Big Beef Hybrid

[Hudson_WY]

Several of you have asked me for our review on Big Beef Hybrid. Here is an update from when we planted the seed through today.

I have never planted this hybrid in our GH prior to this year. We planted 4 seeds on January 1st and all seeds germinated. We kept the best two seedlings and moved them to the GH the 3rd week of January. Big Beef, Big Brandy, Brandy Boy and Brandywine Sudduth were almost all identically robust - with Big Beef maintaining a slight edge. Big Beef has dense foliage and thick stems/branches! The truss in the photo has 15 blossoms/buds/tomatoes. Early indications promise a very prolific harvest. Trusses are popping out everywhere has this plant is branching out in every direction. The fruit is setting at very high % in our GH. I am using a toothbrush to vibrate the blossoms. I have not pinched any suckers on any of our tomato plants yet this season.

I know Big Beef is not new to most of you and hope you will contribute your experience as the season progresses.

[Barb_FL]

I'm growing 4 Big Beef plants. The one is on the left is the BB in an earth-box. I have another in a Root Pouch and one in a home made SWC, and another one sharing an EB in a different part of the yard.

I started the seeds on January 10th.

I grew them for the first time in the fall season '15. Impressed; set lots of fruit despite a very warm fall and whiteflies.

I still have one left from a fall cutting and plant looks horrible but continues to set fruit. It has about 10-15 decent size tomatoes.

I use tomato tone in the Earthbox and Root Pouches. What are you feeding your plants?

[Hudson_WY]

Hi Barb,
I'm excited to share our results with Big Beef! Your fall 2015 season results are a great indication! Did you like the taste? I used to grow Better Boy in the past - at first they did very well - but then the last couple of years they were not as prolific and I had some BER? I thought I would try Big Beef after reading favorable results from other tomato growers.

I grow in a GH and use Blood Meal, Compost and a liquid soluble fertilizer for our tomatoes. I also spread a 0-60-0 granular fertilizer a couple of times a year to supplement the tomato plants demands. It varies year to year. I have used Epson Salt in the past but doubt I will use it this year.

Thanks for posting and sharing your photos.

[Ed of Somis]

Big Beef became my standby two years ago when it knocked my socks off! The vigor and productivity of BB the last two years has just been awesome for me. I rate the taste (subjective) as very good. It is not my favorite eater...but certainly "very good". We will see if my love affair with BB continues....

[Gardeneer]

After reading a lot of positive reviews , i decided to grow Big Beef last year. (store bought plant)
It was productive, with good taste AND it was surprisingly early too.
So I am growing it from seed this year .
It has an added advantage for those with soil borne disease. It is a win win situation, I think.

Gardeneer

[Uncle Doss]

I am growing BB for the first time this year, actually just planted the seeds in a flat 2 days ago. I hope my results with them mirror the many great reviews I have read

[pauldavid]

I grew them last year from store-bought plants. They were very producive, tasty, no disease, and will be returning to my garden in the future.

[Hudson_WY]

Update: Big Beef is very impressive for us to date! Lots of trusses - lots of blossoms and lots of blossoms setting fruit!! One thing I have noticed is that I have not seen any fused blossom to date on the Big Beef Plants. It has been stormy the last several days with 4-6 inches of snow. At least when it snows - the night time temps are warmer into the low to mid 20's!

[kameronth]

Originally Posted by Hudson_WY

Update: Big Beef is very impressive for us to date! Lots of trusses - lots of blossoms and lots of blossoms setting fruit!! One thing I have noticed is that I have not seen any fused blossom to date on the Big Beef Plants. It has been stormy the last several days with 4-6 inches of snow. At least when it snows - the night time temps are warmer into the low to mid 20's!

Impressive! How do you heat your green house?

[Hudson_WY]

Hi Kameronth - We installed a 45,000 BTU Modine Propane Heater. Both the heater and venting system are on automatic thermostats with the min temp set @ 60 degrees and the max temp set @ 85 degrees. I was shocked how efficiently we were able to heat the GH with our triple wall polycarbonate and double pain windows/doors. We have only used 80 gallons of propane since the 3rd week of January and I am heating the GH to 60 degrees! Night time outside temps have varied from -20 to 32 degrees during the past two months - the majority of the time the outside temps were below 10 degrees!

My wife and I custom designed and built our own GH. My sons helped me pour footings and the walkways, frame and install the polycarbonate panels, windows and doors. I installed the heating, venting, water and electrical systems as I had time to do it. I also have it plumbed for a sink but have not yet installed the sink. The GH is 10 years old now and I just barely installed the heating system last fall. We did everything ourselves and we had no idea how it would function - this being our first GH. Other forum members have dubbed it the "Magical GH". That's our best explanation of how it works!

[twillis2252]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing...

[Gardeneer]

Hudson is also a very good photographer.

Gardeneer

[Dark Rumor]

.....

[Cole_Robbie]

Nice pics. What lighting are you using?

Big Beef is my favorite hybrid. I think everyone should try it. For what it's worth, I've replaced it in my garden with Cosmonaut Volkov.

[Hudson_WY]

Thanks to all !! We are having fun and learning more than we sharing on this forum !!

Geez Cole - now I'm going to have to try Cosmonaut Volkov - if it replaced Big Beef it has to be good! The lights in the photo are just incandescent bulbs used when the seedlings were small - to keep them warm.