Since this is my first year to grow heirloom tomatoes from seed, I read all the hype about the different varieties looking for those with the characteristics I wanted. One of those I ordered was "Brandywine". I ordered from Pinetree seeds because their blurb stated the Brandywine seed dated back to 1886. To me the date meant "genuine heirloom". Later I found many vendors seemed to be selling Brandywine seed for various colors, various leaf shapes, and various sizes. Wikipedia even has the following statement.
"It reached modern popularity after being introduced in 1982 by an elderly Ohio gardener named Ben Quisenberry. He received the variety from a woman named Dorris Sudduth Hill who could trace Brandywine in her family for over 80 years."
I also found that Burpee seed company also claims to have sold the Brandywine seed in it's catalog in 1885
The only traits of the Brandywine tomato which most people agree on are the following. Potato leaf, large plant, low disease resistance, large beefsteak shape, late producer, fairly low producer, great sweet but acidic taste, prone to BER on early fruit, fruit are pink to slightly red in color, prone to cracking, performs better in cooler climates.
I'm curious if the Sudduth family (Sudduth strain) grew the Burpee seed originally and then handed it down from generation to generation.
Due to all the confusion, will the real Brandywine tomato please stand up and identify yourself?
Comments please!
Ted
This might help
https://www.victoryseeds.com/information/craig_brandywine.html
I'll add/arrange a bit here.
There is Brandywine (pink fruit, potato leaf foliage), most safely identified as Brandywine Sudduth’s strain, and there is Red Brandywine (red fruit, regular leaf foliage), most safely identified as Red Brandywine Landis strain. Everything else is either fake or has one of the Brandywines as a parent. ‘Original’ refers to it being an official commercial variety name (now called ‘Red Brandywine’), but the one that has long been famous for its flavor in modern times is ‘Brandywine’. Red Brandywine was grown by Amish (but who cares, since it was originally a commercial variety), Brandywine was not…although most Amish today grow seeds off the rack so a lot more of them probably grow the non-Amish one today. Brandywine Creek is in Pennsylvania, and is also the site of a Civil War battle, so the name could have been tagged onto anything for any reason.
The famously flavored heirloom Brandywine was given to Ben Quisenberry by Dorris Sudduth (or Sudduth-Hill), grown/saved by the Sudduth family of Tennesee. There is no history of where they got it or where the name came from. It is a pink potatoleaf tomato. At the time that the Sudduth family would have gotten it there were a very few pink potatoleaf varieties sold by seed companies, these included Mikado and Turner's Hybrid. Evidence indicates that most tomatoes were not that good before the late 1800s so most heirlooms originated from improved commercial seed at or after the late 1800s.
Ben Quisenberry ran a small seed company so many people got Brandywine from him. Quisenberry grew his tomatoes in a mixed garden (as do most seed savers) and so a lot of the Brandywine seed out and about was probably impure/unstable, which is why there are some different "strains" out there, and not all Brandywine from big seed companies may be of the same quality. Quisenberry sent Ken Ettlinger of the Long Island Seed and Plant company a packet of mixed seed labeled Brandywine, Stump of the World, and Mortgage Lifter with a note saying Brandywine was the one with the funny leaves.
https://www.liseed.org/rambl_save_tomatosead.html
Ettlinger grew out and stabilized the best of the Brandywine offspring and that strain was one of the best on the market so it was later called (Quisenberry's or Sudduths strain) since it had a paper trail. But because Ettlinger had to stabilized it, by the time it was sold it wasn't exactly what Quisenberry had been sending out (better?). If a seed pack says Brandywine it did originate from Quisenberry/Sudduth family, but may or may not be refined by Ettlinger’s stabilization efforts.
Cowlick’s Brandywine was purchased from Cowlick’s Nursery as ‘Brandywine’ by “Camochefâ€
https://www.victoryseeds.com/information/craig_brandywine.html
I'll add/arrange a bit here.
There is Brandywine (pink fruit, potato leaf foliage), most safely identified as Brandywine Sudduth’s strain, and there is Red Brandywine (red fruit, regular leaf foliage), most safely identified as Red Brandywine Landis strain. Everything else is either fake or has one of the Brandywines as a parent. ‘Original’ refers to it being an official commercial variety name (now called ‘Red Brandywine’), but the one that has long been famous for its flavor in modern times is ‘Brandywine’. Red Brandywine was grown by Amish (but who cares, since it was originally a commercial variety), Brandywine was not…although most Amish today grow seeds off the rack so a lot more of them probably grow the non-Amish one today. Brandywine Creek is in Pennsylvania, and is also the site of a Civil War battle, so the name could have been tagged onto anything for any reason.
The famously flavored heirloom Brandywine was given to Ben Quisenberry by Dorris Sudduth (or Sudduth-Hill), grown/saved by the Sudduth family of Tennesee. There is no history of where they got it or where the name came from. It is a pink potatoleaf tomato. At the time that the Sudduth family would have gotten it there were a very few pink potatoleaf varieties sold by seed companies, these included Mikado and Turner's Hybrid. Evidence indicates that most tomatoes were not that good before the late 1800s so most heirlooms originated from improved commercial seed at or after the late 1800s.
Ben Quisenberry ran a small seed company so many people got Brandywine from him. Quisenberry grew his tomatoes in a mixed garden (as do most seed savers) and so a lot of the Brandywine seed out and about was probably impure/unstable, which is why there are some different "strains" out there, and not all Brandywine from big seed companies may be of the same quality. Quisenberry sent Ken Ettlinger of the Long Island Seed and Plant company a packet of mixed seed labeled Brandywine, Stump of the World, and Mortgage Lifter with a note saying Brandywine was the one with the funny leaves.
https://www.liseed.org/rambl_save_tomatosead.html
Ettlinger grew out and stabilized the best of the Brandywine offspring and that strain was one of the best on the market so it was later called (Quisenberry's or Sudduths strain) since it had a paper trail. But because Ettlinger had to stabilized it, by the time it was sold it wasn't exactly what Quisenberry had been sending out (better?). If a seed pack says Brandywine it did originate from Quisenberry/Sudduth family, but may or may not be refined by Ettlinger’s stabilization efforts.
Cowlick’s Brandywine was purchased from Cowlick’s Nursery as ‘Brandywine’ by “Camochefâ€
TZ-0H6
You filled in a lot of empty space in my head at the center of which was the Brandywine tomato. Sounds like it entered the gardening community in a state of confusion and has only added to the confusion. In short, if a gardener is looking for particular traits in seed from a vendor he should pay attention to the following key words.
Potato leaf, pink color, famous tomato taste, equals the Sudduth/Quizzenberry variety or strain.
Regular leaf, red color, original; equals the Burpee commercial variety or strain.
Thanks!
Ted
You filled in a lot of empty space in my head at the center of which was the Brandywine tomato. Sounds like it entered the gardening community in a state of confusion and has only added to the confusion. In short, if a gardener is looking for particular traits in seed from a vendor he should pay attention to the following key words.
Potato leaf, pink color, famous tomato taste, equals the Sudduth/Quizzenberry variety or strain.
Regular leaf, red color, original; equals the Burpee commercial variety or strain.
Thanks!
Ted
No, not really.
Look for
Brandywine Sudduths strain
Red Brandywine, Landis strain, or get Red Brandywine from Heirloomseeds.com
These can be found sold by most decent online tomato seed venders.
The Burpee, and Johnson and Stokes "Brandywine" are only known to have existed from very old seed catalogs, and were quickly dropped from production. There is no direct evidence that they exist today as the modern Red Brandywine. The old catalogs were found after Red Brandywine hit the market when people were looking for the origin of the name. Note that descriptions say that the old tomato was inferior to some others.
Anything Burpee sells today they got from modern sources, and could be Seed by Design fakes or non Sudduths strain pink Brandywine.
Look for
Brandywine Sudduths strain
Red Brandywine, Landis strain, or get Red Brandywine from Heirloomseeds.com
These can be found sold by most decent online tomato seed venders.
The Burpee, and Johnson and Stokes "Brandywine" are only known to have existed from very old seed catalogs, and were quickly dropped from production. There is no direct evidence that they exist today as the modern Red Brandywine. The old catalogs were found after Red Brandywine hit the market when people were looking for the origin of the name. Note that descriptions say that the old tomato was inferior to some others.
Anything Burpee sells today they got from modern sources, and could be Seed by Design fakes or non Sudduths strain pink Brandywine.
