens Indoors
The arching foliage of Aspidistra elatior with its deep green hue makes for a perfect houseplant. It also survives neglect and grows well in the shade. Let’s have a look at some great tips on Cast Iron Plant Care!
Header image: Lupinus albus (altramuces o chochitos), by Calapito via Wikimedia Commons.
More and more these days, the media is full of stories of superfoods – usually fruits with high concentrations of antioxidants. The blueberry led the superfood charge, but has been left behind by newer and more exotic rivals, such as acai berries, goji berries and the yumberry.
Outside of the tropics, the only place you’re likely to see a cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao, the trees that give us chocolate) is in a heated greenhouse at the botanical gardens. They can be grown as house plants, and seeds germinate easily when they’re fresh, but their size, their requirement for heat and the fact that you need two plants for pollination means that they’re unlikely to bear fruit. And even if they did, the process of turning cocoa beans into chocolate is a long one.
Out with the ham and in with the spam [Image credit:63056612@N00, CC BY-SA]
Continuing with my goal of reading one of the unread gardening books on my shelf every month this year, I choose Salad Plants for Your Garden by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix as my book for May. It has been in my possession for two years since I bought it in a charity shop; it was originally published in 1998.
In Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars, Kate Greene talks about Shannon Lucid, the NASA astronaut who spent six months living on the Russian space station Mir. Shannon, it turns out, was a bookworm. During her stay, she read 50 books and improvised shelving from old food boxes, complete with straps to stop the books floating off. This was in 1996, a good decade before the invention of the Kindle, and so these were real books. She apparently chose titles with the highest word to mass ratio, since launch weight is a critical factor! Lucid left her library behind for future spacefarers, but it burned up when Mir was de-orbited in 2001.
Daniel Brown, Nottingham Trent University
One of the challenges the world faces at the moment is antimicrobial resistance. Until the 20th century, commonplace illnesses caused by bacteria – such as pneumonia and diarrhoea – were the number one cause of human death in the developed world. Then we developed antibiotics, and these diseases became almost irrelevant. We added anti fungal, antiviral and anti parasitic treatments to our arsenal, and it looked like infectious diseases were on the run.