Big tomato a fruit of Frank’s labour

When Australind’s Frank Pepe saw a tomato growing in his backyard that was more than 600g he was very surprised.

“I’ve been growing tomatoes for many years and I’ve had some which are over 400g but never this big,” he said.

“This really is a jumbo one – it really grew up a bit more than the others.”

Mr Pepe takes tremendous pride in the garden at the back of his Australind house where he lived for the past 23 years.

The 85-year-old said that last year he made some mistakes when he planted his seeds and the tomatoes did not grow at all.

“This year I picked out a bottle with seeds and said that it would be a good one,” he said.

“I brought the seeds out from Italy a long time ago – more than 30 years – but I’ve never seen one this big.

“I didn’t do anything special just sheep manure and plenty of water three times a day – morning, noon and night. I expect I’ll be able to make a full bottle of sauce just from this one tomato.”

He said so far the weather had been just right for growing so far but this tomato would not have lasted much longer on the vine before he picked it on Saturday.

“It’s been a bit hotter over the past week and the sun would have burned it,” he said. “Some of my other plants are turning yellow.

“It can be very difficult to grow tomatoes this time of year because of the aphids and white fly.”