Thanks for the response Daryl - I already have seed. I guess I'll plant 2 & see what it is like.

I thought it was just released by Dr. Myers for this season so I doubt that many folks have had a chance to grow it and assess it but I know that several places have been offering it since late last Fall.

Carolyn, who agrees with Darrel that it's a novelty and I know I have no interest in it having grown the OSU P20 from which is was derived.

A friend from Portland, OR sent me some seeds, so I'm going to grow out one in a bag this season, as folks say as a novelty.

I'm growing it for the first time this year. So far the plants seem to be vigorous. At this point mine are all roughly 18"-24" tall and growing like weeds.

I grew the OSU/P20 last year, and I must have simply gotten an unusually good plant from the reactions I see around here. It was extremely hardy and vigorous (wind storm ripped it to pieces, I just stuck any branch with a green tomato on it in the ground, and all branches not only survived they proceeded to finish ripening the tomatoes and keep producing). The flavor was quite good, and the production can only be described as prolific.

I actually overwintered a couple of cuttings that I have already re-planted outside for this year. Everybody says how bad they are, but I love mine. They were much better than the big box tomato plants I bought.

The Indigo is supposed to be even better.

Our tomato nursery is selling Indigo Rose this year. I selected it because our sales of OSU Purple were good last season and our customers really loved it. I couldn't acquire the OSU Purple seeds this year, so I selected Indigo Rose.

I'm getting a lot of our customers coming in asking for the OSU Purple because they grew it out last year and it turned out to be a favorite of theirs.

I grew it out too, and thought it was not only interesting coloring, the taste, to me, was unique and fabulous.

This AM I saw a picture at another site which was in a thread titled in general, blue tomatoes or something like that which is one of many such threads in the breeding Forum there.

THe person owns a seed business and lives in NM and was showing that Indigo Rose has the same cupped leaves as so many of the blue derivatives do, but nothing to taste yet.

The plants if Indigo Rose were very healthy looking but the proof of the pudding , at least IMO, has to be the taste.

Carolyn

If nothing else, the IR seed I have has a fantastic germination rate. I'll be planting out maybe 5 plants. Hopefully my experience will be similar to some others in that it's tasty. People where I live just don't want 'strange' colored 'maters!

KCKook, It is a new tomato just released for 2012. It is one of the varieties I am growing. My seeds germinated really well too. We will see how it turns out. I agree with carolyn137, it is fun to grow all sorts of different tomato plants, but it comes down to taste. It will be fun to see where this particular cultivar fits into that picture.

The press release on it from OSU is linked below.

Good luck with your tomatoes!

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU unveils Indigo Rose

Sorry, I should have checked the link. It is;
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2012/jan/purple-tomato-debuts-'indigo-rose'

I forgot this system coverts ' to � and you have to go back and redo it it before posting.

Clickable link to DWD2's article:
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2012/jan/purple-tomato-debuts-%E2%80%98indigo-rose%E2%80%99

DWD2, apparently the gobbledy-gook is required in the address -- but different gobbledy-gook than you expected. That's all I know....

Here's an FAQ on OSU's purple tomato research. Kinda interesting ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Tomato FAQ (from OSU)

missingtheobvious, What can I say about the gobbledy-gook. I just missed it. It's not like I did not already know. It should have been obvious. Color me embarrassed!

DWD2: don't be too embarrassed. We've all posted links that weren't quite what we thought they were....

Unfortunately, indigo rose is a spitter here. Love the contrast.of the dark exterior with the lime green interior.
The taste is how I think grass clippings probably taste.

I'm growing about 6 of these pretty plants, they look great and are producing quite a few clusters of interesting looking tomatoes, still a few weeks away from a taste test. What I don't like is how easy their limbs break off, I use the Florida weave method in rows of 12 and just lifting the limbs a little cause them to snap right off, of the 25 varieties I'm growing IR is by far the worst snapper of them all.

I am growing one ( Indigo Rose) this year, but don't have ripe tomatoes yet, so the jury is still out on taste. It is growing a little slower than my others, but was planted later, and may be overshadowed by the large plant bearing orange fruit that was supposed to be lemon boy.

I've picked 5 or 6 tomatoes so far and I'm not going to criticize the flavor but I will complain about the color. All that I've picked turn color from one side purple-one side green to one side purple-one side orange. They remind me of the Baker Creek catelog pictures of the Purple Smudge variety. I would have spent less and ordered Purple Smudge seed if I knew the resulting fruit would look like this.

KCKOOK, They aren't ready if they are green. They will turn red under the blue color. They have a plum type flavor. They are really picking up in sales here.

Here are some pictures of the RIPE ones.

For the record, they are very dirty. I have been using misters in the high tunnel to keep things cooler (it has been working great) but we had a stop kick up a week ago and it blew more dust than rain. All the dust stuck to the tomatoes. I washes off, but the misters don't get it all. That is why the ones in top left look dirty.

Jay

Grown on grafted stock. No acid, no sugar, not much flavor at all. Very prolific producer--maybe 150 2 ounce fruits, but unless the skins appeal, little to recommend it.

Let indigo rose get fully ripe--softening, brownish color--and still no flavor to speak of.

I grew 15 different varieties this past season and they all got wiped out by BER, except the Indigo Rose (2 plants). After I learned what they were supposed to look like when ripe, I really liked the flavor.

I just harvested mine. I had left them on the vine up to now ignored because i was disappoined in the flavor of these when i picked the first ripe one in august which was totally tasteless. Then i decided to pick one and taste it again just before it frosted over here and it was so sweet. I suppose that the cool nights have developed the taste ( recalling on one of burpees black cherry intro a few yrs ago)
one other plus going for it here that it remained firm and crack free during the rains we had.
It was a very pretty tomato plant. Could be grown as an ornamental as well
Yes i would grow it again next year.

I planted one and it was extremely prolific. But my biggest complaint is it takes SO long to ripen! All the fruits were out and appeared to be at the biggest size they were going to get, like a large cherry, but they stayed green for the longest time. Plus mine were almost completely purple/black, not like the photos of jrslick, so it made it even harder to tell when they were ripe. I even had to lift part of the stem/cap off the top of the tom to see if it had ripened. The flavor is pretty good; mine actually had a bit of a tarter nip to it, which I liked. I may try it again.

It has been a very wet year here and this is the first time I have grown Indigo rose so my observations have to be considered inconclusive until I grow them in a normal season. But, thus far I love this tomato. It is the hardiest tomato I have grown in a long while. It has a strong trunk and stem. The tomato is beautiful and tastes great. Some have spoken about its color. The color is a deep purple where the sun strikes it and green elsewhere until it ripens and turns red. The color is caused by the large amount of anthocyanin that gives veggies their color; a healthful antioxidant. It is a small tomato and needs 80 days to mature. I will continue to grow it not only for its novelty/beauty but for its hardiness, healthful qualities, and its taste. We have actually eaten them before they are fully ripe...just turning pink...and they are even good then.

bought 1 plant from Walmart out of curiosity. I transplanted it to a 5 gallon bucket and am really enjoying this indigo rose so far. I see gardennutjoe has a similar experience to mine though he's 1 zone north of me. It has been very wet in my part of zone 8 as well. As mine is potted that is good though.

My tomato is growing well and though it is supposed to produce fruit 8 days later than early girls, mine produced fruit earlier. It has over 2 dozen fruit on it right now. I tasted one that impatience made me pick probably a day or two too early but it was nicely flavored albeit a bit grainy in texture.

Pros: hardy, disease-resistant, decent producer, unique look and taste
Cons: long time to ripen considering the size of the fruit, easy to break fruit off, determining ripeness can be tricky, thin skins

I grew it for the first time this summer (in a raised bed with minimal water and fertilizer and good layer of straw mulch). I can't comment on how vigorous the vine growth was as my one and only plant got smashed under the wall of water for a couple of days during a late-spring storm and that might have impacted things... It had a pretty impressive fruit set to foliage ratio, no BER that I found, and even at the end of the season here the leaves are still dark green with little to no browning compared to the rest of the tomato varieties I grew this summer. I will say that the skins are thin and on the two occasions we had more than trace amounts of precip during the growing season I found a few fruit had the beginnings of cracks. On average the fruit grew to the size of a ping pong ball.
I was surprised by how long the fruit took to ripen. It was probably closer to 90 days and I seemed to get two distinct pulses of fruit production. Also it was rather difficult to tell when the fruit was ripe. My plant got oodles of sun and for the most part the fruit was black all over except for a tiny spot of green on the bottom. The fruit separated pretty easily from the vine so I inadvertantly broke some green tomatoes off in trying to check the bottom for the telltale orange-red color change. A better indicator was waiting for that subtle change from shiny to dull purple-black. When ripe they grew noticeably softer and the inside was a pinkish-red color throughout.
As far as taste, they are not as acidic as say a cherry tomato. I would say a fully ripe one had a more fruity, delicate, floral taste. I quite liked them in salads and roasted. Also they make a delicious snack (tomato candy!) if you dehydrate them. But if you're expecting a knock-your-socks off assertive tomato flavor, you will probably be disappointed.

I bought 4 Indigo Rose from Home Depot this spring and yes they do take longer to mature than most. I LOVE them. Bought them for the 'health' of the anthocyanins and eat them every day since about a month ago (I'd say the first mature ones with pink or red on the bottom were picked about September 1). I'm in Boulder County, CO and we've had lots of rain this year but with the raised tomato bed next to the stucco house, everything has matured faster than where we used to garden near Chicago! I should put a stand out in the street and sell them because I literally have HUNDREDS and can't keep up - so yes, prolific! I've been mostly using in salads - brought some to a shower for the salad ingredients and everyone loved them. I will probably only grow one next season as it's just insanely prolific. And ping-pong ball is a good description of size.

I'm growing Indigo Blue Berries. They are so prolific! All six are doing something interesting ... putting out fresh green leaves like June. Wait for it, they do turn red and taste good. When you remove the stem the tomato has a star on top, red on black.

Hi All, I just wanted to make an interesting observation about the Indigo Rose that I planted from seed I collected the first time I grew it in 2012. I planted a flat of tomato seeds in the late spring of last year with the intention of planting a garden but due to a myriad of distractions I failed to do so... I kept watering the flat on occasion but was mostly neglectful and every so often would pull out the dead and dying until one day in august (I think, maybe september) I decided to plant the survivors who were quite stunted but alive none the less! To my surprise they immediately jumped into action and began to grow rapidly, so since I live in temperate Southern California I decided to let them go and see what happened, in short order they started to set fruit but not ripen very quickly which is a known factor so in keeping with my 2014 gardening 'style' I ignored them some more except for watering and they continued to grow and set fruit throughout the the fall and winter and I have been able to pick some ripe fruit through December and January so far... I was pruning them back yesterday and noticed that some plants were still putting off new branches and flowers so it makes me wonder if I kept better care of future plantings whether or not they might become something of a perennial tomato... Interesting huh?

Probably I will grow one in pot this year just for its novelty, not necessarily for taste.
I saw the other day that both Lowes and HD selling Bonnie plants of IR. That is a plus. I don't have to start it from seed. I also like the faact that it is a compact indet,

I will be watching it closely.

Seysonn

This is my third year growing them. They have a good flavor and extra anthocyanins. The first year I got the plant in a 4 in. pot, but have grown them from seed the past 2 years. They seem to be easy to germinate. They will look great in a salad with yellow icicles and sungolds.

Deadheadred, many varieties of tomatoes can survive the kind of winters we have had for the last two years. The varieties that produce small tomatoes seem to overwinter more successfully. Indigo Rose is not unique in that characteristic. Good luck with your harvest! I have a red grape tomato that overwintered and is producing more than last year when it was a bit neglected.

Thanks lgteacher

Today I bought an Indigo Rose plant from HD. Now it is in my cold frame. I'll plant it in a pot in a few days from now. Here no tomato overwinters. So that is not my concern. Basically I wanted it as a novelty for its color. Taste and productivity are secondary.

Question: Do the fruits start blue/purple ?

Seysonn

If I'm remembering correctly the fruits start green and hard and darken to blue/purple as they grow. Fruit that sees the most sunlight has more total surface area that turns dark in response.

As I mentioned earlier they turn from black with green undersides to black with orange undersides. This means that one needs to lift the ripening fruit regularly to check if ready to pick, something I never do with other varieties.

Now there is a flood of these to hit the market in different forms. Last year it was disappointed with Indigo Blue Berries. This year I'm trying Indigo Kumquat.

More info on Indigo Rose :

http://blog.gardeners.com/2013/06/purple-tomatoes/

I raised an Indigo Rose a couple of years ago, it was fun, the plant was strong and vigorous and grew quite large, the color of the tomatoes is actually quite pretty and it makes a good conversation piece. Unfortunately the flavor is not good and is a taste I was not familiar with in a tomato. I went back to a Chocolate Cherry for my small tomato variety, it isn't the eye catcher in the garden but the fruit is far superior.

Buck Burton