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Eugene,OR

I've got a couple of big zac plants going gangbusters, but don't know what to do with them to get one huge tomatoe for the first week of October. I know how to grow a big pumpkin, but I'm lost with these tomatoes. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

7/1/2008 12:07:03 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

The 'How to Grow Giant Tomatoes' book by Marvin Meisner is worth your $ (go to Don Langevin's Giant Pumpkin site, it's a bitch to navigate but he has them). They go over how to grow a good healthy tomato plant THEN how to groom it for greatness.

A lot of what you do for a pumpkin as far as ground prep, watering, etc; will work for tomatoes. Big Zac was developed by Minnie Zaccaria, and can go about 6# IF properly handled.

When you planted the plants, did you bury the stem to get more roots? At about a foot to two feet, sucker the plant?
Nice sturdy stake (they're staker plants) to tie them to? Clean out the bottom as it grows so at 4-5 feet you have the bottom 18" or more bare and still cleaning as it grows...

Picking off the blooms until you top 4'... and are you getting "megablooms" (the fused looking blooms that are huge). Just like a pumpkin vine you have to get a big solid plant with a good large rootsystem and groom it to grow one big fruit to get the biggest ones you can. And just like pumpkins you count back on when you set a flower from the time you want fruit done. And yes, you bag the flower and pollinate with a qtip.

You still have some time to groom up your plants before setting for October (my guess is all of July without finding my book...)

What are you fertilizing with, do you have mulch down, and have you had a soil test (and addressed calcium levels specifically. Lack of enough calcium causes blossom end rot which shows up as the fruit starts to ripen).

Deb

7/2/2008 12:03:26 PM

Bemidji Minnesota

OkieGal,

With an F1 hybrid, such as Big Zac, since the seeds of F1s are not up to par as F2s, why would a pollination need to be controlled?

You could pollinate with sweet 100 pollen, and still get Bi Zacs from the F1.

The seed would be useless, but since it is F1 they pretty much are junk anyway.

Please explain to me why they woudl need to be bagged, as I am lost on this.

The rest of your advice sounds solid, and makes sense.

8/9/2008 11:06:53 PM

Colorado Springs, CO

I have a different take on blossom end rot cause. While often linked to calcium deficiency I feel that calcium presence MUST be in soil throughout the season and that end-rot symptom does not occur as when ripening is happening later in the summer.

I have two very healthy Big Zac plants. They produce a dark, pink-skinned fruit. I have pruned two blossom branches to leave 2 hefty fruits on each. One pair is much lower on one plant and I have placed a tall plastic flower pot underneath those so as to take ALL of the weight off of that branch junction with the main stem. These two are approaching grapefruit-size now.....and I would hate to go out one morning soon and see the branch had ripped away from the main stem due to weight !

I had the megablooms and the merged flower clusters are huge. It's a 50/50 shot whether the resulting fruit develop with appealing shape and can grow without differing skin "expansion"....or whether it becomes an ugly duckling with suture scars, uneven grooves and cat face. Sometimes, the ugly ones are heavier.

I bury as much of lower stem as possible and I am very generous with mycorrhizae powders along the stem and in the trench, and pour some soluble mycc up to mid-season. Carefully dig out your largest plants after that killer frost and wash away soil around the massive root network. You will never again install transplants of any kind withOUT mycc !

I am a 3-staker now for most tomato plants and have not employed round metal cages for several seasons. The main stem goes straight up and I often keep the 3rd and 4th sucker branches for their productive growth....and pluck off every other sucker that shows up through the season. By August 1st I am removing some lower leaf branches so their fluids go to upper plant parts and by mid-August I begin to terminate most tops and pinch stems off with clothespins to prevent fluid loss and allow internal sealing of those wounds.

The Meisner book is good. Read

8/18/2008 2:05:38 PM