Box Car Willie
Open-pollinated tomato
- Breeding
- Open-pollinated
- Growth habit
- Indeterminate
- Days to maturity
- 78-82 days 1 seed catalog · basis unstated
- Fruit
- red, medium
- Weight
- 6-10 oz 1 seed catalog
- 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
Bred by Joe Bratka of New Jersey and named for the country singer. A reliable, crack-resistant red producer that behaves like a hybrid while staying open-pollinated.
Measurements
| Measurement | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Days to maturity | 78-82 days | Consensus range across the cited commercial catalogs; no independent source documents it yet. |
| Fruit weight | 6-10 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.
later than 71% 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 75% 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
Bonny Best
70-75 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Druzba
75-80 days · Indeterminate
- open-pollinated
Marion
75-80 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Paragon
75-80 days · Indeterminate
- open-pollinated
Wisconsin 55
75-80 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Abraham Lincoln
77-87 days · Indeterminate
Explore all tomato varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are
Sources & References
Evidence: 1 source, all seed catalogs. No independent reference documents this yet.
- Tomato Growers Supply catalog · Tomato Growers Supply Company, Seed Catalog