After previously growing the largest tomato, 6.85 pounds (3.1 KG) and 27.5 inches in circumference, Englishman Douglas Smith (43) has now harvested a total of 839, cherry tomatoes from a single stem.
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Englishman Douglas Smith (43) is an avid, green-fingered British gardener from Stanstead Abbotts, who never seems to grow tired of his romance with tomatoes. He always manages to come up with new ideas to show off his ‘red passion’ with flair.
After previously growing the largest tomato, 6.85 pounds (3.1 KG) and 27.5 inches in circumference, he has now harvested a total of 839, cherry tomatoes from a single stem.
An IT professional, Douglas grew the tomatoes directly from the seed. He spent about four hours a week on them in the greenhouse where he kept them.
Just to make sure that his record-breaking harvest doesn’t go unnoticed, he called in the local police to keep count along with him. Seems like a good idea too.
Later when the people from the Guinness World Record, come over to see things for themselves, the police would be able to verify and corroborate the facts.
Earlier in 2010, Graham Tanter in 2010, had grown 448 tomatoes off a single stem and won a place in the record books. Douglas’ crop is almost twice that number – just falling short by 59.
Everyone knows that what’s a kitchen anywhere like without some tomatoes, sitting pretty all red, juicy and round. Then there are those that are green and yellow too, if plucked before they fully ripen. You can simply slice them for a salad, fry them, stuff or stew them or even puree and store for any delicious, finger-licking gravy dish, particularly an Indian one perhaps.
The tomato is actually a fruit, a berry because it contains seeds and forms from a flower. However and interestingly, in 1893 the US Supreme Court ruled that the tomato should be classified as a vegetable, seeing its immense culinary presence.
This incredible edible berry of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, that originated in western South America and Central America gets its English name from the Spanish word tomate.
Earlier in 2010, Graham Tanter in 2010, had grown 448 tomatoes off a single stem and won a place in the record. Douglas’ crop of is almost twice that number – just falling short by 59.
While tomato beds are known to be messy, ugly and disease-ridden, single stem tomatoes can be grown close together, albeit producing fewer fruits than multi-stemmed plants.
The latter need the support of a trellis, stake or cage, and need constant pruning to grow more of these fruits that are high in lycopene, a plant compound that is known to improve heart health, prevent cancer and protect against sunburns.
Also, a single-stem tomato plant presents its leaves to the sun and most of the sugar produced is directed to the developing fruit.
And talking about tomatoes brings to mind the numerous fun videos of the tomato-throwing festival La Tomatina, declared a Festivity of International Tourist Interest, which is the world’s largest state-sanctioned food fight festival held each year at Bunol near Valencia, Spain.
Thousands of tons of tomatoes are hurled at each other by a mammoth crowd of participants in a two-hour-long food duel. Phew….must be fun, but wonder what Douglas would have to say to that….
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