Big Beef!
 

Today I bought my very first Big Beef! I'm so thrilled! It was $2.99 at my favorite garden center. I'll plant it in a huge bag of organic potting mix. My very first Big Beeeeeeeef!

Deborah, I hope you have success with it.
It is a good tasting, relatively early hybrid with good disease resistance.
After losing a couple of them to freeze and grafting experiment I have 2 more left.
In fruit shape and size you can compare it to Big Boy and Better Boy. .

but at least three times the productivity in my garden

Great, Deborah! It's the favorite of my mother and sister for taste. An all-around good tomato.

I grew Big Beef for my first time last year and it outperformed every other variety I grew. More fruit, excellent taste and very little disease. I am going to up the number of Big Beef in my garden this year. I hope you have the same results.

I keep meaning to grow it, have seed but there are always other priorities. I did grow it once a few year back and agree that it is a good one! Growing Mexico Midget for the first time this year, isn't that one of your favs Deborah?

Good decision Deborah! You have a lot to look forward to this tomato season!!

Your pictures are always beautiful, Hudson. Professional and artistic at the same time!

I'm also trying to grow this variety (no germination yet), and am curious after reading so much praise about it.. Usually I prefer growing heirlooms / OPs, but I wanted to be fair and give it a chance to shine..:cute:

Thanks for the compliments NarnianGarden! I'm in your camp NarnianGarden but if I hadn't done the same thing you are - I would never have found Brandy Boy! Big Beef is a great choice for a lot of gardens. It certainly did well for us and we highly recommend it. Now we are off to give another variety a chance. Brandy Boy, BW Sudduth and Sweet 100 have become our regulars but this year we are trialling BW Cowlicks and Gardner's Delight. We usually trial a Hybrid too but that didn't happen this year because of the Dwarf Project commitment.

I have two big beef plants out in the garden. We have never tasted them. Everything I've read about them is that they are very good.

I grew Big Beef the year it was released, it became a favorite of mine and my customers. No telling how many umpteen thousands of pounds I've produced and sold since 1994.

Thanks everyone! It's my first because I just have a small balcony. Linda, I've never grown MM but I sure would if I could. Hudson, great to see the lovely pictures! I can hardly wait for the day when I taste my first BB!

I'm also waiting for my Brandy Boy to germinate, so hopefully there will be plenty of BB's this season :lol:

I am also growing both of those BB's.
I like Br. By better in taste and size of fruits. Both of them are also relatively early Early to mid season ). Now Brandywine Sudduth will be put on test.

Oops. From now on I won't use BB for Big Beef. How about Big Beeeeeeef? Because I'm sooooooooo happy to get one!

Growing a Big Beef F1 here too. First hybrid I've grown in years. Using it for safety here in southeast GA in case the diseases get the best of my heirlooms. My Big Beef is about 2' tall and growing like a weed. Blossoms showing up, but not open yet.

Hudson_WY, that is some awesome looking trellis material. Looks like the stuff I've seen at TSC for fencing.

Monster plant, and monster production!! By far my fav hybrid! ALWAYS finds a spot in my garden. Out produces every plant every year...although Goliath is close.
Flavor is good and keeps going until frost!

Greg

Hudson--Great tomatoes, great photos!

edweather - YES - it is either hog fencing 39"x16' and cattle fencing 50"x16' that we use for tomato supports - we use both. Both are the same gauge just different heights.

gdaddybill - Thanks!

I bought a thick, plastic shopping bag with various garden vegetables on it. I thought it would look nice. Will it be big enough?

[QUOTE=Deborah;627627]I bought a thick, plastic shopping bag with various garden vegetables on it. I thought it would look nice. Will it be big enough?[/QUOTE]

Deborah, how many gallons does it hold? And what is it made of? Shape?

Nan

It's square. The reusable grocery bags. I planted it today. My question-once it gets as tall as I am, 5'5", can I cut the main stem to keep it a manageable height?

P.S. The bag held two full bags of potting mix that are 8 quarts each.

If it is plastic, I think you'll have to poke holes in it for drainage. Yes, you can prune them.

Nan

I poked holes. OK, I'll trim off the top when it gets too tall. Thanks.

[QUOTE=Deborah;627886]P.S. The bag held two full bags of potting mix that are 8 quarts each.[/QUOTE]

That is 4 gallon. ( 8 + 8 = 16 ' 16:4 = 4 )
So that is in the minimum borderline for an indeterminant.
What maybe you can do is to take another bag just like it, cu off its bottom and sort of pull it 2/3rd way up or more on what you have the plant in ( like wearing a skirt ). This way you can increase the volume by about 3 gallons. Now 7 gallons is much better.
BTW: I have planted to Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes, each in one of those bags. But SFT is a compact determinant.

Can't. I have to have everything lightweight. I'm 64 with a bad back. I'm not after tons of tomatoes. Just a nice ripe one once or twice a week would be nice.

My Big Beef is growing really fast. It's just leaping skyward!

My Big Beef has a blossom!

I planted 30 big beef plants this year. Heard a lot about it but never tried it before. Blight usually ends my season by mid august. Hope bb will stay around and produce past then.