Decisions!!!

[shlacm]

I'm trying to decide between the following (for a friend who likes tomato sandwiches):

Brandywine, Cowlick's
Purple Brandy
Stump of the World
(Limbaugh's Legacy) Potato Top
Mrs. Benson
Earl's Faux

[kygreg]

Don't think you can go wrong chosing any of those, epecially if production is not a criteria.

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Any of these would be good for me:

Brandywine, Cowlick's
Stump of the World
Earl's Faux


Never treid these
Purple Brandy
(Limbaugh's Legacy) Potato Top
Mrs. Benson

[shlacm]

Originally Posted by kygreg

Don't think you can go wrong chosing any of those, epecially if production is not a criteria.

Okay, what if production is important? There must be some way to choose just one, lol!!! And to think, I have already narrowed the list down drastically by limiting it to only large red or pink PL's!!!

[kygreg]

I only mentioned production to make you sweat your decision even more. (<: How many tomato sandwiches can this friend eat? I have not grown Purple Brandy. Based on limited experience with and what I have read of the other varieties, I would chose Mrs. Benson for production over the others. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Gary

[b54red]

I had good production out of Cowlick's last year but Limbaugh's and Stump were far more productive; but hey this year it could be reversed. I've never had good luck with Mrs. Benson because of fusarium but the taste is very good. Haven't tasted the other two.

[FILMNET]

(Limbaugh's Legacy) Potato Top I got seed here, they never came up
Stump, Earl, and Mariann's Peace all and early fruit last year, all were perfect from you. Earl are average size. Stump and Marianns' were huge over 1 lb each all year. iam growing 1 plants of each this year. And a lot of Brads plants.

[shlacm]

Originally Posted by kygreg

I only mentioned production to make you sweat your decision even more. (<: How many tomato sandwiches can this friend eat? I have not grown Purple Brandy. Based on limited experience with and what I have read of the other varieties, I would chose Mrs. Benson for production over the others. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Gary

Thaaaaaaanks! Good point!

[shlacm]

I'm leaning toward Stump of the World or Purple Brandy/Marizol Bratka..... thoughts? Opinions? Guidance?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shlacm

I'm leaning toward Stump of the World or Purple Brandy/Marizol Bratka..... thoughts? Opinions? Guidance?

If it's ONLY one then I'd go with Marizol Bratka but if you have to have one that's an heirloom then Stump of the World since Joe Bratka bred what he called Purple Brandywine and I convinced him to not call it that since he represented it as an heirloom, so he took my suggestion and called it Marizol Bratka but had already sent out seeds to others as PB, thus introducing a wee problem with yet another variety having two names.

[shlacm]

Heirloom is not a requirement.

So, is it okay to just call my "Purple Brandy" plants, Marizol Bratka, even though I received the seeds as Purple Brandy?

[habitat_gardener]

Purple Brandy was one of my best-tasting and best-producing tomatoes last year (tied with Tobolsk). Those were the two I ate first, out of 20 or 30 varieties.

[kath]

Haven't grown Purple Brandy, but I like Mrs. Benson the best of the others- she's pretty, early, a good producer and has a wonderful taste. I'm not big on tomato sandwiches, though. :O

[Fred Hempel]

Limbaugh's Legacy always tastes right.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shlacm

Heirloom is not a requirement.

So, is it okay to just call my "Purple Brandy" plants, Marizol Bratka, even though I received the seeds as Purple Brandy?

THe name Joe originally gave it was Purple Brandywine, not Purple Brandy although I see many who are calling it just Purple Brandy.

In the SSE YEarbooks there are about the same number of folks listing either Purple Brandywine or Marizol Purple and most note an aka for the other name when listing one of them/

personally I prefer Marizol Bratka, one of the parents was Marizol Purple, which is also an excellent variety, a large pink, and that one an heirloom, not bred, and here's the reason.

When I first saw Purple Brandwine on Joe's list I said WHAT??? When I asked him about it he said that if folks want heirloom varieties he'd breed them. Gulp. And he did, all the ones other than Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold he bred, all the Sara thises and thatses, Isis Candy, Snowwhite, Super Snow White, Ghost, Rabbit, etc.

When I see something like Purple Brandywine it speaks to me as an heirloom, which it isn't, which is why I think Marizol Bratka is the better name to use.

yes, I used to know Joe very well indeed and I talked him into joining SSE in the early 90's where we both listed Eva Purple Ball and indeed Eva was a family heirloom of his from the Black Forest region. He refused to continue his SSE membership, but you had to know Joe to know why.

Just a wee anecdote but one day I was talking to one of my students, she was from Germany, after class, and asked her if she knew any place in the Black Forest where there was a town or village called Marizol.

She ASAP said aha, not in German, it's an English version of what's known as Maria's Zell, a contraction of that name, which means Maria's village or town, I forget which.

I didn't address any of the other varieties on your list after you said that it would be either Marizol Bratka or Stump of the World if that's OK with you.