Brandywines for Commercial Production

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by loulac

When I read nice comments on a variety I can hardly resist temptation to give it a try. When I googled the varieties you quote I fell on the following site with crazy prices https://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com...matoes-ah.html . I found other sellers that were just a bit more reasonable, all selling the best tomatoes on the planet. Some suggestions would be welcome !

Go to my seed for SASE offer in the available for trade subforum. They are all there for the cost if the postage to get your addressed envelope to me. Others here have already contributed extra postage so that I can mail things out to overseas folks without it costing for me to do it otherwise.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ght=Marsha%27s

[loulac]

Marsha, you’re not a butterfly but an angel. Thank you for your offer, I’m going to PM you some time today, I understand you’re sleeping while I’m typing. I’m not sure all Tvilians were aware of your offer, you may now receive a huge wave of orders, and maybe rightly curse me for it as you will be kept busy for days and days.
I had planned to grow 71 varieties but as my addiction has passed the point of no return I’ll add some more. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that quite a number of your favorites were also mine.
All the best

[b54red]

Well I might as well throw in my two cents worth. As far as Brandywines go both Sudduth's and Cowlick's will do well in the spring and early summer down here. I would go a bit heavier with Cowlicks for two reasons it tends not to split as often on the bottom as Sudduth's and it does far better as the temps get higher. Neither are great keepers in our heat so you should move them fast or pick them a bit early. Usually neither one of them does so well planted after April but Cowlick's does much better of the two. Sudduth's can be really stingy setting fruit it the summer heat most years. Since my main determination of what to grow is what tastes the best to me and my wife and as a result both Brandywines have a heavy presence in the garden early in the season.

Brandy Boy is a bit earlier which is a help in our heat and it is just as productive and nearly as good as the herlooms. I only grew it for a few years but it was an excellent producer. Of all the tomatoes that are similar in taste to the Brandywines I think that Limbaugh's Legacy performs the best in my garden though it doesn't usually produce quite as large fruits but it tends to make more and for a longer period.

I love the taste of Crnkovic but it has been an inconsistent performer for me though I still grow it every year and am disappointed most of the time.

For a canning tomato you might want to try a heart variety because they are so meaty. We love using Kosovo and Anna Russian as well as some others for canning.
Wes, Linnies Oxheart, Fish Lake Oxheart and Olyers German were all very consistent producing in our southern heat.

I think one called Delicious would make an excellent market tomato because it produces a lot of very symmetrical fruits with good taste. If you don't cull the plants they can produce in huge numbers but the fruit will be smaller. I once counted over 75 fruits on one plant which was a record for me not counting cherries. They also continue producing once it gets really hot.

I grew two varieties last year which really surprised me with their production and beautiful fruit. 1884 did fantastic and made a lot of large beefsteak tomatoes with wonderful flavor and they also outproduced most other large varieties in the mid summer heat. Kentucky Wonder also was a winner last year with similar results. I am going to grow a few more of them this year and see if they are consistent.

For market purposes I don't think you can do better than Big Beef down here as it can produce in the heat and can be successfully grown from spring right up til it freezes. For late summer or fall planting the most consistent large pink beefsteak for me has been Limbaugh's Legacy. During the mid summer heat you might do better with 1884, Kentucky Wonder, Red Barn, Red Brandywine, Delicious, Pruden's Purple, Arkansas Traveler, Neves Azorean Red or black tomatoes like Indian Stripe potato leaf if you want real success with heirlooms that time of the season. I don't think you would have as much success selling black tomatoes but if you want to try I suggest Indian Stripe pl because I don't think any other tomato including Big Beef will produce as well in the hottest days of summer down here.

Bill

[TomatoDon]

Bill, Thanks for the input from someone with similar climate and growing conditions to me.

I'm blessed with plenty of room to plant tomatoes, with varying degrees of sunlight as the summer progresses. I plan to plant some BW's early in full sun, and the next planting will be where they will have a cooler pocket in a cove with filtered light. My back yard in town seems cooler in late summer and has plenty of filtered light. I can also go out back and spray the plants down with the hose and that seems to make the temps in the beds a little cooler, also. If nothing else, I would like to trial some Cowlicks in the back yard this year. The Sudduth's I get come from Tomato Grower's in Florida and have always done well. Are you using saved seed now, or do you still order seed?

I've grown a lot of tomatoes in my back yard and it always outperforms any where else in late summer. One year I had a tall (22") raised bed and we planted 7 Better Boys, I believe it was...may have been some BB's and some Big Beef....but we quit counting in October when the total was over 750 tomatoes from those 7 plants. Obviously, there were all sizes, but all of them would have worked fine for canning, and we still had some nice slicers late into the season.

One of the best tomato patches I ever had was at the farm by the lake when I planted a raised bed of BW Sudduth's. I've pretty well dispelled the belief that BW's don't do good in the South. They make not work for everyone, depending on the conditions they are grown in, but they work fine for me, but they probably get more shade than in other places.

It created so much confusion and controversy when labeling was mentioned early in this thread that I'm trying to leave it out. All I will say is IF YOU HAVE BW's and you establish a reputation for having good ones, you will always have customers and they will buy all the BW's at the markets I go to, and customers will also buy tomatoes other than BW's. It's just a great way to draw customers. And oddly, there aren't many heirlooms grown in my area (and please...no one challenge me on the definition of heirlooms and start another argument here), and I want to be know as the heirloom grower, which is a big advantage that not many in my areas seem to care about.

What source do you use, or would you recommend for Cowlicks seeds? I'd like enough to grow about 100 plants. I'd like to do a bed of about 50 early, and a bed of about 50 later in a cooler location with filtered light for late season.

Thanks Bill. I place a lot of faith in your methods and suggestions, especially since we are in the same general area. Looking forward to your suggestions on seed sources.

Don