[tomato] Re: Big Beef Hybrid AAS tomato
Dave Anderson (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Fri, 16 Jun 2000 16:12:07 -0700
I've never grown Big Beef because Beefstake types don't seem to
do well in our climate. It was an All America Selection which
means it grew well in different areas of the country. They
sometimes mix up the tags at the garden centers. Here's the
details on Big Beef from page 63 of the Seminis catalog:
"This All-America Selections winner combines old-fashioned
tomato qualities with modern breeding techniques to produce what
has been called the finest all-around tomato ever developed for
home gardening. Big Beef hybrid offers old-time tomato flavor,
colossal fruit size, disease resistance and good yield potential. Big
Beef produces extra-large, "beefy" fruit in the 10 to 12 ounce range.
Fruit shape is deep oblate to globe and the shoulder color is apple
green prior to ripening. Relative maturity is 73 days -- earlier than
other varieties that are capable of producing extra large fruits.
Plants are large and vigorous, yet quite manageable when tied to
stakes or grown in large cages, and they continue to produce large-
sized tomatoes high up in the vine later into the harvest season.
The vine shows plenty of hybrid vigor and is protected with this
disease resistance package: V-1, F-1, F-2, ASC, St, N, ToMV.
What a tomato!"
Dave
TLCC
> I grew Big Beef last year and was extremely disappointed. It was
> very
> thick skinned and flavorless, although the fruits lasted a long time
> and were very nicely uniformly round. In other words, mine came out
> very similar to grocery tomatoes.
> How is Big Beef supposed to come out? Maybe the plant they sold
> me was
> actually something else. Maybe it just didn't like my dirt or
> something. think I should give it another chance?