CARRSVILLE—Junius Bradshaw uses deceit in his garden, and has been enjoying the fruits of that deception.

Bradshaw, 88, called recently to show off several tomatoes in his garden that have grown bigger than his palms. Many of the tomatoes, he figures, range in weight from 1-1/2 to 3 pounds.

“I tricked them,” he said about his method of raising such a bountiful crop.

“I used Tomato Tone, 10-10-10 and Epsom salts, which has magnesium. That’s what tomatoes like,” Bradshaw continued. “I found that out 60 years ago.”

He added that the right amount of water is also important.

“I just used my own judgment, and didn’t let them get dry,” Bradshaw said.

But this was the first year that combination proved so successful.

“I never got tomatoes this big before,” he said about the variety that he called beefsteak tomatoes.

Even at those sizes, they’re still good to eat, Bradshaw said.

Other garden crops that he said have blossomed as well have included pumpkins that have been as big as 65 pounds, a cabbage at 15 pounds and a cantaloupe at 21 pounds.