Of course, this is IMO...

I'm sure that there are many folks that like the particular taste of the Brandywine varieties. But I think a lot of it is the "Heirloom Mystique." I've grown several Brandywine varieties, including Sudduth. To my taste buds, they are nothing special. Not much yield (as you report), and what fruit matures is usually quite ugly -- misshapen, cracked, etc. (I have this notion that a tomato should LOOK appealing as well as taste good.)

Are there lots of really good OP's? YES, but (to me) this isn't one of them. Are there lots of good-tasting, good yielding, attractive hybrids. Absolutely. If you want a Brandywine-type with much better production, give Burpee's Brandy Boy a try. I've grown it several times, and had good luck with it here in 5b (but did not grow it this past "summer from hell"). I also have not grown the slightly newer "Brandy Master."
-WC2K8

thank WC. I am going to try Brandywine Sudduth's one more time and then no more unless I get a decent crop. I will move onto to other OPs.

Speaking to only the Sudduth /Quisenberry strain of Brandywine I think there were two folks who made it as popular as it is for many folks and those two people are Craig LeHoullier and myself.

I had grown many strains of Brandywine in the past and was unofficial Prez of the anti-Brandywine association of the USA until Craig sent me the Sudduth strain which he sent to Johnny's and many other places.And I started offering it several decades ago in my large seed offers as well and also sending it for trial to several seed sites where I know the owners well and have for a long time and trust them.

The only Brandywine that seems to set fruits well in the south is OTV Brandywine, which is not a strain of Brandywine, but is the result of an accidental cross between Yellow Brandywine and an unknown male parent. I did the dehybridization on that one and it took me 5 years to genetically stabilize it. And it's become a fave of many in the warmer zones b'c I does set fruits better than authentic Brandywine, meaning the pink one. I don't say Pink Brandywine b'c that's redundant. ( smile)

Do I think that Brandywine is THE best tasting variety around? Certainly not. It does have a somewhat unique taste, rather winey, but there are other varieties that I think have outstanding tastes as well, and some of them unique.

There's no sense in my listing them here for the simple reason that I grow in a zone 5 area and my tastebuds are not the same as the tastebuds of others for taste is both personal and perceptual and even has a human genetic contribution.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that you didn't get good production for the Sudduth one in your zone 10 in Fl in which case if I were you I'd just move on to other varieties, and I don't mean necessarily the Burpeee hybrid, to other varieties that folks in your zone find do well for them.

If a variety comes to me highly praised and it doesn't perform for me the first year I always give it a second chance in a different season and if it doesn't perform that's it for me for that variety. I see you're going to do that with the Sudduth one but I don't expect you to see much improvement in fruit set.

Summary? I would not expect most of the various Brandywine strains to do well in the south, they never have, and not all are even strains, but I'm not going to go into that here b'c there are plenty of threads here that do so.In the cooler zones almost all of my tomato friends have no problems with the three best known heirloom varieties, meaning the red, yellow and pink Brandywines, and same for those who grow the hybrid Brandy Boy.

Carolyn

It isn't the variety strain that determines either production rate or flavor. It is the growing conditions provided and zone is only one of those factors.

While S. BW may not be a good producer in some climes it does very well in many others as attested to by some of the northern zone growers here.

Many southern gardeners such as myself like the flavor so much we are content with the low production but even we can improve production by improving the many other growing conditions we have control over such as in-ground rather than containers, shading, heavy fertilization at the proper times, timed drip irrigation, etc.

More work but worth it to many just for the flavor.

Dave

Thanks! I am growing OTV right now. So far, lots of blooms but no fruit whereas my Cherokee Purple has at least set one fruit!

Lots of blooms but no fruit set is usually a result of blossom drop. If your air temps and humidity have been within the acceptable range for fruit set then the next most likely cause is over-fertilization followed by inconsistent soil moisture levels.

Dave

Definitely blossom drop. Night-time temps are still in the 75 degree range and day-time temps are above 85 degrees consistently and the humidity is ungodly. I feel lucky to have the 1 Cherokee Purple fruit that I have. Just thought I would get an OTV before a CP.

Just to be clear - I know I started my plants too early this year by about 2 weeks. When I started them mid-August last year, I had fruit by December but the cold temperatures we had in December and January meant that the fruit didn't ripen until the end of February.

I want ripe fruit by December. So I think that means I need fruit to set early in October. I will see how it goes this year and then consider starting them August 1st next year.

Cherokee Purple is a mid season variety and OTV Bradywine is a late mid-season variety. So all else considered you should ripe fruits forming on the CP before the OTV.

I don't use DTM's b/c they are sheer guesstimates so use a spread of days to help define early, mid-season and late season.

But of course fruit set and ripening is dependent on lots of variables, perhaps the main one being where and when the plants are grown.

As long as those temps you just noted hang around I think you're going to experience blossom drop, so everything will be delayed.

Once the temps drop new blossoms will appear and new blossoms will appear about every 2-3 weeks, not as single flushes of blossoms, but random ones.

Carolyn

Thanks, Carolyn. We never get a break in the weather here until September is over and I can recall years where it was that hot well into October and some even into November. One year it was hot and humid through mid-November and then by early December we were dropping into the high 30's. It was crazy!

I may have to grow cherries in the fall here and save my heirlooms for spring, but last year it started getting hot and humid here end of March so I would need to start seed in mid-October I think.

Brandywine are okay, but they split & rot faster then an tomato I have grown.