Reporting by Monique Calello, Staunton News Leader
Mike Leonard’s backyard tomato plants aren’t quite in “Jack and the Beanstalk” territory.
But at 20 feet tall and still growing, they’ve climbed high enough to turn heads, fill bowls with thousands of cherry tomatoes and become the talk of the backyard.
The Staunton resident planted several tomato varieties in late April, including Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes purchased at the Staunton Farmers’ Market. Having moved back to Staunton late last summer, Leonard and his family were excited to start a garden at their new home come springtime this year.
Leonard expected a typical growing season. Instead, he got tomato vines that quickly outgrew the support structures he built.
“Within a few weeks, I realized, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work,’” he said.
The supports stood about 3½ to 4 feet tall, which seemed reasonable at the time. Then the plants took off.
“I would come out here and actually mark where they were,” Leonard said. “Then look the next day and it would be two to three inches higher.”
By May 28, the plants stood about 2 feet tall. By June 13, they had already surpassed the bars Leonard had installed to support them.
That’s when he decided to stop fighting nature and see just how far the plants would go.
“I thought, ‘All right, let’s just see how crazy this gets.’”
Leonard bought hooks and rope from Lowe’s and secured them to the roof of his home, creating a vertical pathway for the vines to continue their climb. By late August, the tallest plants had reached the roofline. Today, he estimates they’re about 20 feet high and beginning to spread across the top.
Most of the towering vines are Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Nearby Better Boy tomato plants have grown much more traditionally, reaching only the height Leonard originally expected.
What led to this giant plant in Staunton?
The dramatic difference has left Leonard searching for an explanation.
“I’m not a gardener,” Leonard laughed. “I’ve grown a lot of really bad gardens.”
His guess is that the secret may lie underground.
Leonard said neighbors have suggested the previous homeowners may have maintained a compost pile near the garden. The plants also receive several hours of sunlight a day and grow alongside a brick wall that radiates heat.
Still, he admits he’s not entirely sure why these particular plants have flourished.
“I still don’t know what was in the soil here,” he said. “Whatever they were composting apparently was really good for tomatoes.”
The giant plants have become something of a backyard attraction. When friends visit, Leonard often leads them straight to the garden.
“We have guests and bring them back here and show it off.” The typical reaction, he said, is “shock and awe.”
His young son Blake has been just as amazed by the towering vines.
Asked what he thought when he saw the plants stretching higher and higher, his answer was simple:
“Wow.”
The pair often head into the garden together every other day with a large bowl in hand, spending 20 to 30 minutes gathering ripe tomatoes.
“We’ll take a bowl like this and fill it all the way to the top,” Leonard said holding a large round plastic bowl.
And that’s just one harvest. Asked how many tomatoes the plants have produced so far, Leonard laughed before attempting an estimate.
“Thousands,” he said. “Definitely thousands.”
The family eats plenty of tomatoes but still can’t keep up with the harvest. Extras are given to friends and neighbors, and many have been vacuum-sealed and frozen for later use.
Some of the tomatoes make their way to patients at Western State Hospital through Leonard’s wife, who works there.
“She’ll bring some of the tomatoes in,” Leonard said. “For them, it’s a nice reconnection to the outside world, something a little more natural.”
Leonard has researched the Super Sweet 100 variety and found it is listed as growing 12 to 16 feet tall under the most ideal conditions.
They’re still well short of one of the tallest cherry tomato plants ever reported. Alabama gardener Charles Wilber grew a cherry tomato plant that reached 28 feet, 7 inches tall setting a Guinness World Record in 1985.
For Leonard, though, the fun has never been about chasing records.
It’s been about watching something unexpected unfold in his own backyard. With several weeks remaining before the first hard frost, the vines are still climbing.
And if this growing season has taught Leonard anything, it’s never underestimate a tomato plant.
Monique Calello covers community news and the offbeat stories that make the Shenandoah Valley home. You can reach her mcalello@newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader.
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