Black tomato choices, need help

[Irv Wiseguy]

I've grown Brad's Black Heart and Black Prince; both good tomatoes. This year I'm trying Indigo Apple, but I don't know if that's officially considered a black tomato.

Whatever you grow, I hope you have a great crop.

Irv

[Paul R]

I sell out of Black Prince every year. It's been in the garden every season since I first tried it years ago.

Paul R

[pdxwindjammer]

I am another fan of Paul Robeson and grow it every year. The taste is exquisite! Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye is a striped tomato but I suppose it would fall under the category of black as well. This is also a must have in my garden!

[bughunter99]

Because I only grow about a dozen plants here in my zone 5 garden I insist on both productivity, taste and early enough ripening that I get a decent yield-bang for my buck so to speak. Nothing worse that spending the entire summer watching a big beautiful plant loaded with greenies succumb to an early cold front. Such a waste!

For me, Black Krim, Carbon and Indian Stripe are my most reliable tasty blacks, meeting all of the above criteria.

With respect to some of the others mentioned here in this area I've tried an removed some of these from my preferred grow list for the following reasons.

Black Triefel-not productive enough if there are not tons of hot days. Does OK in prolonged heat wave years.
JD's Special C-Tex -Too many diseases for me, extremely BER vulnerable multiple years
Cherokee Purple-not bad here but others are earlier/more productive
Black from Tula-not productive enough here.
Brandywines-generally too Late to benefit from full yield.
Vorlon-this one I might try again. On the fence.


Since I have started on this tomato journey, I think one of the most important things I have figured out is that when I am reading reports on tomato performance, the place where they are grown matters a lot. Some things that get rave reviews in Texas and Alabama, just don't seem to do well here. I look at all reviews but those that are coming from Northern IL get a lot more consideration from me than those that come from Florida. But because our weather has become so freakishly labile, the best ones are the ones that seem to do excellent all over the country.

Stacy

[NarnianGarden]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

A surprise entry into my overall top ten list last summer was Black Pear. It
tasted great and pumped out the 'maters like a machine gun. Strangely, it is
what got me into heirlooms.

Thanks for telling this. One of the varieties I am hoping to grow this year, and so far, I haven't seen much comments on it. The only ones were negative, so your opinion gave me the courage to believe it would do well in my unpredictable Northern climate.

[Labradors2]

Stacy,

You think like I do!

I grew Brandywines for several years in Northern Vermont, only to have them rot before ripening year after year (along with Caspian Pink and Oma's Lebanese), reluctantly, I gave up on Brandywine, even though I loved the taste. I was thinking of trying Cowlicks this year though

Black from Tula was on my list for the future, but maybe I should re-think that.

Vorlon was also on my list.

I'm growing Carbon Copy this year. Next year I'll try it's parent, Carbon.

I was leaning towards JD's Special C-Tex, but it does seem that it excels in TX but maybe not everywhere.....

Back to the drawing board!

Linda

Originally Posted by bughunter99

Because I only grow about a dozen plants here in my zone 5 garden I insist on both productivity, taste and early enough ripening that I get a decent yield-bang for my buck so to speak. Nothing worse that spending the entire summer watching a big beautiful plant loaded with greenies succumb to an early cold front. Such a waste!

For me, Black Krim, Carbon and Indian Stripe are my most reliable tasty blacks, meeting all of the above criteria.

With respect to some of the others mentioned here in this area I've tried an removed some of these from my preferred grow list for the following reasons.

Black Triefel-not productive enough if there are not tons of hot days. Does OK in prolonged heat wave years.
JD-T rex -Too many diseases for me, extremely BER vulnerable multiple years
Cherokee Purple-not bad here but others are earlier/more productive
Black from Tula-not productive enough here.
Brandywines-generally too Late to benefit from full yield.
Vorlon-this one I might try again. On the fence.


Since I have started on this tomato journey, I think one of the most important things I have figured out is that when I am reading reports on tomato performance, the place where they are grown matters a lot. Some things that get rave reviews in Texas and Alabama, just don't seem to do well here. I look at all reviews but those that are coming from Northern IL get a lot more consideration from me than those that come from Florida. But because our weather has become so freakishly labile, the best ones are the ones that seem to do excellent all over the country.

Stacy

[pdxwindjammer]

As with Stacy/Bughunter, I really pay close attention to the tomato plants that do well for people in similar climate. When someone in Texas, Alabama or Florida rave about a variety, it really doesn't mean much to how that variety will grow in Portland, OR. We have a limited growing season with cool spring temps.

[bower]

In my climate, we often don't get as much sunshine as a tomato likes. When it's cold and wet, disease is a problem in the greenhouse as outdoors - grey mould is the big culprit. I really like black tomatoes, and I'd like to grow them all just to find out which ones are the absolute best, that will produce in spite of bad weather.

Taste-wise there's a class of blacks that are really outstanding, which are both tangy and sweet as well as 'black', afaict. I haven't tried all of them yet. Indian Stripe is the best for me so far, it was fairly cold tolerant and disease resistant, good crop, and kept fruiting in the fall. My friends grow CP here every year and love it, but I don't like the gamble on fewer, larger fruit. Vorlon had the great taste but didn't produce well enough for me, it was stressed by cold, and lost a couple of the few fruit to mould, although it was not a bad summer. Another loser I didn't even get to taste was Black Giant, granted that was a bad year, really susceptible to mold.

Black Cherry is a great tasting tomato with pretty good disease resistance and production in the greenhouse. Many yards of vine.

The milder blacks, which are not so tangy nor sweet, are best appreciated with a little salt - wow, that brings out their flavour. Some early and good producers in this category, for example Black Early and Chernomor PL (indet "Black Sea Man"). Black Early was quite good and only three days after Stupice, that's pretty amazing. Brazilian Beauty is in the same class for taste and production, but I believe, later.

Black Russian was a reject here due to chronic splitting fruit and susceptibility to disease. It has a distinctive taste, but was nobody's favourite.

Perth Pride is on my grow list this year, Sharon, because it's reported to be quite disease resistant. Also on the early/disease resistant/productive to try list are Amazon Chocolate and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye.

[FILMNET]

Paul Robson for me is a fav, Brads Black Heart is wonderful also

[SharonRossy]

Alpinejs, I am surprised! Black Pear was given to me from Tomatofest as a bonus because I had ordered a lot of seeds. So I tried it last summer and was not a fan of it at all. Some descriptions said it was similar to Japanese Black Trifele but not true. I think in general, I am limiting my black tomato growing to just two or three varieties. I'm trying a few more orange/yellow ones this year and have dropped the GWR varieties. Of course, I will have reds and pinks. I was going to try Indian Stripe but never ended up ordering the seeds.

[SharonRossy]

Ok now I am rethinking Indian Stripe! Ahh, just when I thought I had my list finalized.... Stacey, I agree, area of the country has a lot to do with how some varieties fare, along with a million other reasons!

[dipchip2000]

I have 5 packs of Carbon Copy seeds(12 seeds)

Post here and PM me for SASE address

5 only

ron

[Doug9345]

Ron I was hoping someone would make an offer for some. PM on the way.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

A surprise entry into my overall top ten list last summer was Black Pear. It
tasted great and pumped out the 'maters like a machine gun. Strangely, it is
what got me into heirlooms. At a tropical nursery, the owner happened to
mention that her favorite tomato was black pear but she couldn't find seed for
it anymore. I searched the net and found some and gave her most. Somehow,
the search led me to Tomatoville and Black Pear appeneared on no o's top
varieties lists and evidently my results weren't stellar, but growing it in Canada
last summer made me a cheerleader for it.

That's because they are small tomato bigots.


I have grown it and black plum and only one year did people chime in and give praise.
They are both fine tomatoes and Plum puts out really well in the heat.
Far longer than the more popular tomatoes mentioned here beside black cherry.
Yet another small tomato.
Poor neglected small tomatoes.

Worth

[Geezer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

That's because they are small tomato bigots.


I have grown it and black plum and only one year did people chime in and give praise.
They are both fine tomatoes and Plum puts out really well in the heat.
Far longer than the more popular tomatoes mentioned here beside black cherry.
Yet another small tomato.
Poor neglected small tomatoes.

Worth

The reason they do so well is that they have "small tomato syndrome".
To them no summer is too wet or hot for them to take on. Other tomato plants in the patch have to watch their backs or the cherries will shade them out like weeds.;