The tomato on the left side of the photo is a Delicious tomato grown by our good friend, Jim G., of Eastern Illinois. The other one is a Brandywine Pink. Thanks, Jim!

Giant Tomatoes is the first book on tomatoes that deals exclusively with growing tomatoes for size and yield.

Thirty-one chapters and an abundant appendix covers everything on growing big tomatoes. Whether you’re competing with yourself, your neighbor, or at a local, regional, or national competition, Giant Tomatoes will put you on a level playing field with the best tomato growers in the world.

This book covers everything. Marvin Meisner takes you step-by-step through the intricasies of selecting varieties, preparing soil, fertilizing, watering, pollinating, pruning, and more -- plus, the secret of every successful, competitive giant tomato grower -- the megabloom. This is the most comprehensive treatment ever written on giant tomatoes.

The story of how Mortgage Lifter got its name has been repeated in many catalogs. The following story has been lifted from Carolyn Male's book "100 Heirloom Tomatos for the American Garden".

M.C. Byles planted four varieties with large fruit: German Johnson, "Beefsteak," an Italian variety, and a English variety. One variety was planted in the middle and the other three varieties surrounded it. Byles took pollen from the outer three varities and cross-pollinated the blossoms of the center plant. The next year, he planted the best seedling in the middle and surrounded it with three other seedlings. After selecting the best plants each year for six years, he had a stable variety- Which he called Mortage Lifter because he sold the plants for $1 each during the 1940's and paid off his $6,000 house mortage in only six years.

Untreated seeds.

4 tests, 4 color coded test tubes and a color comparison chart