Homegrown Tomatoes

Posts Tagged ‘Brandywine’

I thought I’d update you with an heirloom tomato report, on how these wonderful plants are growing in the garden.  I’ve had extremely unsettled weather from January through last week (beginning of March) and the tomatoes have taken it with differing results.  Here’s a homegrown heirloom tomato report!

Heirloom Tomatoes in the Garden

First, in case you aren’t aware, I am in South Florida.  Although my winters have been pretty mild in the recent past, it was a cold one this year, with several freezes.   Last week’s temperature dip into the 30’s didn’t help matters.  But it’s warming up now, and the plants look happier.

Here’s a list of the heirloom tomatoes currently in the garden:

• Black Sea Man:  Determinate, black fruit
• Brandywine:  Indeterminate, pink fruit
• Druzba:  Indeterminate, red fruit
• Eva Purple Ball:  Indeterminate, dark pink fruit
• Kelloggs Breakfast:  Indeterminate, orange fruit
• Loxahatchee:  Semi-determinate, red fruit
• Mr. Stripey:  Indeterminate, bicolor yellow/red fruit
• Pineapple:  Indeterminate, bicolor yellow/red fruit
• Prudens Purple:  Indeterminate, dark pink fruit
• White Bush:  Determinate, white fruit

And here are the heirloom plants that (sadly) succumbed to one of the freezes:

• Big Rainbow:  Indeterminate, bicolor yellow/red fruit
• Green Zebra:  Indeterminate, green striped fruit
• Yellow Cherry:  Indeterminate, yellow fruit

That’s not too bad, though — just three that are more temperature-sensitive. 

Last Week’s Cold Snap

Almost all the plants got nipped by the dip into the 30’s last week.  Green Zebra was the only casualty, but all the other plants except two showed signs of stress and/or what I call “freezer burn” on some leaves.

The two heirloom tomato varieties that came through totally unscathed were Loxahatchee and White Bush.   Both acted as if the cold snap never happened.  Unfortunately, White Bush doesn’t seem to be in circulation anymore (couldn’t find any seeds for sale) and Loxahatchee is from my own heirloom breeding program, and I don’t have enough seeds to offer for sale at the moment.

Heirloom Tomatoes — Who’s Blooming?

Mr. Stripey is the only one with tomatoes and blossoms, but that’s the one variety I bought as a plant; all the rest I have grown from seed.

None if the seed-grown plants are actually in full blossom at the moment, but about half have small (and in Brandywine’s case, not so small) blossom buds.  So far, I expect Brandywine to have the first open blossoms, probably by Saturday.

The heirloom tomato plants that aren’t showing blossom buds, like Druzba and Pruden’s Purple, are just too young yet (I just put them in the garden a few days ago).   I plant my tomatoes is waves, hoping to extend the season.  While it doesn’t always work (sometimes they all stubbornly decide to ripen at the same time no matter what I do), sometimes I get lucky.

I’ll be taking some photos this weekend of the various heirloom tomato plants.  I’ll also be updating The Great Tomato Experiment report.  Meanwhile, you can take a look at other posts I’ve written on heirloom tomatoes.

See you then!

Here are some tomato plant updates for the week (as well as tomato seed updates).  Sorry I haven’t been around much this week — I’ve been busy with my tomatoes (not to mention with my other veggies).

Supersweet 100

I mentioned in my first tomato update post that I had three SuperSweet 100 plants, and I was going to run an experiment with them.  One I kept inside in a south-facing window.  Another I took outside to a protected area with strong indirect sunlight (as well as a couple hours of direct sun).  The third I went and planted in its final container outside.  Three weeks later, how did they fare?

It’s been rather cool here lately, so the plant I kept inside in a south-facing window is by far the tallest and has the most leaves.  However, it’s verging on leggy.  I’m keeping it inside for the time being, seeing as the forecast is for temps in the upper 30’s next week — if I sent it outside now, I’m afraid it would have a severe setback.

The one I planted in its final container in the garden is the next most developed; it has medium-sized new growth — not as much as the one I left inside, but it’s stockier — not leggy at all.  It has a nice, dark green color.

The third that I left outside in a protected location is the smallest.  I decided to go ahead and plant it in its final container out in the garden area, so it could get some more growth.  Dark green leaves, though, so that’s good.

Brandywine

All my started to grow quite well by about the 10th, when I potted them up twice since then.   I was thinking I had the red version of Brandywine, but they all ended up potato leaf style, so I either have red Brandywine with potato leaves or pink Brandywine.  Hmmm.  I’ll have to wait and see the color of the fruit.

Pineapple Tomato

These are for the Great Tomato Experiment, and they are doing very nicely.  I transferred them to the next size container, and am keeping them inside for now, given that lower temperatures are forecast during the week.  All my Pineapple seeds germinated nicely, so I have four plants to choose from — the three strongest will take part in the experiment.

White Bush

I originally said that one of my White Bush seedlings had been going for the sky.  Well, it had, then a short while later it looked like it was going to keel over.  So I brought it inside and hoped for the best.  It hasn’t been until the last few days that it’s started looking healthy — now it’s growing fine again.

The Rest of the Tomato Plants

I have Juliet, Tomatoberry, Big Rainbow, Kellogg’s Breakfastall repotted up.  I brought one Kellogg’s Breakfast inside, and everything else I left outside.  Yellow Cherry is also outside, but I’m not sure how it will fare.  I probably should bring it inside.

New Tomato Seeds Germinated

I tried for some of my legacy seeds, and so far, Green Grape and Loxahatchee are the only two up.  I had also planted newer seeds forand Tumbling Tom, and they both came up.  For the legacy seeds, still waiting on Black Krim and .

Loxahatchee is a strain I am developing.  I originally saved the seed from an unknown globe-shaped tomato that tasted wonderful, and hoped that the resulting plant would also have great-tasting tomatoes.  I didn’t know if the tomato was hybrid or open pollinated, so I wasn’t sure what I’d get.  At any rate, I’ve selected plants for three generations whose tomatoes tasted the best.

Whoops!  For some reason I was down to just 6 seeds — not sure where the rest ran off to.  So I carefully planted 3 of the seeds.  Two have germinated so far, and hopefully the third as well.

For these, I want to do two things.  First is still select the largest of the great-tasting red globes — that will be two of the plants.  The third plant I want to use as the female cross with another tomato variety.  Not sure which I want to use for the male parent of the cross.  I’m debating using Pineapple, Kellogg’s Breakfast or maybe Druzba.  I’ll have to see how this generation fares, first.

Yesterday’s Seeds

Finally, I planted two new varieties yesterday — the heirloom tomato and the hybrid Fabulous.  (If you plan on planting seeds and need some guidance, check out the germinating tomato seeds post.)

With Tomatoes and Flowers

Almost forgot, I have tomatoes on Patio, Celebrity and Husky Red (a cherry-type).  I have more blossoms on all these, plus also with Mr. Stripey (Tigerella) and Park’s Whopper.  It’s been a cooler winter than normal, so everything is growing slower than usual; I should have already had at least some almost-ripe tomatoes by now.  I’ve still got a ways to wait, though.