I bought from Home Depot, 2 tomatoe plants. 1 Brandywine and 1 Rainbow.
I planted them fairly close to each other (4ft).
As I have patiently been waiting to harvest the Brandywine's, I tested for firmness and found out that the brandywines have taken on the exact characteristics as the Rainbows only larger!
The fruit was getting softer, but not red... I sliced one and this is what I found...
FYI... Sweet and Delicisious!!!!
Is it possible that one of the tomato plants had the wrong ID tag stuck in it? That happens a LOT at HD and other big box stores. I've brought home plenty of things from such stores, planted them and watched them grow only to discover that the plant isn't at all what the tag said. It can be difficult to tell one tomato plant from another before they put on tomatoes. Cross pollination shouldn't be a factor until you plant seeds saved from this year for next year's crop.
I agree with Naturelover, you would not have cross pollination of this year's fruit.
onecoolcad, which variety of "Brandywine" did it say on the tag? There is a Yellow Brandywine, in addition to a Red Brandywine, Brandywine (which is pink) and several others.
If you purchased a Brandywine (fruit will be pink) or the Yellow Brandywine the foliage will be potato leaf. Red Brandywine will show regular leaf.
And yep, as Nature Lover said above, those box stores and other garden centers can easily mix tags.
Shoe
so, I am guessing that the Brandywine veriety that I have is a Yellow, base on the fact that the fruit starts to over ripen as it gets a redish tinge starting from the bottom of the tomato, and if not picked before, the fruit starts to get mushy
Not necessarily. Look at the leaves, do they look like leaves on a potato? That would help. And does the fruit go from green then turn yellow? Or does it go from green to the reddish tint, then yellow?
As far as the "over ripening" Yellow Brandywine will turn to a more golden color (beyond "yellow") but won't show any signs of red.
Shoe (ever curious)
Here is the Picture.. and they go from green to yellow
Concur that it is not cross pollination. There is a lot of varience in "heirloom seed" so it depends on where the plant vendor obtained seed. The photo is a yellow beefsteak type tomato, but does not show the potato leaf charcteristic of the yellow brandy wines. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60481/ http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54791/ Big Rainbow is a bicolor and while it varys in shape, it should show a lot more red. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60423/
Ditto...I don't see any potato leaf shape either. Who knows what you have there, OCCad.
If it were me I'd pick them and eat them before letting them get over ripe. You might have a keeper there, eh? Pick them yellow but before they blush on the blossom end.
Shoe
