Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
edymnion

Black Pineapple Tomato (aka Ananas Noire): Verdict

Edymnion
11 years ago

Just picked my first black pineapple tomato and ate it with lunch today. It was allowed to vine ripen, cut and served fresh within minutes of coming off the vine. Aka, the best possible scenario.

The final verdict? Not worth the effort.

While it was nice and meaty with fairly low moisture, which would make me initially expect lots of flavor as a sauce like tomato, nadda. It was bland and tasteless. As in I've had "picked green and ripened with gas" store bought tomatoes with more taste than this thing had.

Luckily, I also picked a handful of my blue tomatoes to go along with it for lunch, and those were sweet, sweet candy, so at least that part was good.

The black pineapple is definitely on my "never plant again" list, right up there with Mr. Stripey. Well, thats not fair to the black pineapple, it did at least produce plenty of nice big fruit, unlike Mr. Stripey.

Comments (20)

  • donna_in_sask
    11 years ago

    From what I've read,Black Pineapple and Ananas Noir are two different tomatoes. I would like to try AN, but not sure whether the season is long enough to get fruit.

    Those blue tomatoes look so neat! I'm glad they taste good as well as look good. Can you grow them from saved seed next year?

  • robeb
    11 years ago

    That sliced tomato doesn't look ripe to me.

  • remy_gw
    11 years ago

    It should be sweet and fruity tasting. Also, I never judge a tomato by its first fruit. I'm not sure why, but the first one, especially of large varieties, often does not taste as good a subsequent fruit. I'm not saying that this one could turn into a favorite, but at least give it a chance to have more flavor than a gassed store tomato.

    Robek,
    They do look like that when ripe.
    Remy

  • robeb
    11 years ago

    Looks like a not quite ripe Cherokee P.

  • donna_in_sask
    11 years ago

    Carolyn,
    You are the expert, so I would take your word if you say they are the same variety. I was browsing the website of a nursery/seed distributor in Manitoba and she mentioned that the two are not the same. It sure would be interesting to hear about the optimal growing conditions for producing a great tasting Ananas Noire.

  • garystpaul
    11 years ago

    What is the name of the smaller blue ones? OSU blue? Indigo Rose?

  • carolyn137
    11 years ago

    Donna, it's not just my word that says they are the same and I gave you the link to Tania's description about it, which is correct and her info is from the SSE YEarbooks when the variety was first listed by Luc and described by him, and if you Google it you'll find the same.

    And I do think I even know the nursery in Manitoba you speak of although I'm thinking of a seed site now, not a nursery website, but it's also good to remember that not all descriptions of varieties at all seed catalogs/websites may be correct, and indeed some are very wrong. I speak here of one in Canada that had/has many wrong descriptions that led to a long thread at another message site about that, trying to point out what was wrong to the seed site owner and trying in a helpful way.

    Carolyn

  • remy_gw
    11 years ago

    Lol, Carolyn, you crack me up :)
    Remy

  • Edymnion
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The small ones are, I believe, one of the original OSU Blue strains. Got it off ebay last year and they didn't specify exactly what it was, but that was the only blue out there at the time.

    And yes, they grow true to type from seed (assuming no crossbreeding with other regular tomatoes, of course). Gave some seed from last year to a friend this year, and he has a half dozen of the plants trying to take over his back yard.

    While they grow true to type, it should be noted that the original OSU had a lot of variety from what I've read. Some people reported it as being a horrid little tomato, while the ones I have are practically candy sweet. If you order some, go for the Indigo Rose strain, as it seems to be the sweetest OSU strain.

    And for the record, they will turn utterly black all the way around if you put a reflective mulch around them (white stone, light colored straw, etc). Otherwise, just the tops will turn due to being the only part exposed to direct strong light.

    I prefer letting the bottoms not change (dark colored soil/mulch/cover), as it makes it so much easier to tell when they're ripe.

    Although, it doesn't take them long to turn, so I guess I could wait until they go orange then put some poster board down under them. By the time they turn black all around they should be fully ripe as well.

  • Edymnion
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    And yes, I still have several more tomatoes on the pineapple (thank God for context, or that sentence would make no sense at all). I'm not going to pull it after one bad fruit, so its got plenty more chances to shape up.

    Who knows, maybe it'll get better after a bit of scolding? ;)

  • behlgarden
    11 years ago

    possibly dont water the rest of the Black Pineapple tomato plants Edymnion, it might help it develop taste, watering makes it worse if fruit is already too bland

  • Edymnion
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    If anything, my tomatoes are probably slightly underwatered as is. They're in the same patch as my peppers, and I only water when the peppers start acting droopy, and those things like it on the dry side.

    Up side is that I haven't had any issues with my tomatoes cracking since I switched to watering them on the pepper schedule.

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    I just discovered that one of the tomatoes that I am grwing from store bought heirloom is "Ananas Noire (Black Pineapple)".

    I picked it early and let it ripen on the counter but the green shoulders stayed on. So today I cut it. Wow. what a sight.
    the taste was also incredible.

    here is a picture

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    I had to bump and report:

    I picked the first fruit around mid August. I happened to have 2 plants and they have been very prolific. Right now they have several good size fruits. AND another interesting feature is that they're disease resistance. They have the healthiest foliage right now. Fruits average about 12oz ( 10 to 18 oz),. shape is either boat shaped or round flat. For the given size of the fruits and in our cool PNW climate, AN has been a winner.
    It is the only tomato that I slice and eat with dash of salt. It is juicy and slightly tangy. That is what I vision a perfect tomato.

  • AlexCascadia
    9 years ago

    This is the first fruit on my Ananas Noire that I grew entirely indoors under artificial light in my bedroom. I am so excited to try it! It is just about ripe! :D

  • AlexCascadia
    9 years ago

    The plant stands over 4 feet tall. The lights are 2x 32W Plant & Aquarium T8 fluorescent tubes + 2x 32W Daylight T8 fluorescent tubes + 1x 12W (830Lumens) LED.

    It is kept on 12/12 light cycle, and it seemed to work well enough for 2 tomatoes to start, but then the rest of the flowers started to dry up, so I am not sure what happened.

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    Amazing. I would never attempt growing such a big plant indoors. A dwarf, maybe.
    But I see your (Alex), plant is doing great.

    It will be roughly 90 days from now that I will start germinating tomatoes. I'll start peppers 30 days early.

    No is the time to relax and not worry about pest, disease, insects etc.

    Seysonn

  • Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I like it so much that I got to bring this up again.
    Here is a few comments from Taniana's site :

    ANANAS NOIR
    Tatiana :
    80 days, indet., regular leaf, tri-color beefsteak which is olive-green mottled with red, 3.5x3" oblate fruits with juicy flesh and creamy texture, sweet with a mild acid overtone. Not a good keeper. Excellent flavor.

    85 days, indet., regular leaf plant, good yield of 6-14 oz green purple-yellow fruit with green-pink flesh, outstanding sweet smokey flavor.

    The name means Black Pineapple. This is an interesting medium to large size tomato that has a green and dark purple exterior. The interior is mostly a vivid bright green with red streaks radiating throughout the flesh. A very tasty tomato that is an excellent producer but the fruit is unusually soft and must be eaten soon after harvest. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage. (75 days from transplant).

    Here is few more pictures:

    As mentioned in the reviews and I confirm, It is sweet, with right acidity and with creamy texture. I was the only tomato of my 20 or so varieties that I used to slice and eat.

    Unlike Carolyn, I love multi color tomatoes. I also had regular pine apple but d this is the top one for me .

    This is the largest one I had ; almost 20 oz.

    .

  • Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
    9 years ago

    A side comment:

    I don't understan how they name thi BLACK pineapple. There is no trace of black, brown and even purple in it. If I were to name it , I would call it RAINBOW PINEAPPLE.This has more rainbow colors in it than any tomato that I know of. It has got RED, YELLOW ORANGE, AND GREEN in a very harmonious way.

    Seysonn

0