Hudson, you're photos are stunning. Makes me want to reach thru the screen.

I liked Brandy Boy a lot but since it has so little disease tolerance for soil born problems like fusarium and nematodes I don't see the sense in grafting a hybrid. I find Sudduth's a bit tastier but it does crack more and Cowlicks is also better to me but doesn't crack much and produces in just as good a numbers for me. If I lived where the soil problems weren't so great I would plant Brandy Boy every year because it was nearly a perfect tomato to me if it just wasn't so prone to dying of fusarium wilt in my garden. Of course nearly every year one tomato or another shines above the others for me this year it was Brandywine Cowlick's during the first of the summer but late summer and fall it has been Arkansas Traveler, ISPL, and Pruden's Purple.

Bill

Thanks - Gardeneer - Wildcat62 - Bill !!!

Very excited about Brandy Boy.
After seeing this thread last year, I had to try. Then I saw a trial near me that claimed they yielded 43 pounds per plant in 2016 (not sponsored by burpee).

So, I sowed about 16 seeds 2 weeks ago, and wow, they are much larger than my other seedlings. Not even close. First true leaves are out, and working on pushing out set #2. My other varieties are just pushing out set #1.

I hope this translates over in the end too.

And here I am trying to get my Brandy Boy to germinate--nope..!
Finally, one little seedling, which dried up.. while others of the same 'litter' are thriving.
Ah well, I'm actually planning on a few week trip in June, so perhaps less plants is a wise choice - my seedlings will rely on my family for water, and Mom isn't too thrilled about watering 20+ plants every other day... :lol: :twisted:

It snowed last night - darn it!! I don't see much sun in the forecast for the next couple of weeks. Looks like I need to turn up the min heat to 60°F in the GH. Everyone of our Brandy Boys has blossoms - here are a few photos. I gave them the tooth brush routine this morning and pollen dust was floating in the air! You can see by the trusses that the plants should be loaded with tomatoes on each truss!! I counted 12-15 buds on each truss!

Narnian - that happened to me one year and Burpee sent me a new package of seeds. The new package germinated fine. Sorry for the set back - hope you have time still to try again - maybe you can call Burpee and have them send you a new packet before you leave!

PureHarvest - Hope you have a good Brandy Boy year! We get a great harvest every year consistently as you can see on this thread!! We are off to a good start this year too. Keep us posted.

My seeds came from the swap (thanks to the kind donor!), and I do not doubt the quality at all. It just did not work. Not every seed always sproutes, not in the nature, and not in our gardens.
I am still on the fence whether I would try again. There is plenty of time and my sunny location is very gracious - I have even sowed something in June as an experiment and got a good late harvest ..but limiting the number of plants might be wise due to my summer travel.

I sent some in to the swap. Was there part of the original seed package clipped in the zip pouch along with the seeds? Those were for 2016 seeds and I had good germination, but I suspect many packages are x-rayed here inbound and outbound and that it has some effect. My own saved seed, and store bought seed, seem to have noticeably better germination than swapped seed.

Yes, that is the case. Again, I don't doubt the quality at all, there may be many factors at play here. None of my three seeds sprouted, while I generally have no issues with tomato seeds germination (of any age)
Perhaps they were subjected to Xrays or something, but other varieties that came in the same swap germinated just fine.
Nature is a riddle at times.

A kind person sent me some Brandy Boy hybrid seeds too. I wanted to grow them for somebody in NC and started them in February. Unfortunately, none germinated whereas other seeds did. Perhaps it was just a bad batch of seed :(

Linda

I got a package of 30 seeds from burpee and had 100% germ.

I am growing 2 Brandy Boy side by side with 6 Big Beef and 5 Brandywine Sudduth. All have large beautiful fruit. Too early to tell who will outshine the others in production. Looking forward to taste testing them side by side.

Love all the pictures in this thread and the great info!

Ginny

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Fiishergurl - Be sure to let us know what you think. This year I have BW Sudduth and Brandy Boy planted. Last year I grew all three that you are growing this year and compared taste, disease resistants and production. All three were great plants but Brandy Boy won in every category. BW Sudduth had great taste but was not as disease resistant or prolific as Brandy Boy for us. I wanted to compare again this year so I planted them both. Big Beef is a great Hybrid and if we were growing in the garden I am sure I would have some Big Beef planted but with limited space in the GH I have to rotate the trials and plant the majority of our space with the best performers of the past - Brandy Boy has honors!

I am growing 3 Brandy Boys this year. They all are real vigorous and healthy and have buds or flowers. I look forward to it.
I grew 3 BrBys in 2015 but in cool PNW they did not do as well as I liked. But the ones I got were real nice and tasty. I am hoping that in NC they will do much better.
I will try to post some pictures maybe tomorrow. But don't expect to see something like Hudson's. :lol:

I have grown Brandy Boy several times. Always did good for me, not a lot of fruit, but what I did get was very good. I do have one BB plant now, getting ready to fruit, and two Brandywines. New growing place for me, San Antonio now, El Paso in the past, so we shall see.