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On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

This has been an unusual season, very hot. My first large blossoms came on the first trusses. None of them took, probably due to the heat drying them up. After that I got quite a few doubles and a few triples but nothing great. If you never get a big blossom you will never get a big tomato. I don't believe I have ever seen a world record blossom in my garden. I am not sure why. If I am to have anything worthwhile it will have to come on one of these triple blossoms. What is the biggest anyone has grown on such a blossom?

7/23/2020 7:19:45 PM

SaladDoug_UK

Norfolk, UK

I hear ya! The season quiet for megabloom monsters here too - I’m searching very modest looking flowers for signs of splits (her my magnifying glass on some) and will run with some of those - my window of pollination is closing as it takes longer to ripen here. A few plants I’ll continue to be a little more patient on.

I’ve grown a double to 5.32 lb (BZ) and a modest looking treble to 6.11 lb (Delicious)

7/24/2020 1:45:19 AM

SaladDoug_UK

Norfolk, UK

*get my magnifying glass

7/24/2020 1:46:10 AM

Grittyville, WA

5.04 on a good double. The better than triple blossoms are rare except on the first truss they are somewhat common. We had a cold spring here and I did see just a few that with the right care would have been quite big. Keep pruning and fertilizing. Make sure the compost you are adding is not deficient in nutrients. Have you tried the wow tea?

7/24/2020 2:30:22 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

WOW tea will help you grow a big tomato but it will not cause you to get that big blossom you are looking for. Only growing a variety that is known to give you the chance to get a big blossom and the good luck to have that happen will. Cool weather during the time of blossom formation also seems to help but not that much. Growers just have not come up with anything we can do that will stimulate the formation of a potential world record blossom, correct me if I am wrong.

7/24/2020 9:00:58 AM

Grittyville, WA

Copy those who are successful. I dont know how you can say authoritatively that wow tea wouldnt help. Worth a try, maybe.

7/24/2020 9:40:16 AM

Grittyville, WA

Try the wow packs... I would try copying porkchop before complaining much.

7/24/2020 10:21:58 AM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

I am using the WOW packs for growth purposes only. I know they do not stimulate the production of megablossoms. Tomatoes are not like pumpkins. Maybe Porkchop has some ideas about how to get bigger blossoms?

7/24/2020 11:45:04 AM

Central NY

For me here, and I guess if I want to look at it in that way, I’m still “having problems” also getting any big flowers. But my plants look terrific. they are getting the down hill wash w pumpkin nutrients..soo either a little to rich or I’m going with too dam hot outside...many 70 degree nights? We may get 1 a year if we are lucky....if you see any kind of purpling in the stems, try a shot of phosphorus in the next feeding. Shoulda tilled.

7/24/2020 12:11:38 PM

Hayden R

Western Massachusetts

I think people are overthinking megas. Clearly last year porkchop proved you don't need a huge freak blossom. If you treat every tomato blossom you have like its "not worthy", you might lose a few potential great ones. Genetics trumps blossoms.

7/24/2020 12:37:00 PM

TheOzarkan

Don't get me wrong here guys. I take no pleasure in seeing anyone else struggle. As a second year newbie though it at least makes me feel not so bad that I'm not having much success. Misery loves company I guess.

I may have out smarted myself this year. It's known that it's hard to grow a big one in the south so I tried a somewhat shaded area to try to escape the brutal sun and heat. Guess it was too much shade as I haven't even gotten a bloom although the plants themselves look okay. I may try to move them as they are in mineral tubs.

7/24/2020 12:45:17 PM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Although it is true that for the tomatoes we are growing 4 pounds for a single tomato might be possible, a triple blossom doesn't appear to get to 12 pounds with the best of management. How many blossoms were fused together last year for Porkchop's record breaker? Dan's tomato this year is not 3 or 4 blossoms fused together, it is many more. If we are going to be able to "mass produce" big blossoms it will take something more than we are doing now. What will it be? What say you Hayden? Genetics might just be blossoms?

7/24/2020 12:50:06 PM

Hayden R

Western Massachusetts

I've seen massive fused blossoms on eating tomatoes - the fruit don't get much bigger than you'd expect a normal eating tomato to get.

To keep breaking world records, we must hone in on the genetics producing fruit over 7 lbs

7/24/2020 1:07:13 PM

Hayden R

Western Massachusetts

I really want Porkchop to weigh in - the 9.65 looks like a huge double and the 8.22 looks like a huge triple. Both plants were pollinated "nipple high" and it helps that porkchop is a tomato whisperer

7/24/2020 1:14:12 PM

Grittyville, WA

My guess is that Sutherlands was a first truss mega because the timing of it was very early. I do think it has to do with nutrients and hormones. And temperature.

7/24/2020 1:17:16 PM

Grittyville, WA

It may seem futile to discuss... but hows your ph Marv? Do you have other plants growing that might help indicate where your soil is at? I havent fully researched it but there is a certain process in the development of the bud that allows it to separate, or not. The bud development probably has zinc, calcium, boron, sulfer, phosphorous, as cofactors... and I think ammonium plays a big role.

7/24/2020 1:24:15 PM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

G Kins, My soil is not the thing holding back the formation of big blossoms. It is either something in nature that I cannot control or some thing that is as yet apparently unknown. Believe me when I say I have read everything I can find on fasciation and how to enhance it. That is what results in double stems and megablossoms. I will spend the winter looking for more information. I even thought of infecting my plants with Rhodococcus fascians, a bacteria that seems to stimulate fasciation. Let me know if you can find a source.

7/24/2020 2:11:25 PM

SaladDoug_UK

Norfolk, UK

Whilst veering slightly off the topic of megablooms - re: Genetics trumps blossoms - I would suggest that our tomatoes are all subject to Liebig law of minimum. That’s to say: growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource or most limiting factor.

And it’s different for everyone - and each tomato - that we grow.

For some people or individual tomatoes, it may be the bloom, for other the soil, and others still - plant husbandry.

The most limiting factor will limit the full size. If I grow a single, I’m limited by bloom. With a triple, I’m likely limited by something else.

We do what we can then to raise all the factors as much as we are able, and work next on what might be the most limiting for us at that point.

Blooms are just one of these things we can choose at the start, whether it’s limiting or not depends on all the other factors at play.

That said - Ideally - I’d like to chose such that I know the bloom choice is not the limiting factor.

7/24/2020 2:56:07 PM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Well, all said and done, I want to start out with a really big blossom and , if and when I get one, I plan on taking really good care of it. So, I am back where I started, how to get that potential world record blossom?

7/24/2020 4:11:28 PM

Grittyville, WA

I am having trouble reading the file but the title was something like 'zinc, calcium deficiency may cause fasciation in pineapples...'

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://nhb.gov.in/pdf/fruits/pineapple/pin003.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwifpvqb1-bqAhVaCjQIHZjoC40QFjAFegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1XafreZLCH0eYzNeSB48-t&cshid=1595621315312

7/24/2020 4:11:33 PM

Grittyville, WA

This may be an instance where chemical fertilizers are superior. Ammonium phosphate, ammonium nitrate... Wouls induce a calcium & micronutrient deficiency? Just dump on the chemical fertilizer?

7/24/2020 4:24:46 PM

Central NY

I’m with Hayden and salad Doug ...when all else fails, LiEBIG!!!!!

7/24/2020 4:58:12 PM

Grittyville, WA

You would just have to drench with dilute calcium sulfate or something after the bud began to form... to revert the plant out of the junk food and actually get the blossom to set. I might try this and let you know how it goes, Marv.

7/24/2020 6:15:00 PM

Central NY

<—-shakes head...

7/24/2020 6:32:05 PM

On top of Brush Mountain, Pa.

Okay. I wish it was possible to have a serious discussion here. Marv shakes head too.

7/24/2020 8:23:02 PM