It grew well here a few years ago and was very productive. I didn't plant it again because I give most of my tomatoes away and people would pick a plastic red one before choosing the brickish brown Black Prince. You are in a zone far south of me though. This weather is something else; anything I planted late is not doing well. I got some in early under walls of water and those are producing. Pale Perfect Purple has been very productive.

This is a productive black variety for me, better than many other black varieties. Today I picked 5 ripe tomatoes from one plant, a typical weekly harvest although I pick twice weekly. Your problem may be the heat but if this one doesn't produce well I'm not sure what black variety would. For me only Pol Robson Angolan and Japanese Black Trifele, other than cherry types, produce a larger number of fruit per plant.

Thanks for your answers.

I do have one Cherokee Purple,
Had one last year, too.
Last year it produced
3 or 4 very small tomatoes.
But they sure tasted good!
No fruit at all on it
So far this year.
But the plant looks very healthy.

I don't think I will waste time & effort
On Black Prince again.

I just buy plants
Rather than starting from seed,
Because I have room for so few.
And there usually isn't much of a variety
Offered around here.

Rusty

I'm a 1st year newb to tomato growing...was at a nursery this spring and saw these tomatos called "Black Prince". $2 for 2 of them ...so i said what the hell! Both of them are growing really well one about 6ft tall with 20+ golf ball sized tomatoes and the 2nd one about 5ft tall with maybe a dozen toms on it ( could be the massive - baseball sized tom the bottom ). Wonder if it got cross pollinated. I had to pick a few unripe toms off cause of blossom end rot.....added dome Tums thru watering to hopefully stave off any future BER. I never tasted one of these...hopefully soon.

Rusty are you having more succuss with other tomatoes? I don't know where you are in zone 9 but CP should be producing more than that by the end of July. Maybe you need to find tomatoes that do well in your climate. I think B Prince is from Siberia. I thought BP was easier to grow than C Purple which rots for me in rainy weather - no problem this year. I have winter and get cabin fever. I started 9 plants of Pale Perfect Purple on top of my refrigerator under a desk lamp. The seeds are cheap try Sandhill Preservation or Sample Seed Shop. If your climate is hot, get them growing early before the severe heat starts.

I grew 8 black prince plants last year and they produced very well for me. I would say I got somewhere around 40 tomatoes per plant if I remember correctly. They were on the smallish side though about the size of a plum maybe a little bigger. I would say they were what I would call a breakfast tomato since there wasn't much of an acid taste if any at all.

One of the best producing tomato plants I had last year was a Black Prince. Once it started producing, I was picking ripe tomatoes every day, all season long. It was my first experience with a black/brown variety, I rather enjoyed the flavor. I may try a Cherokee Purple this year.

I have been following this thread for a while now, and I wanted to throw in my experience with "Black Prince."

So last year, my wife and I bought a Black Prince tomato plant from Lowes around the beginning of April. We planted it and then we had a late frost that almost killed it, but it managed to survive... although set back quite a while. We managed to get a few tomatoes from the plant, but it outgrew its cage... probably sprawling out to 2-3 times the size of the cage itself. It ended up sprawling out over our wet backyard lawn and developed some kind of disease which made the stems turn to mush and any newly-forming tomatoes would never ripen. We ended up throwing most of the fruit in our compost pile.

Fast forward a year... I was now trying to grow peppers and tomatoes from seed. I was trying to reduce cost inputs in any way that I could, and part of that was using a mix of my homemade compost as part of my seed starting soil. Long story short, the old Black Prince seeds we threw into the compost last year made its way into a few of my starter pots, and I grew two new Black Prince tomato plants.

I planted them outside late-April of this year, and despite cooler-than-expected temperatures, Black Prince is doing exceptionally well... growing faster and producing more blooms so far than any other variety I have planted. I put Black Prince in a 2x8 foot wide bed, using the native clay soil, and amended with generous amounts of homemade compost and composted chicken manure. Because of the great increase in temperatures over the past two weeks, Black Prince is now REALLY taking off with new growth!

I am still waiting on fruit to set, but I will update this thread as the plant continues to grow.

This first pic is about a month after germination, being grown in a small indoor greenhouse with (2) T8 15W plant bulbs.

This post was edited by tripleione on Wed, May 22, 13 at 12:34

This pic is after two months of growth, getting hardened off outside right at the end of April 13.

This pic is from a few days later, planted out in its new home.

This pic is May 9... this is when I first noticed blooms on the plant.

This pic is from yesterday, May 21. Black Prince, along with pretty much every other vegetables/greens I have planted, has been infested with aphids. I squished as many as I could, but even with this infestation, the plant just keeps growing so quickly

Last one for now... a close-up of the blooms that will hopefully set fruit any day now!

Tripleione,
from your past experience, why don't you, as a gardener in charge, try to control and contain the size of it?

If I were you I would refrain it by pruning constantly, to stay in size and shape I want. I have also planted a Brandywine and a Black Cream. I am going to give'm a lesson in botanic behaverism..heh. The buck stops here , by the gardener.

I like letting it grow out of control. Other will disagree, but I am of the opinion that the plant knows how to grow itself the best without any intervention from me.

This time I won't let it sprawl all over wet grass, however.

Get a sturdy cage - make one from hog wire or something like it. My tomatoes would not stand up in that cage either. I don't see any reason to prune the tomato, it isn't out of bounds. The cages they sell in stores are too small.

I live in a hot-summer area. I've had better luck with Nyagous than with Black Prince or Black Krim.

Every time you prune, you reduce the amount of tomatoes produced. If you don't want a sprawling plant, go for bush or smaller varieties. I have to prune low branches because I get no air circulation, but I love the way they grow, my sister looks forward to being able to reach out our kitchen window to pick one! Keeping them off the ground is a challenge, but I liked the Florida weave last year.
How similar in flavor are these to Black Krims?

Here's an update on my Black Prince plant....

Since last time I posted, some of the original flowers I found had fallen off entirely. It worried me for a while, as I also gave a Black Prince to my wife and it seems to be doing the same thing... flowers shriveling up and falling off.

However, the plant must have double in size since I last update the thread. There are clusters of flowers on literally every part of the plant now. It will easily outgrow this cheap cage very soon.

I am an exclusively organic gardener, but I had a large infestation of aphids when the plants first started getting big. Once I noticed them, I started squishing all of the aphids I could find for a few days in a row. I am happy to report that the beneficial insects have really taken over the job of protecting my plants at this point. I have seen numerous ladybugs, hover flies, praying mantis, daddy long legs, and other kinds of spiders all making their home in the shady inner areas of the tomato plants, especially Black Prince (assuming because it is so big).

This is a picture of Black Prince, along with my two other varieties of tomato plant. It's hard to distinguish where one plant ends and another starts, especially in the pictures. The majority of Black Prince is in the center of the pic.

After poking around a bit today, I found this little one starting to grow. First homegrown tomato of the season!

Yes, last year was the first year trying them. Very productive plant, they split a bunch, strong plant and ... not bad, good overall. However, being about a C+/B- is ok but I'm focusing on newer ones to replace them. You can't go wrong so no worries if you got em in the ground.

Hi,
Am trying to grow Black Prince for the first time this year. The plant has grown well, flowered, and already produced three tomatoes. My problem is that once the fruit started growing, the leaves above where the fruit are growing have become withered looking - almost as if the fruit is sucking the life out of the new growth. The plant continues to flower, but no additional tomatoes have grown. I added organic plant food to the garden this week, thinking maybe the plant needed an extra boost of nutrients. Any suggestions? Thanks!

BUMP.
I am considering BP. Lets see what happens

Seysonn

Seysonn I am growing it again this year. I grew it last year as well. This year I only planted one. Last year I planted two. Due to better weather this year the growth habit of it is not what I expected. Though I will count my blessings on that one. The two I grew last year topped off at about 5 or so feet tall. About two or so wide. I think the late season frost that I had to cover them to protect them from, and cool weather after must have stunted them. This year the one I planted is exploding in growth.

Now I will tell of last year, and my experience with it. :

It grew faster than any of the other 4 inch transplants I started. It was the first to set fruit. It was the first I harvested ripe fruit from. Flavor wise I compare it to a Cherokee Purple just a little more mild on the flavor. The skins are thin, and tender. If it splits chances are it will do so right to the core. The ones I had that split had seeds coming out of the split areas. I got way more that did not split. Also the plant just does not take hot sun, and weather well. I was worried due to leaves that were just drying up, and crumbling, leaving a bare stem. I thought it was some disease. A master gardener came by to check the plant. He said it was not disease. The plant just does do well in the heat. I took a healthy cutting. It did produce again in the fall. (Note when I say it does not handle hot weather well here hot is 95+ degrees.

If I were planting in your area I would use weed block to within an inch of the stem, and go at least two feet out with it. I have weed block cloth over mine. There is a soaker hose under it, and a thick layer of mulch over that. This should help a lot with the split issue. Also pick it at the first sign of color break. This seems to reduce the splitting a whole lot in just doing that.

I will try to post a pic of the one I have in the raised bed this year later on when I can get the time to take a pic. I am off to pick up a cat from the spay/neuter clinic now.

Nate

Thank for the detailed review of Black Prince, Nate.
Looks and sounds good. Tomorrow I'll get one plant from HD

The history of BP goes back to Siberia. And so they say it like cool weather better. That is what we have here. But apparently it did fine in your hot climate to. That is nice.

Seysonn.

P.S. My plant out is in full swing. So far I have planted 15 tomatoes. Peppers have to wait couple of more weeks.

Was the worst plant I've ever grown! Color was icky, taste was worse. Not only me, but 2 others I know grew it. All of us thought it was disgusting. Mushy and disease ridden. Avoid it like the plague.

I abandoned the the idea of growing BP.
Number one, because of garden spot shortage.
Number two , because it grows two big. I am trying not to grow big plants.
Number three, because of carrie's review of it.
Number four, I have already close to 6 black/brown/purple tomato seedlings.

Sey

Here is a pic of the only one I am growing this year. There is a Bush Goliath behind it. I have quite a few fruit set on it already, lots of flowers, and if it is like last year it will be loaded down soon.

Looks great Nate. How big is that planter box? How are you supporting it ?
If you have fruits and flowers on it already, no doubt you should get rewarded nicely.

I am also growing one BUSH GOLIATH . I bough the seedlings. It is in a 4 gall.pot.

Sey

Seysonn that bed is 20 inches tall. it is 4 feet by 4 feet. It is setting fruit like crazy now. The Bush Goliath behind it is setting fruit like mad as well. The Bush Goliath will appear to not be setting any fruit at all at first. It is is very dense bushy. The thing is the first flush of fruit set will happen on the inside near the main stem. Once you notice the fruit on it from the outside, it will be loaded.

One of my clients was reminiscing about her Black Princes from last year, and she specifically wanted organic starts. I saw them last night at Fred Meyer so I let her know. Maybe I can get a review or a sample later this year!

Update with a pic to come in a little while. I had to give mine a bit of a trim. One of the habits of the plant is that some branches will just start dying off. The leaves will start drying up, and leave the bare branch behind. I noticed this on both of the plants I had last year. I was worried it was some type of a disease. One of the master gardeners came by. After checking things for a bit he came to the conclusion that it is just something the plant does. It does it the most as the temps start to climb over 85 during the day. Though by the time the it became much of an issue here I had already harvested two bushels of tomatoes off of each plant. I then took a few good cuttings, and rooted them. I kept them in a shaded area until the heat wave broke. I planted them out again, and got a few more before the first frost.

For me since they were so prolific, and early I am planting one again this year. I will do the same again next year. I just know to pull the plant when I get the last of the ripe fruit off of it.

Pics to follow here in a while.

Nate.

Seysonn I am supporting it with one of the 4 ring cages. For my purposes it will work out just fine. By the time the plant outgrows the cage I will be pulling it anyway. I think the cage is 52 inch or so. I got a few of them for free when helping my wife clean up a rental property for the owner, to get it ready for the new lease holders to move into.

A closer look at the fruit. The larger ones are the size of baseballs.

A backed out pic.

Nate, You are doing great this season. Nobody in this forum has so many varieties that are already have large fruits and even some with ripe fruits.
I think you should have a great first season in 2015. You deserve it,. You started way early . Now you probably have 3 more months of harvest before it gets real hot down there.

Keep on keeping on and keep us posted with your reviews.

Sey

Sey I am going to use this to post a couple of pics from my phone. The plant for the most part is just about done. I am not crying at all due to the fact that it has given so many tomatoes, and still has some that are ripening. I will ferment some seed from one of the tomatoes, and start a couple of fall plants from them.

They taste good to me. They are a bit salty in taste. I compare it to a mild Black Krim, or Cherokee Purple. Not quite as intense of a flavor as those two have, Though it produces many of the smaller fruit, and they are quite early.

Nate, thanks a bunch for the review.
this year, as far as selecting varieties, is a history. I am loaded, about 30 varieties an close to 50 plants. I will definitely grow BP next season, along with few others in my must grow list.

Out of my 30 varieties, about 40 of them are new to me. I believe that a lot of them won't return the next season. I 'd be lucky if I get 10 new winners.

Al right . Continue with productive first part of 2015 season and get ready for the second part.

Sey

Here are some pics of one that was a rare for this one cat faced fruit. It was nice, and tasty.

Hello again, everybody! Sorry I never got back to this thread, but fall of 2012 & most of 2013 turned out to be pretty trying times in my life. No need to go into details, things are slowly improving now, so all is good!

I haven't even tried to grow any tomatoes at all since I last posted here, but I've found everyone's comments very interesting and helpful. I may plant a couple this fall, we'll see. I think I'd really like the Cherokee Purple, doubt if I will find any plants of it for sale in the fall, though. I've only seen it available in the very early spring.

Again, thank you everyone for your comments!

Rusty