Heirloom tomato question

[Charlie MV]

We grew Brandywines last year and the yield was so small I almost abandoned them this year. I planted them again just to see if last year was a fluke. This year we got a large number of fruit on a couple of vines that we planted. Problem is that they are growing into HUGE fruit. By the time they ripen, they are multi lobed monsters that are splitting and covered in gooey soft spots. We still get good eating off of what we cut up but the whole experience is flippin' me out. Is it normal for these things to grow the size of small cantelopes and then semi self destruct? What am I doing or not doing that might give me better results? I'm close to just going back to growing run of the mill tomatoes that I understand. We grow gorgeous tasty run of the mill tomatoes in great profusion but these heirlooms seem weird to me.

[Trish-A]

Heirloom's gone wild!

This is one of the reasons that hybrids were created. In my experience Heirloom tomatoes are a bit unpredictable. One year the fruit is light and small while the next large and ugly. Last year our Heirloom Brandywines had very large plants, almost eight feet tall with very little fruit. What fruit there was grew to more than soft-ball size with a lot of splitting.

[hendi_alex]

I have never had very good luck with brandywine. This is my third year of planting, though only included one plant. It is a very healthy plant and bloomed profusely, but only three tomatoes have set. Those are well formed and beautiful, but just not much fruit for the effort. My German Johnsons taste as good and are much more productive. The fruit is generally a little uglier, but who cares, when the tomato is sliced it looks just fine and tastes great. I'll grow brandywine again next year, but no more than one or two plants. Perhaps one year I'll get a good crop from a plant.

[Charlie MV]

thanks for the info everybody. We sat around the table the other night tasting tomatoes. We all agreed the Brandy Wines were good but not really any better than the bigboys or better boys we grow for our main crop. We pretty much agreed that the cherry and tumbling toms were among our favorites. It's nice to know it's not something I'm doing wrong that's causing this crazy tomato behavior. I can't afford to waste the space on finicky plants. It takes 25 plants to yield al we can eat and give away for the year round eating. no more BWs for us.