Bradley Tomato Seeds – Heirloom Southern Slicer | Sweet, Pink & Old-Fashioned Flavor Since 1961
Minimum: 15+ Seeds
Some tomatoes taste like summer used to.
Bradley is one of those tomatoes. Released in 1961 by Dr. Joe McFerran at the University of Arkansas, it became the defining slicer of the mid-South for a generation — the tomato that grocery stores in Nashville stocked through the 1960s and 70s, that Tennessee farm families grew by the row, that gardeners across the humid South reached for year after year because nothing else tasted quite like it. It was bred for the Southern garden specifically — for the heat, the humidity, and the long summer days that defeat so many other varieties — and it performed. For decades it performed quietly, reliably, and deliciously, in backyard plots and on small commercial farms across Arkansas, Tennessee, and the surrounding states.
Then industrial agriculture moved on to varieties bred for shipping, shelf life, and uniformity. Bradley stayed behind.
That is entirely to the good of anyone growing a garden.
What Bradley is: Bradley (Solanum lycopersicum) is a semi-determinate, open-pollinated heirloom slicer producing medium to large fruit in the eight to twelve ounce range — round, uniform, and a deep pink-red with just a hint of green at the shoulder when young, fading to a full, rich color at peak ripeness. The flavor is what growers come back for every year: genuinely sweet and full-bodied, balanced with just enough acidity to give it that classic, old-fashioned tomato character that modern supermarket varieties have almost entirely lost. It tastes like a tomato is supposed to taste. People who grew up eating homegrown tomatoes in the South will recognize it immediately.
The plant: Compact, bushy, and well-covered with heavy foliage that protects the fruit from sunscald — a real advantage in the high-heat Southern summers this variety was designed for. Plants reach four to six feet and produce a generous, concentrated flush of fruit that ripens in a relatively tight window, making Bradley exceptional for canning, freezing, and sauce-making as well as fresh slicing. If you want a summer's worth of tomatoes to put up, this is the variety that delivers them all at once. Disease resistance includes Fusarium wilt, Alternaria, and Grey Leaf Spot — practical field-hardened resilience built into the genetics, not sprayed on. Matures in approximately 75 to 80 days from transplant.
Non-GMO. Open-pollinated. Heirloom. Seed-saving friendly — save from your best fruit each year and the variety improves with your specific soil and climate over time. Particularly well-suited to Southern and mid-Atlantic growing conditions but performs reliably across most of the country in full sun with well-drained soil.
✔️ Heirloom, open-pollinated, Non-GMO — seed-saving friendly ✔️ Classic Southern slicer — bred at the University of Arkansas, 1961 ✔️ Deep pink-red fruit, 8 to 12 oz — round, uniform, and crack-resistant ✔️ Sweet, full-bodied, old-fashioned tomato flavor with balanced acidity ✔️ Semi-determinate — concentrated fruit set, ideal for canning and preserving ✔️ Disease resistant — Fusarium wilt, Alternaria, Grey Leaf Spot ✔️ Heavy foliage cover — natural sun protection for fruit in hot climates ✔️ 75 to 80 days from transplant ✔️ Grown without synthetic pesticides or chemical inputs
Growing notes: Start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost in sterile seed-starting mix, planted a quarter inch deep at soil temperatures of 75 to 85°F. Germination in 6 to 14 days. Harden off before transplanting outdoors into full sun after all frost risk has passed. Space 24 to 30 inches apart in rows 3 to 4 feet apart. Bury transplants deep — up to the lowest set of leaves — to encourage strong root development along the buried stem. Feed with a balanced fertilizer at transplant and again when fruit begins to set. Water consistently and evenly to prevent blossom end rot and cracking.
A Southern original. Sixty years of summer on a vine. Grow it once and you'll understand why people kept saving these seeds.