Battle of the small breeders

[bjbebs]

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Pictures of 2 Keith Mueller varieties. Bear Creek and Gary O'Sena both share the same parents, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple. Have grown Bear Creek for a good 10 years. First time growing Gary O'Sena. Bear Creek is regular leaf while GOS is potato leaf. Both are large plants with GOS making slightly larger fruit. Average right at a lb. Bear Creek will make more fruit overall. They are in the 12-16 oz. range. Have been picking both for several days. So far, Bear Creek is the hands down winner in taste, no contest. Balanced with a bit more sweetness. GOS is not there yet but that could change if the weather cools. Bear Creek is on the plate, GOS up front.

The other breeders crosses I'm comparing is that of Daniel Burson (Indian Stripe X Daniels) and Rosedale, which has CP as a parent. These were bred by Bill Jeffers. Have grown DB for 7 or 8 years. First time growing Rosedale. Both potato leaf with DB being shorter in size. Pictures and taste comparisons to follow as I start to pick in a week or so.[attachment=0]20220722_074639.jpg[/attachment

[karstopography]

Thanks for the review. I just ordered Bear Creek seeds for next season. Always on the hunt for a good tomato.

[bjbebs]

Daniel Burson up against another Bill Jeffers cross, Rosedale. Both disease free and making many lbs. Very similar flavors with DB being a bit sweeter. Rosedale is making boat shaped and flattened beefs. Some over a lb. DB averages 12-14 oz. blemish free fruit. Can't go wrong with either. DB is to the left on the plate.

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[Gardadore]

Am growing both Rosedale and DB this year too. Tried last year but Rosedale was weak and DB died after producing a few tomatoes. Never tried them side by side. This year have tons of tomatoes on both but Rosedale is suffering from BER. It’s in a small Earthbox and I am learning this is not an unusual problem with those. Looks like there are still a lot of unaffected tomatoes to ripen so hoping the worst is over and I can do a taste test as well.
Love Bear Creek but had bad luck with a Gary O’Sena plant years ago. No space for Bear Creek this year. Will be interested to hear your opinion comparing the second pairing!

[bjbebs]

Bear Creek is a much better tasting mater to me. But, every year its top 3, so hard to beat. I wanted to like GO but didn't have the taste, It's the best looking tomato in the garden. 1 lb fruit with gorgeous green streaked shoulders.

[PlainJane]

Wow, I can’t imagine anything knocking off Daniel Burson for me, but I’ll put Bear Creek on next year’s grow list.

[MissS]

Thanks for the review!

I am a big fan of Daniel Burson and am growing Rosedale for the first time. I am excited to try it and see how it compares to Daniel Burson. I have grown Bear Creek before but it was not nearly as productive as DB nor were the fruits as large. It might have had an edge on flavor but not by much in my garden that year. So given above average flavor with outstanding production, I gave Daniel Burson 1st place.

[bjbebs]

Every year since growing DB and Bear Creek they are my most dependable, best tasting and most productive tomato. Just ate another very ripe Rosedale. Wow, you are going to like it. 2 plants in the ground will easily make 50 lbs. Different in many ways from DB, not uniform in shape, larger size plants, the darkest colored flesh but both taste great. If Rosedale stays healthy like DB always does it will be grown often.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Ladies-n-Gentlemen: An America's Dairyland produced Daniel Burson (H/T to provider @MissS)...all 22.2 ounces/600 gms of it!

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The Gotch

[MissS]

@Cornelius_Gotchberg That sure is a beauty and you should have a lot more of them coming. It is not the very best tasing black but it is close and given that it has outstanding production and stays healthy the whole season, it makes it my "go to" tomato. Whenever I would go to the garden in need of a tomato I always found that I would be checking Daniel Burson first. That's when I realized just how much I relied on this one. I think that Mrs. Gotch is going to be pleased with DB.

I am very much looking forward to trying Rosedale and seeing how it performs against it's sibling.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@MissS; that sterling endorsement is all the Gotchbergs need!

The Gotch

[bjbebs]

That is one nice DB. Size is great, but taste, production and health make this tomato so good.

First groundhog visitor this year showed up at, where else, a Daniel Burson.

[Paulf]

Bear Creek and Daniel Burson are two of my favorites. For me, in my garden, Gary'O Sena has never done well despite several tries, although what was harvested had excellent flavor. Next up next year will be Rosedale.

[rossomendblot]

I am still waiting for my first Rosedale to ripen, loads of fruit on the plant but they just ain't changing colour! My Daniel Burson this year isn't black like it should be, it's putting out lots of pink tomatoes that look a lot like Daniels. Bear Creek has had good fruit set, maybe a little on the small side, good taste but not my favourite.

[MissS]

@rossomendblot Your Daniel Burson is an imposter. It could be a mix-up or crossed seed. I'm sorry to hear that, it's a very good tomato. Hopefully your Rosedale will come through for you.

[rossomendblot]

It's funny because last year's Daniel Burson plant was from the same seed packet but did produce black fruit. Unfortunately the string it was trained up snapped and the plant died, so all of the fruit was ripened off plant from very green. I will try again with seed from another source.

[MissS]

@rossomendblot PM me your address and I will send you some seed.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@bjbebs @MissS; I actually dreamt about cutting open the above referenced DB, when I did this a.m. for our Monday Morning BLTs, its inwards DID_NOT_DISAPPOINT!

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The Gotch

[bjbebs]

Hey Gotch
That dream will soon become a nightmare once the onslaught begins. Our dining room table is loaded up and the canner is working overtime.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@bjbebs; heard that!

We're constantly trying to streamline/evolve the preserving efforts, which fall mainly to the lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch.

Glass half full? We're down to our last container from 2021. Heck, we shrink-wrapped some Kale last night.

The Gotch