Burpee Red Brandywine

[SaberTooth]

I bought a package of seeds last year at the end of the season at Home Depot from Burpee. The package said Red Brandywine Organic on the package so I was expecting a regular leaf plant per the description in Carolyn's book. I've had a few seedlings come up all of which produced potato leaf plants. Based on the description and picture in the link below, this looks like a pink Brandywine to me. Should the red Brandywine be a beefsteak size and can I expect a potato leafed red Brandywine to have the same taste as a regular leaf one with smaller fruit?

And one other question, when I make a new post, why don't I see the little red tomato to the side of my post? I instead just see an envelope with an arrow.

http://www.burpee.com/organic-garden...rod001759.html

[newatthiskat]

I can only answer the last question. When you post somthing in a thread then the envelope appears. That way you can tell at a glance where you posted.
Kat

[dice]

There is a Red Brandywine PL that has been offered by TGS
for some years. It was not the original Red Brandywine (RL),
but it is rumored to be a decent tomato, so they still carry
seeds for it. That could be what you have. (Burpee may
have bought them wholesale and just put their label on
the packet.)

[travis]

Burpee has been packaging the potato leaf "Red Brandywine" for Walmart for years now. Apparently they also package the same seed for Home Depot. Burpee responded to an email I sent their public relations department at least 4 years ago saying the Walmart package contained a potato leaf red variety, but provided no other information as to its background or other characteristics. People at several tomato boards over the years have reported favorably on the Burpee-Walmart Red Brandywine, but Red Brandywine-Landis is a completely different animal altogether.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Burpee has been packaging the potato leaf "Red Brandywine" for Walmart for years now. Apparently they also package the same seed for Home Depot. Burpee responded to an email I sent their public relations department at least 4 years ago saying the Walmart package contained a potato leaf red variety, but provided no other information as to its background or other characteristics. People at several tomato boards over the years have reported favorably on the Burpee-Walmart Red Brandywine, but Red Brandywine-Landis is a completely different animal altogether.

And it doesn't have to be Landis either which is where Linda Sapp got her true RB b'c she was listing Red Brandywine both as a PL and as an RL and neither one was RB. I've asked her so many times to clarify the situatiuon with the two not RB's but she says folks like them so she lists them. Both originated with Seeds by Design in CA and the PL Brandywine has shown up at many places, such as sale seeds from TOmatofest that were not said to be non-RB and then Gary corrected that, as well as for a short time at another place. Chuck Wyatt also was sent the PL RB from SBD and distributed seeds for it a few years back.

Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds was the first to get RB out of the SSE YEarbook and offer it commercially, and he still considers it his signature variety. it was he who sent the seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum in PA.

But there were others of us who were SSE members early on who also had true RB and I can't tell you how many seed packs of that one that I've sent out over the years.

[erlyberd]

Sabertooth. I have plenty of BW red seeds with RL if you want some send me some postage for my effort. This seed is 4th generation for me now so it is the real mcoy. That said, BW red is a slow grower for me. The taste is one of the best but the time it takes to harvest makes me want to compost it every year! BW may become a sales plant from now on. Alright maybe I'll keep one!

[tam91]

Ummm... so if I have Red Brandywine regular leaf from TGS, I don't have the real Red Brandywine? aaak...

Oh dear, I have her Brandywine (Red) Regular Leaf #5062 - but now I see there is a Landis strain also - is that the one I actually want?

If TGS doesn't have the real one, which seed vendors do?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tam91

Ummm... so if I have Red Brandywine regular leaf from TGS, I don't have the real Red Brandywine? aaak...

Oh dear, I have her Brandywine (Red) Regular Leaf #5062 - but now I see there is a Landis strain also - is that the one I actually want?

If TGS doesn't have the real one, which seed vendors do?

Tam, the Landis one I explained above and that's the one you want if you reorder from TGS b'c you can't really return it saying you goofed, or at least I wouldn't: grow it out and see if you like what you bought It was Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds who sent the true RB to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum in PA. And as I also said, many of us somewhat older SSE members have long had the true RB as well.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Red_Brandywine

There are many seed sources for true RB as you can see and Tania hasn't updated all for 2011, but of the ones there I'd trust Heirloom Seeds, ( Tom Hauch), Sandhill Preservation, Jeff Casey, Tania herself, at minimum, for true RB seeds and I just can't speak to other of the sources b'c I don't have the feedback to do so.

The Landis one is nothing special and it shouldn't be listed at TGS as a strain b'c there are no strains of true RB. It's just where Linda bought her seeds, i.e. the Landis Museum.

[tam91]

Ah, I see - thank you. We me and my limited space are going off to get some of the real ones - I honestly don't want to grow a misc. one instead of the real one.

But of course I can't return them, it was my mistake. No big deal.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tam91

Ah, I see - thank you. We me and my limited space are going off to get some of the real ones - I honestly don't want to grow a misc. one instead of the real one.

But of course I can't return them, it was my mistake. No big deal.

Tam, I knew you wouldn't but I've known Linda since about 1990 and you wouldn't believe some of the stories she tells.

Some will order varieties and once receiving them decide they want other ones, return them and reorder with no prior notification to TGS that they'd already sent back the first ones.

Some have said that their seeds were in the mailbox outside in freezing weather so they're returning them, again, with no notification to TGS and asking for replacement seeds ASAP before they even check germination.

Strories you wouldn't believe when it comes to seed germination and someone will say your seeds don't germinate I want my money back. Linda talks to them and finds they went out in the backyard and dug up some garden soil to be used to sow the seeds in.

And on and on.

[travis]

The one that TGS has listed as Red Brandywine-Landis is a really good tomato. Like someone else said, it can be slow to grow and bear fruit, but once it kicks in, it kicks butt. It also is one of the healthiest heirlooms I've ever grown, very much like Druzba but an even more robust vine.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

The one that TGS has listed as Red Brandywine-Landis is a really good tomato. Like someone else said, it can be slow to grow and bear fruit, but once it kicks in, it kicks butt. It also is one of the healthiest heirlooms I've ever grown, very much like Druzba but an even more robust vine.

And I agree. The Landis one should be the same as the true one sent to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum by Tom and I also find my RB to be a vigorous, healthy plant with lots of fruit.

Several years ago someone complained that the RB he got from Tom was too big, not right. Tom sent me seeds for his RB and asked me to compare it with my RB and they were identical.

That may have been one of the situations where it was discovered that the person saying he got the seeds from TOm was wrong and had gotten them from elsewhere.

And that came up in one of those wrong varieties threads I used to do at GW each year for several years. I had offered to report back to the companies when someone said their seeds were wrong, etc., b'c I knew that there were many who would n't do that but it didn't bother them to complain online And it was Tom who said, please ask them to contact us directly b/c then we can check the computer and see if they did order the seeds from us.

QED

[tam91]

I do wish TGS would clarify this. I remembered that Red Brandywine was supposed to be regular leaf, and so picked that. I presumed that the "Landis strain" was some other special thing, and not the regular "red brandywine" that I was looking for. I've ordered seeds elsewhere now, but after thinking about it a bit, I do find the TGS listings a bit misleading.

[erlyberd]

Yes, BW red is regular leaf and I have plenty of 4th generation seed if you want it some. It is here, the real deal so take some. I can spare plenty of seed, which is from 2010! This is organically grown if that makes a difference.

Last year it took me 164 days from seed to harvest in a hoop house. Needless to say, BW was the slowest growing tomato out of the fleet last year. With a fleet of 45 varieties it may not be the slowest to produce but I'm still betting on it!

[tam91]

Thank you so much for the offer - I already have some on the way though.