Indigo Rose Tomato

[Dukeintex]

Indigo Rose Tomatos
Is anyone familiar with the Indigo Rose Tomato? It is a cherry tomato that is dark purple (almost black). My question involves when it is ripe. I have tried a few but they seem to be kind of bland. I may have picked them too early. Anyone with any ideas?

[PaulF]

Beautiful tomato on the outside, rather plain on the inside and not much flavor. More an ornamental oddity than a tomato grown to eat.

[Lindsaylew82]

I thought they were pretty blah. They turn very rosy, dusky pink when ripe.

[imafan26]

There are so many tomatoes to choose from. I have only picked a few winners, but a lot of mehs? I think some varieties do better in certain areas. People also have different opinions of what they like a perfect tomato to taste like. Good news, there are a lot of other ones to try. At least it helps to know that this maybe should be one I should skip.

[Lindsaylew82]

It was definitely meh.... it did very well in my heat though, and was fairly pest and disease resistant. The lack of flavor did not outweigh the perks, though.

[applestar]

Unfortunately Indigo Rose was one of the earliest commercially released anthocyanin-type tomatoes and it definitely was not the tastiest. Cardboard fast food restaurant tomato dressed up in a pretty purple veil.

A couple of years ago, I tried half dozen or more varieties that are stabilized and available from some tomato breeders. NOTE I said breeders -- these are NOT gene spliced oddities that are being created in some labs.

Most were not very tasty though the dark foliage, purple stems, and even magenta roots of the seedlings were absolutely eye-catching. The genes for the antho in the fruits are separate from the genes for the antho in the foliage so expression in the fruits varied, and some were very slight and some were super dark -- almost black. The antho expression is stronger in both foliage and fruit with more direct sunlight and also during cooler temperatures. They are REALLY fun to grow.

For optimum flavor and fair taste test, it's VERY important to wait until the base color of the fruit and the fruit itself has reached the ripe color and texture before eating, though you can pick them after the base color blush occurs and ripen inside. Also tricky at first not to let them get OVERRIPE and mushy.

Some were just great looking and not as tasty as you would hope for. There is an on-going debate that they are tastier when the base color is pink or more specifically, when the thin epi/skin of the tomato is clear, rather than yellow (like a red tomato).

HOWEVER, don't be discouraged from the antho varieties because they are making leaps and bounds advances in the antho varieties. The antho pigments on the skin themselves carry a background flavor reminiscent of Concord grapes, balckberries, and blueberries when not overpowered by the tomato skin flavor. But some of the really badly flavored antho also carry the bitterness of nightshade and when the fruit itself doesn't have the great tomato flavor flooding the tastebuds, yuck, that's all you taste.

I think there's an antho variety thread here somewhere. I'll try to update that thread with my current fave varieties. I'm only growing two antho varieties this year -- I'm carrying one still in segregating stage forward from last year because of its great flavor and the other one gets rave reviews from tomato growing enthusiasts. That's not to say those are the only tasty choices. It's just that I'm not devoting as much space because I have too many varieties going Haha.

[Dukeintex]

Ok...thanks for all the info. I probably picked it too early. And I see the bottom of the tomato is now starting to turn more red and less green so maybe now it is ripe. Hopefully it will have more taste.

[Dukeintex]

Well I picked two of the tomatos that were ripe and they still are below average on the taste scale. My opinion is this tomato is for show NOT for taste. I won't be trying it next year. But,Always fun trying out new tomatoes

[xtgold]

color get dull and bottom is red.
Taste was bla and not disease resistant.
I went with the indigo ruby and indigo kumquat this year because I was able to get the plants mid april for my cement block experiment.

[applestar]

Humph. I don't think there IS an antho tomato thread...

I was trying to piece some posts together, but my network connection is horrible today, and I got frustrated. Here's what I got so far. There are tons more photos, etc. in those threads. There are more in other threads and more recent threads too. You might get to them faster using the site search. I think I mention the word "antho" almost always when describing them.

Subject: 2013 Wild Boar Tomatoes - How are they Growing?

I think the aluminum tray reflectors are producing desired effect -- what do you think?

Yesterday:


Today:

Subject: What's your most anticipated - intriguing tomato so far?

Blue-er than BLUE!

NOT Brazillian Beauty


NOT Surpriz, same NOT Brazillian Beauty as above

Pink Siberian Tiger, Fahrenheit Blues

Clackamas Blueberry with Bosque Blue in back, and another darker-looking Clackamas Blueberry
download/file.php?id=7523&mode=view

Subject: What's your most anticipated - intriguing tomato so far?

Here they are planted in the Spiral Garden -- highlight collages of the high antho varieties:

Purple Dragon (2)

Brazillian Beauty NOT ....... Bosque Blue


Clackamas Blueberry (2)

Pink Siberian Tiger (2) ... Fahrenheit Blues ... Carbon Copy ... NPSP-F1

Green fruits in the spiral garden

Bosque Blue .......... Girl Girl's Weird Thing, Not Liguria
Sailor's Luck .......... Hawaiian Pineapple

Subject: Applestar's 2015 Tomato (and Pepper and Eggplant) Garden

These will be ready soon....

Antho varieties --

A photo from late August in the 2015 thread


Subject: Applestar's 2015 Garden

9/10 Harvest

- More figs, apples and 1st Prok persimmon!
- Basil (VGDPSRB). Decided to harvest pretty severely since the Patio container basils are starting to suffer Basil Downy Mildew.

- Also first MR x ZCMWF, F1 #1F ...it is small grape shape and appears to be pink or purple. #1F plant is tall and rambling -- really hoping this is a Maglia Rosa x Coyote cross with flavor to match!
- CHERRY TOMATOES:
- - A double cluster Champagne and small cluster of SIP Petite Pomme Blanche is again looking paler ivory color.
- - Single yellow cherry is from Iva's Sweet White.
- - Large yellow grape cherry is Sweetie. (I thought that was going to be red, so will need to look it up.) Sun Bell
- - Gotta love the cute antho-calyx sun print on the Amethyst Cream (It would be worth planting in much sunnier spot just for that but the flavor might suffer from overwhelming antho overtones....)
- - Large red cherry is Sun Gold not.
- Dwarf Red okra from Blane and Burgundy okra from Burpee
- Armenian cucumber (VGB)
- 2nd Captain Lucky White had multiple skin splits due to all the rain we had.

My top pick for flavor out of the antho varieties mentioned in this post is Amethyst Cream -- sweet and fruity, really noticeably good when tasted on its own like Snow White. Only drops a notch in comparison when tasted with/against intensely flavored white (clear epic yellow flesh) favorites like Coyote or Raymondo's Australian Mist.

IF I remember correctly, it was the Bosque Blue rather than the Clackamas Blueberry that had that grapey/blueberry flavor in the skin. I mentioned it somewhere, but don't remember where.

[applestar]

The two antho varieties I'm growing this year are (was) Alonzo's Medals and Seargeant Pepper's

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden

Some of the notable tomato varieties -- more to be photo'ed and posted soon!

(was) Alonzo's Medals [Elgin Purple x Sgt. Pepper's] F3 (HBR 9.11.16) bc/antho shoulders
I'm advancing the 9-11 fruit -- VERY dark stems on these



Sergeant Pepper's (itali'16) large pink heart with antho shoulders


...the tallest has beginning of flower buds on it -- I only noticed after taking the picture and was hurrying off to do something else ... and looking at the photo now, I failed to capture them

[xtgold]

The foil pans reminded me that I had mirrors on the ground under some of the plants last year to help with the bottom color.
I don't think it did any good.

[applestar]

Think under-chin tanning reflector The way I did it worked fabulously to reflect the sunlight directly to the underside and backside of the fruits for getting as much antho coloring on the fruit as possible for the WOW-factor. Antho in the tomato's epidermis acts like human melanin pigment and responds to direct sunlight/UV by concentrating in the area to protect the interior of the fruit. That's how the Amethyst Cream got those cute calyx/star shaped sunprint in the photo above. And this happens to all antho varieties with good shoulder antho color.

It's best to prune or otherwise open up the foliage canopy to expose the fruits to max sunlight. This is why some people say it's harder to grow the antho varieties and try to get max color in the south where the sunlight is too hot and cause fruit scalding. They have better luck growing them so the fruits mature during somewhat cooler months of the season.

--- NOPE to improving the flavor this way (if that's what you meant) ---

You can only try different varieties until you find ones that taste good to you. Everybody's tastebuds perceive flavors in different ways. As bad review as I am giving to Indigo Rose, the flavor profile might appeal to some people. But if I remember correctly, Indigo Rose had some of that nightshade bitterness in the skin that ...again very fuzzy memory here based on rumors and heresay so don't quote me on this... came from the P-20 (?) -- the secretly smuggled out experimental variety-- parent... and it didn't have the full-flavored base profile that might have compensated.

[xtgold]

must be the uv light because the indigo rose tomatoes I grew indoors under lights at the end of the season never turned color,they stayed red.