Is this actually a black krim?

[cornbreadlouie]

First year growing one, but they don't look at all like the pictures I've seen online of black krim. I bought it as a seedling from the local hardware store because I'm a tomato n00b (second year growing) who didn't get an early enough start on the season.

Some have catfacing similar to what I've read about black krim, but they don't seem any darker than your average red tomato. Nowhere near as dark as the black prince I'm also growing. They taste pretty good but they're kind of soft. It ripened at least a week before my early girl, which still haven't ripened yet....

The plant is pretty prolific, taller (over six feet) and with the most tomatoes out of 9 different varieties I planted. Aside from the cherry tomatoes, but you already knew that.

I didn't remember to take a picture of the middle before I ate them but I've got another one I plan to put on a sandwich later if somebody would like to see the insides. The two I've cut have red meat and red around the seeds.

Am I just eating them before they're ripe or did the nursery mess up somehow? Out of the 3 that have been ripe enough to eat, they've turned completely red... no green shoulders.

I usually pick them off the plant about a day after they started blushing if that makes a difference.

Sorry if I'm rambling. And thanks!

[RayR]

Looks like Black Krim on the outside. I always let mine ripen on the vine and they turned darker outside and in. I don't know about picking them at blush, that might have something to do with the ripe red color you are getting.

[dice]

They have the right shape. It could have been a plant from a chance cross
in the plants that the seeds were saved from, between Black Krim and
some other red tomato that was growing within range of the local bees.

You would find that out by saving seeds from one of those red tomatoes
and growing multiple plants of it in a future year. If it was a bee-made F1,
then multiple plants from saved seeds should show some differences in
fruit size and type and number per plant, in flavor, in days to maturity,
and so on. (Those would be F2 plants.)

If all of the seedlings from saved seeds are the same, then it was
something else (a plant from a stray seed of another variety,
a mutation in a Black Krim plant, a mis-marked seedling, etc).

You could call it "Red Krim", whether it is simply unknown or a chance
cross that will take several years to become a stable OP that always
breeds true.

[Bama mater]

The tomatos and the cat facing sure looks typical of the Black Krim, but those leaves look to be PL, Are you growing the PL version?

[cornbreadlouie]

I believe it is regular leafed. Those bottom leaves just look like crap and it's been so hot that at least one of them has gotten sunscald so I havn't trimmed them off yet.

Here's a link to a picture I took with my phone. http://i52.tinypic.com/2d95x0i.jpg

I let one ripen quite a bit on the plant and it still seems like it's lighter than it should be. And I guess it's more of a muddy pink color than a red color. I'm terrible at describing stuff and my phone is terrible at taking pictures.

[b54red]

It looks like Black Krim to me too. I frequently get lighter looking fruits from many of the black or purple varieties than I see posted on here. I have noticed that when the plants last until the fall that the fruits get much darker. Last year my fall Black Krims and Indian Stripes were almost twice as dark as the ones grown in the early summer.

[cornbreadlouie]

So here's what I got from that variety this year: http://i47.tinypic.com/mcpwe9.jpg

I'm thinking it's a cross, but the other seed that made it hasn't had any ripe tomatoes yet so I can't compare the two. A friend thinks it looks slightly different than last year's.

Either way, great tomato, pretty early, productive & most important, tasty. If it proves stable next year, I'll offer up some seeds for it.

[noinwi]

My Black Krims ripen to a mahogany color and have green shoulders and some green around the seeds, even the ones I pick at blush stage and ripen indoors. It could be the difference in our different temperatures, though. I've read that the hotter the weather, the darker the color. It's been pretty darn hot in these parts this year.
The BKs are prone to concentric cracking...are you getting any with that?

[kenny_j]

What I grew this year, had lots of concentric cracking on the stem end, and very green shoulders when ripe, greener than the other 7-8 darks that I grew. I did'nt think they were that great, and will not grow again. I finally have a stable of a dozen or so Large fruited varieties tha I like, so going forward I will grow these and limit myself to just a few new varieties each year.

[noinwi]

I have a few with concentric cracking this season, but have had more in seasons past. I have had more cat-facing this season than I have had before, but the color is pretty consistent from year to year. Sometimes they don't get as dark, but the mahogany shade is there with the green shoulders. I do love the taste, but I haven't grown very many blacks. I tried Black Prince this year and was a bit disappointed, finding it bland. But then I only had one plant in a container that for some reason produced very late...usually my container toms produce earlier. In any case, I'll keep growing BK in spite of the cracking.

[noinwi]

Here are a few BK that I picked a couple days ago. They are getting over-ripe, but will be cooked down today. The plants are almost spent and the toms are getting smaller and have lots of flaws. These late ones have cracking, but not much catfacing. Photos are a bit dark even with flash, but my kitchen is quite dark, so it's hard to see the green color around the seeds.

[dice]

It is true that Black Krim has green sed gel. I do not see any of that
in your red tomato, and that is two years in a row. So I think you can
cross Black Krim itself off the list of possibilities for what that plant
was.

Chance crosses are the source of some of the best tomatoes
any of us will ever taste. The sweetest tomato that I ever tasted
was an F2 of a Stupice x unknown cross. This year I had a Bear
Claw x unknown that was very early, first plant to blush a fruit,
and it had better flavor than Moravsky Div or Stupice. One year
I had a Red Barn x unknown that turned out to be a bi-color
red/yellow cherry. It was not especially early, but it had excellent
flavor, "sweet with some depth", I guess one might say.

"Wrong" does not necessarily mean "not worth growing" (although
that happens, too). It simply means "not what we intended to grow
in that spot".

[stonysoilseeds]

my black krims get some odd shapes like your picture butmost have very dark green shoulders with concentric cracking.. because ofmy climate i only see traces of black but they are mostly red on the bottom..its a hard call whethers yours is a black krim in a way with that boat shape it looks more like my cherokee purples

[cornbreadlouie]

These tomatoes ripen to a solid red, no mahogany color, no green shoulders. Every once in a while I'll pick one with concentric cracking, but consistently watering the Earthbox seems to keep it to a minimum.

I was hoping to see a darker color this year with the "f2" but no luck. I've got another plant but it got stunted because I neglected it a little too much. It's got just one tomato, and it's probably a little bigger than a quarter. Beefsteak shaped, so I think it would have grown much larger if given more care.

Next year!

[Barbee]

My Black Krims are dark maroon colored with distinct green shoulders that don't turn. Slightly flattened on top with almost always concentric cracking.
If you drop me an pm this winter, I'd be glad to share some seeds.