Cherry tomatoes black?

[mandyyp]

Hi! I am currently growing cherry tomatoes and they are full sized but black! There is some green pigment on the bottom but the rest of the cherry tomatoes is black. What is causing this? I read somewhere that the chlorophyll could have caused the dark pigmentation. If so, is it still safe to eat?

 

[Chuck]

You probably have a black fruited variety such as Indigo Beauty, Chocolate Cherry etc. Please send picture of the fruit. There are many black and purple varieties available.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

If you know the name of the cultivar you are growing, post that as well. Did you start these plants from seed?

 

[mandyyp]

Here is a picture of the tomatoes. My dad randomly got the plant somewhere so I'm not sure of the varieties.

 

[mandyyp]

You probably have a black fruited variety such as Indigo Beauty, Chocolate Cherry etc. Please send picture of the fruit. There are many black and purple varieties available.

 

[Marck]

Yes, this is one of the deep purple cultivars of cherry tomato. Everything looks normal and healthy. Enjoy your harvest.

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are now available in a wide variety of colors: white, yellow, orange, pink, red, green, brown, purple, almost black and various multi-colored patterns. Overall the taste and texture will be similar, though of course. every cultivar will have its own unique attributes.

 

[Chuck]

Looks like a fairly new variety called Indigo Blue Berry. Perfectly normal.

 

[mandyyp]

Thank you guys! I will let you know how it tastes

 

[Marck]

Yes, I'll be curious. There are several similar cultivars. 'Fahrenheit Blues' and 'Dancing with Smurfs' are other deep purple 'blue' cultivars with cherry-sized fruit.

 

[Chuck]

I have grown numerous varieties of black and purple tomatoes. I have found that the Indigo series of tomatoes share one habit that most other black and purple tomatoes lack and that is sparse foliage. Most of the other black and purple varieties have very lush foliage but not so with the Indigos. Your pictures show healthy plants and being from Florida where sunlight is ample this time of year it would be unusual for a plant to show sparse foliage and IMO your plants do not show lush full foliage. I find this very typical of all of the Indigo series of tomatoes. I stopped growing them because of this growth habit as I cannot grow tomatoes in the winter here in Texas and the summer sun is just too much for them and they sunscald. Also, many of the other black and purple cherry tomatoes have many (10-16) fruits per truss but the Indigos normally have 6-8. Another thing about the Indigo series is that they are one of the best tasting cherry tomatoes there are.

 

[Marck]

I don't think there is enough information provided to precisely determine the cultivar in question.

Indigo™ is a trademark that is included before the cultivar name of a number of blue-purple tomatoes originally bred at Oregon State University, including . The cultivars Solanum lycopersicum x 'Blue Berries' and Solanum lycopersicum x 'Dancing with Smurfs' are both part of the Indigo™ line.
https://www.nybg.org/blogs/plant-talk/2015/02/horticulture-2/indigo-blue-berries/

Some of the other similar blue-purple cherry tomato cultivars, such as 'Fahrenheit Blues' and 'Clackamas Blues' were bred by Tom Wagner in Washington, which is also a very long-established breeding program.

In any case, all of this breeding is dips into the same genetic pool to some extent. Many breeding programs will often later use each others' crosses in their own breeding.

 

[Chuck]

It doesn't really matter about the cultivars name. As you stated It is impossible to know. What is known is what I have described and it is normal with Indigos and as per with the OP photos. Not so much with other varieties I have grown.