Stoughton man grows world’s largest tomato

STOUGHTON, Wis. (WMTV) – Wisconsin is home to the world’s largest tomato.

Rick Jolivette of Stoughton holds the record for the world’s largest tomato grown this year.

“I got lucky. I got really lucky,” he said.

He says he’s grown multiple tomatoes around four, five or six pounds, but this one shocked him.

“I thought was going to be about seven, maybe eight pounds until I weighed it and then I was pleasantly surprised. It was just huge,” he said.

Jolivette says you have to have the right seeds to grow a tomato like this one, which they call ‘mega blossoms,’ or multiple blossoms that are fused together.

“We have special genetics we get from different growers. The seed that I grew this one from a gentleman in Europe somewhere,” he said. “Just a lot of watering and nutrients and, as you can see, I got a lot of plants.”

He says he started with 40 tomato plants and now he’s down to about 25. But it’s all about competition.

“I started out growing for my grandson giant pumpkins. And he got bigger, I started growing bigger pumpkins and I thought I’d start growing tomatoes as well. And it’s just becoming an obsession. Anything I grow is competition.”

Jolivette is no stranger to growing large fruits and vegetables.

“I have state record cantaloupe. I think that was 53 pounds,” he said. “I did have the butternut squash record too but somebody beat me on that one.”

The second biggest tomato was grown in New York. Third place goes to a man in England.

Jolivette says he does not eat these tomatoes. He gives the seeds to other growers so they can do the same.

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