Gardener Breaks His Own Record by Growing Over 1200 Tomatoes on a Single Stem

Remarkably, the man from the Hertfordshire, United Kingdom has broken his own record. He has become the first man in the entire world to grow this many tomatoes from a single stem of a plant. Douglas encountered a single stem to which a total of 1,269 cherry tomatoes were attached, while harvesting his tomatoes in September 2021, after which he decided to apply for the world record.

The record-breaking tomatoes were cultivated in a greenhouse in Douglas' backyard, in which he devotes three to 4 hours per week to tending to the trusses.

Previous World Records

Douglas Smith has set up a new world record last year when he obtained 839 tomatoes from a single stem. The previous record before Douglas's discovery was 488 tomatoes grown from a single stem, which had not been broken in more than 10 years! 

Douglas was thrilled with this discovery and he decided to apply for the Guinness World Records. Just after a year, he broke his own record with an even higher number. The tomato plant in his garden had produced over 1200 tomatoes on a single stem. He broke 2 world records in just a span of a few months.

An independent horticulturist performed the official count. According to Douglas, the tomatoes were counted into tens of boxes, and ten boxes were placed on a tray and each tray was containing 100 tomatoes.

A total of 1,269 tomatoes were recorded, which was an all-time high. That's 430 more tomatoes than Douglas' old record and about ten times more than the original B Rooms record of 121 set in 1997.

Scientific Approach To Becoming The Finest Tomato Farmer

In order to become the finest tomato farmer in the world, Douglas applied an intellectual framework to his tomato farming practices.

He read multiple science publications and even sent various samples of soil from his greenhouse, to be evaluated in the laboratory. This approach enabled him to fine-tune the formula for growing the healthiest of tomatoes.