Real Purple

[Barmaley]

I know that some people are afraid of GMO food, however listening to scientists looks like there is not much to worry about. I like exotic tomatoes and looking for purple ones I found this video
At the end they talk about Indigo Rose which is not the same as a slice of real purple blueberry tomatoes. Are real blueberry tomatoes available like it the video?

[arnorrian]

Every GMO is a story for itself. I would grow these tomatoes. Golden rice is also a good use of GM technology and it's a shame it's not released.

[Shule]

People call anthocyanin tomatoes blue tomatoes.

Conventionally bred tomatoes with anthocyanin skin are very common anymore, but Indigo Rose probably isn't what you want to grow if you're a tomato flavor aficionado; there are plenty of other blue tomatoes with better reviews for flavor.

Sometimes some conventionally bred tomatoes have a little anthocyanin flesh underneath the skin, but I'm not sure which varieties do that; I have seen pictures, though. I had never heard of a tomato blue through and through like those in the video, though (although I have thought about the notion), but they could be bred via conventional breeding, I personally believe (as I believed long before I watched this); we're just not quite there yet, it seems.

In fact, if you're into flavor, it's worth noting that a large percentage of people very much dislike the taste of anthocyanin in tomatoes, and if they happen to like an anthocyanin tomato's flavor, it's not typically because of the anthocyanin. I don't personally mind the flavor of anthocyanin in tomatoes, but I do admit that it can have a controversial taste (and it's not a taste I have a habit of seeking, even if I'll eat it).

I'm not sure whether cooking changes the flavor.

The closest thing you can grow to those tomatoes right now is probably such as these things:
* Blue-skinned tomatoes
* Garden Huckleberries
* Purple tomatillos (some kinds are purple all the way through; tomatillos have some similar uses as tomatoes)
* Wonderberries
* Purple carrots
* Beets
* Anthocyanin-skinned peppers

You could make purple carrot juice, or purple tomatillo salsa.

Whether you believe in the GMO cause or not, they're not commercially available for home gardeners, as far as I know.

[Barmaley]

Shule,

You always give very detailed and informative answers. I was reading previous forums and found that you grow 92 varieties at a time. Applying to your experience what if your personal taste are the testiest 3 top normal size (not cherry) tomatoes? In those are there any good producers? And another question: what are the most exotic but pleasant tasting tomatoes?

I also read your previous posts about wonderberries. Can I grow them in pots? I have plenty or space in my back yard - will they grow unsupervised as I got wild raspberries?

[Shule]

[mention]Barmaley[/mention]

> Applying to your experience what if your personal taste are the testiest 3 top normal size (not cherry) tomatoes? In those are there any good producers? And another question: what are the most exotic but pleasant tasting tomatoes?

If you're looking for a pretty authoritative analysis, maybe you should ask ginger2778, Barb_FL, Nan6b, MissS, Labradors, Clkeiper and lots of others. I'm much newer to this than I believe they are, and I have unusual growing conditions compared to most other gardeners. I also have an unusual tongue, and I already know that enjoy at least one tomato you don't.

The three best-tasting non-cherry slicers (for fresh-eating), in my opinion, excluding two I think might not be good to mention to you, might be these:

* Green Giant (very juicy and rich; not great cooked, but excellent fresh)
* Pruden's Purple (excellent hamburger tomato)
* Paul Robeson (really good, and not weak, smoky flavor)

Huh. I grew them all in 2015, interestingly enough. That's the only year I grew them. I thought I grew Pruden's Purple several years, but it turns out it must have cross-pollinated with a Brandywine type the first season, or something like that.

Green Giant is capable of being a good producer. Production was decent in my garden, but not as great for me as it seemed to be for the seller.

Pruden's Purple is capable of being prolific in other gardens, but in mine, it's not. However, it is early and heat-tolerant in my garden.

I'm not sure of Paul Robeson's production, but I got maybe about 12 fruits, and most of them turned water and broke when they got ripe. I had to watch it like a hawk to get any good ones. This does not seem to be other people's experience, as far as I can tell. I would like to grow it again, with black plastic, next time.

Now to list tomatoes with exotic taste, which I've tasted:

* Green Giant (only when the fruit was in sun)
* Paul Robeson
* Cold Black Brandy (Kind of similar to Paul Robeson, but different, and much firmer fruits)
* Cherokee Yellow Red Pear
* Yellow Plum
* Chocolate Chestnut (tasted like unrefined sugar; the more I think about this, the more I like the taste)
* Early Girl F1 (but only in 2014 in my front yard's soil; it tasted pretty normal other times and in other place's).
* Sugar Lump (only some fruits)
* Cherokee Green Pear (at least one fruit, anyway; the others still had the taste, but were milder)
* Garnet (only the earliest fruits on the plant; some I tasted later were good, but not exotic)
* Esterina F1
* Ron's Carbon Copy
* Carbon (probably the sweetest big tomato I've tasted; very good)
* Amana Orange (very nice texture and flavor; if this is prolific for you, I highly recommend growing it)
* Tatura (only in 2017, when grown by our neighbor's fence)
* Jackie (excellent taste, but small cherries; some tasted like sweet grapefruit; early)
* Rosella
* Kellogg's Beefsteak (in 2015; yes, I didn't mean to write Kellogg's Breakfast)
* Persimmon
* Medovaya Kaplya (kind of simple to call exotic, but I still call it exotic; similar to Esterina F1)
* Ovita (only when I grew it in a container in 2016)
* a Husky Cherry Red F2 and maybe an F4
* a Ron's Carbon Copy cross (pink fruit; it was amazing, complex and sweet)
* Poca Roja (a red version of Big Sungold Select)
* Monroe
* Eva
* Black Cherry
* SunChocola F2
* a tomato that I think was Brandywine, but only grown on my friend's property (it wasn't at all the same flavor-wise in our soil)
* A Jim Dandy cross I grew in 2016 (some fruits tasted like butterscotch icecream syrup)
* White Queen (it was exotic both years I grew it, but the taste was way different both times; I much preferred the first year's taste, and the second year's productivity)
* Thessie O
* Market Wonder (very good taste)
* Porter (in some growing conditions)
* Pruden's Purple (well, exotic might be a strong word, but I'm listing it anyway)
* Green Tiger (super sweet and good)
* Austin's Black Cherry
* A certain Brandy Boy cross F2 (super tart, but super good; my favorite tomato taste of 2019)
* Marion (my favorite true-breeding tomato of 2019; it wasn't as early, vigorous, or as prolific in 2020, despite growing several plants, including one from the original packet—I haven't tasted it again, yet)
* Alpha Pink (I only tasted one early fruit from it, but it was amazing)
* Juliet F1 (I didn't grow it, but I did taste it; if you like sweet/tart prolific tomatoes, you might enjoy it)
* Better Boy F1 (ditto; yep, it's a hybrid, but I was impressed; when I grew it myself, however, it did not flourish, neither the F1, nor the F2; I never got to taste them, to my knowledge; my guess is they need fertilizer more than many tomatoes)
* Trucker's Favorite (it tasted like an apricot)
* Brown Berry (not a favorite of mine, but very sweet and unique)

There might be others.

Regardless of whether I've tried them and liked them, you should probably look into at least these tomatoes more than most of the ones I mentioned above (I'm not saying you should grow them all, especially in containers for the big ones, but I think they're important for you to know about if you like flavor):

* Black Krim (Just about everyone raves about this.)
* Aunt Ruby's German Green
* Cherokee Chocolate
* Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain)
* Girl Girl's Weird Thing (this is prolific)
* Maglia Rosa (Although I like Green Tiger and Eva more, people generally love this.)
* Aunt Ginny's Purple (Tormato's favorite; he's grown a *lot* more tomatoes than I have)
* Italian Heirloom
* Rebel Yell
* Green Zebra
* Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
* Bear Creek (or was it Bear Claw that I was thinking?)
* Thessie O (A favorite tomato among the members of TomatoMania.)
* Brad's Black Heart
* Paul Robeson
* Black from Tula
* Black Prince
* Amazon Chocolate
* Cherokee Lime (Ask Marsha about this one.)
* Cherokee Green
* Amana Orange
* Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (A friend of mine who has grown a lot of tomatoes, for flavor, for a long time really likes this.)
* Purple Russian (ditto)
* J.D.'s Special C-Tex
* Tim's Black Ruffles
* Dr. Carolyn
* Green Doctors
* Green Doctors Frosted
* Indian Stripe Potato Leaf
* Hillbilly PL
* Stump of the World
* The various Ambrosia tomatoes
* Estler's Mortgage Lifter
* Blush
* Chocolate Sprinkles F1
* The entire Sun series (not just SunGold F1)
* Chocolate Stripes
* Rosella
* Oxhearts generally
* Black Cherry
* Cherokee Purple
* Carbon
* Beefsteak
* Pruden's Purple
* Dry farmed Early Girls grown in San Francisco (not just any Early Girl)
* Tasmanian Chocolate
* Big Rainbow
* KBX
* Post Office Spoonful
* Matt's Wild Cherry

Anyway, I'm guessing the Karma series might be some I'd add to the list soon, and they're definitely worth investigating.

Not every tomato is popular every year. One year, people love one, and a few years later, no one talks about it; then it resurfaces again a few years later.

On to wonderberries. Wonderberries are awesome. However, you should be warned that not everyone likes them. I love them, personally. They taste kind of like oranges, tomatoes, and sour watermelon, with some huckleberry flavor and blackberry essence mixed in. Use them in savory dishes (not pie or jam, unless you mix them with other berries); pretend they're sweet tomatoes and you might be happy; don't compare them to blueberries (no one who does that ever seems to like them); I repeat, do not expect them to taste like blueberries, at all (I say this because it seems like no one ever believes me, and they still compare them to blueberries even after being warned). Expect a mild flavor that won't change a salad dramatically in anything but appearance and nutrition.

I've never grown wonderberries in containers, but I imagine they'd be fine in them. They're hardy and prolific. They reseed easily. I don't know what you mean by unsupervised, but I don't have to do anything to my wonderberries. I just grow them and pick the fruit. You might want to support them (they're pretty much like hardy tomatoes). They're pretty easy to grow. In fact, with a little effort, you could easily establish them as a recurring, and abundant weed in your garden. I like them as weeds, since they're soft and easy to pull up compared with our other weeds (e.g. prickly lettuce, lambsquarter, amaranth, mallow, morning glory, etc.), lol, and if I don't pull them up, at least they grow fruit! They don't need lots of water. You can cage them like tomatoes. If you let them ripen longer, they can get sweeter and more fruity, but they also get softer.

Wonderberries seem to enhance the flavor of ham and the flavor of tomatoes. I recommend using both tomatoes and wonderberries together in cooked dishes.

[Shule]

[mention]Barmaley[/mention]
I don't grow the same amount every year. Sometimes far less and sometimes more than 92. I plan to grow maybe about thirty kinds next year, but lots of plants. I would grow more next year (ideally, I would just grow all my varieties every year), but I was pretty overwhelmed this year, and I can't go outside very much during the day (pretty much just after 6:30 PM, unless I have protective goggles on; I just got some new ones; hopefully they help), since my UV sensitivity has become so high. I had a bigger growlist for next year earlier this year, but I cut it down for that reason. I'm still trying to grow a number from trades, including some overdue ones, though. Watch me end up growing 200 varieties next year now that I said that—tomato safari, 2021!