Red Brandywine?

[jcarter]

My Red Brandywine plants bore fruit yesterday and I ate two for breakfast this morning. They were very good, thank-you, and taste is all that really matters. That much said...

I am aware of some controversy surrouding Red Brandywines. These are potato leafed and there are more than twenty tomatoes on the plant. It has potato leaves and the fruit weigh about 8 oz. when ripe. Does this sound as if they are true brandywine tomatoes?

As a sidebar, my wife and I shared a 1.2 pound Cherokee Chocolate last night. Okay, she also ate one of the alleged brandywines.

[travis]

Originally Posted by jcarter

I am aware of some controversy surrouding Red Brandywines. These are potato leafed and there are more than twenty tomatoes on the plant. It has potato leaves and the fruit weigh about 8 oz. when ripe. Does this sound as if they are true brandywine tomatoes?

Mr. Carter,

Can you provide a little more detail? Where did you get the seed? If a commercial seed packet, who packaged it and who sold it? If it was acquired in a trade, did you plant more than one seedling from the same seed, and if so, did all of them throw the same characteristics?

That's all I wanted to know ... just a little particular information ... before other more Brandywise members begin the long routine regarding Brandywine tomatoes and their various manifestations. :wink:

PV

[nctomatoman]

Simply put, if it is potato leaf, it isn't Red Brandywine....so the info that PV suggested providing may be a help of determining what you have (MAY is the key word!)

[jcarter]

Unfortunately, I cannot provide much information. I had an accident with one of the seed trays and I lost most of the plants on it. A local store sells heirloom plants and that is where I purchased the brandywine as well as the Cherokee Chocolate. I was hoping leaf shape might be sufficient as the controversy centred around potato leaf vs regular leaf. I have photographs if they are any assistance. The number of tomatoes on the plant seems large for brandywine. I gave away the second plant in the container so I cannot make a comparison.

---
Jim

[Suze]

Originally Posted by jcarter

The number of tomatoes on the plant seems large for brandywine.

Jim, Red Brandywine is usually moderately productive. It's Brandywine (i.e. the pink PL one) that folks tend to have production issues with.

But as Craig pointed out, Red Brandywine is not PL, so hard to say what you have.

[travis]

Not really so hard ... if it in fact was sold to you as "Red Brandywine," then you have something that was sold to you as Red Brandywine but isn't. And that's not all that unusual.

There's another possibility though ... if it were sold to you as simply "Brandywine," and it has 20 tomatoes on it that are dark pink with clear skin (that happen to look "red" at first glance), then you may have a productive example of Brandywine ... although the fruit weight seems a little uniform and a tad light unless it's just an average or a guess.

Can you post a picture of the next ripe fruit?

PV

[Tomstrees]

Here is a picture of Red Brandywine (RL) from
TGS:


~ Tom

[nctomatoman]

Fruit looks like Red Brandywine. Next request - a picture of the foliage!

Isn't this fun!

[elkwc36]

Craig TGS offers both a regular leaf and a potato leaf Red Brandywine. Also have noticed another or two that do the same. Think I had read something on one of these forums about that. I just assumed the PL was something they decided to stick that name on. As I felt from reading these frorums it was originally RL. Maybe I'm wrong. Will be watching for any information that may clarify what the PL is. JD

[Suze]

Originally Posted by elkwc36

Will be watching for any information that may clarify what the PL is. JD

JD, the (not) Red Brandywine PL was originally distributed wholesale by Seeds by Design in CA a few years back. As a result, some seed companies ended up with the incorrect Red Brandy there for a while. Most have long since corrected this, I believe.

It's my understanding that Linda at TGS continues to offer the not RB PL in addition to the correct RB *, simply because some folks like it.

* which they have listed as Landis Valley Strain. But it's not a strain, just their source.

Who, besides, TGS, is still carrying the not RB PL? Just curious.

[carolyn137]

The two Red Brandywines that TGS carries and are listed together, one PL the other RL, were BOTH obtained from Seeds by Design and neither one is Red Brandywine and no ones knows what they are.

And suze is correct in repeating what I've said before, and that's that Linda continues to offer both non-RB's b'c many folks like them, whatever they are.

I've tried very hard to get Linda to change the write up for those two to indicate they are NOT RB, but so far it hasn't happened. And with the recent unexpected death of her DH I'm certainly not going to pursue this issue at this time bc she's got her hands more than full trying to run the company without Vince's help.

So the only true RB at TGS has Landis as part of the name. Not a strain as Suze said, but just her original source of seeds.

True RB is available out there at Sandhill, Heirloomseeds and several other places.

The PL NOT RB was originally also offered by Chuck Wyatt and others who bought seed from SBD but off hand I don't know who is still offering it except for the one PV tracked down and I think that may have been Burpee.

[nctomatoman]

Since potato leaf medium sized reds are quite unusual, my feeling is that the red fruited PL sold as RBPL by TGSC it is a selection of something that got crossed up somewhere along the line. Rockingham is one of the few RL reds that was released as such.

[Tomstrees]

It IS fun Craig ~ lol ~
2 Pictures of my
"Red Brandywine" from TGS leaves:






Any luck ?
We should just have a sticky
in the photo section for
all of these Brandywines
and imposters - this way
everyone could go look and see what
they've got if questions arise ...
Next year it's Sudduth for me ;
but will note I have zero complaints about this
red ! Great flavor, disease tolerance, and production ...
If its not the REAL one ? Its still really good !!!
Who carries the real one ???

~ Tom

[carolyn137]

True enough about Rockingham being a med red PL, and actually one of the very first varieties I ever grew, seeds from some SSE member, was it you?, LOL,but it would be very hard to associate that variety with the TGS PL RB for the simple reason that SBD would know nada about the obscure Rockingham, and you've got to admit it is obscure.

The only other med red PL I know of off hand is Grandpa Willie, Stupice and Matina being too small.

The other problem is that the TGS PL is a large 1# beefsteak with ribbed shoulders, and that's not Rockingham, which is smaller and round.

No one at SDB knows what those two wrong RB's are and taking into account how many varieties that SBD has messed up and sent out, I mention wrong Lillian's Yellow Heirloom and the infamous PL Watermelon, I'd go for crossed seed before I'd try to ID anything coming from them.

All things considered tho, without SBD, who do their subcontract business more carefully than the off the shelf stuff on their list, there are many smaller seed sources who would have nada to offer b'c they don't raise their own plants and produce their own seeds.

And some just buy off the shelf to enlarge their offerings and do produce some of their own seed.

Carolyn

[Tomstrees]

The seed I got in trade was listed as:
TGS / Landis / Red Brandywine:
Do my pictures fit the bill for
the real one ??? ~ Tom