Big Beef Tomato question

[roadhog]

I bought some big beef (70day) tomato plants this year. They turned out great. No disease and great production.

I have saved a few seeds but have questions I have not been able to find an answer to:

1. Are the Big Beef heirloom or hybrid?
2. As I understand it if they are hybrid then they may not grow to be big beef..but some other type that may or may not be good.
3 The Big Beef I got the seeds from were at least 7 feet from any other tomato so is this enough that it would not cross pollinate with the cherry 100 or one other plant I have no idea what it was.

**4. Is it better if the Big Beef are hybrid to just order online?

**5. Where would you all recommend buying Big Beef seeds from.

Thank you for any help//

[TZ -OH6]

Yes, Big Beef is a hybrid. If you plant seeds the flavor, size, and productivity of the offspring will be slightly different from the parent and from each other.


A quarter mile is a good distance to be certain that there will be no cross pollination. If you can walk from plant to plant the bees can fly that distance much faster.

[a0c8c]

7 feet is no where near far enough to prevent cross pollination from bees. Most bees travel a mile or two from their hive to get investigate all plants around.

[roadhog]

Thank you very much for the responses.

I guess I will try one or two plants from these seeds (just to see what I get), and buy some big beef seeds online.

Any one have a preference on where to buy big beef seeds (70 day) that are good quality and good price? I will probably order this week as I want to make sure I have a couple of the big beef plants ready for next season and want the seeds on hand.

I have always grown beefmaster or beefsteak. I like the big beef as they are early (70 days), very productive, and seem to grow excellent here with out much trouble with disease here in East Tennessee. They did not get quite as big or quite as tasty as the beefsteak/beefmaster I grew in Florida, but pretty close and so much easier to grow. Production was unreal...I had two plants and the wife and I always had tons of fruit. People here with other varieties were complaining about this year not being too good (lots of rain here). The big beef did just fine.

I also plan to split the seeds with a friend and send some to Florida, they will have to start the seeds the first part of the year.

Thank you all very much..

I was going to post pic of one of the big beef plants as it was about 7 feet at the time but do not understand how to post a pic here...I select img* and all it does is it img* on the text line I am typing??[/img]

[Gnome]

roadhog,

We don't host photos here, you must host them at a third party site and then link to them. Here is a link to some suggested hosts and brief instructions.

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... php?t=3724

Norm

[TZ -OH6]

You should be able to buy Big Beef seeds at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, local nursery etc. next spring. I would trust the seed quality from those places as much as I would from mail order venders because it probably comes straight from Burpee every year. I doubt the seed sits around in a back room at Walmart from year to year the way it might at Tomato Joe's Internet Seed Imporium.

That being said, Tomato Growers Supply and Johnnys Seeds are trustworthy online venders who carry hybrids.