Surjit Singh Kainth grew 1355 cherry tomatoes on 1 plant, and believe it or not, it’s a new Guinness World Record.
‘We were pretty sure it would beat the current record but I was concerned about the variety of tomatoes.
‘I planted the seed at the end of April, my daughter got it from a gardening centre for me, it wasn’t a special seed or anything and I doubt it cost very much.
‘By the end of July I really started to notice its phenomenal growth, I couldn’t believe it, I wasn’t feeding it anything strange, just standard vegetable feed and water. – Yahoo News
So, apparently he hasn’t done anything special to grow this many tomatoes on one plant. Not just 1355 tomatoes, but the highest yielding tomato plant in the world. Like, ever.
Think about that for a moment. What caused this plant to grow so many tomatoes? How can one plant produce such a high yield?
For those of you amazed at this feat, it truly is amazing. However, the biggest thing about this is not that it’s a new world record, but the implication that it could help the world hunger problem.
Scientifically speaking there is a reason this plant, and only this plant has ever produced such a high yield. So we’re going to have to look at the science behind it to understand. Why do we want to understand? Simple.
So we can duplicate the results.
The plant comes from a single seed, is five and a half feet tall, was planted in April of last year (2013). Surjit Singh Kainth said he watered it constantly everyday throughout the summer.
The variety of tomato also probably has much to do with it. Cherry tomatoes are fairly easy to grow, but it doesn’t say what variety cherry tomato it is.
Also very important is the climate, sunlight, and other geological factors. How warm was the weather, how much rain, water, sunlight did the plant receive?
I’d personally love to interview Surjit Singh Kainth, and ask all these questions and more.
The real importance of this magnificent plant I hope is not lost and clouded by the world record. I hope that the world looks at this and says…
“WOW! How can I do that too!?”