Napier man grows near-1kg tomato in his backyard

Grant Blair holds the 966-gram tomato he grew in his Bay View backyard near Napier.

A Hawke’s Bay gardener has grown a tomato weighing nearly 1kg in his backyard, big enough to feed a family of four at Sunday dinner and still leave leftovers for tomato on toast the next day.

Grant Blair harvested the 966g tomato from his home vegetable garden, beating his previous personal record of 860g.

It’s a fair way off the world record for the heaviest tomato, which stands at 7.661kg, grown in the United States in 2025, according to Guinness World Records.

Blair said his giant tomato came from the “Delicious” variety, known for producing particularly large fruit.

“I had one plant that had about 10 half-kilo tomatoes on it,” he said.

“But this one stood out from the rest. It was nearly double the size of the others.”

Blair, who has been growing tomatoes for about 30 years, grows the vegetables as a hobby in his backyard garden in Bay View, north of Napier.

His secret, he believes, is a combination of homemade fertiliser and compost.

Blair mixes bio-rich compost with worm-farm compost and chicken and sheep pellets to feed the plants.

He also sprays them every fortnight with a homemade mixture of yeast, sugar and baking soda diluted in water.

Blair and his family ate the tomato for Sunday dinner, where the fruit was sliced and served on top of roasted cauliflower steaks.

“You cut the cauliflower into thick slices, cook it with olive oil, paprika and garlic powder, then put the tomato on top and cover it with cheese,” he said.

“It was very nice.”

The tomato was so big it was also used for some classic tomato-on-toast.

“The slice was bigger than the slice of toast,” he said.

Blair said the giant tomato story even sparked disbelief among two fishermen friends when he told them about it.

“They said it sounded like one of their fishing stories after a few beers,” he said.

But he is already setting his sights on a bigger catch next season.

“I’m going to grow bigger than 1kg next time,” Blair said.

“That’s the goal.”