Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 47 Entries. Sunday, February 23 View Page Winter grow tomato is coming along. It has really picked up as the days grow longer.   Sunday, February 23 View Page The from seed rhubarb is also doing ok. Isn't it cute   Sunday, February 23 View Page The from seed rhubarb is also doing ok. Isn't it cute   Sunday, February 23 View Page And look at that a baby megabloom.   Friday, February 28 View Page Hummm. Date night at Casa Bonita in Denver. My wife took this photo of me bidding on the tomato Lots in the auction. Sorry, but the Wisconsin auction had some of the best lots of the year, blame them. :) ummmm can I have the password to the PayPal account?. What??...oh....Yes I promise I'll take you to Hobby lobby, Jo Anns, and the thrift stores tomorrow.   Sunday, March 2 View Page The winter grow tomato is blooming. The flower in front of the megabloom (bottom) is full open and ready to be pollinated. The mega is just starting to open (top)   Sunday, March 2 View Page Let's get some pollen hopefully it's producing.   Sunday, March 2 View Page Ooohhhh nice.   Sunday, March 2 View Page Too bad the mega is not more open. Let's paint.   Sunday, March 2 View Page Dab dab dab.   Monday, March 3 View Page Another flower opened up. Let's see how much pollen this one has. The mega has opened enough maybe I can start pollinating it.   Monday, March 3 View Page Boom....   Monday, March 3 View Page Holy crap ....what the.....this one might not pollinate.   Friday, March 7 View Page Just.....wow.....what a frickin mess of a flower. Will this pollinate? Where do I stick the pollen? I'll just rub it all over and hope something sticks.   Friday, March 7 View Page The very first flower pollinated. See the newborn tomato under the flower leaves.   Friday, March 7 View Page I also did 4 clones for science. The sizes are by truss. The first truss sucker is the biggest clone. I don't usually try to grow them if they are this big or I cut them back but it looks like it might survive. The next biggest is second truss third is third and the smallest is the fourth truss sucker. It was very tiny with only maybe 3/4 of an inch of stem.   Sunday, March 9 View Page Well would you look at that. It pollinated. Huzza!   Tuesday, March 11 View Page Megabloom on top single on bottom. The mega is in two parts and if it's not fused I'm going to cut it and keep the single.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page There are two more megas but they are too late to the party. Winter grow competition is over April first.   Wednesday, March 12 View Page The other mega. Even the mega that I did get pollinated will only have 25 days on it when the competition ends. I'll have to make sure to start sooner next time or put some artificial light on them.   Thursday, March 13 View Page Ignore the crazed after work look. I'm not THAT crazy. I do need a shave tho. Anywho.... thanks to Porkchop and Dan (Saswampo) and anyone else who helped with the Zeke tomato challenge. I love my trophy for second place draft. It was great fun.   Thursday, March 13 View Page Well...frick.....sad day when the mega doesn't fuse.   Wednesday, March 19 View Page Well it finally started rotting. The pumpkin is over 2 1/2 years old. The one with the stem is still fine. My wife grows a few random pumpkin plants they open pollinate each other then she regrows the seeds. You never know what will happen. Two years ago one of the seeds produced these pumpkins. Tan rough skin with these cool twisted stems.   Wednesday, March 19 View Page I don't think pumpkins are supposed to last over 2 1/2 years. Lol   Wednesday, March 19 View Page Scott's Hot Tomato Seeds For 2025 9.06 Brown 2021 This is the 2365 Wolf of the tomato world. This seed added another 8lb tomato this year. The 8.42 MacDonald 2024 a PB for Chris. This seed grew the world record and its off spring are responsible for 4 of the top 6 biggest tomatoes all time. It was grown off the 5.32 howell/jolivett 2020 and is under the 9.65 Porkchop 2019 (former WR) genetic tree. 7.83 Sjodin 2023 This tomato seed was a bit off the radar since it wasn't on the GPC list for 2023 (Registered at the UK Giant Vegetable Championship). This is one of only two other seeds that have grown a 10 pound tomato. It grew the 10.20 Jolivette 4th biggest tomato ever. This seed is under the 9.06 Brown genetic tree. Interestingly it was grown off the.... 8.58 Porkchop 2022 This is probably an amazing sleeper seed sitting in seed boxes waiting to be grown. This is a direct descendent of the 9.06 Brown 6.48 Young 2022 This seed has shown it's worth. Having grown several personal bests and one of its offspring, the 6.25 Clayton 2023, grew the 9.50 Clayton. This seed is a direct descendent of the 9.06 Brown. 6.25 Clayton DAM 2023 This seed grew the 9.50 Clayton 2024. It has great potential having been hand pollinated with other giant tomato plants. This was grown from the 6.48 Young 2022 seed. There were quite a few seeds available at the auctions and it will be very interesting to see how Brandon's 2024 tomato GOTY seeds do. 7.94 La Rue 2022 This seed grew the 10.460 La Rue 2023. It is grown directly off the infamous 5.71 Lambchop 2018. It will be very interesting to see how this seed does this year. 3.75 Cole 2023 Grew the 7.13 Cole 2024 and is grown off the 9.44 LaRue under the 9.65 Porkchop genetic tree. Mike sent this seed with his 7.13 so there were quite a few at auction. 1.76 Lai 2021? Grew the 8.160 Lai 2024. From Australia it is listed as Italian Heart. This down under tomato could be a great genetic addition. This is the first time for years that any tomato not called Domingo or Big Zac has broken the 8 pound barrier. Interesting unproven seeds from this year 2024 10.20 Jolivette : Biggest this year and 4th biggest ever 9.500 Clayton : hand pollinated with other giants 8.680 Clayton : hand pollinated with other giants 8.200 Smith : a cross of the Mega Marv and Domingo very interesting 8.160 Lai : First non Domingo genetics tomato to break top 10 in years   Tuesday, March 25 View Page Well several hundred hours later its finally done. I migrated it to a different chart builder and rebuilt it from scratch. A bonus is I build a pumpkin chart to test the chart builder before I used it for the tomato chart. the best way to view these is to "open image in new tab" https://ibb.co/fVF81NTV https://postimg.cc/21Xvv4h2 https://i.postimg.cc/ZqJLGHRt/tomato-genetics-2025-march.jpg https://freeimage.host/i/3Ta7a7j https://imgur.com/a/fyGiUPY   Thursday, March 27 View Page My winter grow tomato stopped growing. I figured something was wrong. I have learned many things from this tho. Be warned the next photo is pure nightmare juice.   Thursday, March 27 View Page Yup BER. I've been growing tomatoes for 15+ years and this is the very first time I've ever had it. I've had touches of it kinna since I started growing the giants a couple years ago but not really. What is the difference? I didn't use any of my secret sand from Wyoming. I just bought some potting soil from Lowe's and used that. I will definitely put the sand in next time. I should of not been lazy a dug up a bit of my tomato patch soil. It was frozen and I was lazy. I did use the soil at first to start the seedlings and the first transplant. I'm guessing once it used up the good stuff in the transplant soil and got to the genetic potting soil that was the downfall. Lessons learned for winter grow. Start earlier, make sure to use the secret sand or patch soil.   Thursday, March 27 View Page I know I've told the story of the sand before but I'm going to be one of those old guys who tells the same story over and over and you have to pretend to hear it for the first time. ;) This sand is from a dry river draw of sand just outside of Riverton Wyoming called.....yup Sand Draw :)). Long ago they tried to use it in concrete and for construction sand but it just dissolve away and was no good.. Why you ask. Well I am a rockhound (stare at ground picking up shiny rocks). Sand Draw area has some mighty fine rocks. Really good calcite and selenite. Sanddraw drains this whole area so the calcite (calcium) and selenite (calcium,sulphur). Get deposited in the sand as tiny grains and dust. When water is added it dissolve over time and your house foundation falls apart. The other thing that the area has is low grade coal veins (lignite) from what I've read this is where humic and fumic acid come from. So that might be in the sand as well. It's just really good BER inoculant. And they lived happily ever after. the end.   Monday, April 7 View Page Bit behind on my diary entries. Making my own starter mix this year. Sand, soil, touch of fretz.   Monday, April 7 View Page Going for a shotgun method this year. Plant everything and keep the 6-9 strongest plants.   Monday, April 7 View Page Now the hard part.......eeny meeny miny moe.....   Monday, April 7 View Page A couple more looks for prosperity   Monday, April 7 View Page One more so I can remember next year or later.   Monday, April 7 View Page Ok....now grow.   Tuesday, April 15 View Page This last weekend. I went to dig crystals in Colorado. This is calcite in the raw This is better than egg shells or anything to add calcium into the soil. This stuff is everywhere in this digging area. I know it breaks down over time as the pieces that have been in the open for years are very weathered. It's interesting to think about.   Tuesday, April 15 View Page We have a winner. 9.06 Brown is number 1 and 2 sprouting. The rest of the sprouting order so far is. 3.- 5.44 New 4.- 7.06 La Rue 5.- 2.22 Luers 6.- 6.02 La Rue (lambchop version) 7- 7.94 La Rue   Wednesday, April 16 View Page And this is why you don't plant tomatoes before the middle of May in Colorado. Even tho it's been 70-80 and high 40 nights for several weeks.....yah.   Thursday, April 17 View Page Ahhhh so that's how you grow giant cucumbers.   Friday, April 18 View Page Welcome to Colorado (and Wyoming) in April.   Monday, April 21 View Page Separated the two 9.06 brown sprouts. They are still the fastest growing.   Monday, April 21 View Page Also separated out the other 2 sprouts from the 5.44 New. It's still the third biggest after the 9.06 Brown sprouts.   Monday, April 21 View Page Separated the 2.22 Luers sprouts. I got 100% germination rate yay. Biggest after the New and Brown sprouts.   Monday, April 21 View Page Interestingly the 6.48 Young 22 was one of the slowest sprouting but it has grown so fast it has over taken a huge majority of the sprouts that sprouted before it.   Monday, April 21 View Page The 8.58 Marley also sprouted very late and grew insane to catch and overtake several other sprouts in just a few days.   Wednesday, April 23 View Page First megabloom of the year!   Wednesday, April 23 View Page Ok this is just going to be a post for my own reference. It will be long and have a bunch of seed info from my shotgun seed method I tried this year. 9.06 brown 100% germ, sprout 1,2 fastest growth 9.06 brown single seed no show :( 3.75 Cole 100% germ. 12, 26 sprout, fast growth 6.48 Young 75% germ. 20 sprout, 1 runt seed. Super fast growth 8.36 Strickler 75% germ. 22 sprout slow to normal growth 6.81 Gantner 100% germ. 19 sprout, slow to normal growth 8.19 Smith 100% germ 24,27 sprout medium fast growth 2.10 Luers 100% germ 14,18,26 sprout, normal to above normal growth 5.80 La Rue 66% germ, 13,22 normal growth 8.58 Marley (Porkchop) 75% germ 29 sprout, 1 runt seed very fast growth First 7.94 La Rue 100% germ 7,17 sprout 1- runt seed very fast growth Second 7.94 La Rue 50%germ 9 sprout very fast growth 2.82 Luers 75% germ 28 sprout normal growth Continue next post