Brandywine Sudduth (Quisenberry) in SE Texas

[alamo5000]

I have had numerous people ask me about my little Brandywine Sudduth experiment so here is the promised update.

Its my first year growing tomatoes in a greenhouse so I just experimented a little.

I have about 30 plus Brandywine plants and several others in my greenhouse. I started all the plants last fall and have tried to over winter my plants to see if I could get tomatoes all year long.

I have a lot of great data from this little experiment so if you are interested I will share what I learned so far...

I have also had numerous people all tell me the variety mentioned above won't grow very well where I am at (for a number of reasons).

Anyway here's the update...see below.

On a side note the weather man said on TV the other day said its been the coldest January and February since 1895. We have had 11 days in February so far that were in the teens as the over night lows...

[dustdevil]

Cool...you've developed a strain of Brandywine that grows quarters

I see you've been getting a lot of blossoms and the big ones have nice conformation. I guess the test will be "How do they taste?"

[alamo5000]

Well hopefully I find out sooner rather than later. I have a feeling that this first batch might suffer from the adverse weather but I am not sure on that.

Even though I ran the heaters all out....when its 16 degrees out and a 30mph wind...at night the temps will still drop below what I would like.

I don't know if they will be adversely effected, but who knows.

As it is more regularly warm though through the spring then I think it will be sheer good eatin'.

By the way, if it could grow quarters I would just get a variety that grows $100 bills.

[BSue54]

Originally Posted by alamo5000

Well hopefully I find out sooner rather than later. I have a feeling that this first batch might suffer from the adverse weather but I am not sure on that.

Even though I ran the heaters all out....when its 16 degrees out and a 30mph wind...at night the temps will still drop below what I would like.

I don't know if they will be adversely effected, but who knows.

As it is more regularly warm though through the spring then I think it will be sheer good eatin'.

By the way, if it could grow quarters I would just get a variety that grows $100 bills.

You might need them to pay the heating bill after this past few weeks of cold!!!

Bobbie down the freeway in Cut-N-Shoot

[brokenbar]

Cold????? Cold you say? My son said a day last week was MINUS 28 with a 30mph wind which should have made the windchill factor about minus 70...oh yeah...I REALLY miss the Wyoming winter! My Son got a break, he is in Florence, Italy today (was in Rome for 3 days) and he will head to Venice Thursday for a few days and then home. This was his Christmas present from parents who fled to Mexico! We even paid for two hired hands to feed, etc while he is gone (he does not know it but it may be the last vacation he gets for about 25 years!)

I too had a greenhouse in Wyoming but could not justify heating it (and I tried to justify it to the Husband but had to hear a bunch of whining about "$45.00 a lb" tomatoes...)

I will be interested in hearing how your tomatoes taste after over-wintering.
You have great blooms (which is surprising if the temps dipped at night.) I would think that if they are getting blossoms, they suffered no ill effects? They look totally fabulous to me...

[alamo5000]

I am just glad its over. I am not a cold weather person AT ALL. Sometimes its nice to snuggle up by the fireplace, but thats one of the only good things about the cold.

I have been in 40 below weather before. That is exactly why I don't live in that place anymore. Not for me. I recently told a friend that I was going to move south. They asked me 'Don't you already live in Texas?'

I responded, 'yes, but I was thinking more like Brazil.'

With my plants the first set of blossoms pretty much fell off...then someone told me I should shake the plants. I did just that (when the blossoms were open) and you can see some of the results.

I try to keep the greenhouse warm...but sometimes it was making me nervous because I use electricity for heat. I was praying that the electricity didn't go out...