Actually I'd go for Indian Stripe. Supposedly, IS's taste is as good as CP, but it has a quicker harvest date and better yields.

smithmal

Of those 2 Black Krim does better for me.

Dave

Good topic.
I had Black Krim last season. It did not do well for me. Maybe it was my climate, and growing condition to blame. So this year I will try Cherokee Purple.

Q: Is that true that most so-called BLACK tomatoes like cooler weather better than hot weather?

in my experience Bk has smaller fruits than CP. Bk also has more core. They both have great flavor in my opinion.
As for productivity, more fruit from BK, larger fruit from CP.

I agree with smithmal. I no longer grow BK or CP. Indian Stripe beats them both for me.

They aren't the same so I would grow one or two of each. Both split and rot in the rain; it rarely rains here in summer. I love the black tomatoes and would not go without them but I would grow some Wes and others because some years are too hot or too dry or too wet and a variety is insurance. I don't think any of the large tomatoes set well in extreme heat.

I'm in southern CT (Z6). Both did well for me in 2013. Not so well in 2012. I plan to grow both in 2014.
John A

Black Krim has been a consistent performer for me in both quantity and quality. It also seems to produce early and keep producing all season long until the bitter end. I also love the taste. For me, Black Krim is on "must plant" list every year.

I like Cherokee Purple, but I don't think of it as fondly as I do of Black Krim. For me, the raves on CP haven't been justified. It's a fine tomato, but just doesn't live up to the hype. That being said, I'm going to grow it again this year! I think I'm overly influenced by the hype so I keep trying it waiting to get blown away, but if it doesn't do anything for me this year, I'll probably move on to a different variety.

For one, BK had mostly smaller fruits, mostly smaller than tennis ball and not consistent in size either. I was looking into slightly bigger fruits than that. I will try CP. I might even try to find seeds for Indian Stripe, as I see it getting rave reviews.

I like Black Krim and Cherokee Chocolate more than Cherokee Purple BUT Cherokee Purple is an excellent, large tomato, too

Both have failed utterly for me. In seven or eight years trying to grow Black Krim, I have had exactly two mature tomatoes. They were in the first year, and were so good I tried for years after to raise them, without results. The other one did nothing for me ever.

The problem here is the high differential between day and night garden temperatures prevent heirloom tomatoes from setting fruit unless they are low, ground-lying bushes (which describe the commercially grown tomatoes here). If the bushes are right on the ground, they retain enough heat during the nights for the fruit to set.

Otherwise, forget it.

Limits things drastically.

My daily temperature variations had been vey narrow (~ 15 F) but yet BK and BW did not do well at all.
One more think about BK, iit had few Cat Faced fruits and the fruits were smaller than tennis ball, with green tough shoulders, and cracked readily. BUT the taste was excellent, as most describe it : COMPLEX , creamy texture.

I tried BK twice and in diff soil in diff yrs and CP was easily the better choice. Last summer one of the wettest I can remember and my tomatoes in the big garden suffered in the heavy clay soil in spite of it being amended over forty yrs of tilling and growing. In the opposite corner of my property in soil that was pitiful and light ten yrs ago but amended with bagged products since I had 8 CP plants that did very well. Some a full 16 oz and little splitting. They were mostly well shaped and not cat faced. The soil will talk if we will only listen.

I understand the need to be careful, but putting the state where you live on your member page would be helpful. Zone number helps but is not enough.

Last year I grew them both. I'm about 20 miles east of Augusta GA, and our summers are hot and humid.

We had a lot of rain last summer. What I found was Black Krim was very good in flavor, pretty good in productivity, but was more prone to cracking than other tomatoes.

Cherokee Purple was less prone to cracking, but wasn't as productive. Flavor was very good.

Overall, I think a very slight edge to Black Krim IMHO, but both are very good.

Last year I grew them both. I'm about 20 miles east of Augusta GA, and our summers are hot and humid.

We had a lot of rain last summer. What I found was Black Krim was very good in flavor, pretty good in productivity, but was more prone to cracking than other tomatoes.

Cherokee Purple was less prone to cracking, but wasn't as productive. Flavor was very good.

Overall, I think a very slight edge to Black Krim IMHO, but both are very good.

Central Texas here....anybody want to weigh in on these two for this area? Seems I tried one or the other one year...got very low production..but not a real vegie farmer..so maybe my fault. Would love to hear back on this, and tips are always welcome.

Indian Stripe (RL) tastes the best for me, although I am growing Margaret Curtain this year because it was much more productive than IS.

Linda

Haven't seen either one of those here in TX..

Labradors, never heard of MC before. What is your climate like? Saw a thread about it on tomatoville but it seems it doesn't like hot weather. Any idea where one can acquire a seed source in the US?

It gets hot, but not THAT hot here. I've heard that black tomatoes like it hot and don't do so well in cool temps.

Here's the first seed source that popped up on Google: https://twoseedsinapod.com/product/margaret-curtain.

Linda

jaceymae,

Black Krim does very well in my southern California garden, grow around half a dozen plants every year because it's our favorite. The plants stand up to the heat well, fairly productive, no real disease issues. I haven't had any of the cracking problems mentioned above but it is very dry during the summer here and I can control the amount of water they receive since irrigation is usually the only water they get, I'm sure that helps.

Cannot grow Cherokee Purple for the life of me. I mean, I get plants, nice looking plants, but I think I've gotten maybe a grand total 3 pathetic tomatoes from them over several years of trying. They were nowhere near as tasty as Black Krim, either, so I stopped trying.

Black from Tula is another good one in my climate. Similar taste to Black Krim (delicious, but not *quite* as good), but extremely productive...another one of our must haves in case our Black Krims have an off year.

I prefer Black Krim because in multiple gardens, it has always produced more in quantity. They’re very easy to grow and produce a beautiful tomato sauce, and also good fresh. The flavor of CP was good but under the same conditions and limitations, BK has always overcome more to produce more.

I'm a snowbird - Connecticut & Florida. I've found that both grow well in CT, the production of Cherokee Purple in FL is not as good. I think I like the flavor of CP slightly better.

I grew both side by side in very hot Socal. Similar in taste and look but BK was a much better plant. They grew vigorous as seedlings and looked fertilized compared to CP. BK plants lasted almost two years while CP all died the first summer.

Southern IL here. CP does not do well for me after several tries. BK is much better. Trying BKX, the potato leaf version of BK this year. Also trying Margaret Curtain. Both look good so far.

In our beds, for productivity it's 1. Margaret Curtain, 2. Black Krim, 3. BKX, 4. Indian Stripe (RL), 5. CP.

For taste it's the reverse order but all are good.

Another observation is that Margaret Curtain and Black Krim have been more susceptible to concentric cracking than the others.

We are growing BKX in our beds this year and I started a bunch of Indian Stripes for friends and family.

When the CP's are good .... they are very good but this variety has been frustrating for us.

Shell

No one has mentioned JD Special C Tex which is also a good tomato and does well in heat.

Where in 8a are you located?

Black Krim is a staple for me. We love the taste and it does very well here. Tried Cherokee Purple one year and it didn't do well. Same with Black Prince, so I've stuck with BK.

Upstate NY here. I grew CP in 2021, and loved it. Produced well, but that was a good year for all of my tomatoes. Not so in 2022. Summer 2022 was superhot and dry here, mid-90's may days in a row with no rain (a town of Kingston, NY, 2 hr away from us declared a state of emergency, prohibiting lawn watering, and only allowing outdoors flower watering after 9pm when nobody would bother watering anyway, very scary stuff).

Both BK and CP produced well in hot summer of 2022, upstate NY (well, with me heavy mulching, and daily watering). CP produced larger tomatoes. BK seemed to last longer than CP, almost up to the first frost. Taste was almost identical. Doing blind test, I couldn't tell the difference. CP did slightly better, but I overplanted BK, planting them too close to each other, so no final verdict yet. This year, 2023, I will try again.

Problem is I have a small backyard garden and there are so many interesting tomato varieties to explore... (trying tomatoes from the Dwarf Tomato Project this year).

I live in hot Northern Nevada and tried Black Krim for 2 years in a row. The first year it died and the 2nd year it did not do well either. I think too much hot sun. This year I am going to try some shade but am not growing Black Krim again. My climate is also too hot for Bloody Butcher so it does not do well here.

pat m, do you use any kind of ground cover, by chance? I'm guessing it's even more arid in your area than mine (and that is very helpful moisture-wise in my area). What varieties do well for you?

All the early tomatoes do well here. Our favorite last year was Sunrise Bumble bee and I am growing it again this year. It is the later tomatoes that get burned, and also crack. I will try some ground cover. I think some shade will help too. when it gets a little hotter.