The original Brandywine (pink) came from Ben Quisenberry, who received the variety from a woman named Dorris Sudduth Hill.

At one point there was a mix-up from a seed company, and that is why there are 3 Red Brandywine "types" available.

There is more info in the article I have linked below.

Bets

Here is a link that might be useful: Brandywine Article

And here is a previous discussion on "the real brandywine" with all the details.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: The Real Brandywine

Sue, I'm in CT also. There are many flavors of Brandywine, but the true pink ones ARE potato leaf. I'm not growing it this year, but I did grow the "Sudduth" strain in 2007 and do have seed if you're interested. I'm also growing Red Brandywine this year. Read the article at Victory Seed. You can email me if you like. Good luck.

Thank you, but those references are so convoluted and complicated in trying to trace the lineage that they lose me part way through and I am no closer to being able to determine what I have. Is the Amish designation a substrain, an original brandywine with an incorrect name or undocumented supposition but still an original brandywine, or is it an entirely different tom?

At least I now know the original is a potato leaf so either of mine COULD be. I can't get much further than that.

I was hoping someone had looked into one or both of the sources I purchased mine from.

I gave up starting plants from seed myself due to the mess, the difficulty producing quality plants with enough artifical light so they are't leggy, and a curious cat. :). Thank you for the generous offer. I will be on the lookout for plants of the original next year. If I can't I may get motivated to try the seed thing again myself. I will wait and see.

Sue

Buy some Brandywine (Sudduth) seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds or buy some Daniels or Red Brandywine plants from SelectedPlants.com ... and you won't be disappointed.

SelectedPlants Red or Daniel taste good, but not the original brandywines, correct? If previously provided info is correct, the Sudduth strain is the original? They list a Suddarth, but it is not the same as the Red, and Daniels is not a brandywine?

Why not just call your source of plants and ask them? They certainly should be able to tell you which it is.

The bottom line, as Carolyn explained in the link I posted above, is

The most common one grown is the Brandywine ( Sudduth/Quisenberry)

If a seed company lists something just as Brandywine, it means they don't know what version it might be

if your fruit are pink then it is most likely the Sudduth/Quis original

if your fruit are red then it may be any of several different varieties.

Dave

"SelectedPlants Red or Daniel taste good, but not the original brandywines, correct? If previously provided info is correct, the Sudduth strain is the original? They list a Suddarth, but it is not the same as the Red, and Daniels is not a brandywine?"

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1. Red Brandywine-Landis Valley stands just as good a chance of being "an original" Brandywine as Johnny's Sudduth/Quisenberry Brandywine since "the original" Brandywine appears to have been a regular leaf something-or-another called Brandywine from Burpee (circa 1886) or from Johnson & Stokes (circa 1889) or maybe even something called Turner's Hybrid or Mikado which may or may not have been potato leaf 100 years ago.

2. I don't know why, if you don't want to start your own plants from seed and you want something approaching a true Brandywine, that you wouldn't trust SelectedPlants.com to provide honest to goodness Brandywines, whether red/regular leaf or pink/potato leaf. I'd trust him over just about anyone else to do just that.

3. I'm not 100% saying it is, but who says Daniels isn't "a Brandywine?"

4. Anyone who believes beyond a shaddow of a doubt that Sudduth is an unadulterated, pure line of the original Brandywine ... hey, I got a bridge to Brooklyn I'd like to sell you :::smile:::

Bottom line ... the never ending search for "the original" Brandywine will end when someone finds its seeds along with the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.

I have but Tasteful Garden doesn't answer the phone although I have emailed them. WFF lists 4 varities, Red, Pink, OTV and Suddarths and in my ignorance I chose the red and pink, apparently neither the original. Obviously annoying to rehash this with each newbee but very difficult to sort out when you are one. Never mind that the Victory article lists "substrains, selections and erroneous names" without telling you which are which, even if I understood the difference between a substrain and a selection. They don't make clear if the listing of Amish heritage is simply an unproven lineage of the orginal true brandwine or aother tomato entirely.

Sue

OK, NOW I get it, there is NO undisputed, commonly accepted original brandywine from ANY source. I wish someone would just flat out say it if that is the case. It would have saved me a little frustration in trying to figure this out! :) It has nothing to DO with "trusting" selectedplants, it has to do with my not understanding what a real brandywine is. I could trust selectplants 100%, but since they offer over 14 varieties of "Brandywine" it would be even more confusing to order from them than most other places. "Daniels" they don't even say is a bradywine, but rather a variety to rival brandywine in taste, so why the offense that I infer that it isn't brandywine? THEY don't even claim it is. Good Grief. I just wanted to try the famous tomato that is supposed to be unrivaled in taste, and I would probably then have tried some of the other strains to compare it to. But apparently from what I gather from your last post now, there is no such thing.

So when 20 different people list Brandywine as tops in taste, they may be 20 different tomatoes.

Sue

So when 20 different people list Brandywine as tops in taste, they may be 20 different tomatoes.

Possibly except that I think most of us who grow our own transplants buy Sudduth/Quis seeds. With transplants you may never know which one you are really getting.

Dave

Alright, already. Sorry if I got all wacked out about it. It really don't mean shinola to a tree.

Look, if you want the closest thing possible to the original Quisenberry/Sudduth Brandywine, order the seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds and get that one right there in that picture.

If you want to purchase plants, contact Darrell at SelectedPlants.com and ask him to kindly assist you with a nice selection of Brandywine tomato plants. If it were me, I'd get a variety pack with one or more of each: Brandywine/Sudduth, Red Brandywine/Landis Valley, Daniels, and Brandywine OTV. JMO.

I bought and grew every brandywine seed sold in the entire country this year.And one from an old 90 year old gardening buddy from chatham illinois who has been growing it for years.Thought his was alittle too acidy,but good.They are all good,but surprisably different in suttle ways.Two of my favorites are the sudduth and the OTV.They have low productivity but if you put kelp meal in the soil both spring and fall and spray the blossoms with blossomspray from burpees you will get more tomatoes.Happy gardening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!