Best blacks, looking for opinions

[halleone]

I'm busy planning for next year, and would like to try two new black tomatoes. I've been growing Black Seaman and Japanese Trifele Black for a number of years and they have been great, I'm just ready to try something new. I do eat them fresh/sliced, but mainly roast them for roasted tomato-tomato sauce. Got any suggestions? And thank you.

[zeuspaul]

Carbon and Japanese Trifele Black

[KarenO]

Cowboy, Polaris, one trick pony are three of my dark tomatoes you might like to look into
KarenO

[wxcrawler]

I'll second Polaris and Cowboy. Outstanding!

Lee

[Fusion_power]

J.D.'s Special C-tex and Black From tula should be considered.

[zeuspaul]

Black Cherry

[PaulF]

These have done well for me in my garden. I think a lot depends on location as to how well some blacks do.

Amazon Chocolate
Bear Creek
Brad's Black Heart
Brandywine Black/True Black
Carbon
Cherndoe Serdtse
Cherokee Purple/ Purple Heart
Clear Lake Heirloom
Daniel Burson
Indische Fleisch
Shokoloadnoe Chudo

If you like cherry tomatoes: Black Cherry

[VirginiaClay]

If you're open to the so-called "heirloom marriage" hybrids, Cherokee Carbon is an amazing tomato. Delicious, healthy, vigorous, and extremely productive here in hot, humid zone 7 northern Virginia. It's a general purpose, slicing type of tomato.



Since you're mainly cooking with them, maybe Purple Russian (a.k.a. Ukrainian Purple)? Or maybe Shokoladnaya Sosulka (Chocolate Icicle) if you also like the brownish black tomatoes, as opposed to just the purplish blacks.

[eyolf]

I bet there's some variability in conditions, but I'm going to throw this out:

My daughter, and her foodie squeeze asked me to grow a few Black Plum starts a couple of years back, so I found seeds. I grew 2 or 3 as well. I start some every year now.

They thought it made the best-flavored sauce...both the ones they bought at the farmers market and what they grew.

Mama and I cook about half the moisture out of them and make sauce. It DOES taste very good...sprightly and bright...but the greenish brown color takes some getting used to.

Sent from my motorola edge (2022) using Tapatalk

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Cowboy, Polaris, one trick pony are three of my dark tomatoes you might like to look into
KarenO

I need to check out Cowboy and One Trick Pony. I haven't heard of them.

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Hot, humid climate but opposite growing season and all dark tomatoes usually set fruit really well. Height of production is when light hours are the least.

Problem is splitting and cracking with the dark tomatoes - especially JD Tex and Black from Tula.


I never grown Carbon (actually I tried but tomato was not carbon), but I have grown Cherokee Carbon and very good results.

But the best 2 I have grown overall were Buffalo Soldier and Margaret Curtain (both this past season). Also Big Cheef was doing tremendous but was too huge to move during the hurricane so had to fend for itself; same with Daniel Burson which I will try again.

I grew Japenese Trifele Black this past season and the plant sets so much fruit. I didn't like it at all. The year I grew Black Seaman, it never ripened evenly so didn't grow again. I grow all tomatoes in fabric bags or Earthboxes, never the ground or raised beds (Nematodes) so that may affect the taste etc.

Favorite dark cherry tomatos are Sun Chocola and Sun Garnet; both are hybrids.

Other darks that I have tried were:
Paul Robeson
Black Prince, I just didn't like the size.

[habitat_gardener]

Polaris is exceptional! Not as productive as I'd like, but it's the best black tomato-sandwich tomato I've tried in my climate.

Purple Boy F1 is pretty good. Much smaller, rounder tomatoes, but dependable and sweet (and nematode-resistant, which is why I started growing them). They've been about the same size as Japanese Black Trifele this year.

In a cooler-summer climate, I really liked Purple Brandy (aka Marizol Bratka), though it's more a pink-purple than a black.