Most Prolific Black Tomato

[Gardeneer]

I have planted JBT twice ( 2014, 15) But never had good production. That is the reason I am not growing it again.

Gardeneer

[SharonRossy]

@Al - this is my first year growing Paul R. Still on the fence about it because I keep reading about it's tendency for disease and I have a short summer as it is and we often experience high humidity - so I know all tomatoes can be affected, but still not sure. MC did very well, but it is out for this year to make room for other blacks.
@canehdian - my season is probably longer than yours - we plant out by end of May and pray that we can go into September.
@Josephine - Secret Seed Cartel has Margaret Curtain and Owen' Purple. I received seeds for MC from a TV member and have saved seeds. I have given seeds to Marsha for her seed swap, but I still have some MC if you want a few seeds.

[SharonRossy]

I just checked Secret Seed Cartel and can't find Margaret Curtain - not sure if it's my computer or their site or what, because usually it's listed even if they are sold out. So not sure what is going on.
Sharon

[JosephineRose]

I checked yesterday and don't see it either. That's ok, since I'm not growing it this year. But I do hope to track down seeds for next year.

Secret Seed Cartel was like a candy store for me. Holy cow! So many interesting varieties, I just dropped $50 there. I need more land!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Al@NC

Marsha has talked good about (Noire De Crimee) it on this thread, I have not gotten around to trying it yet though.

On Tatiana's tomatobase site it says that Noire De Crimee is a strain of Black Krim!



Al

Al, check the history Tania gives and you'll see that the four of us got many wonderful varieties from Norbert in France back in 1992 ,also got this one.

It's in my heirloom tomato book and when I look at the appendix for my sources I said that Norbert was, but I don't know that for sure unless I look at some back SSE YEarbooks,which I'm not going to do, just no time.

In the blurb in my book I said that we?me?thought that Black Krim and Noir de Crimmee would be the same b'c they translate out that way,but that wasn't the case.

N d' C was much darker and more productive, and in my experience tasted better.

Here's Tania's page for Black Krim

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Black_Krim

Note that the original source was Lars from Sweden,who many of the listed SSE members knew well,and he first listed it in 1990. Norbert was never an SSE member so he couldn't have gotten it that way.

Lars had huge listings in the SSE yearbooks and many Russian varieties as well. If I were to go back to my 1990 SSE YEarbook maybe I could see his source,but often he gave no sources again no time to do that.

I decided to look in my 2016 SSE YEarbook, we know him as Ake,and yes,he's still listing Black Krim along with about 500 other varieties.

Here's his listing

Russian tomato, "blackish" brown, red, 150 gms

Note the quotation marks around Blackish.

The question being, which was the original Norbert or Ake and then which should be called a version of....

Just my experience having grown both: I prefer the Noir one.

Carolyn

[SharonRossy]

JosephineRose - I have seeds for MC if you want, as I saved some. You might also be able to get seeds from Marsha's 2016 SASE sale. A few of us sent her MC seeds. You're right - SSC was so tempting - I also bought quite a bit from there and Tatiana's Tomatobase, which is even worse - she has so many varieties! Actually, I'm a sucker for seeds! Especially the black/purple/dark tomatoes.

[Al@NC]

Thanks Carolyn, I'll have to grow it next year now!

Al

[Lindalana]

Noire de Crimee and Noire Charbonneuse both did much better for me than Black Krim. Must be specifics of the area. Got them both from Tania.

[Gardeneer]

After all the commentins, going into 15 pages , lets just each name their fianl answer;

Mine : BLACK FROM TULA ... final answer

[Al@NC]

Gardeneer, Have you tried the potato leaf version yet? You saw what Fusion Power wrote right?

If you can find Black From Tula Potato Leaf aka Spudatula it is a tad better than the original.

I saw that you're growing Daniel Burson (which may take too long in our zone) and Indian Stripe. Are you trying anything new this year that might compete with Tula as your favorite? I couldn't remember if you had grown Indian Stripe before or not..

Al

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Al@NC

Gardeneer, Have you tried the potato leaf version yet? You saw what Fusion Power wrote right?

If you can find Black From Tula Potato Leaf aka Spudatula it is a tad better than the original.

I saw that you're growing Daniel Burson (which may take too long in our zone) and Indian Stripe. Are you trying anything new this year that might compete with Tula as your favorite? I couldn't remember if you had grown Indian Stripe before or not..

Al

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the suggestion. For this year I am fully booked.
I have just One Daniel Burson (first time). Also IS (RL) first time, CP (3rd yr). So yes, there will be competition to BFT. I also have couple of other that I have got the seeds from store bought OP/hrlm.
BTW: When do you plant out ?

Gardeneer

[Al@NC]

Last season was my first here in the PNW and I chanced it by planting out April 1st. It wasn't horrible but the ground was still cold and the plants were somewhat stunted. What was weird was that the plants I planted April 1st were slow at first compared to the ones I had in gallon containers still that were put out on the porch during the day and brought in at night but by the end of the season they had all just grown to 5' with a couple teasing 6'.... It didn't help that I overcrowded my community garden plot...

So to make a long story short, I won't be planting out come April 1st this year, I'm thinking instead of waiting till around April 15th if the temps are warmer at that point.

What are you shooting for?

Al

[JosephineRose]

I'm shooting for April 16th down in the SF Bay Area. Blacks this year are one repeat and a bunch of new to me varieties. I'm doing Black Krim (dry farmed seed) again as they have been amazing for me these last three seasons, and first timers: Black Sea Man, Dwarf Purple Heart, Rosella Purple Dwarf and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye.

I've tried Cherokee Purple and Black Plum in past years and was not impressed with flavor or production. I love black tomatoes so I love hearing everyone's favorites. I will be trying many of the varieties you folks have suggested next season. Sadly, I can't do it this year as will be spending most of August out of the country on business. So I'm starting early and need to be done with tomatoes by the end of July.

Here are my Black Krim beauties from last year. The one on the left was a triple fused blossom, but still delicious.

[NarnianGarden]

Lovely! Sometimes the 'monsters' are the best!

[Gardeneer]

I have grown Black Krim couple of seasons before w/ mixed results. I might try it again if I can find the plant at the nurseries. So far BFT is my fave.

Gardeneer