Brandywine vs Purple Cherokee tomato

[yardiron]

I've only grown Brandywine tomatoes here, but never had great results.
They've always been a smaller tomato with a short growing season for me.
Taste wise they were fine, if not a little bland but a lot of how they taste likely has to do with the soil their growing in. A buddy often grows the same tomatoes I do about 20 miles from here and often gets completely different results, both good and bad with various varieties every season.
I tried both green house grown plants and starting them from seed, what I got with brandywine tomato plants were smallish, determinate growth plants that set fruit once and were done in mid August.

 

[Chuck]

I've only grown Brandywine tomatoes here, but never had great results.
They've always been a smaller tomato with a short growing season for me.
Taste wise they were fine, if not a little bland but a lot of how they taste likely has to do with the soil their growing in. A buddy often grows the same tomatoes I do about 20 miles from here and often gets completely different results, both good and bad with various varieties every season.
I tried both green house grown plants and starting them from seed, what I got with brandywine tomato plants were smallish, determinate growth plants that set fruit once and were done in mid August.

Brandywines are indeterminate plants. All in all Brandywines are larger than Cherokee Purples. The larger the tomato the longer it takes to mature and in my climate it just takes too long for Brandywines to fully produce. As for your plants being on the small side have you had a soil test done? In my experience small plants are the result of a deficiency of potash and assorted micro-nutrients. I would get some Chelated Iron (not Ironite) and treat at planting and again about 1 month later.

 

[smitty55]

I've only grown Brandywine tomatoes here, but never had great results.
They've always been a smaller tomato with a short growing season for me.
Taste wise they were fine, if not a little bland but a lot of how they taste likely has to do with the soil their growing in. A buddy often grows the same tomatoes I do about 20 miles from here and often gets completely different results, both good and bad with various varieties every season.
I tried both green house grown plants and starting them from seed, what I got with brandywine tomato plants were smallish, determinate growth plants that set fruit once and were done in mid August.

Not a chance those were Brandywine if they were smaller determinate plants.

 

[yardiron]

I've planted brandywines five times, twice was from a local green house grower, those plants never got over 24" tall and gave me smallish red tomatoes. The following three years I tried growing them from seed, the first year they were grown separate from the rest of the tomatoes and they all grew about the same, topping out around 30" in late July with all fruit coming due at one time.
The next year I tried planting a full row in the back field at my old house, roughly 70 plants, and they topped out again around 30" but came on later all at once in mid August.
The following year I moved here and planted 8 of them on the outskirts of the main garden but in the same cages on the sunny side of the garden. They were slow to take hold and gave me very sparse production with tennis ball sized fruit that came on in mid July and was done by mid August.
I never bothered with them after that.
I regularly stick to beefsteak varieties with better boy having been my go to or major tomato planting.
In the same soil that the Brandywines failed to produce in, the Better Boys and Beefsteak variety generally grow 7 to 10ft tall producing till the first frost.
This year was the first year that the BB plants didn't do well, but they were bad even from the start.

The Brandywine tomatoes I got were pinkish red and no larger than a tennis ball. They also seemed very susceptible to bug damage, each year I had fight off mites, aphids, and various other insects each year that I never saw on the other plants. I'm not sure what the origin was of the green house plants but the seeds were all from Burpee.

 

[Chuck]

I've planted brandywines five times, twice was from a local green house grower, those plants never got over 24" tall and gave me smallish red tomatoes. The following three years I tried growing them from seed, the first year they were grown separate from the rest of the tomatoes and they all grew about the same, topping out around 30" in late July with all fruit coming due at one time.
The next year I tried planting a full row in the back field at my old house, roughly 70 plants, and they topped out again around 30" but came on later all at once in mid August.
The following year I moved here and planted 8 of them on the outskirts of the main garden but in the same cages on the sunny side of the garden. They were slow to take hold and gave me very sparse production with tennis ball sized fruit that came on in mid July and was done by mid August.
I never bothered with them after that.
I regularly stick to beefsteak varieties with better boy having been my go to or major tomato planting.
In the same soil that the Brandywines failed to produce in, the Better Boys and Beefsteak variety generally grow 7 to 10ft tall producing till the first frost.
This year was the first year that the BB plants didn't do well, but they were bad even from the start.

The Brandywine tomatoes I got were pinkish red and no larger than a tennis ball. They also seemed very susceptible to bug damage, each year I had fight off mites, aphids, and various other insects each year that I never saw on the other plants. I'm not sure what the origin was of the green house plants but the seeds were all from Burpee.

Burpee has a hybrid determinate Brandywine named Brandy Boy. It is the only determinate Brandywine I have ever heard of. They will grow to 36 inches.

 

[smitty55]

Burpee has a hybrid determinate Brandywine named Brandy Boy. It is the only determinate Brandywine I have ever heard of. They will grow to 36 inches.

I looked them up and they're indeterminate.

Brandy Boy Hybrid

Tomato - Beefsteak - Brandy Boy Hybrid

www.burpeehomegardens.com

 

[YumYum]

I just came back from a big box store that sells Ferry Morse seed and Ferry Morse clearly has 2 different types of Cherokee Purple tomato seed from the picture on the package. One that is kind of globe shaped and another that is very heavily ribbed. Well it can't be both now can it. Which one is it? I thought it was the sorta globe shaped version myself.

Something is big time wrong with that. I started to take a picture but didn't. Maybe I will next trip.

 

[pepper2.0]

I just came back from a big box store that sells Ferry Morse seed and Ferry Morse clearly has 2 different types of Cherokee Purple tomato seed from the picture on the package. One that is kind of globe shaped and another that is very heavily ribbed. Well it can't be both now can it. Which one is it? I thought it was the sorta globe shaped version myself.

Something is big time wrong with that. I started to take a picture but didn't. Maybe I will next trip.

Is this it?

They look like they are crossed with a Costoluto Genovese or Zapotec tomato. Doesn't look like any Cherokee Purple I've ever seen.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

If I'm not mistaken, I've grown two different types of Cherokee with one being a regular leaf and the other being a potato leaf variety.
Best I can remember the regular leaf had different-looking tomatoes and tasted a lot different.
I always make sure I'm ordering the pototoe variety.

 

[pepper2.0]

If I'm not mistaken, I've grown two different types of Cherokee with one being a regular leaf and the other being a potato leaf variety.
Best I can remember the regular leaf had different-looking tomatoes and tasted a lot different.
I always make sure I'm ordering the pototoe variety.

Are you sure that's not a Brandywine variety? They have the potato leaf, I am pretty sure there is only one true Cherokee Purple, other than Cherokee chocolate and Cherokee green but they are a mutation and none of those have a potato leaf.

 

[Anniekay]

If you like the heirloom Brandywine, you'll love brandy boy!! The plant looks identical to the heirloom but don't get as carried away.
It's got a slightly more acidic taste I think which is what I like in a tomato.
Plus the tomatoes are more uniform in shape .

I wanted to buy those but, for some unknown-to-me reason, they won't ship them to Georgia !!

 

[yardiron]

I don't think I've ever seen the Brandy Boy seeds here, we only see a handful of varieties each season.

I'm fairly certain the seeds I had said determinate but it been a while since I gave up on them. I got the seeds from either Tractor Supply or Home Depot here.

I had also planted Celebrity those years and the plants and tomatoes from either were indistinguishable. Both plants were short and bushy vs tall vines that kept climbing and growing. After putting the in the prime area of the garden and them still not really producing anywhere near what the other types did I dropped them and never looked back.

I don't think I've ever seen Cherokee seeds here but I never bothered with varieties that weren't bright red either. I'm also not a big fan of tomatoes ridges on the sides either. One neighbor of mine used to grown black krim and one variety that never got red, it was ripe when it was orange or yellow and covered in stripes. Neither one looked good to me.
To me there's nothing better than a bright red large tomato you can slice up for a sandwich that covers in just one slice. I've never had much interest in the smaller varieties or determinate types. I've tried a few in the past and never liked the results.

 

[YumYum]

Is this it?

View attachment 106578

They look like they are crossed with a Costoluto Genovese or Zapotec tomato. Doesn't look like any Cherokee Purple I've ever seen.

Yes that is it and that is exactly what crossed my mind.

 

[gary350]

50 years ago I grew 6 different tomato varieties every year to learn what we like best. I probably grew 50 varieties in 7 or 8 years. Back then the kids ate so much food we needed a lot of free food. I recall Brandywine is mild acid with very good flavor and grew 80% fewer tomatoes than Big Beef. I grew Big Beef for many years but now we don't need 35 lbs. of tomatoes from each plant. Jet Star is a good tomato check it out if you have garden space to experiment with other varieties.

 

[smitty55]

Burpee is quite short on Brandy Boy seeds this year. They aren't shipping any to Home Depot Canada at all this year and on their website they are short on some of the quantities like the 100 seed pack. There are lots of places they won't ship to. I ordered some 35 seed packs and had them shipped to my sister in South Carolina who will mail them to me. Looking forward to trying them, I'm not expecting them to be better than my Greek heirlooms as I have grown Brandywine in the past but if I can get some good resistance to early blight it will be worth it. Cheers

https://www.burpee.com/tomato-brandy-boy-hybrid-prod000973.html