Sara Black

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by Bama mater

Mine were more compact but as the year went on they continued to grow a bit taller, you should be good with a 4' or 5' cage.

This was the first year I grew this and I was impressed, It was one of the last ones producing.

Sounds good! Since it was one of the last ones producing, was it also a fairly heavy producer of tomatoes?

[Bama mater]

I planted mine in early April, they did very well thru the extreme heat, it put on 2 good crops, one early and one late, Yes it was a very good producer, and a very good taste.

[antichevarieta]

Originally Posted by kath

This was the 2nd year I grew Sara Black; last year late blight took the plant down in its prime and all I got to taste was one fruit picked very early. This year the competition included: Amazon Chocolate, Arbuznyi, Black Brandywine, Black Bear, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Black Pineapple, Carbon, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripes, Crynkovic Yugoslavian, Dice's Mystery Black, Gary 'O Sena, Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex, Large Barred Boar and Spudakee. Sara Black won't be back as it was in the bottom 1/2 of this group in taste and production - but that's just my 2 cents.

can you tell me what was at the top of your list?thanks!!

[antichevarieta]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I can tell you something about Sara Black, aka known as Schwarze Sarah as expressed in German although it was bred by Joe Bratka in the US and there are sara thises and thatses in different colors and he gave a fictitious history to them saying they were from some relative in Germany.

I knew Joe well and he has no living relatives in Germany.

He did at one time and that's where he got the seeds for Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold, and those are the only two Marizol ones that I think came from Germany. He went on to breed Marizol Red and Marizol Pink as well, and quite a few others.

He also bred Isis Candy and Snowhite and Rabbit and Ghost and quite a few others.

One year I got Joes list and on it he had Purple Brandywine and I said WHAT?????. He represented it as an heirloom but then said he bred it by crossing Brandywine with Marizol Purple. Then he said that if folks wanted heirloom varieties he'd breed them.

So I suggested he call it Marizol Bratka and agreed to that but had already sent out seeds for Purple Brandywine, but the two are identical.

The bottom line is if you like Sara Black, that's fine. I was more disturbed by his misrepresentation of varieties.

And the origin of the word Marizol I think is somewhat interesting and came from a former German student of mine. She said in the Black Forest there is a small village called Maria's Zell, which means' something like Maria's town, and the contraction of that could have been Marizol b'c Joe'
s German relatives were from the Black Forest area.

As to blacks to grow, there are few that I do grow although I've grown many, but I'm not that fond of them. I do like:

Indian Stripe
Cherokee Purple
Black From Tula
Black Cherry
Kazachka, black chedrry

Hi Carolyn.
would love to trade for some nice italians for kazachka..when you're ready!!!
cordiali saluti
roberta

[kath]

Originally Posted by antichevarieta

can you tell me what was at the top of your list?thanks!!

Yikes, that was 3 years ago! I regrew Amazon Chocolate and JD's Special C-Tex again for the following 3 seasons, so I'll go with those two. That said, my search for the "perfect" dark tomato continues and neither of them will be in next year's garden.

kath

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by antichevarieta

Hi Carolyn.
would love to trade for some nice italians for kazachka..when you're ready!!!
cordiali saluti
roberta

I hear you Roberta and I haven't gotten back to you and quite a few others for this or that b'c of this recent surgery of mine.

But never fear, I'll be in contact.

Carolyn