Q&A: Meet the Komoka man who grows giant vegetables for fun

Ever seen a tomato as wide as a basketball?

It's harvest time, and for some growers, those fall-favourite vegetables are coming off the vine extra large.

Komoka's Patrick Watson, the president of the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario, is one of them. His hobby group specializes in growing gigantic food, from jumbo tomatoes to giant pumpkins and colossal cabbages, all for fun and a little competition.

He spoke with CBC's Matt Allen on Afternoon Drive about this year's impressive crop, a tomato weighing in at 8.15 lbs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Matt Allen: What is this thing that you brought into this studio?

Patrick Watson: I didn't grow a big pumpkin this year, and I think it'd be a little hard to bring in a 1,500 pound pumpkin, so I brought an 8.15 pound tomato.

MA: My goodness! You'd need a forklift to bring in a pumpkin of that size. But this tomato, it's huge! What exactly goes into growing a vegetable of this size?

PW: I think you really need to start off with a good seed. You have to have excellent seed genetics to have any real success at all. With growing giants, whether it be a tomato or pumpkin, having a good seed is really where you need to start.

After that, you've got to do a bit of research. There's a little bit of work that goes into it. You've got to have good soil, and you've got to have good water, and good luck.

MA: You came really close to breaking the Canadian record. What got in the way of that?

PW: In Canada, the current official tomato record is 7.43 pounds. You can't control when these things go ripe. They have a registry for tomatoes that aren't ripening at the time of a weigh off. And unfortunately, I waited a little too long when I cut this off. When I weighed at home, it was 8.48 pounds. So I was so close.

The problem is, it had some cracks in it and I noticed a little bit of leaking. You're allowed to have cracks, but you're not allowed to have leaking. So I had to DQ it from official competition. But it's still one of the larger tomatoes that's ever been growing in Canada.

MA: I'm sure all vegetable growers out there, when they hear the size of it, they're wondering how on earth did it stay on the stalk? Tell us how you managed to keep this thing up.

PW: Well, I think you can imagine with an eight pound tomato hanging on a vine, it's gonna pick itself at some point if you don't support the weight. So, this tomato grew in a hammock. I made a nice little hammock for it to rest in, so there was no stress on the vine that was feeding it. That really works well.

MA: For the people who might be interested in trying out this type of gardening, what are some of the tips that you would have for them?

PW: If you want to get into extreme gardening and try growing giants, really think about joining the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario. Our club is not just Ontario members. We have members all across Canada. We have members over in the U.K. and we also have members in the United States. We share our seeds all over as well. You get a seed pack mailed out to you, and you can join our Facebook group page. You can talk to all the growers.