Friday 11 June 2021

Breeding Better Tomatoes

I have been breeding tomatoes for a number of years, far more than I care to admit.  

I have a bunch of different breeding lines, each with a different end goal in mind, as well as a bunch of stable varieties that I have developed.  Some are named, some are not, some are better than others.  

If you read this blog you probably do a little backyard vegetable breeding, so you know what it is like.

Black on yellow skin, green flesh

I have been working with one line of tomatoes for a number of years now, and I think it is pretty close to a perfect salad tomato.  

It has all the traits I was after with these, and after the number of years I have been working on them I think they are stable enough for me to name them.  

These are probably the darkest true black tomatoes that you will ever see

They are a high anthocyanin line, meaning they are high in the same powerful antioxidant as blueberries and turn black where the sun hits them.  They carry more of this antioxidant than most other black tomatoes as they are intensely black.

The unripe fruit are purple like an eggplant, while the ripe fruit is incredibly black, which makes this variety ornamental as well as being productive and delicious. 

They are yellow underneath the black so you can easily tell when they are ripe without having to squeeze them.  They have green flesh, with an incredible taste.  They taste great raw in salads or on a sandwich, and are good cooked and in sauces.  

The fruit are round and smallish, but not too small to be useful on a sandwich.  They are very productive, and so far (heat, drought, smoke, and a mild wet summer) have not failed to crop well for me.

They are indeterminate and produce large crops from early in the season until killed by frosts.  They have regular leaf and in my garden do not appear overly bothered by any pest or disease.  The seeds are large enough that they have good germination, meaning seed saving is simple.

Black and yellow skin, green delicious flesh when ripe


I had a few lines and I was unsure which to continue with.  One tasted by far the best, but had green skin under the black so was difficult to see when it was ripe.  Another didn't taste quite as good, but had yellow skin under the black so was easier to see when it was ripe.  

Antioxidant rich and bursting with flavour

This variety has the best of both worlds.  It has the incredible taste that appears to be linked with green flesh, and has the yellow skin making it easier to see when it is ripe.  Where the sun hits the fruit it is darker black than any black tomato I have ever seen.

The richness of the black colour is incredible, only a few years ago this colour was unthinkable and all 'black' tomatoes were a muddy brown.  

Being so dark indicates incredibly concentrated anthocyanins.  Any part that is not hit by sunlight means you can tattoo them using stickers, much like what I did to my apples in the photo below.

Apple tattoo
Words and pictures can be stenciled onto apples using sunlight
these tomatoes are an incredible colour

Simple to tell when fruit is ripe

I have given these to a few people for a taste test, along with tomatoes from a dozen or so other varieties.  So far this has consistently been the favourite tasting larger fruiting tomato.  

I say they are consistently the favourite 'larger fruiting' tomato because so far everyone says that Verde Claro is their overall favourite tasting tomato.  Verde claro is a green when ripe cherry tomato, and has different uses to a slicing tomato, so you are not really comparing the same thing. 

Unripe tomatoes are purple like an eggplant

More unripe fruit
Tomato only turns black where hit by the sun

I am not good at naming things, but once they are named I will probably list seeds on my for sale page.  

While I am not certified organic (and have no interest in paying for certification) I have grown them organically since I started to breed them, and have selected for all the qualities that make them suited to backyard growing and delicious taste.

3 comments:

  1. All the tomatoes are growing well from you so far, off to a late start in what looks like being a cool/damp winter. Hope they come through in our subtropical offset growing season. Ill keep you posted as they mature.

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  2. These tomatoes sound fascinating Damien. I can’t wait to hear when seeds are available for sale.
    I bought some diploid potatoes from you earlier this year, planted them in February and they’re now ready to dig. Can’t wait, a bit of bandicooting a few weeks ago to see what was waiting suggested success!

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  3. I have been searching for good determinate tomatoes for my sub tropical garden. Winter is the best time for me to grow them and this year I tried some seeds I had saved a while back and I had no idea what I would get... to my surprise they are a delightfully small bush... maybe 15 to 20cm high at most and 50cm wide. (I will need to measure it to be more accurate)

    They are a medium size cherry tomato and are very tasty. I have some planted away from the larger determinate varieties but maybe not far enough away to save pure seed. I think I have some seeds still in my stash and will grow those in a more isolated spot next time.

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