At the age of 54, gardening for 30 yrs...and tried my first Big Boy today!

[WVTomatoMan]

Interesting. Now that you mention it, I can't remember anything about Big Boy. Maybe someone will give me one sometime so I can try it again. Park's Whopper I remember. It's a good tomato. My neighbor likes Big Beef so every now and then I get some seeds and grow him out some plants and stick a plant or two in my garden. It also is a fairly good tomato.

BTW, I've migrated away from using the term dehybridizing. I call it selective stabalizing of an F1 hybrid. No offense or anything of course, I'm just kinda going my own way and don't expect anyone else to follow or agree.

Randy

[nctomatoman]

Randy, I like that terminology - dehybridizing is concise but doesn't really tell the story. To me, the key is the word you used - selective - does get to the heart of the matter! After all, going for an non-hybrid target that is as close to the hybrid as possible is not the most fun part, to my mind...it is seeing what else is there, for possibilities, and aiming for those as well.

The most fun project of that type so far for me is taking the Islander hybrid bell pepper and working with all of the diversity that pops up in the F2. The hybrid goes ivory to lavender to orange to red. But In the F2, I've found:

pale green to dark purple to red
ivory to lavender to orange to red
pale green to lavender to golden yellow
ivory to golden yellow
ivory to orange to red

And I am working to see if I can each of those five selections stable. (boy, is this now off topic, or what!)

The irony is that when we have a hybrid we would like to replicate in a non-hybrid, stable form, such as Sungold, it has proven to be so difficult to get the unique flavor of the hybrid in any of the offspring (yet!).

[nctomatoman]

So now the comparative hybrid tasting is complete. Big Beef is a winner. Different internal structure than Whopper, more in line of Big Boy with the larger seed locules - but a better texture, and just delicious. I would have a hard time telling Whopper from Big Beef in terms of flavor - both of them are solid 8 out of 10. Very nice indeed!

[Lee]

Craig, I was waiting for you to see how good Big Beef is.
Probably the only "standard" hybrid I like to have in the garden.
I keep giving them to my dad to ween him off the Celebrities...

There should be some at Tomatopalooza[tm], so we'll have to side by side 'em with some others.

Lee

[ddsack]

About five years ago, I tried hybrids Ball's Beefsteak, Big Beef, Big Bite, and Cabernet in the same season. I can't say that I could taste much difference in flavor, and dropped them all from my rotation, though I did try Cabernet again last year as a second chance (same result - not enough zip compared to OP's. From 1995 to 1999 I grew Better Boy, and thought of it as my fall-back tomato, until in 1999 it went down to some kind of spotted wilt at the same pace as my OP plants. Now, the only hybrid I grow is Sungold. I think I have tried most of the various Burpee type "Boy" and "Big" lines, and while production and looks are very good, they just all taste the same to me - ok, but nothing distinctive in flavor. I do want to try Brandy Boy, but just hate to spend the money on a whole packet of seeds plus shipping, since I don't purchase anything from Burpee anymore.

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Originally Posted by ddsack

I do want to try Brandy Boy, but just hate to spend the money on a whole packet of seeds plus shipping, since I don't purchase anything from Burpee anymore.

DDsack Send me a PM with your address and I will be happy to send you a dozen seeds as I have a couple of packs that I was able to find at Menards last year for cheap and this year only could find them at Bachmans but they were still only a litle of 2 bucks a packet so allot better then the 5 dollars at Burpee. (not a general offer to all)

I really do like the this tomato but if I stop being able to find seed packs for cheap or if Cowlicks this year tops it then I will not have to worry.

Craig

[ddsack]

PM sent.

Craig, thanks so much for your generosity! I've never run into any seeds for it locally here Up Nort, figured mail order was my only option.

[Fusion_power]

Now you know why I grow 3 or 4 thousand Big Beef plants every year. It is the most trouble free productive good flavored hybrid tomato currently on the market. I just wish it held up better to septoria.

DarJones

[TomatoDon]

Darrel,

How do you compare Original Goliath Hybrid to Big Beef? Goliath was by far the best of the two in my garden this year. Did you grow Goliath?

Don

[Fusion_power]

I've grown Goliath several times over the years and always regretted it. They are VERY susceptible to septoria and when a plant is nearly defoliated, the flavor is horrible. Big Beef is not really resistant to Septoria, but it does tend to grow fast enough to stay ahead of it. This gives Big Beef a huge yield advantage.

DarJones

[TomatoDon]

Nearly defoliated? I wouldn't expect much taste or anything else from any variety when it's defoliating. We are within 100 or so miles of each other and in very similar yearly climates, but sounds like the results can be very different. Big Beef was gaining in popularity here, but now Goliath is the stand out. I grow them both, and both have been realtively trouble free, productive, and tasty over here.

[b54red]

I have to agree with DarJones. I grew mostly hybrids for 25 years and tried nearly all of them. Big Beef is the most dependable year in and year out. Some like Celebrity or Parks Whopper would have a good year or two but invariably they would let me down.

ddsack, you should definitely try Brandy Boy. To me it is by far the best tasting of the full size hybrids and beats out many OPs in taste and production. It is not as disease tolerant as Big Beef but then again I don't beleive anything is. Another fantastic tasting hybrid is Sungold a small orange cherry tomato that is the sweetest tomato I have ever tasted and is very productive.

[TomatoDon]

Coincidentally, I was at one of the Home Depots in middle Tenn Sunday and saw some nice Big Beef seedlings, about 6-8 inches tall with a few small blooms ready. I picked up three and will see how they do for a fall crop.

DS

[nctomatoman]

By the way, I wish they hadn't named a hybrid red tomato "Goliath", since an heirloom of that name has been known for some time (I think I got it from Heirloom Seeds) - a nice, big pink oblate beefsteak type. Just adds to the confusion!

[TomatoDon]

Well at least they didn't name it Goliath Brandywine.