Attack of the giant tomatoes (From Stroud News and Journal)

Attack of the giant tomatoes

A RODBOROUGH smallholder has been turning out monster tomatoes in his kitchen garden.

Alfred Jones, a former landscape gardener from Butterrow, has been growing the bumper tomatoes for some years now but this season he has smashed his own record, producing a hugely fat fruit weighing in at over one-and-a-half pounds.

Mr Jones grew his titanic tomato from seed and said it was entirely organic.

"We dig in a bit of manure in the greenhouse before planting the seeds but after that it's had no special feeding," he told the News & Journal.

"It just grew naturally."

And the green-fingered gardener has plenty more at home, though none quite so big as the champion pictured above.

"They usually weigh between half a pound and a pound," he said.

"We've got five plants and they're yielding at the moment. So far we've had about a dozen tomatoes."