Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993 TAG: 9304300069
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The makers of Stern's Miracle-Gro Plant Food are offering $100,000 to any gardener who can top a world-record-holding 7 pound, 12 ounce tomato grown in 1987.
Gardeners have until the end of 1995 to try, or the money will be given to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
Gordon Graham of Edmond, Okla., who nurtured his Delicious tomato to its record-holding proportions, says he enriches his soil with a compost of decomposed vegetable scraps, manure, sawdust, ground bark chips, oak leaves and grass clippings - of course, all liberally sprinkled with Miracle-Gro.
He also communes with his plants, sings to them and plays country music for them on the radio.
Eating them must be traumatic.
If you spot a potential winner, Graham says, let it grow as long as possible. Photograph it as soon as it's picked and ship it overnight express to the contest's sponsors to be weighed, measured, X-rayed, examined and certified.
For official rules and tomato-growing tips, send a self-addressed envelope to Miracle-Gro, Box 888, Port Washington, N.Y. 11050.
by CNB