Brandywine Pink...is that the main kind?

[mldollins]

I have to grow my own Brandywines from seed since they are not a common tomato. Now I am seeing Brandywine pink....did I miss something? Is this what I have had all along?

[Patt]

I think brandywines are starting to come in more colors now so they probably added the pink even though it is the same old tomato. I have seen reds and purples too. The ones we have grown for years were pinks though.

[mldollins]

I kind of thought I always had was red. But it would seem that the only seed I can find is pink.

Do you buy fresh seed each year or do you squeeze a tomato at the end of the season and save seed?

[B & B Farms]

Mine, this last year were all red, I got them as starts from the Amish girl down the road. Big and red.

Allene

[wolffeathers]

Mine are red and they are potato leafed.

While shopping I did see pink and purple brandywine. I guessed red was the 'original' variety, so that is what I picked. Last year they were eaten before they could produce(thanks to stampeding geese), but they are going strong this year and I look forward to comparing them to Purple Cherokee.

[mldollins]

So, are the pinks considered heirloom?

[Jan Sears]

Brandywines are considered to be a heirooom tomato. We have grown them from seed that we save ourselves. We take our largest & best looking tomato & remove all of the seeds from it. They are then put into a bowl & covered with water to get all of the junk off of the seeds; it takes a week or so. We then drain them in a fine strainer & spread them on a saucer to dry. We dry them on top of the fridge where it is warm. When dry we put them into an envelope with the name & date on it. We have been doing this for years with both red & pink. We do this with all of our seeds as we only grow open pollinated/heirloom seeds in order that we can save them year to year. It saves alot of money not having to buy seed year to year. Also if anything happens you always have your own seed.

[mldollins]

Is there a concern with cross pollination? Or do you keep a distance between the two varieties?

[Paquebot]

Brandywine is pink. Apricot Brandywine is orange. Black Brandywine is brown. Purple Brandywine is purple. Red Brandywine is red. Yellow Brandywine is yellow. Simple enough?

Martin

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

I just found Red and black Brandywine at my local nursery. Am going back tomorrow to pick up some Paul Robesons. Go to www.heirloomtomatoplants.com and drool.

[FarmerRob]

I have grown the red and the pink Brandywine. They are an amazing tomato.

While I am generally a proponent or open pollinated plants, There is ONE hybrid that certainly bears consideration...that is the Burpee hybrid Brandy Boy. They taste at least as good as the regular Brandywines but they produce a much heavier yield and they ripen more evenly (no green shoulders,) and are indeterminate.

If you have a limited space to garden they will help increase your yield.

[Paquebot]

A number of people have grown F2 Brandy Boy and found that most of the fruit was the same as F1. As a result, some have carried it out to F5 and are considering it stable.

Martin

[GraceMarie]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

A number of people have grown F2 Brandy Boy and found that most of the fruit was the same as F1. As a result, some have carried it out to F5 and are considering it stable.

Martin

Martin - do you mean that people are growing out the seeds from the hybrid tomato and then growing more plants from those tomatoes and so on....and the plants are coming back true?
They aren't crossing them with something else, right?
Sorry if this is a dumb question - I understand the crosses (f1, f2, etc) in animals but still not so sure about plants.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by GraceMarie

Martin - do you mean that people are growing out the seeds from the hybrid tomato and then growing more plants from those tomatoes and so on....and the plants are coming back true?
They aren't crossing them with something else, right?
Sorry if this is a dumb question - I understand the crosses (f1, f2, etc) in animals but still not so sure about plants.

Depending upon what the parent plants of a hybrid are, many can be dehybridized into something very close to what the original cross was. A cross between two stable large varieties will generally result in something close to both but with certain qualities which can only exist in their F1 offspring. When seeds from F1 are planted back, one selects those F2 plants which are closest to the original F1 and uses their F3 seeds for planting back. With some, it's easy while others have such a complicated gene sequence that will never produce the same as the F1. Sungold is an example where one may plant 20 seeds and obtain 20 different variations with none being the same as the parent plant. Some claim to have a stable version but also reports that the original taste is not there. Santa, on the other hand, will come back true about 95% of the time as F2. I grew that one out to F4 and the only variation had fruit which was slightly square rather than round. The ultimate hybrid currently is OSU Blue which many hundreds of growers worldwide have been allowed a chance to assist in the project. As long as there is one certain gene in the DNA strand, it will never be stable.

Martin

[Vickie44]

My mother grew them and they were pink as are mine today. Awesome taste ,but susceptable to blight

[GraceMarie]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

Depending upon what the parent plants of a hybrid are, many can be dehybridized into something very close to what the original cross was. A cross between two stable large varieties will generally result in something close to both but with certain qualities which can only exist in their F1 offspring. When seeds from F1 are planted back, one selects those F2 plants which are closest to the original F1 and uses their F3 seeds for planting back. With some, it's easy while others have such a complicated gene sequence that will never produce the same as the F1. Sungold is an example where one may plant 20 seeds and obtain 20 different variations with none being the same as the parent plant. Some claim to have a stable version but also reports that the original taste is not there. Santa, on the other hand, will come back true about 95% of the time as F2. I grew that one out to F4 and the only variation had fruit which was slightly square rather than round. The ultimate hybrid currently is OSU Blue which many hundreds of growers worldwide have been allowed a chance to assist in the project. As long as there is one certain gene in the DNA strand, it will never be stable.

Martin

Thanks Martin, that is really interesting. I had no idea that any hybrids would come true at all. May be something new to try this year.

[FarmerRob]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

A number of people have grown F2 Brandy Boy and found that most of the fruit was the same as F1. As a result, some have carried it out to F5 and are considering it stable.

Martin

Good to know, thanks for the info. I will have to try it out--they are the #1 tomato on my list. YUM!!

I always figured that because the seeds labled "brandywine" produce red tomatoes that they are the original and the other colors were developed from them. I have not had good luck with them up here in zone 4.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Nimrod

I always figured that because the seeds labled "brandywine" produce red tomatoes that they are the original and the other colors were developed from them. I have not had good luck with them up here in zone 4.

Where many may be going wrong is that a pink tomato often appears redder than a red tomato. Very few are actually pink color. With a red tomato, you see the color of the skin. When the red pigment is cooked out of it, it reveals its true color which is yellow. Pink tomatoes have clear transparent skin and what you see is the color of flesh. The same is true with purple tomatoes.

Martin

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

The neatest thing I do with tomatoes is take cuttings from my best each spring and root them for tomatoes in the fall. If I were particularly industrious and was able to regulate the greenhouse temps better I would take cuttings of the very best in the fall and root them and grow them out all winter for planting in the spring. One doesn't have to start tomatoes from seed.