Brandywine

[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

[creister]

Just found two small fruit on my BWS today!

[brooksville]

I still only have 2 on 3 plants. Thats is ok. SOTW, JD's, Vorlon and Mortgage Lifter are experiencing heavy fruit set. And Kelloggs, Pink Honey, Russian 117, and Hays are going really strong.

[b54red]

I have two Brandywine Sudduth's and one Cowlick's set out the first week in April. I checked them right before dark today and one had six little ones and the other two had none but they were slightly younger looking plants and had plenty of blooms so maybe in the next few days I'll start seeing some little greenies on them also. It would probably help a little if the temperatures weren't hovering near 100 the last few days. The forecast is for low 90s the next few days but it was for the past couple and it reached 98 plus today and 97 yesterday with forecast of 91. It's been over two weeks since we saw any rain and that would help a bit with the watering along with cooling it down some.

Bill

[creister]

Bill, that is really hot for this time of year. We had 93 yesterday. I think that might have been our first or second day at 90 plus. The two fruits were from some blossoms that didn't fall off. Sure seemed like they took there time. Hopefully More to follow. Brandywine from Croatia is setting pretty well and so is potato top. Barlow Japan has set only two and being stingy.

[Gardeneer]

If in fact the amount/lack of pollen is an issue, MAYBE you can use pollen from other varieties ! Then of course you cannot save seeds from it.
Just an idea.

[JohnJones]

Hi Bill,

If you don't mind me asking what part of AL are you in? We probably haven't touched 90 more than twice in central MS and it was barely. The last two weeks have really been the first MS springlike weather we have seen.

My BW has dropped many of the blossoms from its early clusters, but has finally set three tomatoes about 4 feet up the plant on two different clusters.

The lack of fruit set is certainly not from heat, because we have had an unusually cool March and April. Plant was set out March 17th and is now over 5 feet tall.

I saw a lot of blossom drop and lag in flowers across all my plants in April. I attributed this to a number of nights that dropped into the 50's. They are all in containers so the roots feel the temp drops. Have no idea if I am correct on that diagnosis, but the warming temps are bringing growth and many new flowers with some fruit so we shall see.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by JohnJones

Hi Bill,

If you don't mind me asking what part of AL are you in? We probably haven't touched 90 more than twice in central MS and it was barely. The last two weeks have really been the first MS springlike weather we have seen.

My BW has dropped many of the blossoms from its early clusters, but has finally set three tomatoes about 4 feet up the plant on two different clusters.

The lack of fruit set is certainly not from heat, because we have had an unusually cool March and April. Plant was set out March 17th and is now over 5 feet tall.

I saw a lot of blossom drop and lag in flowers across all my plants in April. I attributed this to a number of nights that dropped into the 50's. They are all in containers so the roots feel the temp drops. Have no idea if I am correct on that diagnosis, but the warming temps are bringing growth and many new flowers with some fruit so we shall see.

I live in the very southeast corner of the state near Florida and Georgia. I have been surprised by how hot it got the last couple of days since the forecast was for much lower temps. Today it was forecast to be only 91 but when I came in from watering before noon the temperature was already at 90 and now a couple of hours later it is already above 95 so it may get even hotter.

I like to get my large pink beefsteak type tomatoes in the ground by the first week of March if I can in order to get maximum fruit set before it gets too hot. This year things just didn't work out for me with a late freeze and health issues causing me to be very late getting my beds ready. My first plants went into the garden in early April and some more in the middle of April. I have more plants ready and hardened off but do not have a bed ready for them yet.

I doubt 50 degree nights hurt your fruit set; it sounds ideal to me. I think that is the reason that people have better luck with Brandywines further north than they do down here. I did lose a lot of my blooms to high winds two weeks ago and maybe that had something to do with your problems. If the plant gets too dry during the blooming stage the blooms will tend to fall off without setting fruit. Try some Texas Tomato Food every week for a few weeks and see if that doesn't increase your fruit set. It is also a good idea to keep your plants mulched very well and pruned to a limited number of stems so more of the plants energy goes into setting fruit instead of growing foliage. For the past few years I have limited my plants to no more than three stems and it has resulted in better production and much less disease.

Bill

[JohnJones]

Originally Posted by b54red

I live in the very southeast corner of the state near Florida and Georgia. I have been surprised by how hot it got the last couple of days since the forecast was for much lower temps. Today it was forecast to be only 91 but when I came in from watering before noon the temperature was already at 90 and now a couple of hours later it is already above 95 so it may get even hotter.

I like to get my large pink beefsteak type tomatoes in the ground by the first week of March if I can in order to get maximum fruit set before it gets too hot. This year things just didn't work out for me with a late freeze and health issues causing me to be very late getting my beds ready. My first plants went into the garden in early April and some more in the middle of April. I have more plants ready and hardened off but do not have a bed ready for them yet.

I doubt 50 degree nights hurt your fruit set; it sounds ideal to me. I think that is the reason that people have better luck with Brandywines further north than they do down here. I did lose a lot of my blooms to high winds two weeks ago and maybe that had something to do with your problems. If the plant gets too dry during the blooming stage the blooms will tend to fall off without setting fruit. Try some Texas Tomato Food every week for a few weeks and see if that doesn't increase your fruit set. It is also a good idea to keep your plants mulched very well and pruned to a limited number of stems so more of the plants energy goes into setting fruit instead of growing foliage. For the past few years I have limited my plants to no more than three stems and it has resulted in better production and much less disease.

Bill

Bill, thanks for the detailed reply and the tips. I am late mulching this year, but did it this weekend.

Growing in containers, I am pretty good about keeping moisture in the soil. We had a really wet, chilly April and I am going to attribute most of the slowdown in fruiting to that unless it continues through May and that doesn't appear to be happening at this point. I have a 2nd grouping of plants that went out 3 to 5 weeks after the first and they look very fit with early fruiting.

I am trying something new for me this year. After reading from a number of folks on here that suckers don't actually "suck" energy from the plant, I am letting all viable suckers grow out if it's feasible.

I use Ultomato cages and really don't like to deal with plants more than 7 feet tall. I am going to see if the suckers will help fill in lower areas inside the cages with new tomatoes. Early on I have a sucker on a CP that came out 4 inches above the ground and has come up two feet and formed a nice cluster with two tomatoes set. This cluster is in the same area where the first cluster on the main stem dropped all but two blooms. This is a sucker I would normally have pinched when I first saw it.

I'm going to keep detailed harvest records and see how it pans out.

Best of luck to you and thanks again for your thoughts.

[b54red]

John I gave up on growing in containers a few years ago. It is just too hot and too much trouble. I use a type of container though because I use raised beds and have for over 30 years. When I grew some of my plants in containers I also allowed more stems because the plants never got as thick and robust as the ones in the garden despite all the attention they got. I still had the same trouble with foliage diseases when they got too dense and didn't allow enough light and air flow. I recommend you keep them sprayed with a good preventive fungicide to help ward off those foliage diseases. Good luck with your plants this year.

Bill

[JohnJones]

Originally Posted by b54red

John I gave up on growing in containers a few years ago. It is just too hot and too much trouble. I use a type of container though because I use raised beds and have for over 30 years. When I grew some of my plants in containers I also allowed more stems because the plants never got as thick and robust as the ones in the garden despite all the attention they got. I still had the same trouble with foliage diseases when they got too dense and didn't allow enough light and air flow. I recommend you keep them sprayed with a good preventive fungicide to help ward off those foliage diseases. Good luck with your plants this year.

Bill

Thanks Bill. The fungicide is good advice and something I need to do.

[b54red]

I just came in from feeding my tomatoes with TTF and checked the plants for fruit. The Cowlicks now has a couple so only one of my Brandywines planted the first week of April is holding out but it has abundant blooms. The temperature was a bit cooler this morning and rain is forecast for Thursday thru Saturday. I was going to apply some Daconil this afternoon but with rain forecast for Thursday that seems like it might be a waste of time so I'll wait til the rain moves out.

Bill

[brooksville]

Checked this morning, we may have 1 more BW. But now all 3 plants, have EB. I am assuming it is EB and not something else. I am going to employ Bills clorox solution Fri. I did not have time today, although I did reapply Serenade before this rain.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by brooksville

Checked this morning, we may have 1 more BW. But now all 3 plants, have EB. I am assuming it is EB and not something else. I am going to employ Bills clorox solution Fri. I did not have time today, although I did reapply Serenade before this rain.

If it is just Early Blight then it should only be on the lower leaves which you can just remove and then apply a fungicide. If it is something else on more of the leaves we need a picture to see. Make sure you use the bleach solution very late in the day to avoid leaf scald with the heat we are experiencing. I have yet to use the bleach spray this year since all I have seen is a little Early Blight on the lowest limbs which I always remove anyway.

I checked this morning and now all of my Brandywines have tomatoes set on them.

Bill

[JohnJones]

Originally Posted by brooksville

Checked this morning, we may have 1 more BW. But now all 3 plants, have EB. I am assuming it is EB and not something else. I am going to employ Bills clorox solution Fri. I did not have time today, although I did reapply Serenade before this rain.

Here are 4 of the 5 fruits that have set on my one BW plant. Lots of dropped blossoms. I am going to let some suckers develop from the bottom and see if I can get some fruit in the first 4 feet of the plant. It is now over 6 feet tall and topping the cage with all the fruit up high. Gotta make some decisions. I may top it and just see what happens...

Brandywine - 5 14 2015.JPG