Black Prince

[Budge]

Not thinking I would ever find a purple variety tomato plant in my local market, to my surprise I came across a plant called Black Prince. I scoffed, thinking it's probably any purple variety to which a clever marketer added the word "Prince," but now I remember that I came across that name somewhere else and that it may be a legitimate variety, so I'm going to plant it. Can anybody tell me more about Black Prince? The label says it matures in 70 days, which I'm thinking might be nice and early for a purple.

[TZ-OH6]

Medium large indeterminant regular leaf plant, productive. Good but not exceptional 'black' flavor, slightly oblong tennis ball sized salad fruit (not very meaty), 5-7 per truss. Tends to crack on the shoulders a bit. I found it to be identical to Nyagous, except that Nyagous did not crack at all.

[carolyn137]

Budge, welcome.

I see you've posted in the Legacy Forum, but Black Prince is not an old timey legacy variety as most of the others being discussed here. But no problem/

And now to your question.

First, none of the so called blacks are really purple. The only two varieties that I know of that have a tint of purple are Noire des Cosebeauf and Purple Calabash, and IMO growing them once is enough.

Black prince was first listed in the 1995 SSE Yearbook and most folks got their seed from Nichols Nursery in Oregon and Rose Nichols McGee got it from someone else in OR in the early 90's.

It's one of well over 100 so called black varieties known. I've grown it, but don't take my word for taste, etc., b'c I have to admit that with just a few exceptions I'm not a great lover of blacks.

BTW, the word purple started being used in the late 1800's to describe a PINK variety, so we have Aunt Ginny's Purple, Eva Purple Ball and on and on......all PINK.

So grow it and see how you like it, knowing that if it's blacks you're interested in that there about 100 more different varieties to chose from.

[nctomatoman]

A bit more - Black Prince is a "red/black" - meaning it appears brownish - having yellow skin. Medium sized, round, fairly good flavor....good productivity.

[Moonglow]

Welcome, Budge and thank you for asking the question for some of us .

I'm growing Black Prince for the first time as well, and from my notes, it seems to be a magnet for red aphids. I have to Google this since it may be purely coincidental. It is next to 3 other varieties (ignored by the red aphids).

Have a great evening, everyone!

[TZ-OH6]

Everything in my patch (30 varieties) including Black Prince had red aphids last year, so your plant must just have been unlucky.


By oblong I mean round but slightly taller than wide (in the direction of plum shaped)

[Andrey_BY]

I really like this tomato variety. It is among first widely grown black tomato varieties of Russian origin here and it is still the most popular "black" here in CIS. So if you will find black tomato fruits in farmer's market here in Belarus (or in Russia or in Ukraine) you should expect to meet Black Prince.

The original name of this variety in Russian is Chyornyi Prints. I believe it was introduced in USSR (Russia) in early 1980s...

[Tomstrees]

was a nice brownish hue tomato for me & productive - but the
prob. was the flavor just wasn't there (fair) and def. wasn't disease tolerant

Will not return to my patch

~ Tom

[velikipop]

From the descriptions offered here everyone seems to agree on the colour, but not on the shape. I bought one today at a nursery in Belligham, WA. The grower is a local person who provides many of the nurseries with their veggie stock.
According to the label, Black Prince is a determinate, Russian heirloom, producing 2-4 oz plum shaped fruit with a mahogany skin. The picture on the label shows a tomato similar Black Plum.

I wonder if we are describing the same tomato?

Alex

[dice]

Black Prince is a determinate, Russian heirloom, producing 2-4 oz plum shaped fruit with a mahogany skin.

Definitely not the same tomato as what most vendors
sell in the US (indeterminate, not plum-shaped, fruit
about the same size). Maybe Andrey could say whether
the Black Prince found in the CIS is typically determinate
or indeterminate.

[carolyn137]

I spent some time plowing through the long listings for this variety in back SSE YEarbooks last night.

Almost everyone in the first couple of years got their seeds from Nichols Nursery in OR ( origin stated as Irkutsk, Siberia) who were the first to introduce it in the US. And then those seeds were spread around within the US as well as to European SSE members.

Going through the listings most said 2 to 4 oz fruits, with some stating fruits in the 6-8 oz range and the few who noted fruit shape said round not plum shaped, and only Ake from Sweden and one other person said deteminate as I recall.

So yes, I think two versions are in circulation Alex.

[Andrey_BY]

The real Chyornyi Prints (Black Prince) should have indet. habit (1.5-2 m tall) and flattend globe purple-blackish fruits! Fruit weight may be very variable from 100 to 400 g.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Andrey_BY

The real Chyornyi Prints (Black Prince) should have indet. habit (1.5-2 m tall) and flattend globe purple-blackish fruits! Fruit weight may be very variable from 100 to 400 g.

Thanks Andrey, and that's exactly what most folks who listed it in the SSE YEarbook have been saying.

That is, almost everyone says indet as well as not a plum, and fruit weights did vary.

[velikipop]

Andrey and Carolyn,

Good to know. I suspected that the version I had was mis-typed. It will be interesting to see what the plant produces and the quality.

Thanks,

Alex

[Moonglow]

thank you for the info. can't wait to see!