Red Brandywine ??

[b54red]

So far this season my biggest disappointment are my two Red Brandywine plants. They are really not setting well at all. The plants put out very few blossoms and set even less. I have one plant that is over 7 ft tall and it has only one small fruit on it and the other I think has only one or two. I had read that it was a good producer of good medium size tasty tomatoes but for me it is just a waste of good garden space. No other variety out of around 30 is doing this poorly and the plants are getting the same treatment as all the others. Most of my plants have from moderate to heavy fruit set so I am puzzled by this. Maybe the seed are not true or this variety just doesn't like the heat and humidity.

Would love to hear from someone else who has some experience with this variety.

Bill

[Barb_FL]

I had the same experience as you. They germinate well, grow fine, some pre-blossoms and some flowering early in the season but rarely produce anything.

I tried last year and no luck, and again this year. Some of my plants produced zero fruits.

I thought it was a seed thing (Park Seed) but purchased seeds elsewhere and the same result.

I still have one plant left; it has produced nothing. Under shade cover too.

I'm not doing Brandywine again.

Maybe it is a humidity thing.

[IronPete]

Here up north (zone 6a/b depending on how you read the map) we are obviously behind you a bit as my plants average 2 1/2' at the moment. My problem with the Brandywine Red is that they were so slow to get going! Both are in the 18" height range and are just finding their legs. That said both are starting to flower now and they only went into the ground a month ago so at this point I am still hopeful! By contrast my pink Brandywine (PL) is a stocky little thing and not only has flowers (like 2 trusses) but a couple of flowers are closed and hopefully setting fruit.
Iron Pete

[Tormato]

From my trials of Red Brandywine from several different sources, it appears to be one of the most frequently mislabeled seed. You may not have the real deal.

Gary

[AKmark]

Hey Bill, I have the (RL) version going this year and mine seem to be setting pretty well. I also have noticed that the fruits are not as irregular in shape as other Brandywine types I have tried. I haven't counted the fruit, now I'm curious.
I grew a Red colored Brandywine type (PL) last year which was not as good as OTV, so I bagged it. I hope these (RL) are good, I am still looking for a knockout red beefsteak, so far NAR and Brandywine OTV are my favs, but not my favorite tomatoes, new hopefuls to be sampled soon.
Hack the top off, I bet it sets fruit if there are flowers present, then let a sucker from lower on the plant take over.

Bill, I just went out and looked at my two RB plants, I have 14 on one and 20 on the other, but only 2-3 fruits per truss, so they are fussy. The fruits are fairly uniform in shape. Without looking, I think Tatina's was the seed source, Tomatofest for my (PL) version last year. Anyway...

[Salsacharley]

I was at a Sprouts (health food type chain store like Whole Foods) market where they were selling "Red Brandywine" plants out front, so I bought 3. The info on their tag says they only grow to 2 1/2 to 3 ft tall. I was intrigued, and they looked healthy. I've had them in the ground for about a month and they are just under 3' tall, and have been growing and losing flowers quite regularly. Lately it looks like they are setting, but nothing to speak of so far. These plants are all PL's.

[carolyn137]

Red Brandywine is RL but Linda at TGS offers two RB's and neither one is RB, She went out and got seeds for RB from the Landis museum in PA where Tom Hauch, who first got RB out of the SSE Yearbooks and sent it to him, and it remains his signature variety.

So Linda listed it as Red Brandywine Landis strain, but there are no strains of RB.

She also offers two RB's, one PL and one RL, and neither one is RB. I've asked her for many years to change that but she says that many like them,so she's keeping them.

There are,as Gary noted, other sites that are selling wrong RB's and I'm pretty sure the original source was Seeds by Design in CA,a wholesale place,

I know that was true of Tomatofest as well as Victory Seeds at one time but I know that Mike at Victory seeds got the right one and I'm pretty sure that Gary at Tomatofest got the right one as well.

and with all this confusion who knows where folks are getting their seeds,and who trades for them, and which seed sites ended up with the wrong ones and may still be even selling seed for the wrong ones and on and on. And yes, there are some seed sites that are known to have the right RB.

All to say that true RB grew wonderfully for me here in upstate NY,always has. True RB was first located in Chester Co,PA.

Carolyn

[creister]

Bill,

I've grown it here a few times and it seems to do well, you may just have a mule plant. My Black Krim is the largest plant in the garden and has one fruit and very few flowers. I believe my seed source was Victory Seed.

[VC Scott]

I got my Red Brandywine from Victory Seeds this year. It is the real deal. Healthy vigorous plants setting a ton of fruit.

Now if only I could get Dester to set even one tomato.

[augiedog55]

I got a red brandywine from fusion power 2 yrs ago.That year was very hot.It was the most productive plant i had.I never missed a chance to set fruit.

[ginger2778]

I bought my seeds from the family that owns Heirloomseeds.com, which I believe are the original source of the true RL Red Brandywine seeds. Mine grew tall, but produced very well, OK, moderately well. I got about 15 fruit from it, most over 6 oz, a few around 12 oz. they were tasty, but only above average. Seemed to grow true.

Marsha

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

I bought my seeds from the family that owns Heirloomseeds.com, which I believe are the original source of the true RL Red Brandywine seeds. Mine grew tall, but produced very well, OK, moderately well. I got about 15 fruit from it, most over 6 oz, a few around 12 oz. they were tasty, but only above average. Seemed to grow true.

Marsha

That would be Tom Hauch's site, that I mentioned above, and yes, he was the first to sell seeds to the public, but there have been problems with that family for the past couple of years and no seeds sold, as I recall but didn't check that now.

The very original seeds for RB was from an SSE member in an annual SSE Yearbook and many of us older folks got seeds back then from SSE members . And I offered true RB in my seed offers here for several years.

If you check out the article at Victory Seeds that Craig Lehoullier wrote you will get the full background,in detail,about the original Brandywines as taken from various SSE Yearbooks.When that article was originally written Craig did the heirloom ones and I did the accidental cross ones,etc,but I think it got changed,I didn't go to the site to confirm that,

Carolyn

[MrBig46]

Brandywine Red ( PL) was the biggest disappointment for me last season. I don´t know if I shall be to plant this tomato yet sometime. Is it yet possible to return to the original variety?
Vladimír

[b54red]

I got my seed from TGS and was expecting the real deal. I usually have good results with the seeds from TGS. I waited a long time to try the variety because there really wasn't much point til I could graft the plant.

Bill

[gssgarden]

Never again. Tried for years. Doesn't do well here in N.C.

Greg