Do you know marble-shaped fruits are Purple Tomatoes that long last with an acidic taste?
So, let’s directly dig into the Purple Tomato varieties and learn how you can grow them.
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What Types of Tomatoes are Purple?
Purple Tomatoes are either from the heirlooms like the Cherokee variety, hybrids, or genetically modified like the Indigo Rose variety.
But the good thing is that tomatoes’ sweet and savory taste remains unchanged and is safe to eat, making a healthy ingredient for your salads and sandwiches.
Besides, these tomatoes contain anthocyanins possessing the health benefits of anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and blood pressure-reducing effects.
So, to relish these health benefits, you must grow Purple Tomatoes first.
15 Purple Tomato Varieties You Need to Grow
Purple Tomatoes have a green flesh gene that prevents the breaking of chlorophyll and instead forms pheophytin, a brown compound.
This makes a Purple Tomato unable to develop entirely into a red one.
Here are some popular Purple Tomato varieties you can consider growing in your garden.
1. Black Beauty
The natural cross between Pink Berkeley Tie-Die and Indigo Apple brought the darkest variety of Purple Tomato, Black beauty.
2. Brad’s Black Heart
Brad’s Black Heart variety has pink and black color skin, making it appear purple.
The plant attains maturity in 80 days and provides you the harvest from mid-summer till autumn frost.
The entire plant reaches 6 feet tall in maturity, with each mature fruit weighing around 3.5-7 oz.
The maximum recorded weight till now is 17.6 oz, similar to the beefsteak type.
3. Purple Boy
The Purple Boy is another variation on the list, an heirloom-like hybrid variety that assimilates all the Cherokee features.
They are even darker than the heirloom variety Cherokee and taste solid tangy, and sweet.
The inside-out part of the fruit is purplish, with the average weight of a single fruit ranging from 6-12 oz.
4. Rosella Tomato
The Rosella Tomato originated from the cross between dwarf red fruit, Budai, and Stump of the World Tomato.
The plants attain maturity in 70 days and obtain 6 feet in height.
A single mature Rosella weighs about 6-12 oz.
5. Purple Russian
The Purple Russian is an heirloom variety originally from Irma Henkel in Ukraine, also famous as Ukrainian Purple.
Each fruit of the Purple Russian weighs around 5-7 oz and is crack-resistant.
They are meaty, plum-shaped, purple-red fruits rich with a flavorful sweet taste and perfect for your salads, sauces, and sandwiches.
After 80 days of maturity, you can enjoy the harvest from mid-summer to late fall. Purple Russian tomatoes attain a total length of 6-8 feet on maturity.
6. Cherokee Purple Tomato
As an old heirloom variety, Cherokee originality dates back to the 1990s, from Sevierville, Tennessee.
Cherokee purple takes at least 80-90 days for maturation and reaches up to 9 feet in height. After 3-4 months, you can harvest ripened fruits from the mid-summer till frost.
Each fruit weighs about 10-12 oz offering tangy, savory, and sweet.
Cherokee Purple is a beefsteak type having a diameter of 3 to 5 inches for a single fruit.
7. Black Krim
Black Krim, or Black Crimea, is a native of Russia and an heirloom of the Purple Tomato variety originating from the Crimean Peninsula.
The plant vines can reach 6 feet long on maturity with 6-inch fruits.
When the frost ends, transplant them outdoors and wait 70 days for the plants to ripen the fruits.
You can expect a single fruit weighing 10-16 oz from this purple tomato variety.
8. Chef’s Choice Black
Another addition to the hybrid variety is the Chef’s Choice Black Tomato.
The tomato plants can reach up to 5 feet long on maturity under proper care.
The fruits are rich in flavors with a slight taste of salt and weigh 8-12 oz each, similar to the beefsteak type.
Chef’s Choice Black Tomato has crimson-colored flesh with a single fruit of up to 5-6 inches.
9. Evan’s Purple Pear
Another variety of the Wild Boar series is Evan’s Purple Pear, a hybrid of Pruden’s Purple and another small red fruit.
The expected growing season of the variety is in the early spring, with a total maturity time of 75 days.
On maturity, the plant gains trailing vines and reaches a maximum length of 8 feet. The fruit has smooth thin skin, weighing around 2-3 oz.
10. Black Cherry
True to its type from generation, the Black Cherry Tomato is an heirloom plant evolving from the original Red Cherry Tomato.
The fruits of Black Cherry are round and shiny with a dusky purple-brown shade similar to grapes and cherries.
The variety is a fast grower initiating the harvest within 65 days of transplanting, and continues throughout the fall from the mid-summer.
The Black Cherry tomato is smaller than other varieties weighing 0.7-1.5 oz per fruit. The fruit has a sweet juicy flavor.
11. The Wine Jug
The Wine Jug is a crack-resistant containing thick-skinned fruit rich in sweetness with a slightly tart flavor.
The variety takes about 80-90 days from transplanting to maturity and extends to 6 feet.
12. Chocolate Cherry
The Chocolate Cherry variety is round and relatively small, resembling the cherry variety except for the skin color.
After 70 days from transplant, the plants attain maturity with a maximum height of 6 feet long under the support of sticks and stand as an indeterminate variety.
Chocolate Cherry has deep red-chocolate fruits that grow up to 1 inch long.
13. Paul Robeson Tomato
The name holds a great history, but the vital part of understanding is that Paul Robeson is an heirloom plant from Siberia, Russia.
The variety has trailing vines extending up to 6 feet as an indeterminate variety, providing a season-long harvest with 70-80 days of maturity.
Paul Robeson is famous for its beefsteak-type fruit weighing about 7-10 oz per fruit, giving a sweet and smoky flavor.
14. Dwarf Purple Heart
Dwarf Purple Heart resulted from the ‘Dwarf tomato project’ by the cross between ‘Dwarf Wild Fred’ and ‘Brad’s Black Heart.’
Dwarf Purple Heart has a maturity time of 75 days, and the plant extends up to 4 feet on maturity.
This tomato variety is famous for its heart shape, fruit, and rich dusky rose-purple shade expecting cherry-sized tomatoes.
The fruit has beefsteak size, weighing 6-16 oz per fruit.
15. Purple Calabash Tomato
Purple Calabash, the most purplish variety of tomatoes, dates back to pre-Columbian Mexico for its originality as an heirloom plant.
To bring this variety into your garden, you can start sowing the seed indoors four to six weeks before the last frost date.
And you can enjoy the mid-season harvest that starts in August with a maturity period of 80-85 days.
Purple Calabash attains a 5-7 foot length on maturity with a single fruit weighing 6-12 oz.
Additional Purple Tomato Varieties
Besides the list mentioned earlier, you can also consider the varieties below for reference and choose the best one.
| Varieties | Maturity time(After transplanting) | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Black Zebra Cherry | 75 days | Indeterminate variety with height of 6-8 feet Perfectly round fruits with red burgundy exterior and few splashes of green |
| Sunshine Blue | 100-120 days | Determinate variety with a height of 4-5 feet Round, flattened fruit with a dark blue skin |
| Purple Reign | 70-80 days | Determinate with a height of 3 feet Heart shaped fruit with purple and dark red skin |
| Indigo Ruby | 75 days | Determinate variety with a height of 5-7 feet Plum shaped fruit with dark pinkish red-purple skin |
| Purple Bumble Bee | 60-70 days | Indeterminate variety with a height of 4-6 feet Perfectly round fruit with dusky purple red skin with green stripes |
| Marizol Purple | 80 days | Indeterminate variety with a height of 4-6 feet More or less ribbed, chubby shoulders with deep pink skin having purple tint |
| Owen's Purple | 75-90 days | Indeterminate variety with a height of 6-8 feet. Beautiful round fruits with reddish purple skin |
Proven Tips for Growing Purple Tomato Varieties
Tomatoes need a warm environment, so you should plant and keep them indoors until the temperature reaches 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you are a newbie to gardening, get the quick guide below!
- Water regularly, an average of an inch per week during the growing season, with humidity of 65-85%.
- Similarly, the soil should be acidic to neutral, well-draining, and have a pH of 6.5-7.5.
- The soil should be organic-rich, but you can use a 5-10-5 N-P-K fertilizer to amend the soil nutrient at four to six-week intervals.
- Determinate variety rarely requires pruning, but you can prune the trailing plants with side-extending branches before the flowering.
- Disease attacking the plant is anthracnose, black mold, and early blight that you can cure by crop rotation, avoiding water sprinkling in the leaves and fruits.
- Also, protect your crop from aphids, beet armyworms, beetles, and cutworms that you can treat by applying neem oil and insecticidal soap.
From Editorial Team
Conclusion!
The Black or Purple Tomato varieties can be a colorful addition to your garden and dinner for their acidic taste and antioxidant properties.
To grow Purple Tomato seeds, you need to sow the seeds indoors and transplant the seedlings after they form 2-3 leaves.
Within four months, the plants mature and can produce 20 fruits on average per plant.
