Last edited on November 29, 2025. View history
Brandywine Tomato
A variety of heirloom tomato
How to sow brandywine tomato: Direct seed indoors and transplant seedlings outside after hardening off
Sun requirement for brandywine tomato: Plant in Full Sun
The Brandywine tomato plant is an heirloom cultivar of the species, with large potato-leaved foliage and which bears large pink beefsteak-shaped fruit, popularly considered among the best tasting available. Brandywine tomatoes can bear fruit up to 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg), requiring 80 to 100 days to reach maturity, making it among the slowest maturing varieties of common tomato cultivars. Brandywine has been described as having a "great tomatoey flavor"
- 9
- plantings
- 5
- harvests
- 5
- seed packets
Brandywine tomato facts
Lifespan
Days until maturity
80–100 days median of members' seed packetsGrown for
fruit harvested 5 timesCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For brandywine tomato, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 70 days at its best temperature, about 1155 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your brandywine tomato will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow brandywine tomatoes
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Plant brandywine tomatoes with
basil
carrot
Thai basil
chives
black beauty eggplant
Photos
Photos
Brandywine tomato plantings
Brandywine tomato harvests
Brandywine tomato seeds
Video
Where brandywine tomatoes grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about brandywine tomatoes
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Who's planted brandywine tomatoes
- shiny back yard shaded garden · Wellington, NZ
- kyrielle CP 1 · Wilsonville, OR
- newellista Home Garden · Mapleton, Utah
- cfarm Balcony · Philadelphia, PA
- neotoma Left flowerbed · Silver Spring, MD
Brandywine tomato harvests
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shiny harvested 1 .
over 6 years ago
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shiny harvested not specified.
over 6 years ago
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shiny harvested 1.
over 6 years ago
shiny harvested 1 .
View all brandywine tomato harvests
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View all brandywine tomato seeds
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 70 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about brandywine tomatoes
Resources outside Growstuff.
