Kumato tomatoes

[kurt]

Has anybody have or had any experience with the Kumato tomato?They come as a round and cherry type.These just came out in the markets and taste really good.

[Zana]

Tomatoaddict is selling seeds for them. She's grown them. Check her blog.

[Suze]

Kurt, welcome to the forum.

I have only tasted Kumato tomatoes purchased from the store - and that was at least a couple of years ago! While it was better than many tomatoes one would normally have access to when shopping, it can't hold a candle to Campari or Nature Sweets (both also F1 hybrids that one can occasionally find in grocery stores) for taste. My opinion/impression is that the main attraction at the peak of Kumato popularity (at least here in the States) was that it tasted a little better than many store-bought tomatoes + the unusual appearance because it is a dark. Here in Texas at least, any possible popularity Kumato once had has come and gone. Haven't seen it when shopping in any grocery stores or even any "niche/foodie" stores like Central Mkt or Whole Foods, etc. for quite a while now.

It does sound like the availability/marketing curve for Kumato is a bit different in Fla at this time, though.

To be honest, there are several other small-med dark tomatoes you could grow that are so much better tasting than Kumato.

Just off the top of my head - Dice's Mystery Black would be one.

Kumato has been discussed here before more than a few times, and it has another name/aka. When I think of what that other name for it is, I'll come back and edit this post to add it. :-) Also note that because it might be an F1 hybrid, any saved seeds grown out from store fruits may not be entirely stable.

Edit/add - the aka is Rosso Bruno (I have also heard it referred to as Bruno Rosso), and I would do a search here on Kumato, because you'll find several posts about it. There was a little "history creation" for marketing purposes, if you catch my drift. Stuff about turtles and the Galapagos Islands and such. LOL. In any case, it is (supposedly) an F1 hybrid from/developed by Syngenta. Having said that, several have grown it out from the saved seeds, and frequently tend to get true-to type fruits. This tends to suggest that either Kumato is really not a hybrid, or that the segregation rate is low - I'm no tomato genetics expert, but this can occasionally happen, especially if the cross/parents are not too complex. There is a blog entry about Kumato on tomatoaddict's blog here - http://tomatoaddict.blogspot.com/200...sso-bruno.html

[carolyn137]

Kurt, Syngenta first introduced Kumato in Australia and the UK many years ago , just to add to the post by Suze and Terry's blog, so we first heard of it here from our tomato friends in those countries.

Some say it is unstable when grown out from the assumed F1 which is why you indicated two fruit forms and others maintain that it's an OP masking as an F1.

As has been indicated by others and I agree, the history that Syngenta gave was, IMO, not only ridiculous but not true.

All to say that I read and post at several message sites and while there was initial interest in it, as Suze mentioned, it's kind of wafted off into obscurity these days. I asked someone to send me some fruits, I thought it tasted lousy, to be honest, never saved any seeds and consider it a novelty variety and a triumph of PR for Syngenta.

[tam91]

Tastes seem to vary - I really liked them. I don't know that I would grow them instead of a bunch of the OP tomatoes, but I'm sure happy to find them in the stores. They do keep really really really well - it's interesting, the color changes a bit as does the taste, but they're good at the various stages.

I did save some seed, and grew a few plants for a friend of mine. Unfortunately, she killed them, so I don't know how they would have came out.

[nancyruhl]

I was thrilled to find Kumatos in a local supermarket here in Michigan. I first tried them in Florida and was very impressed. For a tomato during the off season, this is the tastiest store bought variety I have found. Comparis are good, don't get me wrong. Kumatos seem to have a much longer shelf life and are tastier over a longer range of ripeness.

I did save seed and grew out one plant this season. The first tomato was a much larger black tomato, more like a Black Krim. Later in the season, the fruit more closely resembled store bought Kumatos.

Very happpy to have any tomato that is palatable during the off season.

[tam91]

How did the ones you grew out taste? And did they keep well, like the Kumato's do?

Originally Posted by Suze

Kurt, welcome to the forum.

I have only tasted Kumato tomatoes purchased from the store - and that was at least a couple of years ago! While it was better than many tomatoes one would normally have access to when shopping, it can't hold a candle to Campari or Nature Sweets (both also F1 hybrids that one can occasionally find in grocery stores) for taste. My opinion/impression is that the main attraction at the peak of Kumato popularity (at least here in the States) was that it tasted a little better than many store-bought tomatoes + the unusual appearance because it is a dark. Here in Texas at least, any possible popularity Kumato once had has come and gone. Haven't seen it when shopping in any grocery stores or even any "niche/foodie" stores like Central Mkt or Whole Foods, etc. for quite a while now.

It does sound like the availability/marketing curve for Kumato is a bit different in Fla at this time, though.

To be honest, there are several other small-med dark tomatoes you could grow that are so much better tasting than Kumato.

Just off the top of my head - Dice's Mystery Black would be one.

Kumato has been discussed here before more than a few times, and it has another name/aka. When I think of what that other name for it is, I'll come back and edit this post to add it. :-) Also note that because it might be an F1 hybrid, any saved seeds grown out from store fruits may not be entirely stable.

Edit/add - the aka is Rosso Bruno (I have also heard it referred to as Bruno Rosso), and I would do a search here on Kumato, because you'll find several posts about it. There was a little "history creation" for marketing purposes, if you catch my drift. Stuff about turtles and the Galapagos Islands and such. LOL. In any case, it is (supposedly) an F1 hybrid from/developed by Syngenta. Having said that, several have grown it out from the saved seeds, and frequently tend to get true-to type fruits. This tends to suggest that either Kumato is really not a hybrid, or that the segregation rate is low - I'm no tomato genetics expert, but this can occasionally happen, especially if the cross/parents are not too complex. There is a blog entry about Kumato on tomatoaddict's blog here - http://tomatoaddict.blogspot.com/200...sso-bruno.html

Susan,

Where can I purchase [or trade for] some Dice's Mystery Black?


Terry

[dice]

Where can I purchase [or trade for] some Dice's Mystery Black?

I tend to have seeds of that on hand. Sending PM.

Here is a picture, by the way:
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/...black.jpg.html

Originally Posted by dice

I tend to have seeds of that on hand. Sending PM.

Here is a picture, by the way:
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/...black.jpg.html

Those look yummy.

I noticed Casey's Pure Yellow in there too. I am growing it this spring for the first time. How was the flavor?

[dice]

I noticed Casey's Pure Yellow in there too. I am growing it this spring for the first time. How was the flavor?

That was actually Suze's picture of Dice's Mystery Black at Feldon's
picture archive. (I do not know which of them may have grown Casey's
Pure Yellow.)

[sm1nts2escape]

I grew them this year (saved seed from tomato bought at grocery store) and they didn't like the full sun one bit. The plants were very straggly looking and didn't produce much at all compared to my other brown tomatoes which also tasted way better (cherokee purple,black krim and black from tula). I will not be fooling around with them next year when there are so many better options. It was a neat/fun experiment that wasted garden space. The Kumato is still the best grocery store tomato in my opinion but are no match for the other brown tomatoes I listed.

[ChristinaJo]

I am located in NE Texas. I bought some from Brookshires and the skins were tough and mushy!!! I spit it out and never got any more. Bad batch?

[kurt]

I have had sucess since I first asked about the mater from saved seeds back then.This year the wife asked me to grow some again from some tomatos bought at Trader Joes(Mexican source).No way in growth habit ,plant size, and the green shouldered amber/dark mahogany almost baseball sized I get from the original Canadian greenhouse seeds I have grown from the past.We still see Canadian sourced Kumatos(large and cherry sized)at another market here in Miami but at a different time of the year.Some more discussion below if interested.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=Kumato&page=2

[Gardeneer]

Less than a week ago I bought a 4-pack of kumato from store. So 4 of them weighed 16 oz , that is 4 oz each. Those were bigger than my previous purchases and tasted much much better. So i took some seeds out and planted. Now they have germinated.
In about 3 months from now I shall report on it.

The fruits are dark brown with pronounced green shoulder but inside is brown and ripe. It has three seed compartments, like Roma. The texture is creamy and juicy with balanced acidity and sweetness. I tried some with fresh Mozzarella . It was good.

Will the real Kumato grow ? We shall see.

Gardeneer