I came across this variety at Baker Creek Seeds, and of course it sounds wonderful in the description...found a lot of conflicting info while looking for reviews online. Anyone grow this one? The coloration looks a lot like Brad's Atomic Grape although this has a red interior.

I just received seeds for this from a friend so I will be growing it this year.

@brownrexx I was gifted these same seeds, too. I don't usually grow cherry tomatoes, but will grow one plant and then gift others with the 'leftover' plants.

I grew black strawberry last year. Here is my review: it’s a very vigorous and productive plant with mild disease resistance, it produced large golf ball sized tomatoes that were absolutely gorgeous (green, pink, gold, red, black stripes depending on the tomato), the tomatoes themselves had a good but mild and juicy flavor. I would probably grow them again in more ideal conditions in the future to try for better flavor since they had such potential to be a winner!

In this photo they are the first plant on the arch on the left hand side.

Great photos @Gthegardener . They look so pretty and it makes me look forward to growing them.

@guruofgardens they seem to be a big bigger than cherry tomatoes. The catalog description says 2 oz.

@brownrexx @guruofgardens I would estimate them at 2-4oz really a large cherry. They were similar weight to lucky tiger or blush.

Hmmm...Gthegardener, thanks for your insight on the Black Strawberry...I have plenty of cool-looking tomatoes, you sound less enthusiastic on the taste...I grow a lot of Artisan cherries which you sound familiar with, how does the Black Strawberry compare taste-wise?

I'm actually more interested in your pruning methods. It looks like you've got everything double-leader, check--but it looks like you have cut off any leaf branches as high as there is set fruit. I always thought you were supposed to cut off the leaf branches after the fruit was gone...so there would be leaf branches anywhere there was unripe fruit. I haven't finished my coffee so maybe I'm not being clear, but you have a lot less leaves than I would. That may also be what allows you to have your plants so close together, great-looking setup.

@Setec Astronomy
I do love artisan! Lucky tiger will always be my favorite GWR striped cherry, but I love the bumblebee series and maglia Rosa, which is a yearly must grow for me!!
As far as my pruning methods I did grow one and two stemmed last year. These pictures were from August and I had pretty severe blight which is why I had to aggressively prune all my tomato plants. They were basically topiaries! Thank you for your kind comments about my new set up! It was new to me last year and did really well! Not for hot climates though, since the wire gets hot when it’s over 90 degrees and can burn the tomatoes.

So how does the Black Strawberry compare in taste to some of your favorite Artisan tomatoes?

Just a quick update on this--I did decide to grow it, it was perhaps my strongest seedling and has already set fruit. Was planted out a little less than 2 weeks ago:

That is one artisan I haven't grown, though I've grown almost all the rest. Looks like Bumblebee, though maybe a little larger. I have Sunrise growing this year - the only artisan variety.

Black Strawberry is not an Artisan tomato--as I noted in the original post, I got it from Baker Creek Seeds. That's a(n Artisan) Benevento behind it, however.

The Baker Creek photo looked stunning but there were no reviews yet so i waited to see about the taste. End of summer we should get a good cross sampling of what people think.

Well, so far the early fruit on my plant tastes terrible. I'm not getting the deep purple or "black" coloration, even though I've tried keeping them on the plant longer. They're sour; perhaps the ones further up on the plant will taste better.

Wow, it looks gorgeous... but I already got seeds for several striped varieties. whose taste was not consistent.

@Setec Astronomy Wow, that's strange. Mine are mostly black with green at the bottom which is starting to turn dark pink. I have only had a couple of ripe ones so far so no opinion yet. I will take a pic for you later.

I just snapped a couple of photos. As you can see mine are fairly black at the tops. I have only picked a couple so far so can't really comment on the taste. I did see 2 or 3 that were all pink like yours but most have the dark tops.

Strawberry by Brownrexx, on Flickr

Strawberry Cherry by Brownrexx, on Flickr

This was the first plant to show disease in my garden. Plant are 40”apart Haven’t tasted yet
FYI. I grow 75 plants
Old chef

Just wanted to follow up on this--my Black Strawberry was very prolific, but the taste was terrible (to me). Not growing it again.