Best Market Black Tomato?

[TomatoDon]

I usually ask something along these lines every year or two in order to see if anything new has come on strong, and to get a feel for how the standard varieties have done for the market growers here over the past year.

Cherokee Purple still tops the list in popularity, but I get too much splitting to put it first on the list for market growing. Perhaps the second on many lists is Paul Robeson. And then there's Indian Stripe, Carbon, Black Brandywine, Black Krim, Amazon Chocolate and others that are well known. Some that I am not too familiar with that seem to get a lot of good reviews are Black Stripe and a new one called Wild Fred, a dwarf.

Now that the 2020 season is over, I'd like to get comments about the best dark market tomato, with an emphasis on uniformity in shape and the most crack resistant. I did not get to try Indian Stripe or Black Brandywine last year, so I am particularly interested to see how those did for market growers in the South, where I'm located about 80 below Memphis. It seems that one year the consensus here was that Indian Stripe was the top choice for a good dark tomato for market growing.

I would appreciate any updated suggestions or comments for the 2021 season about a good, nicely formed and crack resistant black, or dark tomato. I have not mentioned the ultimate factor -- taste -- because they all taste good to me and the flavor doesn't seem to be an issue with any of the mainstream blacks that I've tried.

I also didn't mention Black Cherry since it is a cherry tomato and it always seems to rate high with everyone, including me. I wish we had a larger dark slicing tomato with such a nice, uniform shape and crack resistance as the Black Cherry. I may do better concentrating on the mid to smaller sizes, since most of them seem less prone to be gnarled and mis-shapen and less prone to cracking.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to seeing what are the top slicing size dark tomatoes that have done well for you and would do well for market growing.

Don
Wishing you all a safe and blessed 2021

[gssgarden]

As for heirlooms, you've got the best covered in my opinion.
PBTD is one of my all time fav darks but production may be an issue. Gets soft fast but 10/10 flavor for me.

As for a dark hybrid....Cherokee Carbon!! Monster producer with great taste! Only took one season to become a mainstay.
Big in size as well.
I have a few seeds if needed.

Greg

[TomatoDon]

Thanks for a good review of dark tomatoes you have tried recently. That is a mighty nice and generous offer, too, that I may have to accept. Last year I planted Mortgage Lifter and one other that turned out to be nothing like what they were supposed to be. I may still have some Estler's Mortgage Lifter, which I think most people preferred if they had a choice. Those seeds came from a member here, too.

I should have included "productivity" in my criteria. So now, I'll update it to: 1) Productivity 2) Uniformity of fruit.....having good eye appeal and not deeply ribbed and all gnarled up 3) Crack resistance 4) And at least a few days "shelf life" after picking. Sometimes when picking for market they have to be picked 2-3 days ahead of time. 5) And, of course, taste, which I think all the darks have anyway.

Thanks again for the reply and good info!
Don

I hate to sound like the Village Idiot, but what is "PBTD" ?

[Fusion_power]

Don, one of the issues with Cherokee Purple is that it is only a medium size tomato. I stabilized a bee made cross of Cherokee Purple that makes much larger fruit and has exceptionally good flavor. Drop me an address if interested and I'll send you some seed to try. I offered it here on Tomatoville a few months ago as Cherokee Jumbo. Typical size is about 1.5 pounds.


http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=50534

[gssgarden]

Don, I'm sorry. It's Pink Berkley Tie Dye .

Greg

[zipcode]

I think it depends on what your market demands, and you as a seller. Here, a big tomato would be a no go for market, Cherokee Purple would already be too big.

Shelf life must be important for you and the buyer, crack resistant is obvious, looks (like catfacing, shape). I'm shocked Black Cherry and crack resistance are in the same sentence, if I could name the ultimate cracking tomato (more like bursting), this would be at the top.

GGWT has been a lot less soft than other black heirlooms for me, also the looks could probably have appeal (stripes, little catfacing, but kind of oblate). Also less shoulder cracking than others. Vigorous plants, definitely should give it a try.

Indian Stripe has the looks down, especially in nice shape and more uniform size from fruit to fruit.

[zeuspaul]

Interesting that Black Cherry cracks for you, it doesn't for me. Different growing conditions? or different strain?

[zipcode]

Maybe it is a different strain? I remember quite a few years ago, when talking if BC is a multiflora, and I said it kinda is, and other people in Europe said it is, and everyone was surprised. I got my seeds from TGS.

[gssgarden]

Black Cherry has cracked in the past for me as well.
They all can crack under certain conditions. I wish there was a crack-proof tomato! Lol

[bad.kelpie]

I grew Bear Creek a few years ago, I really don't remember growing it, except that it tasted pretty good. But I read through an old post of mine where I mentioned it going over well at the farmers market because it was pretty perfect, no cracks or catfacing. I do remember liking it better than Cherokee Purple.

I see GGWT and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye mentioned here, and have to say, the striped tomatoes are my best sellers, well, besides the red ones ��. People love the look, but they're not "too weird".

[sjamesNorway]

I'm not a market grower, but I'd recommend Indian Stripe PL. It has been the most productive variety in my greenhouse for a number of years - partly because it sets fruit in the heat there. Great taste and good shelf life, too. It's so good that it will take up 1/3 of the space in my greenhouse this year.


Steve

[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.

[TomatoDon]

sJamesNorway How do you compare the taste of Indian Stripe to Cherokee Purple?

[FarmerShawn]

My problem with Cherokee Purple is inconsistency in my garden. Some years it is knee-bucklingly delicious and productive, other years it is barely ok, or cracks and splits terribly. GGWT and Indian Stripe are very nice. Black Krim, I'm afraid, has the same problems as CP. Amazon Chocolate is one I love, as is Grandma Oliver's Chocolate. Carbon I like a lot, but what I grow isn't very dark.

[PaulTandberg]

I'm not a market grower, but I've grown enough dark tomatoes and been in enough markets to be truly puzzled why a market grower would mess around with an heirloom and all their (market) issues when there are so many really nice dark hybrids available, Chef's Choice Black, (All America Winner/75-day maturity), being just one of several fine available options.

I am not trolling. I am genuinely curious.

I have eaten enough of several comparable varieties to know that taste is a subjective toss up and is ruled far more by the conditions the individual tomato was grown in and when it was picked than whether it is OP or hybrid. And I have seen enough tomatoes to know that a good modern black hybrid, like CC Black, is far less likely to split, crack, or turn to mush in the box. And a hybrid will outproduce an OP nine years out of ten, if not ten out of ten.

Again, I am not trolling. I am genuinely curious and am asking a tomato forum, why would a market grower growing tomatoes intended for the market grow an OP like Cherokee Purple rather than, for instance, CC Black or one of many similar excellent offerings now available?