Soliciting comments on what to plant in 2010

[glypnirsgirl]

Hi Dice!

The Brandywine has a potato leaf. When I scrape away the flesh the skin is clear. What does this mean?

Cleo, if the Red Star tastes better and is as prolific as the Ceylon you have a real winner. I am still picking lots of tomatoes off of the Ceylon.

[dice]

The Brandywine has a potato leaf. When I scrape away the flesh the skin is clear. What does this mean?

That means that it is a pink PL (potato leaf variety), which
matches the description of Brandywine. And the size seems
to be about right. ("Pink" tomatoes have clear skin; "Red"
tomatoes have yellow skin.)

If the concept of Brandywine as a specific cultivar seems
a little murky, you probably have no idea just how murky
it really is:

http://www.victoryseeds.com/informat...randywine.html

[glypnirsgirl]

Thanks Dice! One of my big concerns is not knowing what I am really growing.

Elaine

[Suze]

Hi Elaine - how many plants will you realistically have room for next spring? Let's assume at least a 2' to 2.5' minimum spacing between plants in all directions (within a particular bed), because I was reading your other *how* thread and did want to mention that to you.

Knowing the number of plants you have in mind would be helpful in providing you with the best possible advice in terms of suggesting varieties that will give you a mix of good flavor and also some good production.

[glypnirsgirl]

Hi Suze - this year we planted 14 full size plants. By moving to the west end of our yard, I will have a space 60 feet long and 12 feet wide --- that is total, not just for the beds. I know that I will need walking room on each side so I thought that I would stagger the plants within a wide row and have two rows - so I could have up to 100 plants. I am not interested in growing anything except tomatoes. I find that my peppers and eggplants do not taste any better than the ones that I can buy at the store, so why bother.

Elaine

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by troad

Craig,
Would you clear up some confusion for me. Twice I have seen you recomend Red Brandywine. Which one is it? TGS lists a regular leaf and a potato leafed variety. It also seems I have read from Dr. C that "Red Brandywine" is not related to the Brandywines like the Brandywine Suddeth?

Also if Elaine likes Brandywine perhaps Pruden Purple might be another choice. I found them more productive but close in flavor to Brandywine when I grew them three years ago. Don't know how they would do in the Texas heat though.

Len

Len, cutting to the chase the only TRUE Red Brandywine being sold at TGS is the one that has Landis Strain after the name, even though it s not a strain, there are no strains of RB, but Linda was just indicating her seed source which was the Landis Museum in PA.

Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds , which Craig mentioned above, was the first one to get RB out of the SSE Yearbook and offer it commercially. He sent seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum and it was Steve who got the background info about RB.

There are other places offering the wrong both RL and PL RB's. Both were goofs from Seeds by Design in CA and while I know it's terribly confusing, Linda continues listing them as she originally did b'c many folks like them, whatever they are, and no one will ever know what they are.

[glypnirsgirl]

Hi Carolyn - I have tried to figure it out without success - what is TGS?

I so appreciate your tomato scholarliness. It is easy for me to make mistakes because I am so new to this and I really appreciate your mentoring.

Elaine

[aninocentangel]

TGS is Tomato Growers Supply Company.

[glypnirsgirl]

Thank you!

Elaine

[troad]

Carolyn and Craig,
Thank you for the information. Craig mentioned both the Landis Museum and Heirloom Seeds. I wondered if TGS' Landis strain was the same tomato. I ordered some Red Brandywine seed from Heirloom Seeds. Will give it a try next year.
By the way I have both BW Suddeth and OTV Brandywines growing this year. OTV seeds courtesy of Carolyn. Thanks.
Len

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by glypnirsgirl

Hi Carolyn - I have tried to figure it out without success - what is TGS?

I so appreciate your tomato scholarliness. It is easy for me to make mistakes because I am so new to this and I really appreciate your mentoring.

Elaine

Elaine, my using abbreviations has nada to do with scholarliness. The longer you hang out here and the more threads and posts that you read, and I see you've been here since March, you'll see that lots of folks refer to TGS, to Sandhill, to TF, to TT, for instance, and all of those are seed sources that some folks use.

Some examples:

TGS = Tomato Growers Supply
Sandhill= Sandhill Preservation
TF= Tomatofest
TT=Totally Tomatoes
SSE=Seed Savers Exchange ( public catalog)

And as I think we discussed before. lots of folks abbreviate variety names as well. I guess you might say that there's English as a written and spoken language and then there's Tomato as a written and spoken language as well.

[glypnirsgirl]

Hi Carolyn - The mention of scholarliness did not have to do with the abbreviations, but the diligence in correcting my massacre of names: e.g. not Eva's Purple Ball but Eva Purple Ball, no Lucky Giant and a couple of other names that I had incorrect early on.

That was what I was thanking you for. I believe that it is important for future to adhere to accurate names now. Because I am new to this, I do not spot my own mistakes. I want to be accurate, so I appreciate you correcting my errors. I believe it is important.

Thank you,
Elaine

[bonekittyslug]

Originally Posted by glypnirsgirl

I blame my delay on the Box Car Willie and Cherokee Purple lack of production so I am willing to try these again if you recommend them. Is the flavor there?

I put in 10,000 votes for Cherokee Purple. I guess if I could only grow one, it would most likely be CP. Beautiful color & great flavor, at least to my buds.

[creister]

As far as CP and Box Car Willie, the flavor is there. Both good varieties.

[carolyn137]

Thanks for the explantion Elaine for I thought you were referring to the abbreviations, etc., and yes, I do try to post corrections of variety names so that wrong names don't get perpetuated.