Supergrowers cram the maximum number of tomato plants in their gardens and then add a few more

CHICAGO (MCT) — She has had tomatoes growing on the washing machine, and tomatoes growing on the dryer.

When Vickie Happel prepares for tomato season by starting 100 plants from seed in her Wheaton, Ill., home, she doesn't mess around.

Big Boys, Big Girls, Sugar Snacks and gargantuan beefsteaks — Happel and her boyfriend, Kevin Koziatek, grow them all, first in the laundry room, and then outside in a series of sunny beds that, taken together, barely add up to the size of your average living room.

"We fit 'em in," Happel says of the plants, which can grow to 5 or 6 feet tall. "It looks like a jungle, but it works. We get plenty of tomatoes."

There are people who like tomatoes and people who love tomatoes. And then there are the tomato supergrowers, the true believers — backyard magicians who conjure up hundreds of tomatoes from ordinary beds and jury-rigged patios.

"People who are into tomatoes are really into tomatoes," says Barbara Peterson of Hoffman Estates, Ill., who picks hundreds from her 300-square-foot patio.

Ken Benson, a horticulture instructor at Triton College in River Grove, Ill., who grows 240 tomato plants at work, recommends growing no more than seven plants at home.

"There is nothing in the world like the best burger you can make, a slice of Bermuda onion and the best beefsteak tomato with mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup," Benson says.

Some supergrowers prune their plants, on the theory that the plant can concentrate its resources on fewer, better tomatoes. Others refrain, preferring a more natural growth pattern. Fertilizer is popular in this crowd, but not this late in the season, with Benson saying he refrains entirely by mid-July.

Tomato choices tend to be highly personal, with Peterson singing the praises of the "naturally vigorous, delicious" heirloom Cherokee Chocolate. Happel generally prefers small tomatoes, her boyfriend, Koziatek, large ones, but they both swear by the midsize Garden Peach tomato, with its fuzzy skin and pale orange coloring:

"It's like you're eating a peach, but there's no pit in the middle," she says.

Happel and Koziatek, who harvest as many as 100 tomatoes a week during the peak of the season, keep eating their own fresh tomatoes, stored on shelves in the open air, for three or four months. She makes tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, tomato stir-fries and anything Italian.