Single blossom on left and double megablossom on right
May 8, 2010 12:23 pm
Single blossom on left and double megablossom on right
GIANT TOMATOES-I got my first 2 megablossoms off my Big Zac tomato plants and they are not even in the ground yet. All giant tomato growers are looking for megablossoms. Some varieties tend to produce more than others. Since megablossoms usually come earlier on a plant I will leave these on as I don’t know if I will get more off each plant. A megablossom is at least 2 or more blossoms that fuse together to make one big tomato. That is why giant tomatoes are so knarley and bumpy. It is kind of like twins, triplets or quadruplets that are all conjoined together. Recognizing these megablossoms is the key to growing giant tomatoes. It doesn’t happen all the time so it is exciting when we get some megablossoms and the potential for a BIG TOMATO. Since they are made up of many blossoms, oftentimes they abort if they don’t pollinate well. Most tomatoes are self-pollinating so you don’t have to worry about pollinating them unless you get a megablossom. That is when we should hand pollinate them although I didn’t on these. Using a small soft paintbrush, you can take some pollen off of the stamen part of one blossom and paint it onto the megablossom pistils. Kind of sounds like Luther Burbank doesn’t it?
The top picture has two blossoms-the one on the left is a normal single tomato blossom and the one on the right is a megablossom made up of two flowers. Notice how big it is.
megablossom with three blossoms fused
This second picture has even more blossoms fusing together. Looks like maybe three blossoms. Starting to look knarley! I’ll see if it aborts or starts to grow into a giant tomato on it’s own as I didn’t hand pollinate them. I will pick off all the normal blossom off of each plant. I might grow 2-4 tomatoes from megablossoms off of one plant. You don’t let all of the normal tomatoes grow so all the energy goes into these potential giant tomatoes. Obviously I am growing these for size and I have other varieties where I let every blossom become a tomato to grow for food.
Posted by giant veggie gardener
Categories: general, GIANT TOMATOES, TOMATOES, tomatoes growing tips, VEGETABLES
Tags: giant tomatoes, megabloom, megablossom, organic gardening, organic vegetable gardening, pollinatinng tomatoes, tomato
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Wow! Mega, mega! Come on tomatoes!
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By elodie on May 8, 2010 at 7:03 pm
This is my second year as a full fledged veggie gardener and when i saw these i was quite surprised since i never saw these, but from what i say the megablooms seem to happen on large tomato varieties like brandywine (yes i had my first megabloom on a brandywine) at first it confused me but after a bit of research i knew what they were.
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By Dat_Gardener on April 20, 2017 at 5:19 am
I discovered a single megabloom today on what I believe to be a Golden Jubillee plant. It’s HUGE in comparison to its sibllings. My plan is to observe any noticeable difference in the berry I hope will appear.
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By Dana S. Davis on July 5, 2022 at 12:28 pm
So a megablossom is several blossoms that fuse together. My biggest tomato ever was 4 lbs and came from a megablossom. They are a little knarly with the different lobes which represent the different blossoms. The bigger the blossom, the bigger the tomato.
Let me know how big it gets!
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By giant veggie gardener on July 8, 2022 at 4:54 pm