Melon boy
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Black tomatoe ID

I have a two part question! I acquired this seed from a bought tomatoe not black in colour. It may have had a brownish hue. We like the flavour and decided to save seed.I grew the plant and it has fruit totally black in colour, perfect round and not deformed. Any one have ideas what variety it could be? I know there are a few possibilities, second part question, how do I know it is ripe to eat? As it grows the bulbs are green with tops black and as they get larger the whole tomato turns black. Very interesting variety. I have yet to sample the new crop for taste. I read that black tomatoes do not have as good a taste as red tomatoes, just unique colour. What do you tomato growers think?
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applestar
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If the fruit the seeds came from was not like this, it was accidentally cross pollinated with one of the newer anthocyanin trait tomato pollen. There are several popular varieties out now -- I suppose most well known is Indigo Rose, but there are others. First one I tried growing was Indigo Apple. Most tomato-savvy see sources are selling at least a couple of them. Some tout health benefits from the anthocyanin. More tomato-heavy sources have been creating stabilized crosses into new named varieties and are starting to release them.

So with seeds collected from a brown parent tomato, this is a unstable hybrid of sorts and not a specific variety. If you save seeds from these there is no telling what you will grow next. :D

Yours is showing very strong expression of this trait -- the black/blue pigment is like what makes human skin tan in the sun to block sunlight. I had a mystery variety that grew very dark all over like yours in 2014. The antho pigments respond to sunlight and the more direct sun exposure the fruits get, the darker and fully dark covered the fruits get AS LONG AS THEY HAVE THIS CHARACTERISTIC. Some only express the trait partially and will not get any darker below the shoulders. These are actually called "BLUE" tomatoes in tomato parlance. :wink:

Yellow skinned green gel red fresh fruit is called "Black" or "Brown" and clear skinned ones with green gel are called "Purple".

Most prevalent ultimate base color of the fruits are still red and where you see a bit of green at the bottom of the fruits will turn orangish then red, so look for that. If the parent fruit was brown as you say, it will depend on whether the skin was yellow or clear. If it had been a purple, then you could end up with a pink. Best way to tell when they are almost ripe is to feel them and when the bottom of the fruit feels velvety and somewhat gives as opposed to shiny and hard, that's when you can pick them. They will be fully ripe in 2-3 days in the kitchen -- I put them in a towel lined basket or a cooling rack for good air circulation.

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applestar
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FYI -- Here are some of the different antho varieties I grew last year:

Subject: Applestar's 2015 Tomato (and Pepper and Eggplant) Garden
applestar wrote:8/24 Harvest Photos

Today's tomatoes totaled 7-1/2 Lbs. On zeroed for 2-gal bucket and clear bowl scale:
Image


GROUP PHOTO
- (not pictured -- colander of Purple Ruben Basil and Sweet Dani Lemon basil, some Drangon's Tongue wax beans)
TOP RIGHT:
[large beefsteaks and hearts]
- light antho top pink Alonzo's Medals might have been
- green striped red Girl Girl's Weird Thing
- pink Fish Lake Oxheart (2)
- dark antho top and stripe Pink Siberian Tiger (2)
[salads and saladettes]
- striped purple Sailor's Luck (4)
- green striped red Lyn's Mahogany Garnet
- dark and light antho top yellow striped Purple Dragon (2) -- 2nd one was shaded
- sweet pink Whippersnapper x Faelan's First Snow less variegated F1
- dark antho top Brazilian Beauty not (3)
- runty Diamond eggplant (2)
- Mini Paprika Yellow pepper
- tiny red Bolivian Rainbow pepper (2)
- Vernissage Yellow
- Juicy Saladette (5)

Image

WHITE BOWL
- Prelude raspberries,
- White Soul alpine strawberry
- tiny loose Coyote hbr (3)
- normal cherry size antho top Amethyst Cream (forgot to take topside pic)
- small Petite Pomme de Blanche (1)
- over exposed pile of Maid of Orleans Jasmine blossoms
- trusses of Champagne cherry
CLEAR BOWL
- fire engine red with antho Fahrenheit Blues (5)
- smaller Rose Quartz Multiflora not
- medium not Carbon Copy not
- large round mottled with yellow Idyll
- yellow pear-shaped Ildi
- large green when ripe Samocvet Nefritovy
- brown pear-shaped Stormin Norman

- Pink Siberian Tiger
- Fish Lake Oxheart
- Whippersnapper x Faelan's First Snow less variegated F1
- Fahrenheit Blues



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