The Brandywine tomato is a relatively new tomato variety. Its main distinguishing feature is the color of the fruits, which have a dark red or black coating. Before you start growing such a tomato, you need to familiarize yourself with its description and characteristics.
Short description
Brandywine red and black are mid-season tomatoes that fully ripen two months after young seedlings are planted in the ground.The tomato has fairly tall bushes, which under optimal conditions can grow up to two meters. Because of this, the bushes often break and begin to dry out. To get rid of this problem, during cultivation you should tie them to pre-installed supports made of wood or iron. Also, the bushes require mandatory pinching. To obtain maximum yield, you should form a tomato into several stems.
The fruits of the plant have a flat-round shape and are colored dark red. In some varieties, after ripening, the color turns yellow or the skin simply acquires a slight yellow tint. The weight of tomatoes is considerable - 250-500 grams. When grown in greenhouses, you can get a larger harvest. This variety is most often used for preparing fresh vegetable salads. However, in some cases it is used to prepare tomato juice.
Planting seeds
It is recommended to plant the pink Brandywine tomato variety for growing seedlings in early spring, two months before planting in open ground. The process of sowing seeds to obtain seedlings is carried out in several stages.
Preparation of planting material
It is recommended to use only the highest quality seeds for planting. To select them, you need to use a saline solution. To do this, pour a liter of water and 100 g of salt into a small container. Then everything is thoroughly mixed and seeds are added to the liquid.
In just five minutes, some of them will begin to float to the surface. It is them that you will have to get rid of immediately, since they are empty. All other seeds are removed from the container and dried.
Landing
To grow seedlings, special boxes filled with soil are used.First, you should make several small holes in the ground no larger than two centimeters in size. Then 1-2 seeds are added to each hole and covered with soil. Also, after planting, you should water the soil and cover the containers with tomatoes with plastic wrap.
Bushes should be grown in a lighted room with an air temperature of at least 25 degrees. In order for seedlings to grow better, you should take care of their daylight hours, which should not be less than 15 hours.
Planting seedlings
Seedlings are planted in the garden in the last month of spring after the night frosts have ended. If you start replanting it too early, the tomatoes may not cope with the low temperature.
Soil preparation
To accelerate the growth of seedlings, you should properly prepare the soil for planting. Therefore, it is recommended to apply all necessary fertilizers to the site in advance. Even in the fall, the soil is fed with river sand and peat. It should also be watered with a nutrient solution containing potassium with superphosphate. Some vegetable growers add humus and turf ash to the soil.
In addition, the area must be completely dug up so that the soil is not too dense. Some gardeners water the soil before planting, but this should not be done, as this will cause a dense crust to appear on the surface of the soil.
Landing
Planting a black Brandywine tomato begins with creating planting holes. They don't have to be very large or deep.
When all the holes have been dug, you can begin planting. Young plants are placed in the ground in a vertical position, sprinkled with earth and carefully compacted. After this, supports are installed near each bush, which will be useful in the future for securing the plants.
Conclusion
Even a gardener who has never grown vegetables before can grow Brandywine. To do this, just read the recommendations for planting this variety and look at the reviews of people who have planted it in their garden more than once.
