Red Brandywine?

[korney19]

Maybe I should jump in here...

I have grown RB from Chuck Wyatt and thought it may have been the wrong one. Sometimes it had ribbed shoulders from his seeds, sometimes it was big, etc. It just never seemed right.



One year I had an extra plant that never got planted and I kept watering it in it's 3" pot to see what would happen... it grew 1 un-uniform tomato, about 2.5-3" and slightly oblate, before it died. I saved seeds from this fruit and when I tasted the fruit, it had excellent flavor, almost "intense."

Since then, I never grew those seeds. I got older seeds from Carolyn's distribution a couple years ago and had 1 or 2 germinate and grew 1 plant. The spot was the NW most spot in my yard, not the best spot, and the fruit I harvested were globes to deep globes (basically round but taller than the width.

I questioned these as being correct and posted a pic on the other forum, and I think someone else chimed in they had the same thing from the same seeds and thought they weren't correct either... it maybe was Jeff or WinJoe. It was written off as possibly being caused by the weird/cold weather we had that year.

Here's some other fruit from that plant:



I sent a bunch of varieties Down Under and included it, and cautiously labeled it as RB with I believe a question mark after it and original source of my seeds that grew those were from Carolyn. I think in e-mail conversation I may have mentioned I had suspicions about it and to please grow it and let me know what you get.

Last year, I grew commercial seeds acquired in a trade, labeled Red Brandywine LVS. (Yes I knew what that stood for and that's why I grew them.) The plant was a very good producer of 3-3.5" red slightly oblate globes, with very good to excellent taste. When cut, they had irregular locules (seed cavities) that looked somewhat between radial, like a beefsteak, and Nepal, which was more what I call zigzag, like some boat shaped maters get.

I can't find a pic of a RB cut open but here's a pic of Nepal:



The RB-LVS had locules similar to the above pic.

GRUB: What did your RB look like inside???????? Were those seeds you grew the seeds I sent down, grown from Carolyn's seeds?

I am starting to believe there are 2 different types being thought to be the real RB, and think the LVS one I described above is the correct one and the 3-locule one is not... since I'm not the only one who thought something was wrong, I believe that there may have been a cross somewhere. I just don't think it should be that much different regarding height and locules.

Sorry, I didn't want to open up a can of worms...

[Tomstrees]

Don't feel sorry !
Mine were from "TGS Landis Strain" !!!
Wowed ~

Tom

[Earl]

I'm growing RB for the first time this year. Just picked about 15 fruit and will take a few to the CHOPTAG Fest. Haven't tried it yet so will and give opinion.

[Earl]

Well, I just tasted RB. It didn't impress me. Taste ok, but for a red I'd rather have Novikov's Giant which is very good and which I'm growing for first time this year. I think 'giant' refers to the plant since the fruit aren't giants.

[carolyn137]

Mark,

I'll stand by my RB which is pictured in my book and also shown in X section and has more than four locules.

To reiterate, Tom Hauch at Heirloomseeds was the first to get RB out of SSE and he shared seeds with Steve Miller at the Landis Museum in PA. It was Steve who contacted the SSE lister and got the background info.

I have always assumed that the Landis RB was the same as the Tom Hauch original RB b'c Tom gave the seeds to Steve.

Three years ago I asked Tom to send me his seeds and I compared them with my own RB which I'd gotten from a now forgotten SSE member way back in the late 80's when there was none of this nonesense about right and wrong RB's. And they were identical.

of course environmental factors can play a part in fruit shape, and what I've seen of pictures posted of the Landis RB looked to me like Tom's and my RB.

And so it goes.

[Grub]

HI Mark,

First, let me say it's a great asset to have you posting here ol' buddy. And those plates and blue backgrounds bring back memories.

My Red Brandywine were indeed from you with that notation on the label about them being from Carolyn. I grew two plants last seasoon.

The fruit I harvested, lots of them, look like those in Carolyn's book. From memory, they had seed locules that weren't even and instead resembled those in your cut fruit that you grew with the Landis heritage.

All the fruit were medium sized, uniform, oblate more than globe,, and with very good taste. I haven't grown Red Brandywine before but I am satisfied that what you sent me is the real deal. It matches Carolyn's description perfectly.

A good strong plant. Nothing dynamic but what I would could a foundation plant for a backyard tomato patch.

Thanks for sending those seeds Down Under.

Best, Grub.