Purple Prince

[ljp]

I'm growing Purple Prince tomatoes. They are a dark egg sized tomato and the plants are relatively productive. I never see them mentioned and I'm wondering were the fit in the firmament of purple/black tomatoes. I think the package referred to them as heritage. One of Tatiana's reporters said it was similar to Black Prince.

[Tania]

I think it may be a Black Prince somehow renamed to 'Purple Prince' by CV MacKenzie, a commercial vendor who has been selling this variety in Canada.

The 'Purple Prince' tomato has been widely available in Canada from the seed racks in many stores, including Canadian Tire, Superstore, and Home Depot.

It is similar to Black Prince, but produces some oval shaped fruits in addition to round fruits - so who knows, may be it is a different strain...?

I also see some SSE members got this tomato from Reinhard Kraft/Hahm-Hartman. It would be interesting to contact them to get more details of their source, if it was different from Canadian.

It is another mystery in the OP tomato world

[ljp]

Without looking, I think the seeds were McKenzie. So is Black Prince as good as the more popular varieties like Cherokee Purple? I'm new to OP and heirlooms so I don't have much context. I'm working through 28 varieties and have found a few that are noticeably bland (possibly overripe used for seed source)

[Tania]

Definitely not as good as Cherokee Purple or other larger-fruited blacks (i.e. Cherokee Chocolate, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Carbon)

Welcome to the heirlooms world

[ljp]

Thanks Tania

[carolyn137]

I remember info from years ago where it was noted that Purple Prince was a typo when it was first listed in the SSE Yearbook and it should have been Purple Price, aka Price's Purple.

When Tad Smith bred Pale Perfect Purple the initial cross was between Ozark Pink and Purple Price as he noted.

http://www.google.com/#q=purple%20pr...iw=757&bih=403

Above is a general Google Search for Purple Price and you'll see many links to that variety.

And yes, I've grown Purple Price.

[ljp]

Purple Prince and Purple Price are different varieties. The Purple Prince sold by McKenzie is described as a heirloom from siberia. The plant is a regular leaf indeterminate and the fruit are plum shaped, averaging just under 2oz. Tatiana's description matches: http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Purple_Prince.

There is a thread on gardenweb, drawing on Carolyn's and other's expertise discussing both tomatoes and an error in listing by Tomatofest.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...581820760.html

The Purple Prince tomatoes do appear similar to some images of Black Prince:http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22bla...iw=900&bih=587. However, the Purple Prince tomatoes are consistently plum shaped and for me, it is prolific.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ljp

Purple Prince and Purple Price are different varieties. The Purple Prince sold by McKenzie is described as a heirloom from siberia. The plant is a regular leaf indeterminate and the fruit are plum shaped, averaging just under 2oz. Tatiana's description matches: http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Purple_Prince.

There is a thread on gardenweb, drawing on Carolyn's and other's expertise discussing both tomatoes and an error in listing by Tomatofest.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...581820760.html

The Purple Prince tomatoes do appear similar to some images of Black Prince:http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22bla...iw=900&bih=587. However, the Purple Prince tomatoes are consistently plum shaped and for me, it is prolific.

Thanks for reminding about that GW thread.

I'd remembered there was a typo somewhere and it was at Tomatofest, not when Reinhard Kraft first mentioned Purple Prince.

I think Tania mentions this in her page for Purple Prince, short term memory problem here b'c I just read that GW thread, but I checked my Yearbooks and Neil Lockheart first listed Purple Prince, seeds from Reinhard Kraft, in 2001.

Interesting. I just went back and checked the 94 Yearbook and confirmed that Tad had first listed Purple Price in 1991 and it was the history that he gave there that interested me. He said that he'd been " selecting the smoothest fruits for several years .......and will be continuing the process".

So whatever it was it didn't come to him as a fully stable heirloom variety.

He also mentioned the " stronger taste" that I also had mentioned several times after growing it out but I didn't remember what he had said all those years ago.