Coustralee vs Brandywine vis setting fruit

15 years ago

Hi everyone,

The past two years I've grown Brandywine tomatoes (coastal San Diego) and I've found that they just refuse to set fruit when the weather gets hot. My neighbor is trying Coustralee this year and wants to know if he'll likely have the same problem setting fruit as I've had, or whether Coustralee is a more prolific producer. Anyone with experience here want to give us some advice? Thanks,

ThisBud4U

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Comments (7)

lee_71
15 years ago
Cuostralee is much more productive and disease tolerant and
better tasting than Brandywine, IMHO. So I think your neighbor
will be very pleased with this variety.

Out of the 500+ varieties I have sampled, this is my personal
favorite.

Lee
sowbusy7nc
15 years ago
For me Coustralee is a "must grow" every year, it outperforms Brandywine in every catagory.
Glenn
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anney
15 years ago
Lee

This is my first year of growing Cuostralee too, and since I started it, I've read about an equal number of "love it"s and "don't like it"s on GardenWeb.

I gather from your post that you prefer it to all others because of the taste first, and then its disease-tolerant production. Is this true? (That would be my order of preference, too.)

Do you recall how the mature size of the plants compare to other varieties? (Still working on my spacing chart for tomatoes.)
lee_71
15 years ago
Yes, I prefer it mainly for its taste. But it also has the
advantage of having more disease tolerance and higher production than other "outstanding tasting" varieties such
as Brandywine.... (which by the way, I don't particularly care for, because I think it's too sweet.)

As for the size, it gets to be about the same size as a typical indeterminate variety. 5~7' in height. I would give it 2~3' spacing depending on your growing methods....

Lee
carolyn137
15 years ago
I know you asked for input from folks in your own area so I didn't post before, but now I see others who are not in your area posting, so I will as well. ( smile)

Brandywine for many people has problems self pollenizing anyway, so it doesn't surprise me that in Sand Diego with your June Gloom weather that they don't set fruits for you easily.

Almost any other large fruited variety, be it pink or red, should set fruits better in your area.

Cuostralee is a variety I initially got from a Frenchman in a huge trade in 1992 and initially listed it in the SSE YEarbooks and it's gone out from there to many seed sources.

It is reliable and usually has a high yield and in your area it should set fruits better than Brandywine most of the time but that depends on where someone is growing Brandywine in a geographic sense since I know many who do get very decent yields from Brandywine and I'm one of them.

If Coustralee is the choice then I think you can tell your friened that it should do just fine.

As for taste, I think it's pretty darn good but of course opinions will vary b'c taste is both personal and subjective and there are many other variables as to weather, soil, amendments used, how the plants are grown and where, again, in a geographic sense they're being grown.

Carolyn
carolyn137
15 years ago
having more disease tolerance

****

Lee, what diseases does Cuostralee show tolrance against? it isn't tolerant to foliage diseases but have you seen it be tolerant to any specific systemic diseases?

Carolyn
lee_71
15 years ago
Lee, what diseases does Cuostralee show tolrance against? it isn't tolerant to foliage diseases but have you seen it be tolerant to any specific systemic diseases?

Mainly, it it seems partially tolerant to Fusarium. It is similar to Cherokee Purple in this regards in that it can
still produce fairly well even after infection.

I can vouch (unfortunately) that it is not tolerant of TSWV, but that shouldn't be a problem in CA....

Lee

Coustralee vs Brandywine vis setting fruit

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lee_71

sowbusy7nc

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