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Old January 25, 2006   #1
Mischka
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Default Growing list for 2006

I'm going to try growing all the popular "black" tomato varieties this year. Last years' performance of Cherokee Purple in my garden was outstanding and I had friends and relatives calling daily to ask if I had any newly ripened ones

Here's my list of "blacks" for 2006 in no particular order:

Carbon
Cherokee Purple*
Paul Robeson
Noire De Crimee
Black Aisberg
Black Ethiopian
Black Star
Black Master
Black Zebra
Black Brandywine
Cuban Black
German Black
Southern Night
Sara Black
Black Krim*
Noire Charbonneuse
Russian Black
Blue
Indische Fleisch
Bordo
Black Pearl F1
Purple Calabash
Pierces' Pride
Japanese Black Trifele
Black from Tula*
Purple Russian
Nyagous
Black Cherry*

*grown in previous years

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has grown any of these varieties and whether or not they liked them.


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Old January 28, 2006   #2
COgarden
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Wow, that is a serious list of black varieties! The only one I have experience with is carbon. Last year I grew one plant, it got to be a maximum of 48" tall and produced about 5 tomatoes in the 8-12 oz range. Unfortunately a flock of birds decided to rip a hole in the side of the 3 best on the plant (also the 3 closest to the ground). Cocky little chumps did it right in front of me. I guess they didn't like the taste, they left shortly after cutting a few gashes in my prized tomatoes. The ones I got to taste were quite good, a subtle sort of smoky flavor.

I'll try it again, with the understanding that the first year was nothing to use for comparison.

Kurt
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Old January 28, 2006   #3
Suze
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Carbon - favorite of mine, very similar to CP
Cherokee Purple* - fabulous, wouldn't be without it
Paul Robeson - a favorite, good strong flavor
Black Zebra - tasted it before, but not grown it -- seemed bland and watery
Southern Night - good, but not up to par with some of my other favorite darks
Black Krim* - love it, but think Black from Tula is better
Bordo - I'm growing this one for the first time this year; we will have to compare notes later
Purple Calabash - grew once, found to be a bit bitter, 'off' taste
Black from Tula* - one of my favorites
Purple Russian - first timer on this one too
Black Cherry* - love it, my husband says it's one of his top five
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Old January 28, 2006   #4
travis
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Is Indian Stripe considered a black or purple tomato? Does anyone who has grown them have opinions or comments about Indian Stripe?

PV
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Old January 28, 2006   #5
nctomatoman
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Default Hi again, Mischka! Glad to be here....a few years ago

I grew loads of blacks - so many, in fact, that it was hard to distinguish or critically evaluate after while!

Your list, my comments -



Carbon - a fine variety, very similar to ChP - a pink/black (purple)
Cherokee Purple* - in my all time top 3! another purple.
Paul Robeson - a red/black, or brown. Nice variety, struggled with disease in NC
Noire De Crimee - never tried
Black Aisberg - ditto
Black Ethiopian - medium sized, oval shape, a brown, pretty good flavor
Black Star - never tried
Black Master - ditto
Black Zebra - ditto
Black Brandywine - when TGSC first sold it, was not stable - I selected a potato leaf from it, and it does quite well - a purple.
Cuban Black - not tried
German Black- ditto
Southern Night - pretty good flavor, odd determinate potato leaf, a purple but slightly different shade, struggles with disease for me
Sara Black - not tried
Black Krim* - another purple, though again, slightly different shade. It produces well, but the flavor is not nearly as good to me as ChP
Noire Charbonneuse - good variety, similar to Cherokee Purple
Russian Black - a brown, deep globe, med sized, simialr to Black Prince and Slovenian Black, good not great flavor
Blue - another determinate potato leaf purple, fine flavor, struggled with disease
Indische Fleisch - a purple, round medium to large good tasting fruit, not quite as good for me as ChP
Bordo - not tried
Black Pearl F1 - not listed as a hybrid (the Burpee) if I recall....could be their reselection (or relabel) of Black Cherry. not tried
Purple Calabash - a good one, purple, wrinkled fruit, intense flavor
Pierces' Pride - not heard of...do you mean Price's Purple - if so, that is a fine one - a potato leaf purple, similar in flavor to ChP
Japanese Black Trifele - a brown, potato leaf pear shaped variety. Pretty good, disease prone for me.
Black from Tula* - similar color to Cherokee Purple, flavor nearly as good, fine variety
Purple Russian - fine variety, a purple long pepper shaped, though not as long as the Opalka types. A few favorite
Nyagous - a brown, medium small, round, pretty good, similar to the other round browns.
Black Cherry* - a favorite.

have fun!
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Old January 28, 2006   #6
carolyn137
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Papa Vic
Is Indian Stripe considered a black or purple tomato? Does anyone who has grown them have opinions or comments about Indian Stripe?

PV
Purple = pink in tomato language with but two exceptions I know of. One is Noir des Cosebeauf and the other is Purple Calabash.

Indian Stripe is a variety I introduced. It is virtually identical to Cherokee Purple except the fruit size is a bit smaller, and more fruits to the cluster and fruit color a bit lighter than CP.

My strong interest in this variety is b'c a friend of mine found seeds for it in an isoloated area of AR where the Cherokee had and have a presence and thus it represents development of CP separate from the CP Craig got seeds for from John Green of TN and named Cherokee Purple.

I sent seeds to Craig and he too compared it to CP and saw the same minor differences.

Taste is the same as CP.

And yes Mischka, I've grown many on your list and will take another look, but I'm telling you, I find very little difference in the many blacks I've grown, as far as taste is concerned, and taste is the only reason that I grow tomatoes. LOL

Carolyn
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Old January 28, 2006   #7
carolyn137
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Just to note that I'm having major problems trying to post and Mischka knows about it.

After doing the above post I went elsewhere at the site and tried to tell Bully I had old seeds for Mary Ann but I keep getting sent to log in, which is a dead end.

So hope this gets solved.

Carolyn
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Old January 28, 2006   #8
Mischka
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I'm trying to figure out why your session times out so fast and forces you to login again.

I'm surfing the web as I write this; I'm not sure how AOL deals with session cookies and all that mysterious computer jargon.

Carolyn, your nephew kindly PM'd me and hoping that two heads are indeed superior to one...especially as mine only counts for .75 of a head when it comes to this stuff LOL


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Old January 28, 2006   #9
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Mischka,
I've got one called Brazilian Beauty. About same size as Black Ethiopian and it tasted lots better to my tastebuds. Good production. Shoot me an email with your address if you would like to try it.

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Old January 28, 2006   #10
carolyn137
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Carolyn, your nephew kindly PM'd me and hoping that two heads are indeed superior to one...especially as mine only counts for .75 of a head when it comes to this stuff LOL


Oh he did, did he. LOL Well, Garrett has wanted for a long time to set up a message website for me and had one for me but I said to not hold on to it forever, and he didn't. As I recall he used to e-mail Spike from time to time as well......about computer stuff.

At the time there was trouble in GW la la land and Garrett reads there from time to time and actually did a good deed for me when I was in the hospital and rehab for the quad muscle tear and kept everyone informed in a thread in the off topic area.

And you can also congratulate him b'c he just finished his first semester of college at U of NC at Asheville with a 4.0 so my brother says. ( smile)

Maybe the two of you will figure something out and maybe my cookies will get accustomed to this site, or whatever, said Carolyn still having to relog in and sometimes that works and sometimes not.

PS, Garrett knows nothing at all about tomatoes. LOL

Carolyn, whose only family moved from here to near Asheville last June, so I'm up here defending my 30 acres from critters all by myself. LOL
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Old January 28, 2006   #11
Glenn 50
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Default Black tomato

I am growing some plants of the following that someone sent me.
This is from a place that has a $25 membership fee and questionable information so I wait for handouts from grown on seeds.
Anyway the fruit are halfway there so in another month I can tell you about them. In the meantime this is from their catalogue.
Regards
Glenn

"Williams NZ
This is the first New Zealand Heirloom black tomato I’ve come across. It’s a big meaty beefsteak type, with the traditional “black’ colouring. Does better in some seasons but is worth a try."
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Old January 28, 2006   #12
Mischka
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It seems that "black" is the new "red" this year for some of us

I saw an unstable version of a variety called "Aunt Ruby's Black Cherry" at the Eastern Native Seed site (can be found in the links section) I'm wondering if someone borrowed Aunt Rubys' good name or if this is a legitimate variety?

As Carolyn does, I grow for taste as well. ARGG is a standard in my garden, and Cherokee Purple is too.

Other than red, I grew Burracker's Favorite three years in a row; bland, bland and bland again. Perhaps my part of New England doesn't agree with bi-colors. Big Rainbow was BIG....a big mealy tomato, too



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Old January 28, 2006   #13
nctomatoman
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Default On Bland Bicolors....

I've grown a bundle of 'em....find ALL of them bland and boring to eat EXCEPT Lucky Cross and Little Lucky - both are delicious (Lucky Cross is my wife's favorite tomato to eat) - more than likely because they inhereted the flavor characteristics from one of their descendents, Brandywine!
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Old January 29, 2006   #14
coronabarb
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Indian Stripe is a variety I introduced. It is virtually identical to Cherokee Purple except the fruit size is a bit smaller, and more fruits to the cluster and fruit color a bit lighter than CP.

Indian Stripe sounds really good. I'll have to check to see if I obtained any seeds this last summer.

Barb
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Old January 29, 2006   #15
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Earl,

Can you tell me more about Brazilian Beauty?

And how do I get a fancy emblem next to my name?
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