by John Hagan » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:45 am
All heirloom plants are open pollinated(google it for a better explanation),but basically it means the plant requires a nature method of pollination by insects or wind etc. Also a open pollinated plant will produce seed with the same parent plants characteristics.Not all open pollinated plants are heirloom though. It is generally accepted that if a cultivar is over a hundred years old it is considered an heirloom. You can still find many open pollinated varieties that are coming out every year. A hybrid plant is created through an artificial pollination process and will not produce a true/viable seed. The brandywines you mentioned are an interesting issue in themselves. I know of many many varieties of brandywine tomatoes. I grow pink,purple,red and other bradywines. It is likely the variety you bought could be a "true" heirloom or it could be a more recent open pollinated variety. Either way Im sure it will be great tasting tomato. The only thing that might make it taste better is if you sourced your plant from a local grower as opposed to a mass shipper mega grower like Bonnie. I really dont like them for the problems they caused a couple of years ago. They knowingly sent out truck loads of plants all up and down the east coast that were infected with blight. It caused many large scale commercial tomato farms major problems. It almost doubled the cost of wholesale tomatoes out east. Buy local.
The tall one wants white toast, dry, with nothin' on it.
And the short one wants four whole fried chickens, and a Coke.