When I saw I had Chris Lyons on my team at the beginning of the season I figured it was an easy win for team 2. When my first batch of tomato seeds didn't sprout. I thought, "There is plenty of time left!" When my first tomatoes all had blossom end rot, I thought "Well I still have time to grow even a small tomato" When I saw Chris weight in with a 7.88 tomato, I thought "oh baby!" When the storm came and ruined my tomato plants and I weight in at under 0.5, I thought "Who let me grow tomatoes!" Sorry team 2 for the terrible weigh in....

My plants need more time as well. Definitely had a late start due to terrible planting, and now I'm fighting blossom End rot. I'm hoping I don't have to resort to weighing something from my Sweet Million, haha!

Jeff Craig 3.19

I got my pack the other day as well! I'm not sure what of all the different things I'll try to grow this year, but I do know I'm going to try and get another heavy carrot going. It's such a fun surprise pulling it out of the ground to see how big it actually got. Do we know if there will be another Tomato group contest? I really enjoyed that and I would definitely but interested in doing it again.

Oct. 24 It's over! Good bye 2020 growing season. I finally got my beets cleaned up and weighed. I couldn't be happier with the results for a first attempt. 6lbs 9.6oz 4lbs 6.9oz (and reminds me of a lobster almost)

Definitely a fun contest, and I had a great time growing Giant Tomatoes for the first time. Thanks for running/hosting this contest!

Oct. 12th Is it bigger? I can't really tell. Definitely slowing down. I think it might be getting time to pull it out and weight it! I won't be competing any place, and this is my first time growing one of these massive beets but it's been really interesting.

Oct. 3rd I've got a little bit of growth up on my mangel, but the width isn't changing. I guess that makes sense though.

From all my lurking on the forums I'm used to seeing the incredibly massive pumpkins everyone grows, but is that a monster of a sun flower in the background!?

Sept 20th: I wasn't getting anything in the tomato department, and I figured it would be to late to grow another giant by now anyway. So I finally pulled them up and put them onto the compost heap. They were so big that I couldn't fit them all into my compost bin and in fact had to start a little pile in my garden for them. Until next year Tomatoes! The mangel seems to have slowed right done, however I think thats my fault, I've gotten a little lax with the watering schedule. I'll have to pick things back up this week to see if I can keep it growing! I had some friends stop by for a back yard distanced visit and they were amazed with the size of them. It's going to be great once I pull them out to see how they look.

Sept 12th: The Mangel have put in a tiny bit of growth from last week. So things are still looking okay.

Sept 3rd: Nothing exciting to report on the garden side. My tomato plants have seen better days, thats for sure. I have a few blooms on them now but I doubt there will be enough time to grow another giant. Some of the plants appear to have stunted growth and at least one I topped by mistake. All new growth are from suckers part way up the plants stock. I'll keep an eye out and see how any do just for the fun of it though. My Mangel are doing fine, slow and steady! It looks like they haven't grown at all but looking back at past pictures and measurements they are doing just fine.

August 23: Most of my tomatoes have been rippening so I've been taking them off. All of them between 1-2 lbs. I only see one starting to form on any of the vines so I don't know if I will have much potential for any others, but we will wait and see. My second biggest as of yet. The plants all appear okay, but maybe getting close to End of Life, I'll keep up the feeding and we will see how these remaining Tomatoes do, and if they can start producing more fruits. The tall Mangel has put on maybe 0.5 inches in width over the last week. I'm really interested in seeing whats below the surface, and what its going to look like on the very bottom of the grow bag. And my Carolina reaper is starting to get some ripe peppers! Who likes the spice?

August 18th: I keep looking at it, and I didn't want to leave this beast one the vine much longer for fear it would ripen to much and loose some weight. 3lb 3.1oz (5.03 Hunt/17)

August 17th: I've taken one of my smaller tomatoes off, it is getting red and I'm hoping it will increase the size of the remaining fruit. 1lb8oz (5.36 Hunt/17)

I have tested my water (for my fishies), and it seems the pH is around 6.8-7. I haven't tested the soil levels, I feel like I've added plenty of calcium though. I'll give acidifying the water a little try and see if that gives any results. I may even try finding a soil pH test.

August 16th: After a quick vacation for a week and leaving my babies to be tended by someone else I'm happy to report everything is still okay! My tomatoes appear to be changing colour now. Largest seems to be around 50 cm, I haven't been measuring to often but I'll keep an eye on it to see if its stopped growing or not. Some of the plants have started showing some signs of aging and are turning yellow, most of them appear to have stopped growing as well. The tallest plant has no fruit on it, and when it does get some they all have a terrible case of blossom end rot. This one is looking rather promising. Still green and gaining. There is another fruit on this plant you can see below it that is starting to gain some colour. I'm assuming if I prune it away, this one will get a bit of a bump in growth. This one is about 50 cm. Mangel seem fine. I should start to measure them as they don't seem to be changing to much to my eye.

August 2nd: Everything is still growing. Slow and steady, nothing new really. Just trying to pair down some fruits on my tomato plants. The biggest one has lost its main fruit due to end rot, so now its just a few tiny ones growing, I'll see how big they can get. The other plants already have several biggies growing, just have to decide which ones to keep and which ones to cut. The biggest plant has also started producing new leaf vines lower down on the plant from existing lead vines. So I'm not sure what is going on with it, but I'll keep an eye on it. More leaves means more potential for energy right? My Mangel are still doing fine nothings changed. They seems pretty hardy which is nice, I don't have to baby them or tend them very much. I also harvested one of my potato plants. It was starting to die off, so I figured I might as well dig it up. Get ready to be jealous of my massive harvest!

July 31: In order to grow a winner you are going to need to prune... So I did just that today. One plant had 4 decent looking tomatoes, so I've started to prune it back to give one the chance to grow big! The one I pruned today had what looks like a cut/blemish so I figured it had a greater potential for problems. Currently this is my personal best for tomato weight, but don't worry I've got more on the vine still!

July 26th These tomatoes are going to be the death of me! I'm pretty sure planting them in the fabric pots might not have been a good idea. They appear to dry out very quickly, as a result I've been watering daily and I have seen some evidence of Blossom End Rot. So I started treating it with some calcium supplements. A few days after that, I notice some yellowing leaves... Looks just like Magnesium deficiency, which from reading is caused from over watering, or to much calcium. So I applied a little foliar spray of epsom salt, I think its fixing the problem, or at least halted it. I've got what I feel are some pretty big tomatoes! I just hope they can last and nothing goes wrong with them. I've been concerned as well with them pulling the plants down/off. So I've improvised with some pantyhose to try and hold them up and not restrict them. This plant has a cluster of 4 that are all really doing well, and I'm afraid to prune any off, but I assume at some point that time will need to come. Some plants are considerably taller then others, despite getting the same amount of watering and nutrients. But over all I think they are all doing well. That one tomato sure is hanging far out! I'll have to strap it in soon. Heres a close up of the one thats hanging way out off the plant. The Mangel are slow and steady. I've added more more dirt, not sure if it will do anything. However the plant just looked to awkward sticking so far out like that to me. Everyone tells me how great and easy zucchini are. Am I the only one with pests? First it was the cucumber beetles, now its the vine borer! I split the stem open to find 4 slugs growing inside. No wonder the plant wasn't growing or producing any fruit. A few online blogs suggest you can plant the split vine and it could still live. So I've given that a go, lets hope for the best. And last but not least, my 3 year old Carolina reaper plant is starting to produce!