I have a RL Red Brandywine going myself. She started out loaded with blooms that just kinda sat there....After a couple weeks I started getting really worried as most of my other varieties started setting fruit and the blossoms on my Red Brandy still just sat there :(
BUT...just in the last week nice sized flattened fruits are setting!!!
I've grown Brandywine(pink) and Yellow Brandywine with little success the last couple of years. I got two extremely tasty fruits last year off my Yellow. I too think this will be a good year as I already have 15 set

I've gotten a few set and about to ripen on of my plants that are labeled "Red Brandywine" (they are PL, so I don't know what they really are). However, I have planted 7 plants labeled "Brandywine" or "Brandywine Pink" that have grown into big, beautiful 6-7 foot plants with lots of blooms, but exactly ZERO set fruit. I've gotten tons of cherries, Cherokee Purple, Roma's, Eva Purple Ball, Marglobe and others, but NO Brandywines. They are the only plants in my garden that have not at least set fruit.

If you have Red Brandywine it should be RL.

Seeds by Design in CA distributed some PL Red Brandywine which is not Red Brandywine and they also distributed an RL Red Brandywine which is not Red Brandywine.

Both of the above are listed at TGS and it isn't known what they are but Linda at TGS keeps listing them b;c many folks like them. The only true Red Brandywine at TGS is what Linda calls the Landis strain, but it isn't a strain at all, it's the just the place where she got the seed which is the Landis Museum in PA.

It was Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds in PA who first got the RL RB out of the SSE Yearbook, he shared seeds with Steve Miller at the Landis Museum and it was Steve who got the background information on it.

Tom considers his RB to be his signature tomato variety and it's one place where true RB ( RL) is sold. Sandhill Preservation is another one but I can't speak for other sources even though I'm sure some others are selling the correct RL Red Brandywine.

The wrong PL RB from Seeds by Design has been in circulation for many years now and Gary Ibsen at Tomatofest was offering it on sale until folks infomed it was PL, not RL, and then he added that info to his blurb as I recall.

I'm sure it's still being offered for sale at other places as well.

Carolyn

Thanks for the information Carolyn, at least now I know why I'm having so much trouble buying the correct Red Brandywine seeds. I keep getting tomato leaf plants. Thought it was just a seed mix up. So far started over 120 seeds and no regular leafs. Still searching for that regular leaf seed source and hopefully before the season ends sending me off to another seed source.

george

The red brandywines, both RL and PL are reliably productive, it is the Pink PL Brandywine (which you may not have) that is unreliable in its productivity. The reds are not comparable to the pink. They are unrelated varieties.

I have some pink PL brandywines that are loaded with flowers and are setting fruit pretty well. Whether that'll continue to be the trend remains to be seen, i'm cautiously optimistic though.

Well, JWR, whatever you have I hope it continues to inspire your optimism.

I grew something that was wrongly called Brandywine last year. Whatever it was, I enjoyed the tomatoes.

This year I have three Brandywines of the Sudduth lineage and am enthusiastically supervising the development of buds.

I understand that low production is partly due to the oversized blossoms--I guess the different parts of the flower have to exchange materials. I've been wondering if I should try to shake the blossoms to help them out.

Anyway, best wishes for a bumper crop JWR!
Dawn

Sudduth Brandywine has always been a very good producer for me. Seeds from Johnny's.

red brandywine is very productive here in chicagoland. Sudduth strain is not very productive but worth the few fruit you get. They are completely different flavorwise. I wish they wouldnt name so many plants brandywine, it confuses the situation.

I guess this is an appropriate place to post a question I had about my Brandywines.

From the "Unknown tomato variety- please help!" thread, I found the link to the Wild Boar Farms page. As I was browsing the pictures, I found this picture:

{{gwi:1354402}}

with the caption "This is on odd blossem that will develop into an odd fused tomato."

Ever since my Brandywine plants started putting out blooms, I thought it was strange how every since plant had one large bloom, and several smaller, normal-looking blooms. Here's one of mine (forgive the blur - cellphone cam):

Every single Brandywine plant (25 total) has one of those, in the center, surrounded by several normal blooms. Does this mean I'm going to get one mutant tomato off every plant? If so - AWESOME!

I've grown the PL "Red Brandywine" from seed...still waiting for it to flower (it is later than all the other toms in my garden). The true Red Brandywine (Landis strain) is not related to the Brandywine variety (PL, pink low-producing variety). My PL RB is probably the same as what you've got, and should produce some average red slicers from what I've heard.

I haven't grown Brandywine yet, for the same reasons you mentioned, but I would like to in the future.

I am actually getting pretty good production from my PL brandywine. No special strain. Just the Ferry Morris seeds from Lowes. I have picked about 10 large tomatoes total from my 2 plants with about 20 more ripeneing soon. They seem to still be setting fruit even with my high heat and humidity in central FL. This season has been really tough on my tomatoes. Tons of rain and many of my plants are looking to be about done but the brandywines are still lush and green. Maybe I am just lucky this year, but brandywine will definitely be back next season.

Every single Brandywine plant (25 total) has one of those, in the center, surrounded by several normal blooms. Does this mean I'm going to get one mutant tomato off every plant? If so - AWESOME!

****

Fused blossoms usually give rise to very malformed fruits and you shouldn't save seeds from such fruits unless you've bagged blossoms, b'c a couple of those fused blossoms could have been X pollinated and you'll end up with both hybrid and true seeds in that one large fruit.

Each blossom alone has both male ( anthers with pollen) and female ( stigma) sexual parts and should self pollenize normally.

The fused blossoms often appear first on PL varieties but as the season progresses the normal single blossoms appear. And yes, they can also appear on RL varieties as well; I just usually see them with greater frequency on PL varieties.

And the fused blossoms have nothing to do with there being any mutant fruits, mutant plants, etc.

Brandywine for many folks , especially those in warm weather areas, does have problems setting fruit sometimes. And it's not due solely to blossom drop that fruits don't set, it's just the nature of Brandywine.

Carolyn

My Brandywine Pl seeds are Ferry Morse as well.

My PL Brandywine is setting fruit like a champ. Second only to Huang Se Chieh.

Of course the Stupice is covered, but that's not a fair contest.

Still a month away from eating one though! Darn it!

Jim, FWIW I grew BW last season and they did ok despite the extended doom and gloom. Give it a go. Like you said I think this season will be a good tomato season.

Larrick

"And the fused blossoms have nothing to do with there being any mutant fruits, mutant plants, etc."

My apologies. I used mutant in a slang sense to suggest "grotesque or deformed" in a context where its literal meaning would also be appropriate. Sorry about the confusion there.

I was just saying that I wouldn't mind harvesting a single wildly odd-looking tomato per plant as long as I get a few normal ones as well. They'd make for some interesting pictures, and would be fun to show to friends. :)

I grew Red Brandywine last year in Chicagoland. It was not a great year for tomatoes much like this year and I did not give much space but I did get 5 rather large tomatoes from the plants. This year they were started in a green house, given more attention and already are flowering. They are not really comparable to a typical beef steak. The volume issue is a bit like not bothering with morels because you can buy mushrooms at the store. The ones I had were very dense fruit with lots of pulp but very moist. Black cherries are comparable in flavor but not really in texture where the Bandywine seems to excel for me.The Tomato was large enough to be a meal for two. I believe the low yield is also related to the quality of the fruit much like grapes. The vine is dedicating its resources to fewer fruit so again the yield is not always in your best interest.

I would not grow such a specialized variety without the old reliable tomatoes also with the delightfully familiar acidic bite and quantity is a quality, but the unique experience of a Brandywine is worth a try with its almost inflorescent pinkish glow and densely packed flavor.

Potato leaf, pink fruited Brandywine has been one of the most reliable producers in my garden over the past few years.

Early girl, one of the least.

Last year, Eva purple ball and mortgage lifter were total duds, but my one Brandywine kicked out at least 15 large tomatoes.

Brandywine always does well for us. Not sure what happened below but I'm kind of glad this cluster set low ;) It has been rainy, muddy and these got out late so I'm sure they got buried deep.

{{gwi:1354404}}

I went back and looked. These got set out 4/30/2009.

This is my first year with brandywine also and if the fruit set so far is indicative of how it does in this area I should have as many brandywines as any other type. I'd say so far it looks like I'm getting about 50-60% fruit set and there are a ton of blooms from bottom to near the current top which is only about 4 1/2 feet.

Carolyn..

So are you saying that the RL Red Brandywine I bought from TGS is in fact not a Red Bandywine?

Here is the description from TGS

"Brandywine (Red) Regular Leaf #5062 (30 seeds) $2.55
This is a version of Brandywine that offers red fruit with luscious old-time, red tomato flavor. Plants have regularly-shaped leaves and are extremely productive, bearing long harvests of these 10 to 16 ounce fruit. Heirloom from the late 1800's. Indeterminate. 80 day"
tgs

Thanks
Brian

So are you saying that the RL Red Brandywine I bought from TGS is in fact not a Red Bandywine?

Here is the description from TGS

"Brandywine (Red) Regular Leaf #5062 (30 seeds) $2.55
This is a version of Brandywine that offers red fruit with luscious old-time, red tomato flavor. Plants have regularly-shaped leaves and are extremely productive, bearing long harvests of these 10 to 16 ounce fruit. Heirloom from the late 1800's. Indeterminate. 80 day"

*****
Brian, the blurb you've copied for #5062 is complatetly different from what's written in the TGS 2009 catalog and I assume the website as well, but my 09 catalog is next to me and it's easier for me to access that right now. The blurb for #5062 starts out:

"There are two tomatoes called Red Brandywine out in circulation now that are very similar to each other with the exceptionm of their leaf form....."

And below that description are:

#5062 Regular Leaf
#3642 Potato Leaf

And listed seperately on page 7 is Red Brandywine ( Landis strain), which I said is not a strain, and it's the only true RB in the catalog. After realizing that neither of the other two supposed RB's she had were not true RB, as distributed by Seeds by Design, she went and got seeds from the Landis Museum for the real RB as I think I explained above, those seeds coming initially from Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds who was the person to get out true RB from the SSE YEarbook and the first to offer it commercially.

The blurb for RB ( Landis)starts out:

"This is the real Red Brandywine from Chester County PA where it originated in 1885...."

I don't recognize the blurb you have for #5062 as relating to the blurb for that in the 2009 catalog and while it seems to refer to the correct RB when it says "heirloom from the late 1800's" those words are not in the 2009 catalog for 5062, and actually the blub starts out, as I copied above, giving the source and approximate date of introduction, as in 1885.

Does that help?

Carolyn

Carolyn
Interesting. I bought mt seeds online and, at least in the Beefsteak area, there is no mention of "the Real" Red Brandy.

Just seems to advertise
Brandywine 5525
Brandywine OTV 5620
Brandywine RED PL 3642
Brandywine RED RL 5062
Brandywine Suddiths5725

Below is the link to where I copied/pasted the blurb from

Brian

Here is a link that might be useful: TGS Beefsteak page

Ok, I found the Landis Valley Strain when I did a search of the site. It came up under Mid Season Tomatoes.

Here is a copy/Paste of the description.

Brandywine Red (Landis Valley Strain) #5940 (30 seeds) $2.70 Click Here for Large Quantity Pricing.
This special strain of Red Brandywine comes from Chester County, Pennsylvania, where it originated in 1885. It produces medium-sized, 8 to 12 oz. round, smooth red fruit that are juicy and loaded with intense tomato flavor. This is a different strain than regular Brandywine Red, which has a much larger and more ribbed tomato. This foliage is shaped like a regular tomato leaf and is not potato-leaved. Expect high yields of this very flavorful tomato. Indeterminate. 78 days. (More Mid Season Tomatoes)

It seems that the website contradicts the catalog a little bit as this blurb compares this particular strain to the 'regular Brandywine Red'

Here is a link that might be useful: Landis Valley Strain

This is a different strain than regular Brandywine Red, which has a much larger and more ribbed tomato

*****

And what's said in the catalog blurb is:

..."This is different from the Brandywine Red on page 17 which has a much larger and more ribbed tomato...."

As cut and pasted above I don't know what a "regular" Brandywine Red is.

The info in the catalog is correct for RB ( Landis) and the reference to page 17 above is where one finds:

Regular Leaf 5062
Potato Leaf 3642

Neither of which is true RB.

When things calm down at TGS I'll call Linda and share the above info and tell her why I find it so confusing that the two RB Landis Blurbs don't match.

For many years I've urged her to say straight out that the two non RB's aren't RB;s, but that's how she received them from SBD and many folks like both of them by the names and numbers, so that's why she's left them that way.

Carolyn, who can't stand looking at websites of seed sources, so MUST have a catalog from those places she's interested in following. When the snow blows I want to curl up in my chair and read my catalogs, not sit here in front of a Monitor and have to go from page to page, and back and around and up and down to find something. LOL

I grew 4 pink Brandywine(PL) this year and 3 of them set about 10 fruits each, one of them hasnt produced anything and all the leaves are curled. Each plant is about 10 ft tall pruned to one stem. Due to the heavy rain all the fruit have split across the bottom, I rescued some before the nats got to them, the cows got to eat the rest(spoiled cows).

I started a lot of seeds this year, but we had a set back when some unexpected heat wave killed some seedlings in a closet, so we had to start over. In the mean time, I bought a 6 pack of so called Brandywines seedlings at one of the big hardware stores in Los Angeles (Lowes or Home depot, I forgot). It only said 'Brandywine' and 'heirloom', you know how specific and detailed those hardware store seedling packs get..... They have potato leaves. I have quite a few baby tomatoes in there, so I cannot say low productivity, it looks like they will produce quite well. So I must have gotten one of the 'fake' red brandywines I guess, unless it is a pink one, but from the pretty good productivity so far, maybe not a pink? or perhaps pink Brandywines produce OK in California? The fruit is still 100% green so I cannot tell yet, red or pink. In any case, I hope they taste good anyway, I am so happy to see so many little tomatoes all over the place, a welcome change from last year.

Well whatever it is, it seems to be doing great with nice fruit set. Hope they taste good, I'll still tell people they are Red Brandywine, cause well....Unknown, Large ribbed, OP, red fruited Beefsteak just doesnt sound right :)
Brian

I'll still tell people they are Red Brandywine, cause well....Unknown, Large ribbed, OP, red fruited Beefsteak just doesnt sound right

****

If it were me I wouldn't tell folks it's Red Brandywine b'c it isn't, as you know. Rather, I'd tell them that you bought it thinking it was true RB but found out later that it wasn't true RB and there's now way of knowing what it might be. ( smile)

Carolyn

When I planted my seedlings this year I was totally clueless about the plethora of options available and only started the plants that I have been buying from my local authentic garden center for the past many years.

As the season progressed and the Tomato Madness took root I realized that I had options. I started a whole new wave (referred to as the Third Wave) of seedlings that were more ambitious, many of them OP.

Out of the whole 3rd wave, I have probably been the most excited about the Red Brandywine and now I come to find that they may or may not be what I thought they would be.

The seeds that I have are from Lake Valley Seed company.

Carolyn, do you have any info on this particular source? What am I likely to get.

For the record the plants are RL.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

-alg

Well I'll still call it Red Brandywine cause your friend Linda took my money that I spent expecting to buy Red Brandywine. She sent me a seed pack that is labeled Red Brandywine. I chose this variety after reading lots of good talk regarding RED BRANDYWINE. Her site read RED BRANDYWINE.
If she sold me something other than Red Brandywine, that sucks(for lack of better words)

The seeds that I have are from Lake Valley Seed company.

Carolyn, do you have any info on this particular source? What am I likely to get.

For the record the plants are RL.

*****

I didn't know the company so I Googled it and it looks like they're a seed repackager company. They don't list individual varieties at their website , nor pictures, so there's not much I can say except that RL would be the right leaf form and then if the fruits looked like they should, and other places show pictures as well, and looking at Google IMAGE pictures should help you make some kind of conclusion about what you have.

If you wanted to go a bit further you could contact them thru the website and ask the source of their seeds for Red Brandywine and see what they say.

Carolyn

I'm growing the pink BW, potato leaf. I was a bit nervous after reading the reviews of low production, but it has lots of blossoms on it that are finally beginning to set fruit. They definitely took a little longer to start setting versus my other varieties, but there does seem to be a decent amount...not the highest, but not low. We'll see how they come to fruition... ; )

What a difference a week makes. Today I saw tomato's on all 3 of my Brandywines. BW-Red/RL 4ea, alledged BW-Red/PL 2ea and BW Pink/PL 1 ea. Anxiously looking forward too more productivity with these plants as all are heavily loaded with blossoms