Big Dena

[AKmark]

First off, Happy New Year.
Now back to business. LOL Who has grown Big Dena? If so, what did you compare it too?
Thanks,
Mark

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by AKmark

First off, Happy New Year.
Now back to business. LOL Who has grown Big Dena? If so, what did you compare it too?
Thanks,
Mark

Never heard of it, but it's got a great name!

[ContainerTed]

Mark, at more than $1.00 per seed, Johnny's and Syngenta can keep them. But, the pictures I saw in my search gave me the impression that it was another version of the "hot house" tomatoes with the vine attached that all the grocery stores serve up this time of year.

Note the green sepals at the stem end. They are small and sharply tipped. Pretty tomato, but very commercial. If the ones in the stores are Bigdena or Big Dena, then the taste is not worth talking about. They still pick them green and gas 'em til they're red.

[PureHarvest]

Big Dena shocked me two years ago when I grew it.
I tried it because I was going with greenhouse growing methods (grown bags, single stem, etc), so I wanted to include a greenhouse variety.
I liked it better than big beef. It was just edged out for first by Amazon Chocolate for my best tasting tomato of 2015.
I tried so many new ones in 2016, that I found myself dumbfounded when I realized I didn't include in my lineup. I guess it was mostly an heirloom trial year for me, so I just didn't think about it up front.
Will grow again this year. Very consistent size and shape. Like a machine.
Don't recall any disease for a wet year. Sprayed maybe 3 times after storms with copper, but I will say the other 10 or so types I grew didn't give me problems either.
Not the cheapest seed as Ted mentioned, but I can't see recouping the cost a problem for a commercial operation.
I pruned to 4 fruit per truss and all 4 fruit were USDA large.

[PureHarvest]

Here is Big Dena from my 2015 season.


Big Dena 2015.jpg


I think $1 per seed for a plant that can produce $50 in revenue a reasonable price.

Edit: Johnny's has them for .67 each if you buy 100 (which I would). Crop King has them for .48 each if you buy 250 (which I could).

[Kunfayakun]

What was the yield of big dena?

[Kazedwards]

Last I bought a few at the farmers market. They were over a pound and were nothing like store bought tomatoes. It was the best of the bought ones for sure. They had great meaty texture and a good heirloom taste.


-Zach

[clkeiper]

They had the worst flavor review on a Penn State high tunnel review I looked at. That said....it is grown for production. I am growing a row of them in my high tunnel. I haven't eaten then yet but as soon as I see on ripe I will be trying it. And to beat the 1.00 price. I invested in them twice so I am up to 2.00 per seed since I killed off the first batch. Sheesh!

[McGee'sX-Roads]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Mark, at more than $1.00 per seed, Johnny's and Syngenta can keep them. But, the pictures I saw in my search gave me the impression that it was another version of the "hot house" tomatoes with the vine attached that all the grocery stores serve up this time of year.

Note the green sepals at the stem end. They are small and sharply tipped. Pretty tomato, but very commercial. If the ones in the stores are Bigdena or Big Dena, then the taste is not worth talking about. They still pick them green and gas 'em til they're red.

That's not true for greenhouse tomatoes. There is a stigma about greenhouse tomatoes that isn't warranted. Really field grown tomatoes in commercial production are much more likely to be tasteless and mealy and poor quality than a greenhouse tomato. I can't speak to what a giant greenhouse grower does (although from things I've read and videos I've seen they appear to let them at least turn orange before picking), but almost every greenhouse grower I know picks their tomatoes with color on them. No one that I know gases their tomatoes to ripen them. I know that is the standard practice for field production, but the advantage to greenhouse grown is being able to allow the fruit to stay on the vine longer.

In general greenhouse tomatoes are far superior to field grown tomatoes when you are discussing the standard red beefsteak. Of course a heirloom will have better flavor, but a locally grown greenhouse tomato is going to be head and shoulders above your local field grown hybrid.

As for Big Dena, it is a beefsteak tomato, not the truss type you see in stores still on the vine, they all won't ripen at the same time on the vine so they are picked individually. I would compare it to Geronimo as far as habit and size and shape, although it has better flavor. I generally prune down to 3, sometimes 4 fruit per cluster and keep them on a single vine in the greenhouse and have fruits 8-10 ounces on average. I have only grown Big Dena once, but plan on planting them again next season.