I've heard good things about Cherokee Carbon. I keep trying to like dark or "black" tomatoes as much as everyone else, but I just can't get into the "smokier" flavor and ultra juiciness. I just really like the big, meaty beefsteaks. If you grow, please keep us updated!

On the other hand, these retailers irritate me putting tomato plants out already. That's super ambitious considering we've had snow in 7 out of the last 10 Mays. I would only suggest someone with either a greenhouse or inclination to keep them in pots for a month and a half buy tomato plants before mid-May and, even then, it's way too early here. I don't even THINK about putting tomatoes outdoors for any reason until the second week in May and that's usually a hand not worth betting.

Everywhere, from the top of the line garden center to the rack outside King Soopers puts their tomatoes out way too early, I have even seen them for sale in mid-March.

Why? Because thats when people want them to do it. If place A doesn't have tomatoes for sale in January, the customers will find a place that does and therefore all places do it to capitalize on the demand.

Zach, what really gets me is the almost foot-tall Basil plants that can't go in until after tomatoes. I am glad tomatoes are on the shelf as I will be putting those out in about 10-14 days in wall-o-waters. Still, I go for the shorter stockier plants.

One more find. Harlequin Gardens has potatlo leaf Kellogg's Breakfast (KBX). Only a limited number of fully potato leaf. I am now set for tomatoes

I planted a few seeds of Kellogg's Breakfast but those plants are for others with more protected growing conditions ... and, maybe, a willingness to cover them against September chill. They were certainly wonderful in my too exposed garden but harvesting nearly all the KB fruit during the last few days before frost isn't much encouragement to grow them on a regular basis.

I knew there was a Carbon and that there are various Cherokee tomatoes. Didn't know that there was a Cherokee Carbon ...

Something I came across recently: :How the Cherokee Purple Tomato got its name by Craig LeHoullier

DW was smitten by the looks of a seed catalog picture of Black Cherry. I felt quite confident that she would not like the flavor. She likes the mildest of the varieties that we grow. Pigmentation does have an influence on flavor, although there does seem to be a few surprises. I was pleased with yellow and golden years ago and didn't expect that pink would be much different from red - pleasantly surprised on that one :).

Steve

who isn't likely to be encouraged to grow a black tomato again

I just happened to notice Digit's link above about Cherokee Purple, and was surprised to see the name was that new! Not that I doubt your links, Digit!--but I decided to check out the Cherokee Purple "timing," and happened to run into this! It's the original letter that was sent to Seed Savers Exchange by the person who sent them the seeds! I love "original history," (the kind where the "victors" aren't making stuff up!) so, for anyone else who might be interested in a little bit of "real" history about one of my own personal favorites, here's a link!

http://www.saveseeds.org/library/support_docs/tomato_cher_purple_green2craig.jpg

I've never heard of Cherokee Carbon, but would also be interested in how it did! But it would be hard for me to fathom that it would be better than Cherokee Purple!

Skybird

And, here's the link to that Mr. LeHoullier you see the letter addressed to. See Skybird! That name is in his blog's url ッ:

http://www.craiglehoullier.com

His most recent blog post has to do with him having a smaller garden this year. He retired from his job a couple of years ago, wrote a book about tomatoes, and he has speaking engagements. I think that he may be giving up selling plants at the farmer's market but he still has commitments to a plant breeding project.

Mr. LeHoullier is an educated man and writes well. There was a Twitter post about that recent blog drawing attention to the reason some folks garden. It's therapy! I remember exploring a little about his career several years ago. If I recall correctly, it didn't have anything to do with tomatoes or gardening. And, I think that one recent book was his solo into authorship ...

"The victors?"ッ Yes, but all younger generations triumph. That is, unless the preceding generations messed things up so badly that they can't find higher ground. The olde don't necessarily just fade away. I mean, someone has to leave printed translations of earlier works in cursive ...

Steve

still unwilling to grow Cherokee because he may mess up and damage his perspective on his personal Cherokee heritage ッ

I've been very happy with bedding plants from Paulino's.

So in July 2017 Tractor Supply opened a store in Pueblo. Went in for the first time yesterday. They had just received two pallets of potted trees, nice looking ones mind you. Things that appeared appropriate for Colorado like apples and Reliance Peach. Inside they had lots of misc gardening items. They also had gooseberry, jostaberry, hops strawberry and on and on and on. The price? I think it was about half what Home Depot and Lowes are changing