Beefsteak Hybrid's flavor & production?

kevin1972

14 years ago

My friend had 8 leftover tomatoes called 'Beefsteak Hybrid' (I'm growing 9 types of heirlooms and Sunsugar as well) that he gave to me. I haven't been able to find much info about this tomato's taste and production on the internet. A tag with the tomatoes said 'Matures in 90 days' and 'Fruit Size 14oz.' Can someone with experience growing this tomato let me know? Thank you, Kevin

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Comments (4)

mojavebob
14 years ago
Hi Kevin,

Before this falls off the front page unanswered, I'll take a swing at it. 'Beefsteak Hybrid' as far as I know is not a name specific to a tomato plant and yours could be any number of 'hybrid beefsteaks'. Beefsteaks are a general group of tomato plant. There are many beefsteak tomatoes.

I'm growing an open pollinated plant from a farmer's market and they just called it 'Beefsteak'. It could be a few different beefsteak types so I'm just waiting to see how it does. My guess is Ponderosa Red as I read it is often called just 'Beefsteak'.

You may be able to find out more if the tag with days to maturity and size has more information. Colorama is a nursery in Southern California which sells a plant they call 'Beefsteak VFN'. The letters following the name just designate disease resistance, and I don't even know if it is a hybrid because they don't say but usually the disease resistance has been bred in via hybridization, yet hybrids are generally designated on labels like yours. Bonnie Plants also supplies the two places near me and the link below is their large fruited 'beefsteak tomato' varieties -- 10 different ones and they sell some smaller fruited beefsteaks too. I'm growing 4 of those varieties. So maybe google the name of the nursery on your tag and see what you can find, if anything. Without doing that you'll have a hard time finding someone certain they have experience growing your particular beefsteak hybrid. Good luck.

Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie Beefsteaks
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missingtheobvious
14 years ago
Beefsteak VFN is a hybrid.

From NCSU's database:
Beefsteak VFN - Breeder and vendor: Burpee. Characteristics: very large, fairly smooth fruit, 17 oz or more with small blossom scar. Resistance: verticillium wilt race 1, fusarium wilt race 1, nematodes. Similar: Super Steak. 1983.

More info:
http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/detail.php?ID=2889&filterBy=&filterBylocation=&filterByfrostfree=
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31342/

=====

There's also a Super Beefsteak VFN from 1988. Tomato Growers Supply sells it, and says:
These large, meaty fruits grow to at least 1 lb. and are the rich, delicious beefsteak tomatoes that everybody loves. This is a special selection of 'Beefsteak' that has superior disease and crack resistance and extremely vigorous plants. Classic beefsteak shape and luscious flavor. Indeterminate. 80 days.

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The OP Beefsteak dates from 1890 is known by several other names:
HendersonÂs Red Ponderosa
Red Ponderosa
Scarlet Ponderosa
Crimson Cushion
HendersonÂs Crimson Cushion
Chair de Boeuf
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If I had more space, Steve, I would give pruden's a try. I only grow about 2-3 indeterminate plants in a special spot in the backyard. The "main garden" out front just doesn't have the space I need to grow everything I want haha. Last year I grew Arkansas traveler back there. It shouldn't come as a surprise (to me or anyone else) that I got a grand total of 0 (thats ze-ro, with a z) ripe tomatoes off that plant, though, the green ones I picked eventually ripened on the counter. This year I grew better boy. It produced okay, but, like many of my tomatoes this year, most of the flowers simply never set fruit. They all decided to open when it was 95* outside and just burned up. It is nothing short of a miracle that I got as many tomatoes as I did this year. There is something to be said for "hybrid vigor" here I think. In my mind, it would seem that the gene pool for most heirloom plants is almost completely homozygous. Sure, they produce amazing fruit, but the production simply ain't there. Now, I know I garden as a hobby, but I would still like more than a couple tomatoes for all the work I put into them. Start crossing and hybridizing and we start to see some amazing results. Your lemon boy experience I think attests to that perfectly. The "dehybridized" version has lost the hybrid vigor of the crossed version and, while it's great for saving seeds, it looses the benefits of having a heterozygous gene pool. Here's an interesting article on hybrids vs. heirlooms from the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/garden/24seeds.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1 I agree with the premise mostly, that a homegrown hybrid can be just as good tasting as a homegrown heirloom, but I do have to say that the orange blossom tomato pales in comparison for flavor that I got from last years Nebraska Wedding (comparing oranges to orange in this case). Too bad NW was a long season variety and extremely prone to BER, that 10 or so tomatoes I got off it were possibly the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had. It could also be all the water we got this year though.
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missingtheobvious
14 years ago
I should have pointed out that unlike plain Beefsteak VFN, Super Beefsteak VFN is OP.
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kevin1972
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the help. Pretty much a wait and see I guess but hopefully they taste as good as those. I looked at sites up to the 5th page of my google search before asking here and thought it might be the "Beefsteak VFN" but the listed weight on my tomato seemed too small.

They were about 16" tall when planted and I only left about 3" above the surface. So they should have a very nice root system. So far they are about 3' tall and wide (I'm not pruning and using Florida Weave) with many flowers and tomatoes. I planted them the second week of May. I'll report on how all my tomato types do at the end of the season.

Thanks Bob and missingtheobvious.
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Beefsteak Hybrid's flavor & production?

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Beefsteak Hybrid's flavor & production?

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