Brandywine

[brooksville]

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

[joseph]

Brandywines are too long season for my garden. They rarely ripen fruit before being killed by frost.

[Gardeneer]

Brandywine is a " love it or hate it" .
It does not have a consistent performance record. I grew it few years ago in GA (ATL) it was so so. But in Seattle it failed miserably in 2013. It does not like warm weather (probably South GA) it take for ever up north (NW WA state). I didn't get a single ripe fruit off of it before the end of season .
NO MORE Brandywine for me. There are TENS of better tomatoes out there. Why bother wit BW ! YMMV

PS. There are couple of different strains of it that apparently are better.
I am growing a hybrid version of it : Brandy Boy. I have read many good reviews on it.

[jwr6404]

Gardeneer
I have good luvk with BW OTV. Have you ever tried it. Looking forward to your success with BB. I have had essds for several years but with a small Tomato patch I'm hesitant to try it.

[Barb_FL]

In prior years, I planted many red BW (grew from seeds) plants; they were healthy, they had lots of flowers and for all those plants, I NEVER got any fruit.

This fall, I planted a YELLOW BW (grew from seed in August). It was really healthy, had lots of flowers and produced 1 HUGE tomato this spring, That was it - 8 months for 1 tomato. I'm ready to pull it out, but then see a couple of flowers and keep holding off. The taste was good, but not near as good as Kelloggs.

For the spring season (sow seeds Dec/Jan) I was still on my quest to eat a Brandywine. I decided to try the Brandywine Cherry tomatoes. What a difference - plants are not huge, tons of tomatoes, huge for cherries (almost golf ball size - doesn't split, taste good). I grew 3 plants of the dark ones; I was too late getting started on the red ones; but will grow the reds in the fall.

[seasyde]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Brandywine is a " love it or hate it" .
It does not have a consistent performance record. I grew it few years ago in GA (ATL) it was so so. But in Seattle it failed miserably in 2013. It does not like warm weather (probably South GA) it take for ever up north (NW WA state). I didn't get a single ripe fruit off of it before the end of season .
NO MORE Brandywine for me. There are TENS of better tomatoes out there. Why bother wit BW ! YMMV

PS. There are couple of different strains of it that apparently are better.
I am growing a hybrid version of it : Brandy Boy. I have read many good reviews on it.

I am also in the PNW and Brandywine did quite well for me in 2013. I saved seeds and am growing it again this year. It was from our local nursery, marked only "Brandywine" so I can't say which variety.

Gardeneer - I am watching with interest your results with Brandy Boy. I was tempted to try it this year, but it was a case to too large a wish list and too small a yard.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by seasyde

I am also in the PNW and Brandywine did quite well for me in 2013. I saved seeds and am growing it again this year. It was from our local nursery, marked only "Brandywine" so I can't say which variety.

Gardeneer - I am watching with interest your results with Brandy Boy. I was tempted to try it this year, but it was a case to too large a wish list and too small a yard.

Hi seasyde . Good to have you here, neighbor.

Like I said, BW has an inconsistent track record. Then add to that several versions, which are not even related to the original BW.
So I am growing Brandy Boy with good taste of BW but with high productivity (as claimed and reviewed by many)

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by seasyde

I am also in the PNW and Brandywine did quite well for me in 2013. I saved seeds and am growing it again this year. It was from our local nursery, marked only "Brandywine" so I can't say which variety.

Gardeneer - I am watching with interest your results with Brandy Boy. I was tempted to try it this year, but it was a case to too large a wish list and too small a yard.

Hi Seasyde ,

Talking about Brandy ( blank), why not Brandy Boy ( vs girl)
On serious note :
I planted my Brandy Boys On/about 4/9/15.
One of them already has a flower. Actually it is one of the 3 varieties that have flowers : Hahms Gelbe Topftomate, Big Beef and Brandy Boy itself. It remains to be seen if the flower will get pollinated or not. So, this is going to be an interesting season, to find a substitute for Brandywine, same good taste but more production. Out of my32 varieties, this is one of the 2 hybrids that I am growing. It might change my opinion on hybrids. The next year I will probably grow both F1 and F2.

BTW: we are getting good weather again ..high in 70s. Enjoy it !

Gardeneer

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Hi Seasyde ,

Talking about Brandy ( blank), why not Brandy Boy ( vs girl)
On serious note :
I planted my Brandy Boys On/about 4/9/15.
One of them already has a flower. Actually it is one of the 3 varieties that have flowers : Hahms Gelbe Topftomate, Big Beef and Brandy Boy itself. It remains to be seen if the flower will get pollinated or not. So, this is going to be an interesting season, to find a substitute for Brandywine, same good taste but more production. Out of my32 varieties, this is one of the 2 hybrids that I am growing. It might change my opinion on hybrids. The next year I will probably grow both F1 and F2.

BTW: we are getting good weather again ..high in 70s. Enjoy it !

Gardeneer

You say two Hybrids, Brandy Boy F1 I know, so what's the other one?

As for a substitute for Sudduth Brandywine, for many years Pinetree seeds was listing Prudens Purple and calling it an early Brandywine, so many thought it was a brandywine, which it was not. And that's been corrected in the new Pinetree catalog, but I do think Prudens Purple would be an excellent substitute.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/P...b=General_Info

You can see from all the places that list it that it's very popular, and for good reason, and yes, I've grown it as well, as I'm sure many here have.

Tania has not had time to update for 2015 but no doubt all the places listing it for 2014 still have it, as well as Tania herself, who gardens not too far from you.

Carolyn

[b54red]

Carolyn is right about Brandywine doing more poorly here in the south. I think the reason is that they produce less viable pollen in our heat and are thus more difficult to get fruit set with. I was using the electric toothbrush on my blossoms this morning and the amount of pollen that was released by the two Brandywine types I have set out in my garden was pitiful whereas plants like IS, Prudens, and many others let out a huge amount of pollen when contacted by the vibrating toothbrush.

Besides Pruden's Purple another good substitute for Brandywine is Limbaugh's Legacy. A very large pink beefsteak with similar taste and much better production in the southern heat and humidity. I was so late getting my tomatoes out this year that I fear my Brandywines will not set the amount of fruit I usually get when I set them out early.

Bill

[JohnJones]

My BW was set out March 17th and has spent most of its time growing nearly 5 feet tall, but in the last 2 weeks has produced some nice looking flower clusters on three stems about 3 to 4 feet up the plant. Looks healthy and I expect it will set some fruit soon. We shall see.

I am in your zone and in my experience BW and German Johnson are slow to develop fruit, but seem to stall growth and start developing fruit after growing for weeks with no indication that they have any intention of making a tomato. If the plant looks healthy I would just give it some time.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by brooksville

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

John, there are many different varieties of Brandywine, the following link shows that:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...rom=B#mw-pages

The most well known and loved are the Red B, the Yellow B and the Pink B and they are not related to each other.

Then there are what are called strains of Brandywines where a person who SSE listed it, or otherwise, just attached his or her name to it, but it is usually one that is well known already

Yes, it is a confusing situation but I know several SSE friends who have grown out a lot of the pink ones, both the known variety as well as so called strains of the pink and could tell no difference between them.

Many in the south have found that OTV Brandywine seems to do quite well in the south and here's a link for that one:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/B..._(Off_The_Vine)

It's not pure Brandywine since it was a natural cross in Craig L's garden, he sent out Yellow Brandywine seeds to someone and that person sent back a picture of a lovely RED fruit with seeds as well, and since Craig didn't have the room to set out as many plants needed to dehybridize it, he sent me the seeds and I did and I had to go out to the F5 before I knew it was stable,

But then there are other varieties that have brandywine as part of the variety name that aren't pure brandywine either.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by brooksville

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

Getting plenty of rain often causes plants to grow more leaves instead of setting fruit. I've been noticing that with wildflowers where I live. Last year was a drought year here and we had wildflowers and especially Black Eyed Susans everywhere. This year has been a very wet year, and there are hardly any flowering wildflowers.

[brooksville]

I think the strain we are growing is Sudduth's. I am going up this afternoon and will check everything. Thanks for the responses.

John

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by brooksville

I think the strain we are growing is Sudduth's. I am going up this afternoon and will check everything. Thanks for the responses.

John

John, the Brandywine (Sudduth/ Quisenberry) is usually recognized as the original pink one.

And your experience in the south with that is the same as many others and that's b/c it doesn't set fruits well in high heat and humidity. Several reasons have been given for that and one of them is that it has split calyces. Gettin plants out as early as you can so they can set fruits before the high heat and humidity sets in always helps, and not just for a Brandywine.

OTOH there are some in the south who say they have no trouble growing it. Perhaps it's best to say that no two seasons are the same, so results can vary from year to year and that's not true just for this variety, but almost any variety,

Carolyn