Black Beauty

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

I think providing fertilizer in the right form at the right time will do more for flavor than how you prune.

My understanding is that nutrition (in soil and via fertilizer), watering, and total sun on the whole plant are the most important factors for flavor. This is one of the reasons why I try to keep pruning to a minimum--only for airflow and to control disease--since the leaves produce the sugars and dry matter that go into the tomatoes, so I like to maximize the potential for production of those. Because I'm just a home hobby grower, things like ease of harvest, uniformity of size, etc. are low priority for me, so I have little motivation to prune.

I was just wondering whether the amount of anthocyanin expression in these blue/black tomatoes have any relationship to flavor. If so, and a blacker tomato tastes better, it might be one of the rare cases in which pruning would make sense to me.

As for fertilizer, I switched from Jobe's Organic Tomato and Veg fert to Texas Tomato Food this year. Curious to see whether there's a difference, but it will be hard to compare because I have most of my tomatoes in new beds, so that will also affect results.

[PureHarvest]

Here are some shots from yesterday (7/5)

I think the novelty is greater if the tomatoes are LARGE. Prune off some of the smaller tomatoes when they are marble size and leave 4-6 on a truss to size them up. Some of my trusses started with 20 or more flowers. This variety flowers profusely for me. Most pollinated.
If you are selling tomatoes, these are hard to beat for presentation. Especially if you are selling boxes of mixed colors and stripes. Everyone I send these pics to are stunned.

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[kchd..]

Although they aren't solid black, my Black Beauty are starting to ripen. Personally, I think they are prettier in this two-tone coloration. Can't wait to taste them.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by kchd..

Although they aren't solid black, my Black Beauty are starting to ripen. Personally, I think they are prettier in this two-tone coloration. Can't wait to taste them.

Great photo. The water droplets make them look jewel-like and juicy!

[kchd..]

After letting them sit on the counter for a few weeks, I finally sliced into Black Beauty today. This is a good tomato! Rich flavor; I'd rank it 8.5/10. It does not like this MS heat much.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

This variety flowers profusely for me.

I'm getting a ton of flowers, too. By far the most flowers of any of my larger size tomatoes.

[gorbelly]

Nothing has been ripening for me yet, but I wanted to add a data point for Black Beauty. Here is my darkest fruit so far. The bottom half has no anthocyanin--it's totally green. The fruit in the interior of the plant has only a dusting of black at the shoulders. I don't prune my plants except for disease (has not been a problem so far this year) and a little bit at the bottom to keep leaves off the ground.

[gorbelly]

Ate my first Black Beauty.

As you can see, I've had some issues with cracking. Almost all of my unripe beefsteaks that were anywhere near mature size cracked a couple weeks due to very heavy and sudden rains. The only one that escaped that fate was Franchi red pear, probably due to its piriform shape.

Perhaps that's why flavor was slightly watered down tasting. Good balance overall, though, and by no means a bad tomato. I found it to be more flavorful than the Big Beef tomatoes next to it. Very juicy.

I look forward to trying more. I have a bunch ripening on the vine right now.

[gorbelly]

So I've been eating these for a bit now, and I think they're good... but.

The plant is very good--vigorous, healthy, and productive.

The tomatoes themselves are also good but somewhat different from most other popular varieties today. They're not particularly sweet, and they're not particularly acidic. So you'd think they'd be bland, right? Right. But not if you have a well-developed sense of other flavors and a good sense of smell. They actually have an almost slightly salty flavor and an umami aroma profile. So they actually are pretty tasty. I like them and appreciate their uniqueness but don't personally love them for fresh eating because I like sweetness and/or an acidic bite and more herbal, spicy, or fruity aromas in my tomatoes. That's just a personal thing. But my brother likes these the best of all the tomatoes coming out of my garden.

I also think they make an amazing oven-roasted tomato sauce. Really, really flavorful and delicious.

Another flaw is that they're more prone to deep radial cracking than other varieties in my garden, and it happens before they start turning, so picking early doesn't help. I also notice that those picked on the earlier side tend to have "off" aromas.

But I think that, for the right person or for cooking, these can be exceptional.

Interested to know whether other people's experiences line up with mine.

[PureHarvest]

Agreed. Good but different. Not my top favorite, but different flavor profile. The lady that cuts my hair said she loved them out of 4 types I tipped her with.
Definitely early cracking. My son noted that because they are "black", they absorb more of the sun's heat and therefore split easier than the other tomatoes.
I've probably tossed 75% of the fruit that has been produced because of this. We've had over 30 days of heat index above 95 and more than 10 above 100.