I am growing only one tomato these days, Stump of the World. I graft it on disease resistant rootstock and it does pretty well. I grew 100+ different heirlooms and I got the most great-tasting tomatoes from Stump so I decided to stick with it.
There are many different Brandywines, the experts here will be able to tell you the difference. None of them did super well in my heat. Sudduths used to be considered the best of them and it is indeed very tasty. Cherokee Purple is also a fantastic-tasting tomato if it produces for you. @Fusion_power is a tomato guru so I’m sure his ideas are good.
What rootstock do you use? Also about at what size do you tend to graft? I’ve never grafted any tomato’s but looks like that could be a nice solution going forward, plus a bit of fun
If you were taking a poll of tomato connoisseurs, I suspect Brandywine would top the list. It is a potato leafed variety with great vigor (indeterminate) that also has a reputation for being a shy bearer, which is why there are so many recent introductions bred from it but with higher yields.
The first one I grew was Brandy Boy which combined genes from Brandywine and Better Boy and is sold by Burpee So far I haven’t found one that is better- tasty as Brandywine but much more productive. I don’t order the seeds anymore and just keep it going by growing one in isolation from other tomatoes and use the seeds from it.
Every year I try other Brandywine crosses but haven’t found one yet that is an improvement over Brandy Boy, although my “research” is spotty.
I think these crosses make root grafting Brandywine unnecessary- in my climate.
I don’t think heat alone is the problem with tomatoes, although I have no experience in the south. The main problem here is rain and general humidity that encourages early blight here- a dry and very hot summer brings huge yields, but we haven’t had one of those for a while. The only truly affective approach for me in our very wet growing seasons is to start a second tomato crop in May to be my harvest in Sept into Oct. Others grow them under a plastic tent. The first crop I start about mid-Feb to have big plants with tomatoes already on them when the soil is warm enough for them to thrive in about mid-May here. I start to get tomatoes in early June- grape and cherry varieties. The slicers begin in early July. I have all the fresh tomatoes I need from June into Dec. when I play my cards right.
We are still getting pretty hard frosts and my greenhouse is over full with primarily tomato and pepper plants. If I put them into wet and cool soil they will stagnate. .
I have been using DRO…TX or some such, or Estamino. I don’t think there is much difference for non-commercial growers, any of the modern rootstocks will get you the root disease resistance.
I graft when the roots and tops are maybe 4” tall. I think that is a standard height. Make sure to get grafting clips, use a razor blade for the cuts not a grafting knife, and keep covered in warmer area after grafting, for the next week.
Tomatoes have problems with pollination when temps are above 92F. It is much worse in high humidity which causes pollen clumping. Alan is on the money with early blight being a major problem in the northeast. He also has late blight and sometimes major problems with septoria. Here in the southeast, we have problems with septoria, gray mold, early blight, bacterial spot, and sometimes late blight. We also have several soil borne diseases and pests such as southern blight, ralstonia, and nematodes. I bred “Lorelei” a cherry tomato with multiple disease resistance which can handle most of the challenges.
If interested in grafting tomatoes, Johnnys sells rootstock seed, grafting supplies, and has a nice white paper on the process. Big Beef is a readily available variety that makes a fairly good rootstock.
I really like Rutgers tomato. It does well for me in NJ, even with rain 2-3 times a week. I think it might be up your alley for someone who wants “old fashioned flavour”.
Some qualities I like about it are the medium size, the excellent cooked or raw flavour, sub acid tang, decent disease resistance and heavy production until frost. Tomatoes that are too big tend to crack more and can damage the plant without support. Plus, medium tomatoes fit on sandwiches better.
If he is looking for sweet tomato, I think the Beef or Boy hybrids are pretty solid, although less flavourful than the purple heirlooms. I think the best sweet and high flavour tomatoes are cherries like ss100, black cherry or the sweetest of them all, sungold. I am biased to cherry tomatoes for fresh eating though.
Best slicer for taste for me is a tossup between pink brandywine and black krim. Both are top notch and have produced well for me as long as I don’t keep planting in the same spot year after year. Last year my black krim went nuts and outproduced every other variety I grew. Just liked last years weather I guess.
My production does suffer a bit growing heirlooms- particularly during very hot summers- but it’s still way more tomatoes than I need. I’ve grown plenty of beef and boy hybrids too, they are pretty good but I’d rather have one terrific tomato than 10 pretty good ones.
Isn’t there usually a part of the day when pollinators are out and temps are less almost everywhere most days? Are you talking about damage done to early developing fruit.
Much of U.S. tomato production is in the interior valleys of CA where daytime summer temps tend to be at least in the '90’s I believe.
We have periods where temperature stays above 100 during the day and in the 90’s at night. Also, tomatoes are usually pollinated by solitary bees in the carperter bee group, rarely by honeybees, and in some areas by smaller bees in the halictidae group. Pollination can be from wind blowing or just about anything that vibrates the bloom. None of it works if the pollen is clumped due to humidity and heat. A few selections can pollinate at higher temps. Heat set varieties are listed by several vendors. Unfortunately, most of them taste pretty bad. I grow Tropic and Creole which are open pollinated varieties that can produce even in higher temps. Both are reasonably good tomatoes but definitely not classed with Brandywine or Lynnwood.
Its all about the soil and climate they grow in. I fed my tomatoes well. Brandywine would produce perfectly beautiful tomatoes. But they tasted like water. The large pink Brandywine, just did not work. The red Brandywines were a bit better in flavor.
Mine did too! I went from day one to final harvest disease free. Actually the last few years have been nice.
Yeah last year I had these tremendously huge plants at the end of the year my yard looked so nice with all that green disease free foliage.
Exactly right. Don Shor in Davis California the legendary horticulturist, nursery owner, radio show host goes over this well. It is a well known issue some breeders are working on.
He doesn’t go over exact reasons but has on other parts of his web site and on his podcasts.
From his website. He is speaking about his area and his customers out of Davis, CA.
So, is it ever too HOT for these vegetables?
Not for them to grow, but fruit production may be inhibited temporarily by heat waves. Flowers of tomatoes, peppers, and beans will be damaged above 90 and will drop off without setting fruit, so with our typical cycle of very hot spells followed by periods with cool delta breezes, we get fruit setting every few days. Long hot spells may lead to periods later with little fruit. Some varieties are more sensitive than others. The flowers of the ‘Beefsteak’ type tomatoes will be damaged above 85, which means it’s a rare summer day that they’ll set fruit here! They grow just fine, even to 8’ or more, but usually don’t yield well. By contrast, ‘Heat Wave’ is a new tomato introduction that will set fruit even above 90.
Extreme heat when corn is flowering can actually kill the pollen and prevent ears from developing. This is rare, but it did happen to gardeners in 1999 if their corn was flowering during the extreme hot spell we had in July.
For sheer intensity of flavor, grow Costoluto Genovese. Flavor is so intense I almost can’t eat them. Don’t expect much if any sweetness. Do expect an overwhelming sensory overload of tomato flavor. Sauce and salsa made from CG is off the charts for making pizza, spaghetti, and similar cooked dishes.
You’ve taught me something I didn’t know about tomatoes, Fusian and Drew. When I lived in S. CA I always had vegie gardens but never noticed hot weather reducing fruit set of tomatoes- probably because heat spells were never quite long enough to matter and nights tended to be cool. My problem here is always when weather gets too cool early and cuts off the season. Fruit that has set doesn’t ripen properly.
I used to listen to this podcast from Ohio called gardening with Angelo. He suggested when temps turn to cut plant down and hang in garage. Let them ripen. I never tried it.
That I do here and they aren’t as good, of course, but better than what’s selling in stores in Nov. I’m not sure if keeping them on the vine when harvesting them green improves their flavor or not, never really tested it. Sometimes I harvest the vines with the fruit, sometimes I don’t. I’m sure the difference, if there is any, is subtle.
+1 on Costoluto Genovese! Really excellent flavor but for us here in Z10 CA it didn’t produce much. I might try it again this year but I haven’t started seeds yet. So many varieties to try and so many are good.
Juliet and Valentine are great cherry red tomatoes with intense flavor.
Sungold is a family fav and in planning on a bunch of plants of it this year.
We are also trying Brad’s Atomic Grape this year. We will see.
Sunchocola is one of our top ones for flavor, color, and massive production. It’s a bigger, rounded-ish, cherry that’s brown-ish/reddish. It’s made our list of “grow every year” along with Blue Berries tomato (also a cherry) from Wild Boar Farms. A lot of their varieties are excellent.
Sweet Carneros Pink has also been excellent for us with excellent production and taste.
Chef’s Choice Orange is one of the better orange tomatoes with good flavor too. What’s cool about this one is that it keeps the color when you cook it.
Celebrity is a solid red tomato and producer. Flavor is nothing to write home about but good production.
Solar Flare was good flavor and good size but low-ish production when we tried it in 2022. Haven’t tried it again yet.
Principe Borghese (cherry) produced a LOT and we sun dried some of them but unfortunately the tomatoes in oil rotted before we could try them. They are supposed to be an amazing flavor when sundried but average to insipid when fresh.
Momotaro was also very very good. Would recommend this one and New Girl produced well for us as well though the flavor was nothing special.
We are trying Pineapple and Cherokee Purple this year. Let’s see how they fare and produce here.
