Black Bear

[habitat_gardener]

Has anyone else grown Black Bear? I just tasted my first fruits. It's one of the prettiest tomatoes I've seen, especially sliced. The only other one I've eaten this year is Ludmilla's Pink Heart, which has a fantastic flavor, so BB is only a little above average by comparison. Very juicy. DTM is supposed to be 80 days for both.

I'm a little surprised that these are my two earliest tomatoes. This is the first year cherry/small tomatoes aren't my first tomatoes. I planted LPH and Brandysweet Plum (from transplants) in late March, and I expected BP to start producing first. Then I planted 9 other tomatoes (also transplants) the same time as BB (mid-April): Chocolate Vintage, George O'Brien, JD's Special C-Tex, Chapman, Purple Brandy, Roman Candle, Rosalita, Sweet Horizon, and Tobolsk. Of those, I picked one Purple Brandy but haven't tasted it yet.

[gill_s]

Hi
I was interested to read about your transplanted tomatoes. Do you mean from cuttings? Were they overwintered cuttings? I am interested in this technique. I have experimented with Golden Cherry and find it useful to get those first early tomatoes. I find that they really do not grow very much through the winter and I can keep a few plants in the conservatory(which is heated as our dining room) and move them to extra light once they start to grow on.
Gill

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Has anyone else grown Black Bear? I just tasted my first fruits. It's one of the prettiest tomatoes I've seen, especially sliced. The only other one I've eaten this year is Ludmilla's Pink Heart, which has a fantastic flavor, so BB is only a little above average by comparison. Very juicy. DTM is supposed to be 80 days for both.

I'm a little surprised that these are my two earliest tomatoes. This is the first year cherry/small tomatoes aren't my first tomatoes. I planted LPH and Brandysweet Plum (from transplants) in late March, and I expected BP to start producing first. Then I planted 9 other tomatoes (also transplants) the same time as BB (mid-April): Chocolate Vintage, George O'Brien, JD's Special C-Tex, Chapman, Purple Brandy, Roman Candle, Rosalita, Sweet Horizon, and Tobolsk. Of those, I picked one Purple Brandy but haven't tasted it yet.

The only commercial place that I know is offering Black bear is Marianne Jones at mariseeds who got it from another SSE member who got it in 2006 from Reinhard Kraft in Germany. Not one he developed but one he was growing for inclusion in his fotogallerie and b'c of his interest in tomato varieties.

Only three folks list it in the 2010 SSE Yearbook. So I don't think many folks know about Black Bear. What did you think of the taste and performance?

Ludmilla's Pink Heart I know well and offered seeds for it the past two years in my free seed offer here, my seeds from Reinhard Kraft in Germany and the history is given at Tania's data site. And yes, for a heart it is quite early, in the about 70 day range and yes, I think it has excellent taste and production.

Seeds are now available commercially at both Gleckler's and Sandhill.

Most of you have probably figured out by now that I send to a few places for trial the best of what I've grown in a season and if it works for them, they then offer it.

And you MUST try Ludmilla's Red Plum and Ami would be upset if I didn't mention that one and I'd be upset with myself if I didn't.

Ludmilla is a Kazachstan German who brought three varieties with her to Germany, the other one is Ludmilla's Giant Yellow, and Reinhard named the varieties for her.

Finally, that Purple Brandywine you mentioned is better known as Marizol Bratka. it was bred by Joe Bratka and represented as an heirloom, which it isn't. it's a selection of an initial cross between Marizol Purple and Brandywine.

[habitat_gardener]

Gill, None of them were cuttings. I obtained these varieties in 4-inch pots. But I have occasionally planted a branch that got broken.

Carolyn, My source was a person who had taken the tomato-growing class at Love Apple Farms (LAF) and had extra plants. I noticed that many of the plants were not offered at LAF this year; if you take the class, you're given access to all the tomato seeds she has. So that's how I ended up with Black Bear and the other 9 varieties. I got the two I planted in March directly from LAF.

Black Bear has been churning out tomatoes pretty regularly, which means 2-5 every other day so far. Ok, I just ate one: it has a creamy texture and is mellower than the Ludmilla's Pink Heart that I ate 10 minutes ago, but has more of that "umami" quality. I'd have to rate them both equally.

I'm used to a tomato season where I get tons of cherry tomatoes and smaller-than-normal tomatoes, with maybe a handful of large tomatoes, so this season is unusual. Several plants are loaded with big tomatoes that are still green.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Gill, None of them were cuttings. I obtained these varieties in 4-inch pots. But I have occasionally planted a branch that got broken.

Carolyn, My source was a person who had taken the tomato-growing class at Love Apple Farms (LAF) and had extra plants. I noticed that many of the plants were not offered at LAF this year; if you take the class, you're given access to all the tomato seeds she has. So that's how I ended up with Black Bear and the other 9 varieties. I got the two I planted in March directly from LAF.

Black Bear has been churning out tomatoes pretty regularly, which means 2-5 every other day so far. Ok, I just ate one: it has a creamy texture and is mellower than the Ludmilla's Pink Heart that I ate 10 minutes ago, but has more of that "umami" quality. I'd have to rate them both equally.

I'm used to a tomato season where I get tons of cherry tomatoes and smaller-than-normal tomatoes, with maybe a handful of large tomatoes, so this season is unusual. Several plants are loaded with big tomatoes that are still green.

Yes, I know Cynthia at Love Apple Farm.

And so help me this thread title got to me today especially b'c of the REAL Black Bear problem I'm having and have mentioned now in several thread.

[frogsleap farm]

I grew Black Bear last year and was not impressed. Pretty susceptible to leaf diseases, and nice color but taste was not exceptional. I did not replant this year

[stormymater]

Growing a Black Bear for the first time - am very impressed with the stout sturdy plant which is now (finally) setting fruit - late start & HOT weather coupled to slow things down here but no foliage disease to date (knock wood). It, my beloved JD's Special C-Tex & an unknown volunteer are setting my best beefsteaks to date. Gosh, it is just miserably hot, humid & droughty here all at once.

Will report back after eating a couple of Black Bears...

[kath]

Also trying Black Bear for the first time. It suffered a lot of early damage from an unexpected frost, so I can't be too critical of its growth (slow). It finally set some fruits but they were only about 1 1/2" in diameter and they are just starting to ripen. We tasted the first last night and agreed that the one bite we each had was not impressive. Have to reserve judgment until we try some more of the later bigger fruits. Unlike many of the others, it did flower and set some fruit in the extreme heat we have had and so far has shown no sign of foliage disease. It'll really have to improve a lot taste-wise, though, to compete with the JD's that are at the top of our fav list so far.