nar

12 years ago

I can't believe this tomato has eluded me for so long. My experience with it is so good that I just felt the need to make this post. It is by far the best performer in my garden. Nothing seems to bother it, no problems with EB, Septoria, BER, nothing. Some flea beetles came and chewed up the lower leaves - the plants didn't flinch. 90-100 degree temps have become the norm - it's still growing, flowering, and setting fruit.

That leads me to the next part, the fruit is amazing. Beautiful tomatoes with little to no cracking or splitting of any kind and they taste great. Tomatoes can be left on the vine till near dead ripe and won't split with heavy rains (at least I haven't seen any splitting so far - I have on other varieties though). As far as production goes, they are also ahead of the pack, I've gotten about 8-10 pounds of fruit off each plant already and there's easily that much more that will be ready in the next week - and it's only mid-July - I expect to get tons more before the first frost.

Definitely on my re-grow list. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but this won is a winner for me. For me, NAR yields more, tastes better, looks better than just about every hybrid beefsteak I've ever tried. It's reasons like this that I grow so many different kinds every season. I've got another "main cropper" to add to my list of regulars.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

skeip
12 years ago
OK, now that you've got us coveting the seed, where can we get it? Heirloom or OP?

Steve
homegardenpa
Original Author
12 years ago
Not sure if it qualifies as an heirloom because there are varying opinions on the definition of "heirloom", but it is an open pollinated variety - my seed came from TomatoFest.com, but there are a number of seed sellers that have this variety. The full name is "Neves Azorean Red."

I had heard good reviews of this variety in the past, but it's hard to filter out the hype sometimes. For me this is the first variety in a long time to live up to what I've read. A lot of "disease-resistant", "bold tomato taste", and "crack-resistant" varieties have proven to be anything but. For me in my zone 6 garden in PA, it has been a standout performer in the abnormally dry, hot, and humid weather.
Related Discussions
The 2011 EarthTainer 'Farm' Brandywine from Croatia, MarNar (pics
Q
Comments (10)
keski, The EarthTainer design will work anywhere in the World. The key element is well draining Grow Media, which in the Guide I have recommended a Combo Mix of 3 parts Potting Mix, 2 parts Microbark, and one part Perlite. This will give the plant's root system the necessary aeration, while at the same time facilitate the wicking action to keep a steady-state supply of moisture for the plant's needs. Itzy, Yeah, I've learned in life that you need to be able to step back - - and laugh at yourself once in a while..... Raybo
...See More
Brandywine x NAR Cross
Q
Comments (15)
Big Daddy, the reason I sent out 16 - 32 F2 seeds of the Brandywine x Neves Azorean Red to each of the few people I sent them to, in 2008 and 2009, is so y'all would plant all of them at once and select the healthiest potato leaf (PL) seedlings to grow. See, if you'd plant say 20 F2 seeds, you'd likely have 4 - 5 PL vines to look at and select from. The F2s were sent mainly to a few folks who I know prefer PL vines. But then it seems most the folks I sent them to only planted a few at once and either forwarded a few seeds to other folks or held on to the rest and planted a few the following year. This reduced the chances of selecting out PLs and increased the chances of RLs becoming the dominant selection. That's fine with me, because some of the other folks ended up with nice RL types. I'm just sayin' what my original idea was. We do have one really fine red fruited PL type selected out here in Indiana in 2009, and grown to the F3 in Tishomingo, Mississippi; and that I'll be growing a few examples of here this year. It's a real dinner plate sized, great tasting beefsteak on a vigorous, potato leaf vine. And yes, there are several lines that seem susceptible to the damp weather blues like Septoria and Early Blight, but I have found a few lines in the F3 (I grew 10 plants last summer) that were very tolerant of that type of thing. And yes, those were PL vines, as a matter of fact. And also yes, I continue to find PL seedlings out of seeds saved from RL plants which is due to exactly what Spice Ham detailed above ... recessive PL lurking under the RL expression in many of the vines. By the way, I took that great, large red, PL F2 I was talking about and outcrossed it to a highly desease resistant, tart, red, Italian tomato, and now am growing out the F2s from that one too. Have a few PL seedlings among the mostly RL siblings to sort out for the garden this summer. I hope to capture the disease resistance from the Italian parent.
...See More
Black stems on NAR
Q
Comments (8)
If NAR is said to go down with any of the common foliage pathogens, Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot being fungal, and Bacterial Speck and Spot being the two bacterial ones, that's not specific to NAR since almost ANY variety can be infected by those, especially the fungal ones. All of those are spread by wind and embedded in raindrops as a means of transmission. And all NEW infections are acquired as I said in the above paragraph.But if plants in a previous year , or so, have had any of those infections, and spores,bacteria, fall to the ground, then the next year or so,splashback infection can happen where rain or irrigation can allow for those to splashback on theplant. And in that case first symptoms are on the lower foliage as opposed to new infections which are usually seen on the top foliage. TGS does not process their own seeds and I've known Linda Sapp who has run the company since her husband Vince died several years ago, since about 1990. She subcontracts out for OP seed production but gets her hybrid seed directly from the various companies that either bred the varieties, or those commercial places that offer same. If any seed she gets turns out to have any specific problems ,lowgermination,disease,etc,she would know about it ,especially since she sells seeds in bulk amounts to large scale commercial growers and they would no doubt be the first ones to contact her. I send seeds for trial to many places each year, TGS being one of them, and many that I sent to Linda have been and are listed. And I'm sure that it was I who sent her the initial seeds for NAR> It still looks to me like a systemic disease as I mentioned above, and if growning inground that raises the possibility that some of the systemic diseases were already there or imported by buying infected plants, or seeds that still had some spores adhering to the seed coat that were not removed by fermentation. The bacterial ones are found in the endosperm of the seed so no common method other than hot water treatment can help with that, and don't try the hot water method at home. ( Simile) Isn't growing tomatoes sometimes fun,fun, fun.LOL Carolyn
...See More
Brandywine/NAR F3
Q
Comments (3)
mulio, copy the Facebook link I posted above into your browser. You'll see the above pic as it appears in my FB Garden album. Click on my name at the top right of the page and request me as a friend. I accept next time I'm on FB. Now we connected on FB and can view each other's pics. I have all my garden pics on FB. Lots of good tomato growers are showing up on FB.
...See More
jbann23
12 years ago
Oh Yeah. Gotta love them NAR. Got three of 'em going in half whiskey barrels and they're tall and loaded. Did get a touch of early blight on one but it's gone now. Used to grow Beefmaster but learned that the NAR didn't have the woody core that Beefmaster did yet grew just as big. They've grown through a touch of broadleaf weed killer someone was using nearby. Now THAT had me nervous. Got most of the folks around here growing them too since they've seen the size and tasted them. Great producer.
bigdaddyj
12 years ago
I have grown 4 years. Two years EXCELLENT! Just like you describe. Two years not so good. I have an F4 Brandy/NAR growing this year but it was setback by EB but seems to have recovered.
carolyn137
12 years ago
YEs it's an heirloom and actually it was named Neves Azorean Red here at GW.

Short story b'c there are many threads here as to where it cane from.

I was teaching an adult ed class on heirloom tomatoes. One of the participants gave me some seeds, unnamed, from a cousin of his near Boston who had gotten them from the then owner of the Neptune Harvest Company, who make the seaweed and fish products.

Anthony Neves and his family had moved from the Azores to the Boston area and he had brought with him some seeds for a variety he had been growing in the Azores where he'd been trying to upsize it. Since those who settled in the Azores long ago came from Portugal there's a good possibility that was the ultimate origin.

Tony traded fruits for this variety with Ed, the owner, in return for fertilizer for his garden.

I grew it out and loved it ASAP. I told everyone how much I loved it but couldn't get enough seeds to list in the SSE YEarbook or give away in my free seed offers b'c the deer were eating the fruits . Sigh.

So it got called Perry's Teasum by some, Chuck Perry had been my seed source. LOL

When I had enough seeds I decided to let others know how one goes about naming an unnamed variety b'c I'd had to do that for many others so started a thread here, where I was doing most of my posting at the time, but don't any more, and gave all the background information I knew.

There were 22 folks who posted in that thread , the name Neves Azorean Red was the final result and I sent seeds for it to all 22 who participated in that thread.

For many years I've always sent the best of what I grow to several seed companies where I know the owners and trust them, for them to trial my new varieties.

And now seeds for NAR are widely available at many many seed sites.

I hope you all enjoy it as I have.

Carolyn, who is currently growing three newly found Portuguese ones, a PL heart, a paste and a beefsteak and hopes that she gets good seed production if they turn out to be really good varieties. Time will tell.

nar

Comments (5)

skeip

homegardenpa
Original Author

Related Discussions

jbann23

bigdaddyj

carolyn137

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

nar

Comments (5)

skeip

homegardenpaOriginal Author

Related Discussions

jbann23

bigdaddyj

carolyn137

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

homegardenpa
Original Author