Big Beef??

[dipchip2000]

I want to grow the Big Beef next season. Where do you buy the Hybrid Big Beef seeds and get the best tomatoes? Also has anyone grown the Hybrid and the OP together and how do they compare, flavor,production,disease resistance etc?
Thanks for your help

ron

[AKmark]

I have grown both and just yesterday enjoyed an op B.B it retains the classic American tomato taste, and yields well too, perfect tomatoes, no blimishes. Will send a pic if you wish. I grow in an greenhouse Ron, so as far as disease, not sure how it will work for you in Oklahoma.

[Mojave]

My Big Beef hybrid is going like gangbusters! I've got many large, but still green, perfectly smooth tomatoes. Can't wait

This will be my first year growing it so I can't comment on the taste. I got my seed from Tomato Growers Supply.

[marc_groleau]

Burpees has the hybrids. Best hybrid beef steak going in my opinion. I have no comparison to offer regarding th o.p variety. I plan on trying the o.p. next season.

[kygreg]

This is a very limited observation. I grew both the hybrid and the op version a coupe of years ago (1 plant of each). The hybrid did a little better as far as production and size; taste of both was very good. I don't remember but think I got a hybrid plant from a big box store and did not start it from seeds. Not sure because I do have hybrid seeds.

[TomatoDon]

I first learned about Big Beef right here at Tomatoville. Everyone who had tried them liked them. I tried them and found everything good that was said about them to be true. They are a mainstay in my tomato patch every year now.

If you like red and/or pink slicers, Big Beef would be very difficult to beat, year in and year out. I know that if every thing else fails that Big Beef, Better Boy, Big Boy, and Goliath will produce nice size and nice tasting tomatoes regardless.

They are very common at Wal Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. and I just buy some nice seedlings. In fact, I think a few are left in my area, and you might find some there in Oklahoma, too. See if you can find one and give it a try. I'm curious to know how well they will do planted this late, in this heat.

Edit: I went out for bar-b-q in a neighboring town after I posted this and decided to stop by Home Depot to see if they still had any Big Beef left. They did, and they were super nice plants. I bought a few plants and will get pictures tomorrow before I plant them so everyone can see the quality of what's still available, even this late, in the nursery sections of some stores. I've never bought tomato plants on the Fourth of July before.

[Deborah]

This is all why I want to try a BB next year. I've never heard a bad word about it, and I like tomatoes that have that classic flavor.

[TomatoDon]

Deborah the tomatoes in my avatar are a cluster of three Big Beefs. I double checked my photo files to be sure, and they are labeled Big Beef, and the photo was taken July 12, 2010.

I'll try to attach two more pictures of Big Beef for you here.

0on
7-12-10. Big Beef3.jpg

7-12-10. Big Beef4.jpg

[BarbJ]

There's a fellow who orders two whole flats from our store, 16 plants each, 32 total, of Big Beef every spring. I figure he must know something. I do know it's won several taste tests, so at the least it tastes good!

[TomatoDon]

And it helps debunk the myth that the only "real tomatoes," and the only ones worth planting, and the only ones that taste good are OP, or sometimes AKA "Heirloom."

Seriously, I've never understood the occasional snobbish condescension about hybrids, when clearly there are many varieties that taste as good as, and often better, than the OPs. I don't know why they are sometimes looked down upon as a second class tomato when actually they are quite good.

Along this line, watch for Goliath, in all its forms, to nudge up there right beside Big Beef before much longer. Goliath is about the only variety the backyard tomato barons in my area grow for roadside and front yard sales. And they sell tons of them every year with no complaints. Goliath has done so well for them that most don't even attempt any other variety.

Just my .02 worth. Spend it anywhere you like.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by TomatoDon

And it helps debunk the myth that the only "real tomatoes," and the only ones worth planting, and the only ones that taste good are OP, or sometimes AKA "Heirloom."

Seriously, I've never understood the occasional snobbish condescension about hybrids, when clearly there are many varieties that taste as good as, and often better, than the OPs. I don't know why they are sometimes looked down upon as a second class tomato when actually they are quite good.

Along this line, watch for Goliath in all it's forms to nudge up there right beside Big Beef before much longer. Goliath is about the only variety the backyard tomato barons in my area grow for roadside and front yard sales.

Just my .02 worth. Spend it anywhere you like.

That's easy. You can take any "general rule" and run it to the extreme and find exceptions. There is no doubt that on average heirlooms are better tasting, with a few exceptions. Simply because the major breeders have, at least since the late 70's early 80's, virtually ignored taste in favor of other qualities like shipping, designed to exterminate local truck farms and small commercial farmers. The resultant and inevitable backlash is that a market springs up demanding exactly the opposite of the grocery store tomato. A consumer may or may not not be totally educated on OP, Hybrids etc... But they know the new hybrid tomatoes at the store taste like wet cardboard. So when someone gives them a heirloom to taste they go YES! Only heirlooms for me!

[TomatoDon]

I disagree, and you're heading off into things I never mentioned. I never said anything about selling to food chains, grocery stores, what big time commercial growers do, etc. etc. I never said anything about breeding for shelf life and shipping. I said that there are a lot of hybrids that taste as good, and many times better, than the OPs. That is a factual statement. Just because it's an OP doesn't make it automatically good.

Further, I have never said that all hybrids are good just because they are hybrids. I judge each variety individually on taste. I really couldn't care less if they are hybrid or OP. A good tomato is a good tomato. I go by variety, not classification. And I'm not on any crusade to change the world in their tastes for tomatoes. Every one should eat what they like and not let the OP vs hybrid enter into it.

My comments also had nothing to do with whatever varieties the big grocery chains sell. I don't know what the varieties are, and I doubt that many of the grocers do either.

And the breeders have not ignored taste since the 1970s. You really believe that the big commercial growers and researchers are breeding out flavor intentionally? There has been one new hybrid variety, or a new twist on a variety, over and over and over down through the years, since the 1970's, and bred for taste.

And I don't think there has been any vast conspiracy by corporate growers to "exterminate" small farmers and truck-patchers. Then you say the small grower's market share has increased because the food chains sell tasteless tomatoes. Some of these comments don't even make sense.

You also said "There is no doubt that on average heirlooms are better tasting, with a few exceptions." There is plenty of doubt. There's plenty of doubt by plenty of people. Look up some of the old threads here that we used to call "Spitters." List after list of inferior tasting tomatoes, and there were plenty of OP's on the lists.

I have a long-standing bet that I'll extend to you, too. I'll make a list of tomatoes, a pretty even mix of hybrids and OP's. We'll do a blind taste test. For every variety you correctly identify I will give you $1,000. For every one you get wrong, you give me $1,000. No one has ever taken me up on that. And we can make it lighter....a dollar each. Still, it would take a near miracle for anyone to win the bet based strictly on their taste buds ability to correctly identify tomatoes by variety in a large, blindfolded taste test. I have never heard of anyone who could do it, based on a wide selection of tomato varieties. But if anyone thinks they can, the bet is still offered.

But back to my post, I simply said there are a lot of good tasting hybrids, and that is a fact. I also said some are just as good, and even better, than OP's, and that is a factual statement also. That's really the content and intent of my whole post.

I re-read my post and I don't see anything controversial in it at all. I made some pretty basic comments that are true, and you rebutted with examples of things I never even mentioned.

If you are as happy with your OP's as I am with my OP's and hybrids then you are very fortunate.

[peppero]

i can't say anything + or _ about BB however, after reading good comments i decided to give it a try. i planted late for me so i am still waiting.

jon

[clkeiper]

I grew them to sell last year, but didn't put any in the garden nor did I sell many of them. I threw them all in the compost pile in July when I got done/tired of watering them. This I truly regret. I really wish I would have planted a few of them, but I had no room left to put any in and the year was so dry I couldn't even heel them in and get a tomato from any plant. This year I planted 15 of them with HIGH hopes.

[TomatoDon]

I don't recall every hearing, or reading, one negative comment or characteristic about Big Beef. They are practically automatic tomato machines.

And yes, I'm sure there is someone in Canada or Alaska or Europe or at the equator or some place that has trouble with them. I base what I say on what works for me, in my garden, in my soil, in my climate, in that particular year. So far Big Beef has never disappointed me in any way. Neither has Goliath, Better Boy, and Big Boy. Add to that BW Sudduth and EF and the list narrows up pretty fast.

I'd say at least half, or even more than half, of the OP's I've tried have disappointed. Usually it's in production. They just seem too temperamental and inconsistent. I've planted some that never produced a single tomato. It doesn't take much of that for me to scratch it off the list and move on to something else. But there are a lot of good OPs. BW Sudduth is one of my all time favorites.