Gift seeds produce gigantic tomato
For the past 20 years, George (Sonny) Markish’s major pastime has been raising bees, gathering honey from their hives and marketing it at places like Volkar’s Market and Over the Garden Gate in Richeyville.
While he also tends a relatively large vegetable garden, which he uses “to can a lot of old-time, forgotten stuff like piccalilli, sauerkraut and hot pepper mustard,” never before has he nurtured a garden success like the huge Ukrainian Giant he discovered growing in one of his tomato patches in the back of his home in Labelle.
“The tomato must weigh about five pounds and is almost as large around as a dinner plate, said Markish, who picked the tomato on Aug. 11.
The beekeeper grew the plant from seed his brother, Leroy sent him early this year from his home in Mentor, Ohio.
“Leroy had success growing them last year and decided to send me some seeds to try here,” said Markish, who planted them in flats on April first and grew them in a room in his house under grow lights. The seedlings went into the ground outside around May 20.
“The Ukrainian Giants are in the same family as beefsteaks,” he said. “Not only do they grow large, but they’re also twice as tasty as hybrids.”
This year, Markish planted 107 tomato seedlings that represent around a dozen varieties of heirlooms. Nearly a dozen of these are Ukrainian Giants, and Markish is waiting to see if any of the immature green fruit now growing on his plants will get to the same impressive size as their sibling.
“For fertilizer, I use nothing but manure,” he said. “Everything here is grown natural, and I don’t spray with insecticides because I don’t want to jeopardize my bees.”