Brandywine

[brooksville]

AK, that is awesome!!!

[b54red]

Originally Posted by brooksville

I think I am going to yank the BW that does not have any fruit. The other 2 have about 13-15 combined. They really have been working hard the last 2 weeks. I am dealing with Septoria and EB. Sprayed the bleach solution this evening and noticed that Mortgage Lifter and JD's had blushing fruit. I will probably pick Sunday before I leave. I do not think that I can leave them until Wed. when we return. So by my math they started blushing 69 days after transplant. Can not wait to taste.

John

Prune the plant some. Limit it to only a few stems and remove most of the suckers or Missouri prune them for additional foliage. Give the one that has produced no fruit a very heavy watering to the point of flooding. If you have any TTF give it some of that also. You should start getting some fruit set about a week to ten days after taking these steps if the plant is healthy.

All of my Brandywines are kept to either two or even one stem and Missouri pruning of the suckers and forks and they all have a very good fruit set.

Bill

[brooksville]

I was out vibrating the blossoms with an electric tooth brush and noticed thrips. Think they may be part of the blossom drop problem. I'll follow the suggested steps on the one BW that doesn't have any fruit and see. I am debating on the insecticide/fungicide order. I know I have thrips and we are expecting rain on Monday/Tuesday. I am thinking about applying the insecticide dust tonight and then spray Daconil tomorrow morning. BTW, we have lost 6 tomatoes because the truss broke. I guess that's why we have fried green tomatoes. ������

[b54red]

Originally Posted by brooksville

I was out vibrating the blossoms with an electric tooth brush and noticed thrips. Think they may be part of the blossom drop problem. I'll follow the suggested steps on the one BW that doesn't have any fruit and see. I am debating on the insecticide/fungicide order. I know I have thrips and we are expecting rain on Monday/Tuesday. I am thinking about applying the insecticide dust tonight and then spray Daconil tomorrow morning. BTW, we have lost 6 tomatoes because the truss broke. I guess that's why we have fried green tomatoes. ������

I have already started using J-hooks on some of my larger trusses and will start with the foam coated wire on some of the more difficult to support. I hate losing trusses because they just break off like that. Year before last I lost over a dozen large trusses before I ever got any ripe tomatoes so I started supporting the ones I thought were more likely to break or kink with J-hooks and foam wire. I didn't lose a single truss last year and hope I can be as lucky this year.

Your blossom drop is probably due to the high heat we had have had recently. I don't think you should wait on the rain but go ahead and water the plants heavily to give them the moisture in the soil which will help them set fruit and not lose too many blossoms. We have had no significant rainfall in quite a while and it takes added watering to keep the soil moisture high enough to prevent blossom drop in this heat. If you have any Texas Tomato Food giving them a weekly feeding will aid in fruit set and lessen blossom drop. I also put a heavy layer of cypress mulch under my plants to keep the soil moisture more even and to keep the soil temperature cooler which also helps prevent excessive blossom drop. Of course I am growing in raised beds which increases the need for additional watering because they tend to stay a bit drier due to better drainage.

Bill

[brooksville]

Bill, could you post a pic of what a looks like a health leaf that has been sprayed with bleach solution that actually had disease. I sprayed some bleach after I pruned Friday and had a lot of leaves that appeared disease free turn up with black spots yesterday. I can't post a pic because I don't have wifi where I am at.

I don't think that it is TSW because the growing tips look fine.

Thanks,
John

[brooksville]

I hope I didn't wait to long to spray and find out the hard way.

[wildcat62]

What exactly is Missouri prune ?

[creister]

Do all brandywine flowers look huge and big? Some of mine are normal size.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by wildcat62

What exactly is Missouri prune ?

On a sucker or extra fork you allow the first two leaves to develop and pinch out the growing tip. This creates a bit more foliage which can be useful if you are keeping more open plants like Brandywines to one or two stems.

Bill

[wildcat62]

Thanks for the heads up. I will try that on a couple of my Brandywines plants.

[b54red]

I was out yesterday putting more tomato clips on to support my plants and have to say that other than a few of the more prolific varieties like Prudens Purple and IS my Brandywine Sudduth's and Brandywine Cowlick's are setting as much as the average plant this year. As a matter of fact I think a couple have set too much fruit but I am going to leave them because I rarely see this kind of heavy fruit set with Brandywines. I expect this will result in smaller fruit off of them this year but sometimes they are a little too big when they have sparse fruit set.

Bill

[pauldavid]

Originally Posted by b54red

I was out yesterday putting more tomato clips on to support my plants and have to say that other than a few of the more prolific varieties like Prudens Purple and IS my Brandywine Sudduth's and Brandywine Cowlick's are setting as much as the average plant this year. As a matter of fact I think a couple have set too much fruit but I am going to leave them because I rarely see this kind of heavy fruit set with Brandywines. I expect this will result in smaller fruit off of them this year but sometimes they are a little too big when they have sparse fruit set.

Bill

Good luck Bill. Its nice to hear about heavy fruit set on a Brandywine in the South.

[brooksville]

I checked today and I have about 20-25 total BW set on 2 plants. The 3rd is still a mule. Probably gonna replace. Bill, I tasted a Rose today. Absolutely great! That is a fine tomato. I am finding that most of the pinks are a little too sweet for me, but Rose was a good one. Another thing I am disappointed about is all the rain. We have had 2.5 inches this week and it is really killing the flavor. Vorlon has been winning the taste tasting almost every pick. Tomorrow we will pick our first Kelloggs breakfast and Red Siberian. Kelloggs is performing well as well as Rozovyi Myod. It is still setting fruit. We have one that is going to be the largest tomato of the season, I am guessing almost 2lbs. I hope it has a flavor that suits my taste buds because it is doing so well.

John

[b54red]

I had a bad day when checking my plants the other day. I had to remove one of my Doskoi grafts due to TSWV and it was a single stem plant with a few nice fruit set on it. Worse was finding TSWV infecting four of my double stem plants and one was my most loaded Brandywine Sudduth's. I removed the one stem showing the symptoms but it will probably be in vain as it usually is. I'm just hoping to keep the plants healthy enough to get some of the many fruits that are one them before the plants totally degenerate.

This year is turning out to be my second worst TSWV year. So far the tally is 6 of my grafted plants and five of my volunteer tomatoes plus a few bell peppers. All but one of the plants was loaded with greenies from the size of softballs on down. I really hate TSWV because I am so totally helpless to do anything about it.

Bill

[pauldavid]

Originally Posted by b54red

I had a bad day when checking my plants the other day. I had to remove one of my Doskoi grafts due to TSWV and it was a single stem plant with a few nice fruit set on it. Worse was finding TSWV infecting four of my double stem plants and one was my most loaded Brandywine Sudduth's. I removed the one stem showing the symptoms but it will probably be in vain as it usually is. I'm just hoping to keep the plants healthy enough to get some of the many fruits that are one them before the plants totally degenerate.

This year is turning out to be my second worst TSWV year. So far the tally is 6 of my grafted plants and five of my volunteer tomatoes plus a few bell peppers. All but one of the plants was loaded with greenies from the size of softballs on down. I really hate TSWV because I am so totally helpless to do anything about it.

Bill

I hate to hear that Bill, thats a bummer. I hope things get better.