I pick them when they show a hint of color. Black or not, they all start out green then blush.

I know they all start out green. I may be a beginner, but I've got that part down! I guess what I mean is what color do black varieties or yellow varieties blush? Do they go from green to red, then dark red/black? Or just a darker green (as mine are doing), then black?

How do you know when black or yellow tomatoes blush?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SIMPLE:

They start turning brown from green.

Sey

Brown? Never seen any of them turn brown unless they are rotting. But I guess it all depends on how you define the color. My Indian Stripes, Cherokee Purple, and Black Krims (which are all blacks) all turn what I would call pink and my Big Rainbows turn a pale creamy yellow and then as the yellow darkens they have some pale pink stripes in the yellow.

This one is well past blush and I still don't see any brown.

Dave

I planted sun golds and black cherry tomatoes this year. The sun golds start to blush yellowish, and the black cherry tomatoes *just* started to blush up today, and they're blushing a dusky brick/brownish pink color. To me, the darker reddish/purple color on top of green ends up looking brownish, but I guess it's really a matter of personal impression. Regardless, don't worry--you can definitely tell when they're blushing. There will be an obvious difference between their color and that of the tomatoes that are still totally green.

Color Concept is both simple and can be complicated

Brown is a tertiay color.

By adding white or black you can get different shades.

In tomatoes the skin and the meat can be of different colors. A red tomato under clear skin will looks pink .

What is Pink ? it is just a lighter shade of red ( add white to red)

What is brown ? More than one way to make a brown color.

Is there such a thing as BLACK tomato ? NOT.that I know of.

Is there a Purple tomato ? Maybe. But Cherokee Purple is nowhere near being purple.

COLOR BREAK: (back to topic)

When a tomato starts as green, >>> turns lighter and eventually something other than green will appear. Since that color initially is very light/faint, it is hard to describe what it is. For example both red , pink, brown tomato might be similar in color break stage.

But it is quite simple to tell that the light green is getting some kind of color. That is all we want to know : That is color break. YMMV.

Sey

When my black krims start to turn it looks kind of brownish (at least to my eyes).

If it helps, here's what my first ripening black cherry tomatoes look like today. You can see that, even early on, the blush isn't the same color as the blush on a red tomato.

Here are some sun golds. You can see on the tomato behind the
almost ripe one that it is blushing orange-ish over the green. Also
not the same color as the blush on red tomatoes. But still obviously a
change of color from the totally green ones.

Thanks gorbelly! I'm just getting impatient for mine to turn, I think I've got another week before I'll be eating my first mater....