Huge tomato weighs in at over 2 pounds

ROCKWELL — When Clifford Josey planted the tomato plants he ordered from the Carol Wright Gift Catalogue, he didn’t do much to them.

A little fertilizer at first, but after that, he didn’t even water them.

So, he was surprised when they started coming out big in his garden on Winecoff Street. But, even then, they weren’t huge.

Then, he went out this week and discovered the humongous one hanging off the vine, ready to fall at any moment. It occurred to him that he might have the biggest tomato so far in the Post’s annual Garden Game contest.

He pulled it off and measured it — 18-1/4 inches around, 4-1/4 inches thick and 2-1/2 pounds.

That’s a big tomato.

He says that the tomatoes out of his garden are boy tomatoes “because they are smooth.”

The other tomatoes from his garden only got to about 2 pounds. They were all juicy and the best he has ever eaten.

The plants came from Maine, and he wasn’t expecting anything so big.

“A man ought to be able to make six sandwiches,” he said.

Josey’s giant surpassed the 2-pound tomatoes submitted by Ruby Lingle.

Josey said that tomatoes aren’t the only thing he grows. He grows a little bit of everything: corn, squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and strawberries.

The strawberries were supposed to get as big as baseballs, but Josey said he didn’t have any luck with that.

“I always have good luck with the green beans,” he said.

But they can’t match his tomato. “I can’t imagine one little seed making something that big,” he said.

Contact reporter Joanie Morris at 704-797-4264 or jmorris@salisburypost.com .