Subject: Re: Looking for (Brandywine) Tomato Advice

From: [email-masked] (Jerry Heverly)
Date: 19 Feb 1995 09:27:55 -0800

R. Myers ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I'm about to plant about 12 different kinds of tomatoes in my garden. 
: Some of them are Brandywines.  I've heard such good things about these 
: tomatoes, I'm praying they'll do well in my garden.

: CAn anyone give me some general Brandywine tips? I'd rather not have to 
: learn from experience what they like and don't like....

: My garden is windy, but I'll put up a windbreak of some kind.  The soil 
: is sandy, because I live just off the beach. There's plenty of sun, I 
: think, and I plan to use Miracle Grow fertilizer.

: Thanks in advance.
: Renee (Manhattan Beach, CA)
	From *The Total Tomato* by Fred DuBose: "{B}randywine's status as 
the perfect tomato is open to question....No one seems to know where it 
came from or how long it has been around.  It is not commercially 
available{ed. note: 1985}, and may have never been; it has been kept 
alive because its seeds have been passed from one gardener to another.  
And all who grow it agree that its richness and succulence have never 
been equaled.
	But is the Brandywine actually a distinct variety?  Is it even an 
old one?  Most gardeners have the idea that it dates from the nineteenth 
century, but no one can be found who has grown it for more than fifteen 
years.  The old-timers who passed the seeds on have died.  (A 97-year-old 
gardener in Ohio has grown it only since 1970, but says the seeds were 
give to him by a woman now dead, who claimed they had been passed down in 
her family for more than a hundred years.)
	Without doubt Brandywine is very similar to some old beefsteak 
varieties--in particular, to two that are still commercially available, 
Climbing Trip-L Crop and Giant Tree(not to be confused with the so-called 
'tree tomato' advertised in Sunday supplements; the 'tree tomato' is not 
a tomato at all, but an entirely different plant whose fruits happen to 
be red).  Brandywine, like Climbing Trip-L Crop and Giant Tree, is a 
tall-growing, potato-leaved type...and produces large, slightly rough, 
deep pink or purplish fruits.  Growers insist that Brandywine is meatier 
than either, and is indescribably more flavorful.  But a tomato probably 
always tastes better if it is hard to come by.......Days to maturity: 85."
	{It is indeterminate.}
Jerry Heverly, Instr. of Hort, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA

-- 

Jerry Heverly, Oakland, CA