Douglas Smith from Hertfordshire in the UK has broken the world record for growing the most tomatoes from one stem.
Back in 2021, September, while he was tending to the tomatoes, Douglas noticed that there was a single stem that had 1,269 cherry tomatoes on it! Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it?!
He didn’t just break his own record of 839 cherry tomatoes on a single stem from several weeks before which hadn’t happened in 10 years (only 488), but he also broke his country’s record!
He Breaks His Own Record, but also a Guinness One
In 2020, Smith broke the UK record for the biggest tomato in the UK 2020 (6.85 lb). He decided to go for another challenge in 2021 and applied for another record.
The IT manager wasn’t satisfied with the UK records only so he took an analytical approach to his farming methods and sought to become the best tomato grower in the world, not just in his country!
He used his time and learned from scientific papers and took some samples to be tested in a lab and this allowed him to adjust the formula until it was the right one.
He grew the record-breaking cherry tomatoes in his greenhouse in his garden. There, he spends up to four hours per week tending to the stems.
One independent horticulturalist did the official count and he confirmed the number. He counted the tomatoes into boxes of 10 and 10 boxes were put on a tray. Each of the trays had 100 tomatoes, according to Douglas.
The tomatoes were 430 more than the previous record that Douglas set and 10 times more than the original record set by Mr. B Rooms in 1997.
He Likes to Experiment with Giant Crops
Smith recently grew a supersize sunflower that measured six meters, although it’s not the tallest ever, which measured 30 ft and 1 inch, and was grown by Hans-Peter Schiffer from Germany in 2014.
According to Douglas, he likes experimenting with other giant veggies and crops.
These crops are trial runs for when Douglas decides to commit to a particular record attempt. This year, he’s focused on aubergines, potatoes, and peas.
The records for the heaviest potato and aubergine are still held by veteran veggie farmer Peter Glazebrook from the UK. He grew the heaviest potato back in 2011 (10 lb and 16 oz) and 10 years after, he grew the heaviest aubergine of 6 lb and 14 oz.
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