Mrs. Benson

[b54red]

Has anyone else had any luck with this variety? I planted it out numerous times this past season only to have it die of one thing or another before producing any fruit. The ones I planted in early spring and summer started off great but fell to one calamity or another.
I have finally gotten a ripe tomato on a Mrs. Benson. It is one that I put in a bucket in early September and then placed on my porch when the cold weather got here. The plant has almost no leaves thanks to a fierce attack of spider mites which has continued despite numerous attempts to keep them at bay. I'm beginning to feel like this variety must be closely related to Cuostralee and may not be worth growing here deep in the south.

[OneoftheEarls]

It's on my 2011 grow out list. Basically because it's a PL I have not grown before. I am in the north, so we'll see.

[kath]

My experience with it this year (one season, one plant) was really good. It produced my 1st tomato (one day ahead of Sungold F1), but then I had to wait a while for the next ones. They were really pretty fruits and the plant remained healthy all season with just a bit of early blight coming on in late summer, but it produced moderately until frost. It was an excellent tomato year in my garden, though. Definitely in my top 10 with regard to taste of ~ 150 varieties, so I'll grow it again, for sure.

[carolyn137]

I grew it in the summer of 2004, a large pink beefsteak with PL foliage.

It was nothing special for me compared to many other large pink beefs with PL OR RL foliage that I've grown and I mean based on taste and yield.

Just my one time experience with it, and now I'm laughing a bit b'c I can close my eyes and see what row it was in and how far down the road it was, actually two plants worth. It was that summer that my bad hips made it almost impossible for me to harvest the fruits on the several hundred plants I had out there. And if it wasn't for the help that my brother gave me I wouldn't have been able to bring all the fruits back up to my home (I was growing plants at my farmer friend Charlies at that time which was a 40 min drive one way from my current home) to process them for seeds.

I can still see the two half bushels of AGG and the half bushels of Wes and Red Penna and many more sitting out back here waiting for me to process them.

Sometimes the mind is a terrible thing and sometimes it brings back some darn good memories. ESpecially since it was in Dec of 2004 that I fell that put me in this walker so looking back for me is a good thing.

[camochef]

This was my second year growing Mrs Benson and I thought very highly of it both years. This year was extremely hot and very dry. The year before was very wet and cool . It did great both years. This year it produced many weighing 3/4 lbs to just shy of a lb and a half. I only weighed them in the beginning of their production. Still had plenty of large ones thereafter.
I'm reducing my gardens tremendously this coming year, but Mrs Benson will be there with my other favorites.
I have no knowledge of southern growers having success with it, but as hot and as dry as it was here this year it was a real winner.
Hope you have better luck and have a Happy New Year!
Camo

[b54red]

Camo I am also having to cut back drastically on my planting in the future. That is one of the main reasons I asked the question. I eliminated a huge number of varieties in the last two years but I still want to try a fair number of new ones each year. I guess I'll try to save the seed from the ripe one on the porch. It is the best looking tomato that I have but the taste probably will be lacking having been grown indoors for so long.
The one plant that is producing almost like it is outside in the spring is Stupice. I've got two in 3 gallon containers and they are both making a good number of fruits which are quite tasty though small.
Maybe I'll try the Mrs. Benson in a container this spring and avoid the fusarium which got most of the ones I planted last season in the garden.

[camochef]

B54red,
I hope they do better for you this coming year. They will be one of the 9 or 10 pink varieties that I hope to be planting this coming season. I've also slated 3 Black/purples and a red. Time will tell.
I grew Stupice about 4 years ago, maybe 5. They were the first to ripen that year, beating even my cherry tomatoes by a few days. They really produced more tomatoes than I could keep up with. Not very much size to them and I'm someone that likes slicers, good-sized slicers. I wasn't overly impressed with their taste either, but I had some friends that really liked them, especially in salads. Wishing you the best, this coming year, in gardening and in health!
Camo

[b54red]

Camo I just went out on the porch and have 5 ripe Stupice tomatoes on the vine. This time of the year they are fantastic tasting tomatoes. I think in the summer they would just end up in the sauce pot.

I too like nice slicers for the most part but can be swayed by taste alone. I grow several smaller tomatoes just for their taste. Our climate, disease and pest problems are harsher than most places and can put a real damper on what varieties you can grow successfully here. The medium size tomatoes seem to take the heat and humidity somewhat better than the really large ones except for Neves Azorean Red. By the end of the very long season I had found that Indian Stripe was probably my most successful tomato of the year. It had the ability to set in the heat, good taste, disease resistance and best of all good production. Of course next year will probably be totally different since the year before it was Marianna's Peace that was my top heirloom tomato.

[camochef]

B54red,
I keep a garden journal every year from the time I start my first seed indoors till the last plant is pulled from the gardens. Every year is different! With a glance backward. This year the best was Bear Creek, Last year was Dana's Dusky Rose, I had Black Brandywine just barely beating Amazon Chocolate one year, Cowlick's Brandywine held the #1 spot for a couple years. It's constantly changing as is the weather each year.
Lately, I've been most impressed with: Barlow Jap (pink), Tarasenko6 (red), Dana's Dusky Rose (black), Bear Creek (black), Amazon Chocolate (black), Liz Birt (pink), Mrs Benson (pink), Sandul Moldovan (pink), Brandywine-Glicks (pink), Cowlick's Brandywine P.L. (pink), and the much rarer Cowlick's Brandywine R.L. that surpassed it in taste and production.

There were others that really stood out, but the list is already too long. I could easily add 20-30 more but...I do have to agree with you that this past year Indian Stripe (of which I had 7), were the outstanding producer of fruits, although they weren't near as large as they were the previous year here. They certainly were plentiful but not as tasty as many other black/purples that I grew.
You'll notice that there all fairly large slicers but not all. Both Bear Creek and Dana's Dusky Rose are more medium sized, but still much larger than what I had gotten from Stupice. I didn't grow any cherry or small tomatoes this past year and it was just as well as it became a constant battle to keep what I had alive in the extreme heat and severe drought.
Who knows what the coming year will be like, but I have a feeling it will be an early spring here as it was so cold and windy long before Winter even started. I hope I'm right but I wouldn't place any bets!
Good Luck!
Camo

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Originally Posted by camochef

and the much rarer Cowlick's Brandywine R.L. that surpassed it in taste and production.

The PL Cowlick's I grew last year were great now I will have to be on the lookout for these over the next few years when they are not as rare.

Barlow Jap is on my grow list for next year as well.

Craig

[cleo88]

My experience was identical to Kath's as reported in her post above - the first fruit to blush in my garden of 20 varieties, but then it was a wait for others. It was tasty and had a nice smooth texture, not seedy at all, and I would grow it again if I had more room, but there are sooooo many varieties to try...

It was not very productive for me but I grew it in the garden with the not-so-great soil - I have two gardens and one has better soil that the other - so nothing was super productive in that garden. Based on how the other plants did, I would guess it is an average produced in good conditions.

[camochef]

Originally Posted by cleo88

My experience was identical to Kath's as reported in her post above - the first fruit to blush in my garden of 20 varieties, but then it was a wait for others. It was tasty and had a nice smooth texture, not seedy at all, and I would grow it again if I had more room, but there are sooooo many varieties to try...

It was not very productive for me but I grew it in the garden with the not-so-great soil - I have two gardens and one has better soil that the other - so nothing was super productive in that garden. Based on how the other plants did, I would guess it is an average produced in good conditions.

Not sure how tomatoes do up your way, but going by conditions here, I don't think your giving them enough credit. For 2 years under opposite extremes in weather conditions they have performed outstandingly. In taste and production as well as size.
This year I'm greatly reducing the size of my tomato gardens but Mrs Benson will be one of those found in it. Remember these are large tomatoes and won't produce like cherry or small tomatoes but as far as slicers go they are right up there!
Wishing you the best with whatever you decide to plant!
Camo

[montanamato]

Mrs. Benson was won of the best producers of pink tomatoes I have grown....And I have grown literally hundres....The flavor was pretty good, but a very hot , dry year helped...

I don't grow as many pinks as the reds always perform better in my climate...

A tomato that performs like crazy in the north and is bigger and better tasting ( IMHO) is County Agent...

I am not sure why it is not more popular, but hands down it outperforms most of the finnicky pinks in marginal growing conditions....

Mrs. Benson was memorable though as it pumped out many more than its neighbors...I would have to dig out my records from then, but I believe it made the top ten for production out of 125 + plants (diff varieties) that year...

I often notice many of the great producers in the south struggle in my garden, and similarily many of the ones people complain of in southern locations do better here...

Jeanne

[beefyboy]

Mrs. Benson did wonderful for me here in Florida and I am further South than most with more severe humidity! I like Italian Purple even better and need to grow it again next year.

[camochef]

Glancing back over my garden journals, (as the snow continues to fall), I see I rated Mrs Benson 7th out of my top 20 pink tomatoes. Although I'd settle for any one of them right now.
For those that are curious, the ratings were:
Pinks:
Barlow Jap
Cowlick's Brandywine-R.L.(rare)
Sandul Moldovan
Brandywine-Glicks
Brandywine-Stumps
Brandywine-Sudduth's
MRS. BENSON
Stump of the World
Liz Birt
Dora
Cowlick's Brandywine-P.L.
Earl's Faux
Ed's Millenium
Rose
Richardson
Limbaugh's Legacy Potato Top
Dr. Wyches Pink
Lillian Maciejewski's Poland Pink
Kosovo

Reds:
Tarasenko6
Gigantesque
Preacher Joe
Boxcar Willie
Wes

Black/purples:
Bear Creek
Dana's Dusky Rose
Amazon Chocolate
Gary O'Sena
Blackmaster
Swisher Sweet
JD's Special C-Tex
Indian Stripe
Shannon's South African Mystery Black
Vorlon

Orange/yellow/gold:
Kelloggs Breakfast
Orange Minsk
Aunt Gerties Gold

There was also a tomato that came to me as Golden Queen, which is not what it is but it's a medium sized pink with just a touch of yellow at the blossom end. It's a very late producer and it tastes great! I've grown it for two years now, and it's always the last tomato to begin ripening. If the weather holds it's the last to really produce many tomatoes, all of which taste great.

Didn't grow any GWR this year!
Camo