A man has broken his own world record for growing the most tomatoes from a single stem.
Douglas Smith from Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, grew 1,269 tomatoes on a single truss last September, a feat which has just been verified by Guinness World Records.
It beat his previous record of 839 which came from a plant that bore fruit just before the new record-breaker.
The title-holder prior to that was 488 which was set in 2010.
Mr Smith said: "The record attempts were only a few weeks apart but it took a little bit of time for the second record to go through the system.
"We counted up the first plant and there lurking in the background was the second one."
With so many tomatoes he said he had been able to keep friends and family stocked up with punnets of fresh produce.
Mr Smith said he researched different aspects to help him make the right choices for his record attempts, including taking soil samples to be tested at a laboratory to allow him to make any necessary adjustments.
In the past, Mr Smith has also grown a giant sunflower measuring 20ft (6m), a giant pumpkin and giant tomatoes.
"With all these things you want to have a bit of a run-up. Every year I'll split it up into two main camps," he said.
"I want to have stuff that I'm focusing on - this year it's on the most tomatoes, but then I'll run little experiments with other giant veg and giant crops.
"They won't be the focus of the year but you want to trial and experiment so when you do have a go you're going to be a little more up to speed."
This year's experiments are due to include peas, aubergines and potatoes.
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Grown by Del and Julie Faust (both USA), the heaviest tomato weighed 11.65 pounds (5.284 kilograms) as confirmed at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Stillwater, Minnesota, USA, on 8 October 2022 by representatives from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth. The total circumference of the tomato was 32.5 inches (82.55 cm).
Did you know that tomato plants are actually vines? The Guinness World Record for the tallest tomato plant is 19.8 meters — that's 65 feet — grown hydroponically by a company in the United Kingdom.
This Guinness World Record holding plant yields abundant harvests of bright red, one-pound tomatoes. One Better Boy plant once yielded more than 340 pounds (154 kg) of fruit, earning it a Guinness World Record.
Which country eats the most tomatoes? To answer our question from earlier, it's China that tops the world for tomato consumption, which is probably not a huge surprise given their huge population.
Recently, the FAO updated their numbers on tomato production, and as you might have guessed, in terms of yield, China is the world's biggest producer of tomatoes, followed by India. Third in line is Turkey. This includes both open field and protected cultivation and production for the fresh and processed market.
Tomatoes are generally safe for everyone to eat unless you have an allergy to them. People with acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) may want to avoid or limit the amount of tomatoes they eat, as acidic foods can often make heartburn worse.
The Mediterranean long shelf-life (LSL) tomatoes are a group of landraces with a fruit remaining sound up to 6–12 months after harvest. Most have been selected under semi-arid Mediterranean summer conditions with poor irrigation or rain-fed and thus, are drought tolerant.
There's only one type of Better Boy tomato, for instance, while beefsteaks have about 350 varieties, including Big Beefs, Bucking Broncos, and Cherokee Purples. And while they're both large varieties, Better Boys may be slightly heftier on average with a softer texture.
What's the difference between 'Better Boy' and 'Early Girl' tomatoes? Both are very popular and productive varieties with globe-shaped, red fruits. 'Better Boy' takes about 70 days to mature instead of 55 and produces 16-ounce tomatoes—about three times the size of 'Early Girl'.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest tomato plant ever was grown by Nutricultre Ltd in Lancashire, U.K., reaching 65 feet tall in May 2000.
The acidic substances and cellulose in tomatoes can stimulate gastric acid secretion, promote gastrointestinal motility, and help digestion, but you should not eat too much tomatoes. Eating 1 to 2 tomatoes a day, about 50-100 grams of raw tomatoes, can meet the human body's needs for vitamins, plant fiber and minerals.
El Rio Grande Latin Market in Dallas, Texas, has established a new Guinness World Record for the largest fruit display, featuring 86,764 pounds of avocados, totaling 260,292 units. This achievement surpasses the previous 2022 record of 77,000 pounds of bananas held by Del Monte in Westmont, Illinois.
Tomatoes have undergone centuries of cultivation and hybridization and have changed much during that time. Today, there are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes. Hundreds of years ago, long before Europeans had set foot in the New World, tomatoes grew wild in the Andes of western South America.
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