I am thinking about growing this Russian heirloom variety this year for the first time. I saw it at a big box store. The tomato is 3 to 5 oz. Black with green shoulders. Some descriptions say it is slightly pear-shaped.

Has anyone tried this one? Thoughts?

Yes me.
Horrible tomato subject to disease like I've never seen before.
Yet I let one continue throughout the summer and it got over it on its own and made a giant plant 16 feet long stretched out on the driveway after pulled.

Grew it once, a few years ago. Nothing special taste wise, wouldn't hurry to grow it again.

Thanks for the reviews.

I grew it once, in 2016, but it was stunted.

Some friends in town love it, and I think they grow it every year.

It's a popular tomato, and a lot of people seem to like it.

People who've known me long enough, know my general thoughts on dark tomatoes.

That said, over the years I've followed others' reviews on them. Black Prince is (was?) the favorite black tomato of a few people over the past decade or more. Great production was one reason, they said.

This year, there have been many requests for Black Princ, donated to the swap by OhioGardener, who says it's superior to Black Prince.

If it was me (although it likely never would be), I'd be trialing both of them side-by-side, in order to find which one is superior for that grower, with their taste buds, and their weather conditions.

Interestingly the Black Prince sold by Russian seed companies like Sibsad looks different to the one I grew. The fruits from my plant were medium sized and very round, whereas Sibsad describes them as "...flat-rounded, dark burgundy-chocolate in color, fleshy, surprisingly sweet, weighing up to 400 g."

It's sort of like the Black Krim/Noire de Crimee thing.

I like Black Prince. Medium sized slicer, golden brown with red interior. Grown twice, very productive, sweet and rich flavour. No disease. Head to head against Japanese Black Trifele almost identical, except JBT is pear-shaped and potato-leaved. Brothers from the same mother I think.

Someone gave me a ripe Black Prince in December timeframe. I thought it was a great tasting tomato ; I now have 2 plants growing from the seed of the tomato I ate. No fruit set yet, but flowering. We had lots of cold weather for Florida (37-39 nights) but that finally looks behind us.

The tomatoes on his vine were in the 3-4 oz category. I will update when I have something to report.

I'm going to grow it. I bought the plant at Lowe's.

First ripe Black Prince. This one was on the smallish side, maybe 1 and 3/4 in. across. It has a copper color to the skin with dark olive drab shoulders.

Wohoo, I loved it. But then, I have liked every black tomato in town...
You cannot really wrong with any of them.(although - Paul Robeson wasn't a success, it was stunted in the heat)

Incidentally, I ordered a pack of PB from a Russian seed company some years ago. (That was in the bygone era, when trading and ordering from Russia still was possible... I'm glad I stocked up with Russian and Ukrainian seeds before the war started..)
Have not tried them yet, but I am glad to have the 'back-up'... just hope the seed packet and the contents match...

All of my plants have been pulled for almost a month now; Black Prince even longer.

Overall - it was very productive but I probably won't grow it again because of the size of the tomatoes. I doubt if many of mine were over 3 oz.
Even with some weather challenges this season (very cold in January - lots of nights in the high 30s), the tomatoes fared well. No diseases or TYLCV.
The other large darks I grew this year were Paul Robeson and Cherokee Carbon. It was also an outstanding year for GGWT.

This tomato is beautiful! 4.5 oz.

...in the eye of the beholder.

What? No one thought that I wouldn't comment on it?

Tormato wrote: ↑Fri May 05, 2023 9:39 am ...in the eye of the beholder.

What? No one thought that I wouldn't comment on it?

I was waiting because you can't help but remind folks how much you dislike black tomatoes.

I'm the same way with green sour seedy tomatillos.

My idea of a tomatillo in a salsa is to walk through the kitchen with a plastic one and put it back up.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 9:40 am

Tormato wrote: ↑Fri May 05, 2023 9:39 am ...in the eye of the beholder.

What? No one thought that I wouldn't comment on it?

I was waiting because you can't help but remind folks how much you dislike black tomatoes.

I'm the same way with green sour seedy tomatillos.

My idea of a tomatillo in a salsa is to walk through the kitchen with a plastic one and put it back up.

One of my all time favorite Mexican meals ever was at the Chuy’s way back when, decades ago, the Chuy’s on Barton Creek, the meal was their version of Rellenos that used Anaheim type peppers with a fantastic creamy tomatillo sauce.

Back to tomatoes, @SpookyShoe that is a beautiful tomato! What does Black Prince taste like? My favorite small black tomato is Japanese Black Trifele, but maybe I need to grow Black Prince.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 10:11 am

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 9:40 am

Tormato wrote: ↑Fri May 05, 2023 9:39 am ...in the eye of the beholder.

What? No one thought that I wouldn't comment on it?

I was waiting because you can't help but remind folks how much you dislike black tomatoes.

I'm the same way with green sour seedy tomatillos.

My idea of a tomatillo in a salsa is to walk through the kitchen with a plastic one and put it back up.

One of my all time favorite Mexican meals ever was at the Chuy’s way back when, decades ago, the Chuy’s on Barton Creek, the meal was their version of Rellenos that used Anaheim type peppers with a fantastic creamy tomatillo sauce.

Back to tomatoes, @SpookyShoe that is a beautiful tomato! What does Black Prince taste like? My favorite small black tomato is Japanese Black Trifele, but maybe I need to grow Black Prince.

Not quite as good as many other black varieties, but is uniform in shape, blemish free, and a decent size but small enough so that the trusses do not break.

One of my favorite black tomatoes for this part of Texas is black plum.
They are good and produced for a good long time in the heat.