Bonny Best
Heirloom tomato
- Breeding
- Heirloom
- Growth habit
- Indeterminate
- Days to maturity
- 70-75 days 2 sources, none independent · basis unstated
- Fruit
- red, medium
- Weight
- 5-7 oz 2 sources, none independent
- Bred by
- -
Grey captions say what stands behind that particular figure. Breeding, growth habit and fruit characters carry no caption because they rest on the record's sources as a whole rather than citing their own; closing that gap is ordinary outstanding work, not a finished job.
Origin & history
Selected by George W. Middleton from Chalk's Early Jewel and introduced in 1908, Bonny Best became the canning tomato of the early 20th century and a parent of countless later varieties. Uniform scarlet globes ripen together enough for putting up a batch at once.
Measurements
| Measurement | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Days to maturity | 70-75 days | Consensus range across the cited sources, which include both independent references and commercial catalogs. |
| Fruit weight | 5-7 oz | Typical range for the cultivar, as a consensus across the cited sources. Not a measured mean from any single crop: fruit weight varies with season, spacing and where on the plant the fruit set. |
Against the rest of the tomato database
Where this variety sits among every tomato we hold a comparable figure for. Position is not merit: earlier is not better than later, and hotter is not better than milder. Only cultivar-level figures are compared, never trial results, and maturity is only ranked against figures counted the same way.
earlier than 73% of the 258 tomatoes we hold a figure for. None of these figures state whether they are counted from sowing or from transplant, so they are ranked against each other on the assumption that suppliers use one convention, which is not something any of them says.
lighter than 89% of the 72 tomatoes we hold a figure for.
Traits
Disease resistance
No documented disease resistance, typical of heirlooms and older open-pollinated varieties. See tomato diseases for the cultural playbook that fills the gap.
Related varieties
- heirloom
Paragon
75-80 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Abraham Lincoln
77-87 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Ailsa Craig
70-80 days · Indeterminate
- open-pollinated
Box Car Willie
78-82 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Chalk's Early Jewel
70-75 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Costoluto Fiorentino
75-85 days · Indeterminate
Explore all tomato varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are
Sources & References
Evidence: 2 sources, 1 seed catalog and 1 community collection. No independent reference documents this yet.
- Victory Seeds variety histories · Victory Seed Company, Seed Catalog
- Seed Savers Exchange catalog & variety histories · Seed Savers Exchange, Community Collection