Best Market Black Tomato?

TomatoDon · January 28, 2021

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

January 28, 2021	#1
TomatoDon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MS Posts: 1,521	Best Market Black Tomato? 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 __________________ Zone 7B, N. MS