Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 12 Entries. Tuesday, January 14 View Page Giant Tomato Growing, Season 5. Primary Goal: Have fun growing, try new things, and help to advance the hobby! Secondary Goal: New Personal Best, >6.65 lbs Tertiary Goal: >7 lbs Stretch Goal: +8 lbs I'll primarily be growing in 45 gallon fabric pots again in my backyard. Will be the second year growing in my "super-soil" mix (see Dan Sutherland's YouTube channel). Soil will not be tilled/turned. Hoping the biosphere has evolved and the soil composition continues to improve as the long-term goodies continue to breakdown. Note, the community garden was a total bust last season. The highlight of the season was.... no gophers! I had very high hopes, but just too much rampant disease to contend with for delicate tomato plants. Will try some "exotic" hot chili peppers and maybe 1 or 2 giant tomato plants, if I have extra seedlings. Best of luck to everyone this coming season!   Thursday, March 13 View Page Revived my germ chamber setup yesterday after a long hiatus. Going through my notes and getting all the settings dialed in. Put in a few sacrificial tomato seeds. I'll start my real competition tomatoes in mid-April, still working on the final line-up. Also started 6 varieties of chilies, including 3 super hots (SH).... Aji Charapita, Lemon Drop Aji, Sugar Rush Peach, 7-pot Primo (SH), PrimoTalii (SH) & OG Carolina Reapers (SH). Note.... I've tried many seed starting techniques and found the following method to produce the best results... Root Riot plugs with temps regulated to 82-84 degrees at 90-95% humidity. I realize everyone has their favorite approach, just sharing what's worked the best for me. Dome removed for the picture.   Thursday, March 13 View Page Got this beauty today. When I started growing tomatoes ~4 years ago during peak COVID lock down, I knew nothing about gardening except that the CA record was my goal. I give ALL credit to all those exceptional growers out there that helped me reach my goal. A HUGE thank you to those selfless contributors! Finally, WRT this unexpected surprise today from the one and only Porkchop.... PC, your colorful diary entries with "Wilson" and "Hank the Tank" are the some of the biggest reasons I'm engaged today.   Thursday, March 27 View Page Sweet, all 12 hot chilies sprouted and were potted up today. They went straight into Ocean Forest, my go-to soil for seedlings. Super Hots can be very fickle to germ, so pleased they all germed. Check back a few posts for the pepper varieties, if interested. Germ chamber is optimized and ready to go. Started eight 6.65 Greene's (Domingo) after a 24 hour spa treatment. These 8 get a head-start before starting my ultimate giant tomato line-up in mid-April. My final seed selection is nearly done. Will share that shortly. As might be expected, there's some overlap with Scott's list. If anyone wants to try my 6.65s (CA Record), LMK. USA/Canada addresses only, sorry.   Friday, March 28 View Page These are the eight 6.65 Greene's nestled into Root Riot plugs. As you can see, one of them popped after 36 hours. I obsessively peek & was very surprised to see this emerge so early. Never seen a Domingo so aggressive. Wondering if a crazy fast germ translates to a more aggressive mature plant & fruit.   Friday, April 4 View Page Final 2025 seed selections (Round 1): 10.20 Jolivette 9.50 Clayton 9.06 Brown 7.94 La Rue 7.69 Clementz 7.28 Young 6.65 Greene 6.25 Clayton 5.95 Konieczny (1) 5.71 Lambchop (1) Note: these are the last 5.71 and 5.95 seeds I have. I've been attempting to create a 5.71 x 5.95 cross, but the last two 5.71s I started in previous seasons didn't germ. This will be the final attempt at this cross so fingers crossed.   Monday, April 7 View Page First ones out of the gate. 3 days after hitting the plugs. Gritty's 9.50 popped after 48 hours, wow. Of particular note, the 5.71 Lambchop made a cameo appearance!! That's a 7yo seed. Stoked!! Now, if that lone 5.95 Konie pops I'll be over the moon!   Monday, April 7 View Page Needed to make room in the grow tent for my tomato competition seedlings, so these are all moving out back for hardening. These are the super-hots and three of my 6.65 Greene's used to test the germ chamber.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Observation.... these three seedling are all from my 6.65 and started on the same day, 14 days ago. Interestingly, the first set of true leaves is quite different on all three. Looking closely at the first set of true leaves... the top seedling has only one leaf per stem. Bottom seedling has two leaves per stem. Middle seedling has three leaves per stem. Only one of these will see the earth so it would seem like a no brainer that the middle seedling with the rapid germination (<2 days), rapid growth and the triple leaves gets the golden ticket. Will pay more attention to the first set going forward in my next round 2 starts.   Thursday, April 10 View Page Both the 5.71 Lambchop (2018) and 5.95 Konieczny (2016) seeds have germed giving me a chance to create what I consider to be an epic genetic cross.   Tuesday, April 15 View Page My seedling rankings as of this afternoon. Factors include: Height, stem girth, 2nd set health & overall vigor. The seed tags were spun backwards while judging so as to not bias the ranking. All seeds were started on the same day, April 4.   Tuesday, April 15 View Page Seedlings in ranked order from left to right. Front to back. Started the hardening process today, giving them some yummy afternoon sun. Seeds started 11 days ago.