Better Boy F1 reviews

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Shule
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Location: SW Idaho, USA

Better Boy F1 reviews

#1

Post: # 29746Unread post Shule
Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:23 pm

Since there's a Big Beef F1 reviews thread, I figured I'd make this one, too.

I read all kinds of great things about Better Boy F1, and finally last year, I got to taste a couple fruits or so. My neighbor brought me some. They were really good. Nice and dense flesh, too.

Then, I grew some F1 seeds myself, and wow, I was surprised. The plant hardly grew very much at all, and the fruits were way undersized (like cherry-sized, almost); there were only a few fruits. It finally got smothered by my Galapagos Island tomato (the one grown from seeds of a 5-chamber fruit), and I haven't seen it since. (I did try to uncover it, to no avail.)

So, I'm kind of confused. Does Better Boy F1 like a lot of fertilizer or something? Maybe the soil just wasn't right for it. It did so well for my neighbor. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of other kinds of sizeable tomatoes that are growing and fruiting just fine. I'm trying to figure out what's different about Better Boy F1. What does it need to prosper?

Oh; maybe it just doesn't like drought. I am practically dry farming. Do you think that's the issue?

In another place, I also grew a Better Boy F2 plant from a seed I saved from the tasty fruits my neighbor gave me. It fared pretty much the same as the F1, with regard to the small plant size. It may have had bigger fruit, but something smothered it before I could assess it much.

I wasn't expecting so much tomato smothering to go on this year, but (most of) the plants grew about twice as fast and large as expected, due to cooler and wetter than average weather early in the season. Next year I plan to plant a higher percentage of compact tomatoes (e.g. Napoli and Frittata Kitchen) as well as those that shouldn't smother others (e.g. Stick).

Anyway, if you've grown Better Boy F1, feel free to write reviews here!
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

Barb_FL
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Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:24 pm
Location: Indialantic, FL

Re: Better Boy F1 reviews

#2

Post: # 29749Unread post Barb_FL
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:21 pm

Charles Wilber grew a world record # of tomatoes with Better Boy tomatoes. He had really specific criteria for compost.

Dave Freed, the tomato guy had much less rigid criteria for growing and getting abundant # of tomatoes per plant. Better Boy was one of his tomatoes that he grew to achieve such success. He had others including Big Beef.

Our Florida season is starting now with seed sowing. MsCowpea is attempting to follow Charles Wilbers method as close as feasible for Florida. I'm going to mimic Dave the tomato guys method. We are both going to use Better Boy tomatoes and will track our results.

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