Black Krim is my absolute favorite tomato. I have six this year. For me they beat all the other blacks including Cherokee by far, in production and taste. Yes the shoulders will not turn; ripeness is judged by feel as in all tomatoes. I eat the entire tomato, and especially savor the upper, greenish parts.

One of the tastier tomatoes, IMO. Cherokee Purple and Brandy Wine are others.
My black krim is in blossom stage. It is gonna be a long wait.

Thanks guys. Without info on green I probably would have cut it out. I love brandywine. Had good results first yr just a few in the second. Don't have time and space for that kind of prod.

Ah, Black Krim - one of the best. Mine is fruiting with blossoms galore. It looks like it's going to be a good year even though the weather still hasn't settled down. It was in the low 50s last night, but warm nights going forward.

Seysonn, you're welcome to come over for a BLT if mine ripen before yours.

I have 3 BK plants this year. All are growing tomatoes. One has a compound bloom that is almost an inch in width. I can't wait to see how big that monster turns out.

Here we go . . .

Whoa, n, is that tomato from this year? In 6B? I'm in awe.

Expect he will be ready on or about July 4. A little disappointed this year what with the crazy weather and all. Plan on having him with a New York strip (rare) and raw horseradish. g

I'm in. I'll bring the wine, beer, vodka, whatever....
Call me.
G

Ditto here on Back Krim. It has become our favorite. I too am in 6b and my 4 BK plants are 5' tall and very full. Loads of large blooms and greenies, considering I was about 3 weeks later than usual planting them due to rain and cold this year. My other varieties seem to be a little slower this year.

I have about 18 tomato plants from Laurels Heirloom tomatoes.
The one that is most loaded with maters is the Black Krim.
I've not had this kind of luck with maters, since the 1st year I planted them, maybe 8 years ago, but I was buying my mater plants at our local University, and they were much smaller than the ones I bought from Laurel. The university plants were not hardened off either.

This year I intend to keep a log on all the maters, size, production, taste (my taste buds), How long they keep producing, etc.

The first picked tomato was a Bloody Butcher, it was small, about the size of Tiny Tim's golf ball, and wife used it for a salad, so no taste test yet, but more are on the way.

I'm in Southern Calif, near Disneyland.

Gary

I too also have this variety planted, I fear after reading these posts i may have started them to late, (i started on super bowl sunday) the plants are looking good healthy and growing but they have not even began to bloom (im in TN zone??) I to hope they are delicious!

Many of the black tomato varieties have green shoulders. Green shoulders DOES NOT mean the tomato is unripe. Even when green shoulders occur on a red tomato, they are still fully ripe and the green shoulders don't "taste green."

Instead, green shoulders is actually just a genetic color trait, but it has been bred out of most tomatoes, because people in the store will bypass wonderful red tomatoes, with green shoulders, for tasteless perfect red baseballs.

The blackness in black tomatoes comes from partially metabolized green compounds in the tomato that have NOTHING to do with ripeness or non-ripeness.

This post was edited by fcivish on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 2:05

Logy Mac, you might be making the beginner mistake of over fertilizing your tomatoes. STOP FERTILIZING THEM, NOW. Then go, and fertilize no more (at least for this year).

I also shoot for Super Bowl Sunday as my approximate starting date for my tomato seeds. I live in Zone 6 and plant my tomatoes out (with protection) between April 1st and May 10th. ALL of my tomatoes are producing blossoms and setting fruit as we speak.

Most of Tennessee is also Zone 6 to Zone 7, so you should be doing pretty well right now.

I have not fertilized any, we got some rich soil from a farmer friend, maybe its too strong?

Wow Super Bowl Sunday eh? If I planted then I would be inundated, this year it was Mar. 15 and I keep delaying longer each year it seems. Fertilizing question popping up again, seems there's as much disagreement about that as there is about pruning. Good discussions.

I grew BK for the first time last year, cut off the shoulders since they were hard, and I told a couple people who bought plants from me to do the same. What do the green parts taste like?

I am so jealous - my tomatoes were planted late due to cold wet followed by 90 degree weather, and when I got them in the first week of June it continued to rain and are looking like they haven't grown at all (but BK, CP, BW and Cosmonaut holding their own), some are looking really bad (Rose de Berne, SuperSweet 100, Grandma Mary's paste) so I think I'm going to replace half of those to see which do better/produce earlier, the ones that have been in the ground 3 weeks with over 8" of rain, or the ones that have been kept in pots til now.

Shoulders should not be hard if ripe, just green. If soft/ripe the top will taste just like the rest. There will also be some green stuff around the seeds which is especially tasty (to me); I call it the snot to gross out my wife. To me it is the caviar of tomatoes.

I agree with n1111z, that the green shoulders should be essentially as soft as the rest of the tomato, and taste pretty much like the rest of the tomato. It is a COLOR TRAIT, not a RIPENESS characteristic, but most people incorrectly think it indicates lack of complete ripeness. That might be the case on some tomatoes, but not on ripe Black Krims.

LogyMcKae, yeah, it is possible that your soil was exceptionally rich. One year I amended the top 10 inches of soil in my garden with several truckloads of really good compost (made over 18 months from composting wood residues and green waste at a local production facility). I plowed it in deep with a garden tractor and didn't fertilize at all, but it was so rich that it definitely negatively affected my tomato production for a year or two. If you planted you seeds around Super Bowl Sunday, and set them out any time from 30 to 60 days ago, you should be producing lots of flowers now and setting fruit, assuming other conditions are acceptable. (Like, night time temps in the 45 to 75 degree range and daytime temps below 95 or so.) Since you are almost certainly in Climate Zone 6 to 7, that is what you should be seeing. How are the rest of your tomatoes doing?

One more thing about the Krim. They crack. Sometimes down the sides, more often in concentric circles around the top. The wound will be sealed and not affect the tomato in any way but can be unattractive. Small price to pay imo.

Only two of my plants have any blossoms and they both only have one... And the plants are doing good growing fast but like I said lacking blooms.. maybe they're just a little behind?

That's funny b/c last year the rest of the tomato was getting soft (not BER) but the shoulders were still a bit hard when I picked. I'll try letting them get a little riper this year to see if the shoulders soften without the rest falling apart. I was selling most at market (really difficult to transport) so may have been picking them a little too green. Didn't see concentric cracks (it was a dry year) but often after I picked by the time I got them to market I'd have a split down the side on some. And I *babied* them, never packed tightly in a box, at the end I would set each one in its own quart basket in the box and that helped.

I think one of the reasons for cracking is over ripening. And MAYBE having a tender skin also facilitates that. . Another factor yet for cracking is a big swing in temperatures(hot day, cool night). I have only seen this in Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, If I recall it correctly. For example, have never seen a ROMA or Early Girl ... to crack. Have seen it happen in some cherry var. though. WE need some experts analysis of this phenomena.

I know the black krims I grew last year were very prone to cracking. I didn't have the issue with any other I grew. Alot of that was me in that I had it in a container and the watering routine was largely the culprit. I have them in the ground this year and hope that helps to alleviate the cracking.

Okay so about half of my plants have blooms that have yet to open so they must have just gotten their growth stunted somewhere along the line...but they seem to be making progress again! Yay!

There are different types of cracking and both are influenced by genetic characteristics, though in each case it is different genetic characteristics.

Radial (or Longitudinal) cracks, from top to bottom, or out from the stem along the top, is fairly common in some types of small tomatoes (like Sungold and Sweet 100s which will crack if you look at them) and less likely in other types, like Black Cherry or Isis Candy. It happens in larger tomatoes too, and is influenced by the shape of the tomato, the thickness of the skin, etc. Tomatoes that have this trait will often crack right after watering, especially if they are allowed to get fairly dry, then watered in large amounts. If this is a problem, watering small amounts much more frequently often helps.

Concentric cracking, then healing and leaving 'scar circles' is a different genetic tendency that some tomatoes, like Black Krim, have. It is also clearly influenced by environmental factors. It often is unsightly, but in my opinion it is less likely to affect flavor or cause rotting. Concentric cracking has been blamed on letting tomatoes get too ripe, and on rapid changes in moisture levels, from wet to dry or vice-versa. But it seems less clear cut to me, and is also almost certainly affected by other growing conditions, levels of fertilizer, plant health, etc. I have never worried about it, because it seems harder to predict or control than the longitudinal or radial cracks, EXCEPT to recognize that some varieties are prone to it.

Seriously, I cannot believe the size of that tomato!! I'm in zone 5b and the weather has been so all over the place, my toms are just getting flowers!
Fcivish, I have a question about cracking splitting etc. I found that even when keeping moisture levels consistent, if there was rain, some varieties just cracked. The problem I had last year was whether or not to leave them on the stem or pick them, even if they didn't start to "blush". I guess the extreme heat with the rain contributed to that. Maybe container grown tomatoes are more prone?

Some varieties WILL crack with rain, etc. You can't control everything.

If my tomatoes crack, I pick them if they are fully ripe, but leave them on the vine if they are unripe, even if they are just starting to pink up.

In MY experience, they sometimes rot, but most often they don't. Most of my tomatoes just heal, or mostly heal with only a small area that goes bad, that I can cut out when I pick them after they ripen. BUT, I live in a very dry climate and molds/fungus are much less of a problem for us than for some people.

We had a lot of humidity last year, so I tried leaving some on the vine, but the cracks looked nasty, so I tossed the maters. Just checked my plants today and they are really growing, lots of flowers starting and opening. Very hot today and of course we had a thunderstorm, because 24 hours without rain just seems to be the norm these days. I've been spraying for disease and insects, but it keeps raining! Sigh!

My first tomato to ripen this year was a Black Krim (not counting cherry type tomatoes). I have picked three so far. Two of the three that I have picked so far were pretty good size. The third was smaller. All were good.

Love my BK's this is my first year, my findings so far is that they are typical heirlooms in may ways. My issue is they sure do not last long once picked. Is it just me? Has anyone tried ripening these wrapped in newspaper. This is all first year questions! Next year I would love to plant more and have more info on feeding and care. This year I was happy with whatever the plants gave me. Oh, and does anyone know if saving the seeds year to year actually works with these?

Black Krim is an heirloom so yes saving seeds will work as long as you save them properly. I am growing BK also and a few other blacks. The blacks tend to ripe very quickly. Most heirloom tomatoes aren't always pretty because they haven't been genetically altered and they don't have the shelf life of hybrids but have marvellous taste.
Sharon

Harvest time !
As of now I have picked 3 BK maters. This has been a long wait since I planted it in late May. That is over 90 days. But it was worth it. I will plant one next season too.

I pick mine real early, ie at color break and let it ripen on the counter. The green shoulders will get smaller if you let it stand longer. But it is just as tasty (except the woody part around the stem)
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Edition: 9/15/13
today I picked few more. Not fully ripe thou. they are catching ups fast now.

This post was edited by seysonn on Sun, Sep 15, 13 at 5:07

My Black Krim was very bland tasting. Super Beefstake, grow in the same area, were delicious and had twice the number of tomatoes. Others are reporting success with Black Krim so I'm encouraged to try them one more time next year.