Brandywine

[brooksville]

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

[joseph]

Brandywines are too long season for my garden. They rarely ripen fruit before being killed by frost.

[Gardeneer]

Brandywine is a " love it or hate it" .
It does not have a consistent performance record. I grew it few years ago in GA (ATL) it was so so. But in Seattle it failed miserably in 2013. It does not like warm weather (probably South GA) it take for ever up north (NW WA state). I didn't get a single ripe fruit off of it before the end of season .
NO MORE Brandywine for me. There are TENS of better tomatoes out there. Why bother wit BW ! YMMV

PS. There are couple of different strains of it that apparently are better.
I am growing a hybrid version of it : Brandy Boy. I have read many good reviews on it.

[JohnJones]

My BW was set out March 17th and has spent most of its time growing nearly 5 feet tall, but in the last 2 weeks has produced some nice looking flower clusters on three stems about 3 to 4 feet up the plant. Looks healthy and I expect it will set some fruit soon. We shall see.

I am in your zone and in my experience BW and German Johnson are slow to develop fruit, but seem to stall growth and start developing fruit after growing for weeks with no indication that they have any intention of making a tomato. If the plant looks healthy I would just give it some time.

[jwr6404]

Gardeneer
I have good luvk with BW OTV. Have you ever tried it. Looking forward to your success with BB. I have had essds for several years but with a small Tomato patch I'm hesitant to try it.

[Barb_FL]

In prior years, I planted many red BW (grew from seeds) plants; they were healthy, they had lots of flowers and for all those plants, I NEVER got any fruit.

This fall, I planted a YELLOW BW (grew from seed in August). It was really healthy, had lots of flowers and produced 1 HUGE tomato this spring, That was it - 8 months for 1 tomato. I'm ready to pull it out, but then see a couple of flowers and keep holding off. The taste was good, but not near as good as Kelloggs.

For the spring season (sow seeds Dec/Jan) I was still on my quest to eat a Brandywine. I decided to try the Brandywine Cherry tomatoes. What a difference - plants are not huge, tons of tomatoes, huge for cherries (almost golf ball size - doesn't split, taste good). I grew 3 plants of the dark ones; I was too late getting started on the red ones; but will grow the reds in the fall.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by brooksville

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

John, there are many different varieties of Brandywine, the following link shows that:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...rom=B#mw-pages

The most well known and loved are the Red B, the Yellow B and the Pink B and they are not related to each other.

Then there are what are called strains of Brandywines where a person who SSE listed it, or otherwise, just attached his or her name to it, but it is usually one that is well known already

Yes, it is a confusing situation but I know several SSE friends who have grown out a lot of the pink ones, both the known variety as well as so called strains of the pink and could tell no difference between them.

Many in the south have found that OTV Brandywine seems to do quite well in the south and here's a link for that one:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/B..._(Off_The_Vine)

It's not pure Brandywine since it was a natural cross in Craig L's garden, he sent out Yellow Brandywine seeds to someone and that person sent back a picture of a lovely RED fruit with seeds as well, and since Craig didn't have the room to set out as many plants needed to dehybridize it, he sent me the seeds and I did and I had to go out to the F5 before I knew it was stable,

But then there are other varieties that have brandywine as part of the variety name that aren't pure brandywine either.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by brooksville

What is everyones experience with BW? We have 2 nice plants that refuse to set any fruit. All the blacks/purples, hearts, and reds/pinks seem to be setting fruit nicely. Although Anna Russian is not performing as well as Russian 117 or Hay's, it has a few fruits per plant, where as BW is blank. I fertilizer every 7-10 days with TTF, and we have been getting plenty of rain.

Thanks,
John

Getting plenty of rain often causes plants to grow more leaves instead of setting fruit. I've been noticing that with wildflowers where I live. Last year was a drought year here and we had wildflowers and especially Black Eyed Susans everywhere. This year has been a very wet year, and there are hardly any flowering wildflowers.

[brooksville]

I think the strain we are growing is Sudduth's. I am going up this afternoon and will check everything. Thanks for the responses.

John

[creister]

John,

My BW Sudduths is also being very slow to show any set fruit. It has plenty of flowers. It could be that it may want to take its time. We have all of the sudden had cooler temps down into the high 40's and low 50's. Most of my other varieties have some good fruit set.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by brooksville

I think the strain we are growing is Sudduth's. I am going up this afternoon and will check everything. Thanks for the responses.

John

John, the Brandywine (Sudduth/ Quisenberry) is usually recognized as the original pink one.

And your experience in the south with that is the same as many others and that's b/c it doesn't set fruits well in high heat and humidity. Several reasons have been given for that and one of them is that it has split calyces. Gettin plants out as early as you can so they can set fruits before the high heat and humidity sets in always helps, and not just for a Brandywine.

OTOH there are some in the south who say they have no trouble growing it. Perhaps it's best to say that no two seasons are the same, so results can vary from year to year and that's not true just for this variety, but almost any variety,

Carolyn

[seasyde]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Brandywine is a " love it or hate it" .
It does not have a consistent performance record. I grew it few years ago in GA (ATL) it was so so. But in Seattle it failed miserably in 2013. It does not like warm weather (probably South GA) it take for ever up north (NW WA state). I didn't get a single ripe fruit off of it before the end of season .
NO MORE Brandywine for me. There are TENS of better tomatoes out there. Why bother wit BW ! YMMV

PS. There are couple of different strains of it that apparently are better.
I am growing a hybrid version of it : Brandy Boy. I have read many good reviews on it.

I am also in the PNW and Brandywine did quite well for me in 2013. I saved seeds and am growing it again this year. It was from our local nursery, marked only "Brandywine" so I can't say which variety.

Gardeneer - I am watching with interest your results with Brandy Boy. I was tempted to try it this year, but it was a case to too large a wish list and too small a yard.

[TNTiger]

I've grown it for the past 2 years. The first year it was very stingy with fruit and the squirrels damaged or stole half of the tomatoes it produced. Last year was much better though I couldn't say whether it was luck of the draw, better weather or what. The reason I grew it again after a rather dismal first year is because they were so darn tasty! Fortunately, last year's Brandywines were also very good and it has kept a spot in my garden.

I'm in SE Tennessee so we have a pretty good growing season without too much extreme heat and last year was a great year for tomatoes in my garden.

[carolyn137]

Does anyone want to know why I wouldn't grow Brandy Boy F1?

No? Well I'm going to tell you anyway.

Burpee introduced the first hybrid of a well known Brandy, it was Red brandywine, I forget what they called it at first b'c they changed the name several times. I bought both seeds AND plants and grew out my own RB, which was a true RB and could see no differences between the three.

Same situation with Brandy Boy F1 in that many grew it, some liked it, some did not and there have many folks who have made suggestions as to what the parents might have been.

I have no trouble with, for instance Dr. Randy Gardner, the well known tomato hybridizer, including different OP heirlooms in the parentage of some of his hybrids when trying to up the taste, but he does not name them, when stable, with names associated with those heirlooms.

For many years Burpee has worked with Petoseed in CA telling them what they want and Burpee being given the right to name them.

They really goofed when they introduced something called Tye Dye whatever, which was one of Brad Gates introductions. There was a write in campaign to Burpee about that.

Yes, I know George Ball who took over Burpee many years ago, and he did a small catalog that had so called heirloom varieties of many different veggies and fruits and it was filled with so many errors it was pathetic.

I followed George when he took Burpee into bankruptcy, and yes, they finally came out of that.

George Ball was part of the Ball Seed Co and when he took over Burpee he had to divest himself of all stocks, etc., in that company.

After we talked for what became the last time, quite frankly it WAS the last time and as far as I know his sister Anna is still running the Ball Seed Co but I didn't check that.

Nope, not me, not Brandy Boy F1 ever, and so many folks saved seed and got different results, some of them making no sense as to PL vs RL and also fruit color/

Pardon me while I e-mail my local friend now who is raising some seedlings for me, and I gave him seeds for:

Iva's Red Berry
Emerald Pear
Yoder's Red beefsteak
Verde Claro
Blush
Russian Mini-Yellow
Casino chips
Rajce Tyck
Lithuanian Crested Pink
Liz birt
Istra
Dester
George Disikis Italian Red
Gianinni

Freda, who now does all my gardening and cleaning for me since I can't, will plant them and hopefully take care of them.

Carolyn

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by seasyde

I am also in the PNW and Brandywine did quite well for me in 2013. I saved seeds and am growing it again this year. It was from our local nursery, marked only "Brandywine" so I can't say which variety.

Gardeneer - I am watching with interest your results with Brandy Boy. I was tempted to try it this year, but it was a case to too large a wish list and too small a yard.

Hi seasyde . Good to have you here, neighbor.

Like I said, BW has an inconsistent track record. Then add to that several versions, which are not even related to the original BW.
So I am growing Brandy Boy with good taste of BW but with high productivity (as claimed and reviewed by many)