Central Japan Farming Center Grows 12,000 Tomatoes from Single Seed

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:51 JST, June 6, 2023

TOKAI, Aichi — A farming project in Tokai, Aichi Prefecture, has successfully grown 12,000 tomatoes from a single seed.

The Tokai Municipal Agricultural Center and Kagome Co., a food maker originating in the city, planted seeds from a variety of tomatoes that contain high amounts of lycopene. The project began in the autumn of 2020 in an effort to show how interesting farming can be. The center tried a variety of methods to get the tomatoes to grow, such as setting up shading nets and changing the number of disinfections.

In 2021, a single seed produced 3,000 tomatoes. The number increased to 6,000 last year, and this year during the 3rd harvesting season the center achieved their goal of growing over 10,000. The bright-red tomatoes are a little larger than a golf ball.

Katsumi Nakashima, head of the center said, “From now on, we want to continually improve the quality [of the tomatoes].”