Indeterminate Short-Internode?

For a mainstream production variety, I'm thinking about growing Park's Beefy Boy this year. Taking seed catalogs with a grain of salt, they claim it has all the qualities I usually enjoy with Big Beef - and I'd like to try a different variety.

Beefy Boy is an indeterminate hybrid with a lot of disease resistance, reportedly has good flavor, very productive, ripens early to mid-season, and is large, red, and solid. It has "short internodes" - a term I've never seen before. I assume nodes are the truss-branches that bear blossoms and tomatoes, and if the distance between those is short then it stands to reason that a plant would produce more tomatoes. Is that right?

Has anyone here grown Beefy Boy? PlantFiles doesn't have much about it, but the customer reviews on the Park's website are good.

http://parkseed.com/tomato-beefy-boy-hybridtrade/p/05339/

Oz I grew PBB a few years ago and found it to be in the same league with moreton and BB. I am Trying it again this year. If you haven't bought your seeds yet I can send you some I have a fresht package, Let me know

eweed, if you're growing Beefy Boy for a second time that's good enough for me! Thanks for the seed offer, but I just got back from Lowe's and they had Park's Beefy Boy on their seed rack so I bought a package. I guess that's one good thing about big suppliers like Park's and Burpee's - stores stock their seeds so sometimes you don't have to mail-order.

The real good thing is that big-box stores like Lowe's have put out their garden seed displays - that means SPRING is getting close. Thanks again!

Ozark...I grew Bella Rosa along with Big Beef a couple years ago and the only difference I noted was that BR was a shorter plant (4') whereas the BB was at least 6'. Same size fruit and production.

The reviews on Park's may be good but the reviews on DG about Park's are terrible. I'm glad you were able to find it locally.

Lisa - It's true there isn't much feedback posted about Park's Beefy Boy in PlantFiles. Farmerdill added a very basic "neutral" description, and there's one 8-year-old glowing "positive" from a gardener in MA. There's nothing at all negative, though. Were you looking at another variety, maybe?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/112807/

Edited to add: Aha, I think I see what you mean. Park Seed Co. has more negative and neutral ratings as a COMPANY than it has positives on DG. I didn't see anything bad posted about their seed quality, but apparently their customer service can be pretty awful. Well, I don't have to deal with them - I bought my one pack of Park's seeds from Lowe's. Thanks.

This message was edited Feb 6, 2013 9:32 AM

I used to order from Park's when they appeared to be a family owned business when they used to post it in their company description but since they and a few other major seed companies have been acquired by a large corporation and have raised their prices and shipping accordingly I gave up on them. I think some one is trying to monopolize the seed industry...I wonder who?

I stopped ordering from Park's when they started charging the card at the time of purchase. When things were backordered and never sent I had to initiate the refund which should have been automatic. If I hadn't been vigilant I would never have realized that certain items never came even months later with no notification that they were out of the item. Had to call a couple of times to get the refund and even then there was some question as to whether they had pro-rated the shipping properly. Not worth dealing with such a company and those hassles.

I stopped ordering from Parks when items were back ordered for Months but kept being advertised as "in stock".

Ozark-yes, that's what i meant. Just glad you got what you wanted.