Big Beef Reviews

[JRinPA]

So far most of the BLTs here have been with big beefs. They were the first to decent color...5 days back? Nothing great yet, certainly no 17-18 oz fruit, but they are good enough for first sandwiches, and look to have the usual good pollination/fruit set. I picked one stump that tricked me, still green on top, that needs a few days on the counter. I ate one cuostralee so far that looked to be 4 flowers fused, so really catfaced. One nice red chunk was great, two orangish, and one mostly still green.

This week will be the turning point. Seven days from now there will likely be ripe first trusses on each plant, and it will be mostly cuostralee, stump, and sweet ozark orange to plate, with big beef going mostly for sauce or soup.

[Barb_FL]

JRinPA - Glad to hear your season looks promising. Did you take last summer off (bad year) or just didn't post.

I went back and read the thread from the beginning and looked at that Dave Freeds pictures - how does he get so many large tomatoes per plant? ????? Even with the Dwarf Project ones.

[JRinPA]

Big beefs last year...I moved the trellis a few rows over and it was the outside/west face row that had estiva and big beef. I transplanted day lilies and columbine at the edging of that side and then overseeded zinnia. There were tomatoes but not many pics taken as I couldn't see them due to flowers. Also they cut the air flow a bit. Size was more like 8-12 oz, and they went mostly for salsa. The "hybrid row" was 25% of total planting. Last year I went full on with cuostralee (the entire east face, they did great, morning sun), with sweet ozark orange + stump+ black krim + costoluto genovese + a couple others in the center facing rows that didn't see as much sun.

2021 hybrid row - big beef on left third. estiva on right two thirds. Not many pics of either.

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This year I left the trellis in place. The flowers are nice but they are cutting the air flow. Not sure where/how I will plant next year. Florida weave is fun until late July when it sags...this A trellis is great but tedious to set up and plant through in May. I may split them up next year. This year I have peppers in the two center facing rows with tomatoes on the outside faces only. As said, this week, it begins!

[Barb_FL]

Nice - Your tomatoes look great in '21 and this year too. Much less cracking than the '20 pictures.

Since not all Big Beefs are equal, where do you get your seeds?

I ended up not growing any BB in my '21-22 season. I went with Red Snapper and later in the season added a couple of Skyway because they both had TYLCV protection which hammered me in '20-21. BTW 20-21 is when I was going to try the Dave Freed approach, even though I don't see that he does anything special - I already feed my plants a lot. But then TYLCV hindered that. Then in '21-22, I forgot about him until I saw your post.

[JRinPA]

Seed is from Johnny's. I should have enough for a few years yet. I can't tell if it is slightly different or not compared to the last Johnny's from...2015? The weather varies so much each year. I like the Estiva too but it is not as good as a slicer as big beef.

2020 had the radial cracking in the early Big Beef. They didn't have much in the way of afternoon shade that year, but they were really big and that radial cracking didn't cause much loss. For selling purposes though, it would be a problem I guess. I remember buying 2nds/sauce tomatoes close to 10 years back now that had cracks like that. They were also fairly big, about that same 17-18oz. I think the variety was Florida 97 ? A few times, I had driven past the field they were grown in. They were staked up with no shade at all.

[JRinPA]

Big Beefs are looking good. Tasting good, I had one last night on a sandwich, it had been on the counter a few days. It was no cuostralee, but then, what is? I do prefer the Big Beefs to these Costoluto Genovese for a sandwich. The CG are mainly for sauce.

They are putting out like normal. Where the red beets and sweet potatoes are in foreground, that was the first sweet corn block. So these tomatoes did suffer a bit when it came to air flow in July. But they kept setting. The far right is SOO which took a dive - after the pic I bent the stems back up and clipped them to the wire on top.
L to R Costoluto Genovese, Estiva, Big Beef

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Comparison
Costoluto Genovese

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Estiva F1

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Big Beef F1

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Pretty good fruit set for this year's conditions and the hybrids are set way up to the top. They will never get the deep red color of some red heirlooms, though. They get about to "chef boyardee" red.

[Donnyboy]

Big Beef and Heatmaster have been my most reliable varieties every year for best taste and production, overcoming high heat, disease, and insects much better than most other varieties. Some years, I add KBX for all the qualities mentioned above as well as the beautiful orange color of giant slices on BLT sandwiches. Most people I give tomatoes too remark on the great taste of the Big Beef and Heatmaster tomatoes. If they are fortunate enough to get some of the KBX, they can't believe how beautiful and tasty they are. This year, I will be growing the Big Beef plus improved Big Beef variety.

[Donnyboy]

Big Beef Plus gave me an abundance of extra large tomatoes which made great single slice tomatoes on BLT's. They actually out performed my other variety "Heat master" in every way. That never happened in the past. Both varieties performed well until early July when every plant of every vegetable variety died in the 100 / 110 degree F heat with no rain and no respite from the heat. Even many weed types were dying. The sun served more as a blow torch than a light source.

[JRinPA]

I didn't start any big hybrids in my row this year. I did start Estivas for my brother and they are setting like crazy for him, nice 7-8 oz each bang bang bang down the truss, 7 8 9 on the first trusses. There is something to be said for hybrids. I've only eaten like 5 tomatoes so far. Well maybe 7, certainly not enough for August 3rd. Thanks for the Big Beef Plus report.

[Wildcat82]

Big Beef Plus gave me an abundance of extra large tomatoes which made great single slice tomatoes on BLT's. They actually out performed my other variety "Heat master" in every way. That never happened in the past. Both varieties performed well until early July when every plant of every vegetable variety died in the 100 / 110 degree F heat with no rain and no respite from the heat. Even many weed types were dying. The sun served more as a blow torch than a light source.

You may want to plant a couple Juliet or Super Sioux as well. @Worth's Juliets and my Super Sioux are still putting out quite a bit of fruit here in South Texas.

[Donnyboy]

Juliet was the first hybrid I ever grew. The second was Better Boy. I thought it was easy to grow tomato plants that were highly productive! Then I ate some of both and realized I had a lot of tomatoes, but I had nothing that tasted like tomatoes were supposed to taste.

I then started growing open pollinated varieties for many years. I became accustomed to growing a few tomatoes with great taste instead of a lot of tomatoes with no taste. Big Beef, Big Beef Plus, and Heat Master changed the game because I could grow a few plants that produced a lot of tomatoes with very good taste. I learned this year, no tomato variety grows or produces well in 110 degree F heat. I will try again next year and hope for better growing weather. If next years weather is similar to this years, I will hang up my trowel and become a former gardener.

Grocery stores are beginning to sell a few varieties that taste great all year long.

[maxjohnson]

What are some good open pollinated alternative to Big Beef in term of production and decent disease resistance? I'm guessing Rutger?

[AKgardener]

Just amazing how many maters there are

[JRinPA]

Hey all, Ken bumped this for me (old thumbs up thing) and I had to read it, seeing as it was 4 years back and the first season after I lost my dad. That 2020 was tough year for tomatoes and big beef really shined.
Big Beef Plus sounds even better, Donnyboy.
Mountaineer Delight is an OP fairly similar to Big Beef, but a redder hue. I tried a Rutgers variety one year, not a big fan, very acidic tomato.

But I bumped this because I read in my canning remarks to Oil the seal on a presto canner. I have learned better since then. I do not oil the seal anymore. Oiling it seems like a good idea to prevent tearing, but it acts as shortening and causes the rubber to cook more. So oiling the seal prematurely shrinks it. At least that is how I see it.

[AKgardener]

A lot of people mention big beef is that truly the name or are the variety’s out there that are big beef with a different name I would like to try a big beef in my area just not sure what to get

[JRinPA]

It is a variety, an F1 that has been around a long time.
There has been some speculation that the F1 is so widespread that different sources have different versions...I personally think that growing conditions vary so much that the results are different. But who knows?
There is however an improved "Big Beef F1" called "Big Beef Plus F1".
And there have been attempts to de-hybridize the original F1 into an OP. But since the Big Beef F1 seeds are not that expensive when bought in quantity, dehybridizing is not really a goal for me.

[420Stainless]

Two years ago I planted Cherokee Purple, Genuwine, Arkansas Traveler, and Early Girl. All were wildly productive that year and I feasted on Cherokee Purple (my favorite to date) and Genuwine. Meanwhile my wife and kids were complaining about weird shapes and colors and that the Early Girls were too small. This year I planted a couple of Big Beef Plus hoping to give them what they want, and looking forward to trying them for the first time myself. In general I love a solid red tomato, just not quite as much as some of the other heirlooms I've had. Still something I'm looking forward to.

[Jeannine Anne]

These are what my Big Beef look like. They were grown in very poor clay soil.

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I was puzzled about the cracking on others posts as my BB look exactly like yours , I wondered about the effects on Weather ??

This year I am growing BB Plus, the first time for me. I have always grown a couple of BB's every year among everything else. Perfectly round, blemish free, decent tasting, definitely not Beefsteak flavor but they have a space in my kitchen for the qualities mentioned. They go back a long way with me so maybe it is a habit.

XX Jeannine