How to Grow World Record Tomatoes: A Guinness Champion Reveals His All-Organic Secrets

by Charles Wilber

Charles Wilber tells his personal story of learning to work with nature, and his philosophy and approach to gardening. He reveals for the first time how he grows record-breaking tomatoes and produce of every variety. There's no magic involved. Just a well thought out system that gives plants more than they could ever want, and makes it possible for them to reach their full potential. Wilber's compost is the cornerstone along with a wide circumference around plants layered with compost, alfalfa meal and mulch. Valuable pruning and watering details are given, too, as well as a new way of looking at seeds. As you will learn, growing awesome tomatoes integrates every aspect of gardening that you can imagine.

Genres: Gardening

123 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Matal “The Mischling Princess” Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year, I planted about twenty Roma tomatoes (sauce tomatoes9) and fifteen Bodacious tomatoes (slicing tomatoes)—all grown from seed—in my garden. This year, I’m experimenting with a new variety called SuperSauce Hybrid by Burpee. The fruits are supposed to, on average, be 5.5” tall and 5” wide, weighing a whopping 2 pounds per individual fruit. I planted my (35) seeds just last week, so when I saw Charles Wilber’s “How to Grow World Record Tomatoes: A Guinness Champion Reveals His All-Organic Secrets,” I was determined to read it.

Wilber included a small biography at the beginning of this book, and while reading it, I automatically identified with him. He was born in 1914, just a year before my own grandfather whom I lived with. The similarities between Wilber and myself was quite astounding because in so many ways, we share the same core personality.

Wilber was a fantastic gardener and was known for his 20-foot plus tall tomato plants. This book provides a lot of useful information. For me, the best thing that I found was his instructions for creating tomato cages using 5-foot tall concrete reinforcement wire for the cages. These cages can then be stacked on top of other cages as the plant grows. This reminded me of a YouTube channel based in China that shows the farming life of a rural Chinese family; they use the same cage method. Each time the video showed these plants, I always wondered how the cages were created, and Wilber’s book answered this long-standing question for me.

I saw online how a few people documented using Wilber’s methods, and they revealed that their harvest actually doubled! I am now a big fan of his method and I’ll be applying it this summer with my heavy-duty paste tomatoes. I highly recommend this book for gardeners!

[Oscar Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

More theology than expected, but you can’t argue with his results

[Andrew Welleford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The secrets of a master, laid out in a short and enjoyable read. It's hard to argue with the success of Wilber's approach; the book is full of pictures of towering tomato plants in full leaf from ground to top, practically dripping with full-sized fruit. There are some profound ideas sprinkled between the instructions too. Throughout this book are themes of ambition, metrics of success, and humanity's relationship to nature. I didn't expect to take so much away from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised, and have even re-read it a few times. This book inspired me to get serious about growing productive tomato plants, and to focus on quality of plants over quantity.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practicle tomato growing

This was a very informative book on growing vegetables . This is uncommon practical information by an author who knows what he is talking about.

[Kevin Stilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read from a seasoned grower, with a persuasive apologetic for making composting and mulching a focal point for your gardening efforts.

[Sally]

Wow. When I put this on hold, I imagined that the "record" detail was size of tomato. Well, he grows large tomatoes, but only as a side effect of growing LARGE tomato plants. His system utilizes compost, mulch and selective pruning, and he routinely grows tomatoes that need a ladder to harvest the upper reaches. Plants that reach nearly 30 feet (no, that's not an extra zero, I meant thirty feet), and produce hundreds of pounds of fruit.

Yeah.

Food for thought, that's for sure. I'm not going to marginalize my tomato plants this year. They need proper caging to really shine, and I'm certainly going to pay more attention to how they grow (branching and flowering patterns). And make compost. :)

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read all organic methods.Tall Tall plants.