While the Brandywines I have grown here have tasted fantastic, they
are very low in production, maybe 10-15 tomatoes per plant per season.
So, I wouldn't recommend them if you don't have much room. There are
several varieties of heirloom tomatoes that produce well and have a
good taste. Mortgage Lifter is very prolific and mine averaged around
24 ounces. The taste beats any hybrid I have found. Delicious also
is prolific and tasty and seems to have some disease resistance.

I think the heirloom versus hybrid question can be solved by
considering what you want out of your tomato plants. If you want
uniformity and disease resistance, by all means grow hybrids. If you
want variety and taste, go with the heirlooms. I usually plant
between 15 and 20 tomato plants each year in a very limited space.
Out of these, only 1 or 2 are hybrids. The only reason I grow hybrids
at all is in case I have a very disease prone year (like last year).
Then, at least, I still have a good number of tomatoes. Despite the
unexpected 50 degree cold snap in June (almost unheard of in TN) and
the excessive rain which made the blights worse than usual (both early
and septoria), I still would have had tomatoes to give away even
without the hybrids.

*snip*

Lee Hall
South end of Zone 6B in Tennessee

Lee,

Thanks for your information. Naturally, the things you've stated here
are exactly why I'm having such difficulty deciding what I want to grow.
I have small area, but I really do love Brandywines. However, I don't
seem them as "doable" because I want something prolific as I want to be
able to have food for a family of five, including canning for the winter
season, etc. So, after all of this, I have still not made a decision
although I've thrown about a couple ideas here and have made it so my
husband's eyes glaze over with boredom when I mention the word "tomato".


Heather H.