Best Market Black Tomato?

[Milan HP]

Originally Posted by TomatoDon

Zipcode has a point about size. People would rather get several smaller tomatoes than one jumbo for the same price. That is one reason I still grow Better Boy. It produces lots of tomatoes in what I might consider the medium or average size for slicing tomatoes.

At $2.00 per pound, it would be hard to sell two 1.5 pound tomatoes for $6.00, while it would seem acceptable to pay the same $6.00 for 10 smaller slicing sandwich tomatoes.

I'll look at it from the buyer's point of view. It's not only about 2 tomatoes or 10 at the same price as a mental process. For a small family it's actually quite impractical to buy the big ones: either you finish them in one go or you have to put the rest (open to oxygen) in the fridge. And a day in the fridge really spoils the taste no matter how well you wrap it in clingfilm. With smaller ones I can use as many as I need at the moment.
Milan HP

[barbamWY]

I've had high yields with Indian Stripe, Black Giant and Black Early. The last two are difficult to find seed for. They are both from Belgium and honestly I see no difference. I'm in Wyoming so I have a short growing season.
Barb

[bower]

I'll add another vote for Indian Stripe. Taste is like CP but in all else different. Nice regular shapes less prone to crack. Reliable producer. Good shelf life. Adaptable to conditions year to year. I trialed a lot of blacks and Indian Stripe was definitely the winner for market quality.
Pink Berkeley Tie Die is a lovely tomato with a unique taste. Zero shelf life so useless for a market grow.

Black Early was promising for us but in the end was not consistent from year to year.

[Hillbillygardner]

Black from Tula is a pretty good uniform tomato and it sets fruit even in hot weather which I always thought was good. And its fairly early, but for me tended to slow down under really hot temps. Consistence watering is important but like any heirloom its not gonna last for days in a box and I don’t think a decent tasting black would. I have started selling to individuals when ripe. People know me at the markets and I text them when i have some ready and they come to the farm. Cherokee Carbon may be better for you depending on your market

[TomatoDon]

Paul, I am one of the few here that agrees with the position that there is nothing wrong with a good hybrid and there are a lot of good ones. Just as all Hybrids are not bad, not all OP are good. I have never noticed that my taste buds are not normal, but I just "don't get" all the hoopla about the OP's vs Hybrids, and I've gotten a lot of good-natured kidding about it here.

I'm not determined to limit myself to OP only. I'd love to grow any good tasting, nice looking, crack resistant dark hybrid if you, or others here, have more suggestions. I want to be able to offer and sell more darks, but it's been so hard for me to consistently grow good, marketable, OP in any kind of reasonable quantity. I'd love to hear more about hybrid dark tomatoes.

[Barb_FL]

Long growing season here and dark tomatoes do set fruit in the heat but most crack.

However, if you are able to overlook getting a really large tomato, PPP (Pale Perfect Purple) is truly perfect. Sets in the heat, doesn't crack, no stem scar, tiny core, and lots of tomatoes.

I am trying Paul Roberson now as well but started months later and no ripe fruit yet.

[MrBig46]

This year I will try the Cherokee Jumbo from Darell Jones. For comparison, I want to drop a Cherokee Purple on it. If I had a place, I would give Indian Streepe also. I really liked it. As I read here, I might give Indian Streepe instead of Chderokee Purple. I still have time to change my mind. What do you think?
Vladimír

[TomatoDon]

Do you have room to grow both? If you do, that would be a good way to compare the two in all ways.

[FarmerShawn]

I'm a market gardener, and my leaning towards OP over hybrids boils down to seed availability. Hybrids' seeds must be purchased, and the good ones ain't cheap. So only the best, tried and true ones find a place in my garden - Sungold, Big Beef, Jet Star, and a couple grape varieties. I've tried the Chef Choice varieties, all of them, and found them to be just ok in my garden. But if I save my own seed from OP varieties, I find that often they increasingly get better adapted to my garden, and they just cost me some time. So while I'll keep trying hybrids, my main planting will remain heirlooms.

[PaulTandberg]

Originally Posted by TomatoDon

... I'd love to hear more about hybrid dark tomatoes.

I garden in eastern North Dakota and northwester MN (a house in Grand Forks and a farm across the border). I grow both in the garden and in a small hoop-tent (10' X 10')

I have two-years of experience with Chef's Choice Black, three-years experience with Marnero (a lovely black bred by Johnny's Seeds), and three-years with Black Truffle (a dark pear-type bred by Burpees). I can recommend all three.

For simplicity's sake, I will recommend you try Chef's Choice Black.

https://all-americaselections.org/pr...-choice-black/

https://tomatogrowers.com/products/c...-hybrid-tomato

CC Black won All America awards in the Mountain/Southwest, West/Northwest, and Southeast regions (with the Southeast performance indicating it might be a good bet for your Mississippi garden).

CC Black is a strong plant that produces nicely-sized and well-formed dark tomatoes that taste great and look real purty! They are a clear mid-season tomato that produce for me within the same time-frame as Big Beef.

There are some others on this forum that have tried CC Black according to the thread linked below so you might be able to get feedback on CC Black from others than me.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=49273

If Barb FL tried them, she might have the heat-related growing experience you are looking for.



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[TomatoDon]

One of the biggest and best known tomato seedling sellers always makes special mention of Paul Robeson as their favorite, by far. I have seen Paul Robeson mentioned here many times as being a fine tasting tomato, but never in the context of market growing. What is it rarely, if ever, on the market grower's lists? Lack of productivity?

[PaulTandberg]

Johnny's "Marnero" is a lovely dark tomato. For me it starts bearing earlier than Big Beef, sometimes kicking out a couple nearly a week earlier... but by the second flush, the two varieties are about the same).

I imagine the price Johnny's charges for the seed it has developed generates some controversy. It doesn't bother me as a pack of seed gets me five-years or so of plants. And I know there isn't a lot of money to be made breeding tomatoes so I don't blame Johnny's for charging what they think they need to run a breeding program and make a little money at it.

But, saying that, I know it does ____ some people off. Regardless, it is a nice tomato that does really well in my hooptent.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetabl...start=73&sz=18



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[PaulTandberg]

(a whoops)

[FarmerShawn]

I don't begrudge Johnny's at all for their prices. I make a yearly, substantial purchase from them, and many of the seeds I get from them are varieties they developed and can't get anywhere else, and I'm not just talking tomatoes here. All I'm saying is that a hybrid tomato that I need to continually buy seeds for needs to be darn good in my garden to be worth it. And some are, for sure. I do get frustrated when they drop a hybrid only they carry, and it's one I like. That seems to be the case with two grape tomatoes I loved from them, the orange grape, Nova, and a yellow grape, Golden Sweet. I'll miss them in my mix, if they don't return.

[PaulTandberg]

Originally Posted by FarmerShawn

I'm a market gardener, and my leaning towards OP over hybrids boils down to seed availability. Hybrids' seeds must be purchased, and the good ones ain't cheap. So only the best, tried and true ones find a place in my garden - Sungold, Big Beef, Jet Star, and a couple grape varieties. I've tried the Chef Choice varieties, all of them, and found them to be just ok in my garden. But if I save my own seed from OP varieties, I find that often they increasingly get better adapted to my garden, and they just cost me some time. So while I'll keep trying hybrids, my main planting will remain heirlooms.

Ok, that makes sense.

I am doing the same with some pumpkins. I have been saving seed from my earliest maturing pumpkins with very nicest dark green handles for going on seven years now. They keep well, too (probably because they fully mature before frost ends the season up here). The ones I keep the seed from will last on the shelf until I am ready to throw them out come Spring.

But with tomatoes, I have yet to find anything on the OP sided of the fence I would want to keep. For awhile, I thought I had found a strain of Black Krim that was a keeper for up here, but it just had too many bad years after those first couple good ones, and I gave it up. And I have tried Cherokee Purple three times. One year I went with grafted CP's and was hugely disappointed. I've given up on them, too. I've tried Paul Robeson twice. Got three nice tomatoes. Nope.

The OPs I am excited about are these Dwarfs some of you people have developed. This year I will be growing six different varieties in my hoop tent. And I will be be starting a bunch to give away to friends. They are such a fun and easy plant for "less than completely dedicated" gardeners to grow. No sprawling six to eight footers than need to be staked and pruned or put in cage built by a builder-type. I love staking, pruning, building, and fussing, but some just want to grow a couple plants without making it a hobby or a chore. And these dwarfs are perfect. Easy to manage, fun to look at, and good to eat.

I did try save some seed from a nice Chocolate Taz but I messed it up. I'll see what this year brings.