Black from Tula is the best producer I've come across, for whatever reason, I've been planting it for 5 years now, after testing other black/dark tomatoes. The only hitch is that the first few fruits on each plant almost always have wicked BER. After that, it's game on. Plus, they're ridiculously tasty.

Emmy also does well, it has a thicker skin and appears to like the cooler temps.

I'm going to have a huge surplus of seeds from my plants, if you want some feel free to email me, you can have some.

I started my plants from seed indoors and they went in the garden on June 1st. I'm harvesting several varieties now. The 2 that I like the most are (1) Super Steak - a hybrid seed from Burpee's (2) Pink Brandwine open pollinated.

They set a lot of fruit, ripened fairly early considering our late spring, and have very good taste. These were only about 1 week behind my early varieties for ripening. They have way better flavor than the earlies.

The two in the picture are both Super steaks. A deer took some bites out of the one on the left and tore it off of the vine. Still weighed 1# 11oz with the bites out of it. The one on the right was 1# 14oz. These look a little ratty, but all of the fruit under 1.5# were blemish free, great fruit.

Great to see recommendations of tomatoes for short summers. I've spent a fair bit of time on the tomato forum, but many are posting from much warmer zones, some are posting about frost warnings for the end of October/mid November and how they'd better get out to pick the rest of their tomatoes. I just get cranky reading that, since our average killing frost is mid to late September, and even though that frost may not occur till the end of the month the days are shorter and the evenings so cool, that not much happens with the 'maters anyway.

Enough said. BIG BEEF is a hybrid beefsteak, a robust grower and not at all cheap on the fruit production. I may only receive one or two large vine ripened fruits, the rest are picked green and they've tasted the same ripening inside. I ripen in a garden tray set on concrete basement floor. Once ripe, they've held for a good week without getting soft. Can't save seed and be guaranteed the same plant. Good old tomato flavor in my soil.

CHEROKEE PURPLE: beefsteak, heirloom Or open pollinated (sorry, don't Know the difference, but I save the seed just fine). Shoulders stay dark green when ripe. A great sloppy juicy tomato sandwich kind of tomato. Most fruit has to ripen indoors since it takes the whole summer to produce.

SUNSUGAR CHERRY: small orange fruit. Very sweet, prolific plant. Hybrid.i read it is similar to SUNGOLD CHERRY, but has thicker skin which I don't notice and keeps the fruit from cracking from heavy rain. What isn't devoured as snacks while out in the garden, gets added to salads or quartered and tossed into freshly made pasta along with minced garlic and olive oil, with a heavy hand on the Parmesan cheese!

Would like to try BLACK KRIM again. Supposed to be similar in taste to the Cherokee Purple with a hint of smokiness. Grew it for the first time last year but was still trying to figure out the watering schedule for the garden boxes which dried out faster than the open garden - all the fruits had a mealie texture - blech! Open pollinated. Considered a "black" tomato. Size similar to the cocktail tomatoes that can be purchased at the grocer. I want a smaller tomato because husband does not care for juicy soft tomato (I think he's used to the harder ones we buy from the grocery during the winter). If memory serves me correct (at my age my memory is not always reliable!) it offered ripening fruit near the last week of July onwards. Big plant once it got going.

My "typical" growing season: last spring frost the Victoria day long weekend (@ May 20-24), first frost in autumn could be September 10-12. I usually hold out until first week of June to plant out tenders as we've had snow and frost near June 7 some years. Just never know.

Apologies for long windedness, I'm sure the regulars see my name and think "oh geez, I should go put in a load of laundry first, or grab something to drink before I start!"

koni, black krim are big tomatoes, i just brought a 2+ pounder to market on thursday
i find they are a better producer than cherokee purple in our zone

try black cherry, it might satisfy you and your husband,
firm, golf ball sized fruit with a smoky black flavor

for open plantings (determinates) prairie pride, sub-arctic plenty and principe bourghese (for drying)

kioni, black krim are big tomatoes, i just brought a 2+ pounder to market on thursday
i find they are a better producer than cherokee purple in our zone

try black cherry, it might satisfy you and your husband,
firm, golf ball sized fruit with a smoky black tomato flavor

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! I am growing Black Krims this summer. They look beautiful but are still very green and haven't started ripening yet. I am hoping for a long, hot September to make up for the cool, rainy summer we've had.

Here's my take on my tomatoes this summer. These are all heirloom varieties, and I chose them specifically for their ability to set fruit in cool, short summer areas.

Yah, the plants look like crap in the photos, except for the ones grown on the deck, because some tiny black insect got on the leaves of the garden tomatoes early on, then they got hit with moderate hail.

These pics were all taken August 2 -- by then I had only picked a limited amount of tomatoes so it's a pretty good comparison of how they ripened compared to each other... to take the same photos now would be misleading since some plants have ripened all fruit and have been picked clean, other plants not so much.

Beaverlodge Slicer: Has the biggest fruits but the last to ripen. And they ripen very unevenly so some parts are ripe-red, some are green, and it's not just a case of "green shoulder". They also tend to fall off before being fully ripe, which is a bother if you aren't checking them every day. Taste was good, size was good, but I won't grow this variety again.
{{gwi:768717}}

Stupice. This is an indeterminate variety that produces golf-ball sized fruit. The plant in this pic is about 4 feet tall, and they aren't really any taller now. I wish the fruit were a bit bigger, but other than that I love everything about this tomato. I grew it last year also and it was hit hard by hail in July but recovered to produce fall tomatoes. I grew 2 plants this year, I'll be expanding my planting of it next year.

Latah: Wow, such an early tomato, giving a nice tomato crop starting in late-July. But it finishes as quickly as it starts -- I ripped out one of the two plants last week, and the other really should go too. Might grow 1 plant of this in future years, just for the earliness.

Then up on our deck I grew some cherry tomatoes. Both of these were nice and filled my desire of an early, tasty, tomato that was produced on a small plant so didnt' need daily watering. They were tasty, they were early, they met me requirements, but they just weren't what I was hoping for. Might grow them again, might not. A good choice if you want a potted plant that produces early, flavourful small tomatoes.

Yagodka: Very sweet cherry tomatoes but a bit mushy texture:
{{gwi:768722}}

Centennial Rocket: Tasty small tomatoes, bigger than cherry tomatoes. But limited production.

Long story short, I will grow Stupice again next year, more plants than this year's two, and probably will grow one plant of Latah (for its earliness). I'll grow other varieties too, but they are yet to be decided...

Oops seem to have forgotten the pic of Centennial Rocket:
{{gwi:768723}}

Well yippee, STUPICE & BLACK CHERRY seed is available from one of my favorite mail order spots, so I want to try them next year. Thanks for suggestions you all, and to Don and Northernmn for taking time to post photos. Those deer sound like trouble for taking nibbles, would be a fair amount of work to keep them out of the garden.

Don: can you describe stupice's flavor and texture please. On the tomato forum the biggest complaint about early toms is their lack of flavor compared to the later varieties, which by the way, gardeners in zones 5 and higher don't seem to have problems with getting the toms to ripen on the vine before frost hits.

Intotheark: seed site states Black Cherry is an 80 day tomato. Did you find it took all summer, since the fruit seems small I figured it would offer up ripe toms mid July like most cherry sized (but then I was wrong about black krim's size).

BluenoseDee: what size are those black krim's you've got? And how does Cole taste, I could only find a description on the site you provided, seed does not seem to be offered in a lot of places.

Thanks everyone.

Hi Kioni,

The Black Krims I have are about 2 inches across, though I know they grow even larger for many people having a good season. Ours are still green (arhg!). They require sturdier staking than I anticipated, too. I have heard nothing but positive things about their flavour.

I was actually surprised and quite pleased at how good the flavour of the Cole tomatoes is, considering they are an early variety. I don't know how to describe it other than to say it's a typical "tomato" flavour, but more intense than I expected. Can't be compared to a larger, late-season variety, though. My fingers are in a constant state of being crossed, hoping for a warm September as even the Coles aren't all ripe yet.

The Coles are not that common and right now I think Annapolis Seeds is the only place in Canada that sells the seeds. I could be wrong about that (for example, they might be offered through the Seeds of Diversity annual heirloom exchange). A similar variety that I have not tried yet (also sold through Annapolis Seeds) is the Scotia tomato. Good Maritimer that I am, I will be growing those next year! *L*

I am in the process of saving a small batch of Cole seeds. If you would like some for a SASE, feel free to send me an email.

I forgot to mention the variety that got me hooked on gardening in the first place and clinched my devotion to heirlooms. The first heirloom tomatoes I ever grew were Carbons (another "black" tomato). They seem to do well in short seasons and are delicious.

Kioni,
I like the texture of the Stupice -- good balance of meatiness and juiciness, not mushy. The skin is thin so is easy to eat, unilike say the Yagodka which has a thick skin that you want to spit out.

As for flavour, it is good but somewhat mild. If you compare it to a grocery store tomato, you'll be wildly impressed. If you compare it to a vine-ripened beefsteak tomato (like I used to grow in Ottawa when I lived there), you'll be disappointed. So it seems like most early tomatoes that way, although I would argue Stupice is meatier, not watery like some early tomatoes.

Here's a typical Stupice fruit, about 2" diameter:

The only good thing about "early" tomatoes is that they are early. I grew Stupice for the first time this year and I've been feeding them to my husband, who actually enjoys flavourless grocery store tomatoes.

I had my first ripe Black Krim tomato yesterday and it was divine. I also have a Persimmon, Mortgage Lifter and Japanese Black Trifele ripening on my counter right now...can't wait for those...

My beloved Big Beef, which is grown every year for my "insurance crop" aka salsa tomatoes, well...they've been hit with quite a bit of BER for some reason...none of the other tomatoes are suffering from it, and the watering has been the same for them all. I might need to make salsa with the Rutgers and other misc heirlooms this year.

These two varieties I have grown for the first time but really do like them Bonnie Best and Matina. Only thing is Matina get Very tall. But they both have clusters of medium tomatoes and they do taste good. And I'm not really crazy about tomatoes but grow them as a challenge to myself. Friends get lots of them

i'll second bonnie best, it is a good all-round, consistent tomato

another excellent, somewhat early tomato is 'mountain princess'
beautiful & tasty, medium-sized red fruit, with many fruit per cluster

i just harvested the first black cherries about a week ago
all our indeterminates are in a greenhouse,
and the determinates are outside
although i have started black cherries in early march,
they were 6' tall at planting out, and i had to hand-pollinate before planting out
i had them potted up into bathroom garbage cans from ikea,
with duct tape to exude the light in the end
but we had fruit from late-may to october
and these were planted outside that year with no issues
i also save seed from nice early specimens,
so after 7 generations they are more acclimatized to my zone

so it all depends on when you start your seeds,
if you want earlier tomatoes, start your seed earlier

This post was edited by intotheark on Mon, Sep 2, 13 at 11:07

For cool climates the cherry tomatoes ripen earlier than the full sized ones. They are also less likely to suffer from BER.

The orange tomatoes are in my opinion the tasties one in cultivation. Of those, Sungold F1 is the best. Last year I grew five different orange tomatoes and I have to say that Sungold beat the others.

So far haven't had any wow taste tests, but overall this wasn't a good tomato summer. July was wet and cold for the most part and I started having disease issues.
But here's a bowl showing you the variety I grew...Among them, Viva Italia, Black Cherry, Sweet Baby Girl, Terenzo, Bison, Silver Fir Tree, Jaune Flamee, Mountain Spring and Mountain Magic.
Sweet Baby Girl was from old seed I had. It is a good tasting cherry type. Black cherry is pretty, but hasn't wowed me yet. Terenzo is a very small container plant, but bland to me in taste.
I'm challenged in my taste tests because I sprayed my tomatoes so can't just wander around popping tomatoes in my mouth. By the time i get them into the house and washed, chances are they will get mixed up.

I

I used to grow Celebrity tomatoes in Florida. Very tasty medium sized fruit. I didn't try them after my move to MN.

I grew Brandywine, Steak Sandwich and Sweet 100 from seeds. The weather's been such a pain, I've only gotten about a pint of sweet 100's and a few Brandywines. The BW's seem to have quite the potential for yumminess if given some warmer weather. They're definitely worth a shot.

As for the Steak Sandwich, I'm wondering if aliens abducted the plants.

I didn't plant Black Cherry this year but I was surprised to see volunteers growing where I had them last year. My plants are well over five feet tall. They've been ripening on the vine for the past few weeks now.

I grew Sweet Baby Girl for the first time this year, and I'm not sure if I got mislabeled seeds or not, these don't have any flavour at all, and certainly not sweet.

I am quite impressed with Isis Candy. The first few fruits weren't that good, but the ones that are producing right now are sweet and flavourful. I will definitely grow these again.

BIG BEEF Hybrid - staking variety
Better Boy - staking
Fantastic - staking
Celebrity Hybrid - staking

These have gotten us consitent results. They get started inside on our windows April 1st. and are trasplanted out into the garden in the middle of June. We stake the tomatoes on poplar saplings and prune them religiously, leaving only 4 sets of fruit per plant. We grow about 100 plants.

This year we had very poor flavor across the board. I put it down to very cold July temperatures. The fruit sized up beautifully, but no flavor. Early blight was a real problem so we picked mostly green fruit.

Guys,

I am digging out this old thread. Any update? What is your favorate place or website to shop for tomato seeds?

Heritage Harvest Seeds is wonderful, as is West Coast Seeds.

I agree with donna though, early season tomatoes lack enough flavour for me. I grow mostly the heirloom type, I start them really early, plant them when they are in a 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon pot. I have no problems getting lots of tomatoes.

This year it is

Olpaka, Italian Heirloom, Andrew Renhardt's Jumbo, Forme de Cour, and my husbands favourite is not an heirloom Chef's Choice.

The grandkids did a taste test last year and Black Prince came out the winner.

ubro,

Thanks a lot for your quick reply.

I gave Stokes seeds a try this year. Excellent germination rates so far in Tumbler F1 seeds.

We grow some heirloom's...large reds and yellow, not sure what they are but one of the favored is still the smaller red ones here, [early girl] in the tray...they seem to look the best always... hold up against cracking etc.

Beautiful pictures Konrad, I can almost taste them.

Thank you for digging up this thread Brandon, I am quite inspired now.

Today I picked up some seeds from Golden Acre: Sungold, Black Cherry (both from Renee's Garden seeds), Stupice (West Cost Seeds), and Super Sweet 100 (McKenzie seeds).

I have just put in some Black Cherry as well. It is a beautiful little tomato and I grew it a few years back. I cannot remember the taste however, I did so many then and did not mark it down.

I've bought from a seed company in Ontario, The Cottage Gardener...they were very good; seeds were true and I'm still using some that are five years old. I try to source plants locally and save seeds (if they aren't hybrids). I grew Cherokee Green for the first time last year and it was a wonderful tomato, hopefully my saved seeds will germinate.

Thanks a lot for the info Prairie_northrose, I will definitely pay a visit to golden acre.

Donna, the selection of heirloom seeds from The Cottage Gardener look great!

Brandon, here is an update on some of the tomato varieties I've planted, all grown in the same conditions. Top left is Black Cherry, top right is Sungold, bottom left is Stupice, and bottom right is Super Sweet 100. Sungold is by far the most vigorous, already showing its third set of true leaves and more roots than the others:

I'm trying to figure out what type of support to use as I don't have space for them to sprawl. This is the first year I'll be trying these (hopefully tall) indeterminate tomato plants outdoors in the ground. I have a few sheltered spots for them.

I hear concrete reinforcing wire mesh works well to make large cages. Does anyone have experience with this material? I saw some at Home Depot for $13.65 for 3.5'x7' or $92.74 for 5'x50'. Or is staking better? I am trying to find an affordable, yet sturdy, solution.

A lot of folks in central Alberta had lost their entire tomato crop in 2010 to late blight, my then plants had been laden in fruit and had simply turned black and entirely melted away! The following year, we again had a late blight outbreak, though this time I was at least able to salvage some of the crop. Well, after that I had done my research and switched to planting the blight resistant 'Defiant' as my main crop and for the sake of having a bit of variety, a few others that unfortunately have no resistance to the disease. 'Defiant' has firm fruits with a good balance of acidity and having that good tomato flavor. Stokes offers the best price on this variety.

prairie--You can check out Johnny's seed site, they have a video that demonstrates the weave system of staking up tomatoes that I use and it does work.

I guess it depends on how many tomatoes you have. My aunt uses an old wooden ladder, she just opens it up in the garden and twines the plants up each leg. She does the same for cukes. Actually it looks pretty nice and works well.

Twros, the same thing happened here with late blight. I'm not certain which year it was. I had never experienced it in all the years of growing tomatoes. It was such a huge disappointment to lose an entire tomato crop; even those that had been picked rotted.

Like you, I now grow a resistant variety, just to hedge my bets. It is Mountain Magic from William Dam seeds. It is expensive, and is only a campari type tomato. It has good flavor though. I'm growing other tomatoes for variety also.

Thank you for the tip on the weaving method, I will give it a try Ubro!

Tomato blight sounds awful. I had a fungal rot destroy some sunflowers late last year, the base of the stem would suddenly turn black with rot, then whole plant died. I was going to plant the tomatoes in the same spots as the sunflowers last year, perhaps that's not a good idea?

North53, yes, since I've started growing 'Defiant', I can rest assured this particular variety won't succumb to blight. I've looked into 'Mountain Magic' and might just have to give it a try.

PNR, I think that your sunflowers possibly have been suffering from sclerotinia, outbreaks are most common under moist and humid growing conditions, though to a lesser degree, even when it's dry. This disease does not affect tomatoes ... thankfully!

Sclerotinia stem rot

Experimented with about 8 heirloom tomatoes from heritage harvest. Out of all of them I liked Kalinka (det.) the best, good yields, juicy and fleshy too...

Another favourite of mine is Black Russian (int.). Big beefstake type, late ripening although there's always one that is the first ripe tomato of the year! Some strains differ a little, the best I grew came from prairie seeds in SK.

prairie_northrose,

Thanks for the pictures. I think I started my seeds two weeks later than you but they look decent in size now. I will put them in ground tomorrow and hopefully all the frost are behind us. Sungold is the most vigorous one for me as well.

Brandon

I grew a number of heirlooms last year...and honestly, I was really disappointed. Maybe last year was just a bad year for tomatoes? I found them to be quite acidic tasting, they didn't keep AT ALL after picking, and I had terrible cracking problems. I had to throw out so many tomatoes because they quickly turned to mush and got moldy after cracking. The rest I mostly made into tomato sauces. They were fine for that.

Off the top of my head, I think I grew Cherokee Purple, Indian Stripe, Black Krim...and a few others that I can't remember. I got loads of tomatoes, but there were just so many that were ruined. It seemed like they didn't get fully ripe, but they were still starting to crack and rot on the plant. Maybe a blight of some kind? We did not have a hot summer, maybe that was part of it. I also grew Black Cherry...it didn't do well. I started it at the same time as everything else but it took FOREVER to ripen. I have grown something called Chocolate Cherry in the past, it didn't produce a lot but the flavour was divine.

Normally I grow varieties like Sweet Million, Manitoba, Celebrity, etc. They've been reliable for me.

I will probably still try the purple heirlooms again, I'm assuming either my conditions were wrong or it was just a bad tomato year in my area. But last year was basically a bust for me! I don't think I'll ever plant ALL my tomatoes as heirlooms again, though. Just in case I have a complete failure again. I'll probably split my tomato plants between my old reliables and some new-to-me heirlooms.

Or of the varieties I am trying this year, I am finding heirloom Black Cherry much slower growing than the hybrids.

Black Cherry is still small enough to be under lights in the basement.

Whereas most of the hybrids are in the sunroom now, Sungold and Super Sweet 100 are in the front tray here:

'Tumbler' are the remaining in the back, started earlier.

I am new to tomato growing and am finding I have a preference for hybrids. Other than saving seeds, are there circumstances in which heirlooms would perform better than hybrids?

Weeper, the cracking is most likely caused from too much moisture absorbed in the fruit from lots/heavy rains is my best guess

Even after dry spells I need to be careful not to overwater or else mine will crack too. Yes, once they crack they easily mold up. I try to eat the cracked ones first and save the good ones for storage.

The best tasting tomatoes are those that are ripened on the dry side.

Up here I grow the heirloom and only one hybrid Chef's Choice, I find that many early tomatoes lack taste. Early Girl, Beaver lodge Slicer, Bush Beefsteak, Manitoba, Fourth of July, Wisconsin 55, Celebrity, Early Ann, Bison Etc. Etc. and all have disappointed me. I think it is situational as to what flavour is obtained from a tomato.

Of all the tomatoes I have tried over the years, this year I pared down to what works for me ( as I said upthread ).Olpaka (a paste, this one tends to droop, but that is just what it does and it still gets good fruit) , Italian Heirloom, Andrew Renhardt's Jumbo, Forme de Cour, and my husbands favourite is not an heirloom Chef's Choice.

I find that I just start the heirlooms earlier, they need a little more time to size up. All my heirlooms are now in 2" pots and some are blossoming. I like to have them in bloom before I plant, preferably in larger pots than 2" but with my spring work I let potting them up lapse. They were seeded March 1st.

That's an interesting point of view, ubro. It makes sense that the ones bred for early fruit would lose something. I hope to remember this next year when choosing what variety to grow.

Ubro, thank you for the info, I did not realize early tomatoes lack flavour. Good to know to start the heirlooms earlier next year.

I grow Black Cherry and Sungold this year and they are both pretty good. Very vigorous plants and yield a lot of tomatoes. My little boy has been picking them every day since August. They are both pretty good in taste. Black Cherry is a little bigger in size. My only complaint is their skins are pretty hard.

Looks great!

Sungold did the best overall for us this year. Very, very sweet. Strong production.

Black Cherry was not prolific for me, it was much slower growing than the rest, although the plant is big and tall now, I only got a few fruit from it so far. Interesting complex flavour though.

Tumbler gave us the most and earliest tomatoes. Flavour is ok compared to the others. Nice to have them so early before the others.

Super Sweet 100 was good, good strong flavour, smaller sized fruit, decent production.

Stupice has been later to ripen. Flavour is ok, similar to Tumbler. I probably would have had more if not for my dog picking them off the vine.