Strange "green" - 50s-60s - in NorthEast.

How are your Brandy Boys doing, Daniel?

Nitsua, the answer here: Daniel, do you have plants yet?

Ah! I remember seeing that now. But Sey thought you had a secret garden, so I thought you'd surprise us and show us a huge Brandy Boy one of these days.

Totally off subject - we decided to plant a couple of Celebrity tomato plants outside this year to see how they would do in this Wyoming climate. Planted on the south side of our house - GH plastic shield during the day and frost blanket at night. It appears we may get some ripe tomatoes - from some weak looking plants!?

The heat has been very bad here too, over 100 and very little rain. It has cooled to a balmy 86 today and I had a decent rain yesterday evening. Not enough but every little bit helps!

The critter is still around though. I checked on them yesterday and none were blushing. I went out a few minutes ago and one had almost ripened over night. It was nibbled like the other one in the other pic...... It would have went way over a pound probably it was much bigger that the other ones. I think it is squirrels, I have a lot of them but they have never been a problem before. Maybe they are looking for water?

This plant is separate from my others, I planted it earlier in black plastic which I have pulled back and mulched with leaves. The critter hasn't messed with the Jersey Boy that is next to it and I pulled one from it that is close to ripe before it does. I will finally get to taste the Jersey Boy's after it finishes ripening.

Coastal Southern California temperatures aren't bad, but the humidity is very high so I'm having fungus problems. However, I hope to have both a Brandy Boy and a Brandywine ripen in a few days so I can do a taste test comparison.

I have problems with my Brandy boys. They have BER and lost the first 5-10 fruits to that. no problems with all my other container grown plants, Not as heavy a fruit setter in my growing conditions as all other tomatoes growing. Hope they taste good... that is the real determining factor. Only have 3 or 4 fruits on the vine. All of my other tomatoes have more than 20- 30.

Jennie

I have a different problem with my BrBs.
The plants are vigorous and healthy, lot of flowers, fruits set (No blossom drop) but most of them just sit there, at the size of a lentil and won't grow.

In the same bed my CP (planted out the same day) is doing great w/ close to 30 fruits. Most of the fruits growing on BrBs are from fused flowers. Amazing.
But it is too early to rate it.

Sey

I made a sandwich with the Jersey Boy last night, It is very very good! I like it better than the Brandy boy's! It isn't as watery, has much better texture, and a little acidic taste. It is a keeper!

Not really a good year to judge Brandy Boy IMO. I will try it again regardless how it performs this season. Mine have just started to show pea size fruit while other varieties are already the size of tennis balls. This is my biggest/healthiest Brandy Boy (F10) which is behind on fruit set but I am hopeful it will have a good second half. I didn't put up 3 stakes for the foliage...lol

Read All About It !
Here is couple of my BrBys

Yea, Sey!! Lookin' good!!

Sey,

I am experiencing the same phenomena of a lot of my fruit just staying at "lentil" size too. Worse than any other year that I can remember.

Thanks Nitsua

@ncr .. Yeah, they are happening with other varieties too, not just BrBys. In some varieties (like Big Beef) some of them seem to be moving but I am not holding my breath. There are plenty of new viable ones coming along

Sey

Sey - your BrBs may be large as it appears the folds on the fruit are deep - which must mean they will expand with growth?

Here is one last photo of the "11 ripe tomatoes" on a single truss before we start harvesting the ripe ones.

Several are oh so close to harvesting. On the left side at about the center, I see 3 little nubs on the truss and I'm wondering if these will eventually start growing. Are they "on hold" waiting for the established tomatoes to finish?

Here are some of the lower, bigger ones on my two brandy boys. Smaller fruits and blossoms near the top of the 4-foot plants

Don't know why it's posting sideways.

Let's try this again.

Hudson, it is a very beautiful picture of very beautiful tomatoes! I have maximum 4 on one truss.

Caryltoo, just my guess. You should try to make your pictures in the landscape format instead of portrait format. You have very interesting support system for your tomatoes. Does it work well?

Brandy Boy in my breakfast

Brandy Boy done for this year. Just stopped raining for now. Due to storm and tree damage, a total loss.

sorry to hear that.

what's your location?

can you share details of what happened ?

I live in Balto. Md., zone 29. Next door friends tree fell and wiped out our gardens and his truck. Tree missed him and his wife by two feet. My porch took a direct hit , but that was it. the ground has a lot of water in it.

I had a Brandy Boy and Brandywine ripe at the same time. I could not tell a difference in taste.

ok, but at least tell us, HOW was the taste ?

I agree with you socalgal !!! That is exactly my experience !! Brandy Boy carries the taste gene (if there is such a thing) from it's Brandywine parent because they sure taste the same to me - simply awesome !!

I love Brandy Boy's taste, but for me Brandywine's taste is something MAGICAL. Like I said in another thread, I like a BW tomato, soft and warm - like just picked up on an evening of a hot summer day. It simply melts in the mouth.

They both tasted wonderful. Very flavorful.

BEST OF THE BEST ?

Nitsua - in response to your comment - time will tell - IMO. In another angle photo shot of the same truss - it appears that other lower nubs that used to be the same size as the ones you pointed out - are increasing in size. I'll keep a watch on them.

Hudson, that is awesome. The plant is literally loaded.
Oh ! And the nubs are growing too. I have dozens of those nubs.

Well, I don't see a contest size there. That is obvious so many of them are growing together on he same cluster. Looks like cherry. hehe

Sey

Thanks Sey - the nubs that do have delayed growth don't seem to get very large before they ripen - although I haven't tried to keep track in the past.

sey wrote: > Well, I don't see a contest size there.
Well, hudson is competing in his own league, with those that grow in a GREENHOUSE. All the others compete among themselves.

Delbar75, so sorry to hear about the damage. I'm glad no one was hurt.

antmary & Hudson, thanks for the kind comments.

The posts of some of these pictures are awesome so that's really such a nice thing to see. I'm back because I just ate my third Brandy Boy and wanted to talk about it even though the heat has reduced the quality of everything besides cherries to very poor.

The first two were harvested, one small table ripe and one with 50% color on June 23 (pics posted on that date above). The ripe one was eaten the same day and tasted sun cooked, flavor was destroyed but ok in little parts The next one I ate a few days later when it ripened was a bit better but had lots of core and could have been beaten by a supermatket tomato. Not so with the third ... harvested at breaker stage on June 25, and not eaten till today on July 6, 11 days later, table ripe. All of my large tomatoes are tasting pretty bad, and this one BrB was actually OK and enjoyable, my best of my remaining beefsteaks (which is a low standard). The third (eaten July 6) tomato was picked at 330 grams and weighed in at 307 grams today I can post a pic if you want. Because there were questions about weight loss, I calculated the rate.

Over the 11-day period the Brandy Boy tomato #3 (my largest) loss averaged exactly 0.65% its mass per day, from breaker to table ripe.

Did Sun City Linda win zone 9 already (hint!) ? ;-)

delbar, we'll that's a bummer. It sounds like you were a good sport about it. That really counts, there is always next time!

Cheers
PC

I checked on the Brandy Boys today - we have several larger ones on the way! As Sey frequently will say - "the contest must go on"!

7 Brandy Boys on first truss :)

Goodground, you have very cute tomatoes.

I want to post the update pictures. Brandy Boys are growing.

I do not have a size winner here since there are so many of them on the same plant, but they do look impressive overall.

Good reports, ye'all.
Mine are few but with deep folds and the leaves are huge.

Sey

Nice Show Goodground! I love the long sepals on your Brandy Boys in your photo. It is one the of identifying traits of BrB - and the sepals appear to be saying - "Here I am - look at me" - haha

Your Brandy Boys look great also - Antmary! Nice sized tomatoes and plenty of them !!

This is one of our entries for the most unusual Brandy Boy !

LoOks like a heart. Are you trying to tell us that you love brandy boy? Haha!

AntMary, you have any blushing yet? I got nothin happening in my garden yet. Not even my 4ths are showing color yet. Next 3 days are supposed to be sunny 80's. Maybe something will start turning out there.

I picked a few this morning and one of them weighed 17.8 oz. most of them are around 1 lb.

I'm a little disappointed in Brandy Boy. It is heavily infected with early blight, and the only tomatoes on the plant are the ones that formed back in late May, when I first put them in the ground. My other tomatoes are resisting EB much better, and they are continually setting new fruit. 'Beefsteak' has already given me ripe tomatoes. 'KBX' should follow suit in a day or two. Brandy Boys look just as green as ever.

In Brandy Boy's defense, it has the largest tomatoes out of all my plants, and it also has the most fruit setting on one truss. Hopefully, in a few more days I will have some ripened fruit to show everyone.

However, unless the taste is absolutely out-of-this-world, I probably won't grow Brandy Boy again.

Soon as I talked smack about 'em, look what happens:

Lol, that's awesome.

This thread is too long, so Hudson decided to open a NEW thread: Brandy Boy Contest -2015 (5)