[meathead320]

Hi All,

This is my first post here. Been growing Tomatoes for several years. I started with Giant pumpkins, but only get limited results with them, as I have very little yard space to work with for the next year or two still. Will move when my wife is done with school (as we only live 5 minutes from university now).

So, I started growing Big Zac in 2008, and had a better year than last year (got a late start last year, and the cold weather was a killer). Big Zac is the only "giant" variety I grew, the rest are heirlooms I grow for flavor.

I used the 8ft fence posts for steaks, and used strips of pantyhose to support the plants. Pruned to one main vine, and all secondaries were topped after first two leaves. I think it’s called the Missouri pruning method.

Only one fruit stay per cluster, and allowed only 4 tomatoes per plant. First tomato at about 30" up the vine. All of them turned out huge. The best one I took these two photo’s of. They were allowed to ripen completely on the vine, and did get some cracking when we got a big rain. They did not rot there however, just developed scars.

There was one thing that was odd about them however, at least the two largest ones. While overall they tasted great, and were turned into a very good salsa, I did find and cut out several weird "crystal" like things. These crystals were tasteless, and about the consistency of a watermelon rind. Anyone have any idea what they were?

I cannot find photos of the crystal things, but here are two pics of my biggest tomato so far. I did not compete with it, as it is a single blossom tomato and likely not as heavy as the mega-bloom ones. I did not get an official weight on it. Took it to work and impressed friends and family.