I have to say, I have been growing a blue this year and have read a lot about all the different blues being developed, and nope, I haven't heard even one person say they taste good. They are cool looking though.

Taste would vary from person to person, acid/tart flavour liked by one may not be liked by those who like sweet.

Yes, I read that taste is on the tart side, but health benefits outweigh taste. But I prefer sweet tomatoes.

Would love to see what folks say who actually grew it and tasted it.

I had one plant given to me this spring, we've been eating these little gems for a couple of week now. LOVE the flavor ( not a big fan of sweet in a tomato) and like that they are meaty and not too juicy, I've looked but haven't found any seeds in them so far. Is this one that doesn't make many?

Annette

Hi: we're in NW Oregon where we've just had a week of sudden cold-wet weather & our Indigo Rose tomato looks like the leaf-curled examples in this thread (without fruit yet of course). We were quite surprised as it was developed here in Oregon; I found this note on another forum: "One of the most frequent causes of curled tomato plant leaves is long periods of cold, rainy weather. In these situations, the leaves of the plant curl upward and become thick and leathery." That's exactly what we've found today, whilst our other 15 tomatoes are cheerful little souls (we're growing in straw bales btw). Hope this helps - best of luck to you!

I have not and am not growing Indigo Rose, I am also in PNW, north of Seattle.
Curling leaves ( in tubular shape ) can also be specific to certain plants. I know this first hand. Last year I was growing Black Krim. Its leaves were like that all summer. I then searched and saw tons of picture in the net showing the same characteristic.

So it appears that IR is similar. OR it just cannot take your growing conditions.

When I've grown Black Krim here, its leaves don't curl.

Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on
Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 11:24

When I've grown Black Krim here, its leaves don't curl.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Maybe it is climate sensitive. Or maybe there various strains of it.
Her a picture that I got grom internet. There are tens of it. This one is not as pronounced as mine was.

Very interesting about the leaf curl. I thought that my Indigo Rose plant was stressed last year because it did that a lot!

I found that the taste was rather odd and the fruit took forever to mature and was not worth waiting for. The fruit was only the size of a large cherry.

Linda

Hi Linda,

Obviously this feature is a sort of genetic characteristic like being wispy. The environment my have influence too.

Last year when I was talking about my BK, a lot of people was saying that i have stressed the plant by sever pruning, which obviously was not the case/cause.

About Indigo Rose, I have read a lot of not so good reviews as far as taste goes. But I wouldn't mind to have it for its color and ornamental effect, if I had space for it. I am growing something similar ; It is Japanese Trifele Black.

There's only one Black Krim,no different strains. Leaves can curl for all kinds of different reasons related to environmental reasons as well as plants having a heavy fruit burden, which is a stress and can also do it.

About Indigo Rose.

I read and sometimes post at several different message sites and have done so for well over 30 years but the blue fad is much more recent than that.

Look at the seed catalogs of Jung's, Johnny's and more and you'll see lots of so called blues, not just Indigo Rose.

One of the parents of almos tALL of them is OSU ( Oregon State U) P20 and that one I did taste,Just awful for me/

And I have yet to find anyone, except the person above who likes the taste of Indigo Rose. And yes, it was developed with the hopes that the increased anthocyanins would prove to be a plus dietarily, but I have to see any documentation that that is true for humans.Saying humans since I know of no other mamals who eat them.LOL

Carolyn

Here's mine Athena,

I'm in Portland and apparently the tomato slacker in this group. I let the professionals grow my plants ( and this supports our small growers) and buy on Memorial day, since our weather can be tricky. I've learned that for me, it's simpler to avoid the EB that comes in my garden if I try earlier. My preference is not dealing with diseases and less time harvesting. For the two weeks difference ( neighbor and I compare over the years) it's just not worth it to me.

So bought on Memorial day, hardened off the next two weeks..which has a pain as I spent those two weeks watching the temp each night and going out to cover late when it was going under 50 degrees, which was all but one or two nights. Then I started planting out, but this little guy was happy and I got busy at work. Turned out he didn't get in the ground till about a week and a half ago.

Great little plant. Didn't miss a beat being transplanted and grew the next day. Really study compared to some of the others and growing a bit better.

But..it seems my leaves are curly the wrong way for the cold week we had. To top things off I discovered a little blue tomato when I took this picture. Opps...thought I removed all the blooms. Sure didn't hurt in this case.

This is my science experiment spot. My yard is all various amounts of dense shade ( inpatients won't bloom, it's too dark ) with spots here and there I try tomatoes. This spot I set up has concrete and brick underneath for heat, with those concrete chucks stashed behind. I know I can keep a container warmer and move it if it turns out my guess on sun was wrong. Those are awfully small tubs to my way of doing things, but what I had.

My reading told me of the three plants I put there, Indigo Rose can take the most shade of the bunch, so that's what it got. Until I am forced to tie off to the greenhouse frame, these can all be moved..not that I can think of a better spot.

I set the whole business inside a small greenhouse frame, thinking if this works, the frame gives me a place to tie the support frame work to, and later, by adding the greenhouse cover I may be able to extend the season or next year get a head start. Again, using what I have.

@ Carolyn,

I did read about the taste. I'm so curious because I'm what they call a super taster. Extra papillæ for bitter. :(

Gotta tell you folks. That little blue tomato is sure cute. LOL

This post was edited by plaidbird on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 19:30

I like the flavor and have grown them for 2 years. I gave a few to my sis and she commented that they had a good texture, too. Plus, they add interest to the salad when you mix several colors, such as red, orange and purple.

Indigo Rose is one of the poorer flavored tomatoes I've grown. Fortunately, Jim Myers is still working on them. I sampled his growing lines in August 2012 and found 2 that are significant improvements for flavor. Give it another year or two and they should hit the market.

Here's my 2 cents worth...
This is my 3rd year growing Indigo Rose (no fruit yet this year). I hated the flavor when I first harvested Indigo Rose. Flavor was acidic and just plain nasty.Then I went on vacation for a 10 days and came back thinking my tomatoes would be over ripe. The tomatoes were yielding to the touch but not mushy and the color was dark red with shades of brick and rust. The flavor balanced the acidity with an old time tomato flavor and a touch of floral notes. My family loved them in salads and sandwiches. I've grown them ever since. Bottom line, if you think they are ripe, leave them another week or so. I have tried ripening them off the vine but the flavor isn't the same. Also if you overwater them or store them for more than a day the flavor fades.

On a side note: I've had great success growing Indigo Rose in pots. It is prolific grown in pots and continued producing well into the fall.

Thank you Moosemac,

This is reassuring and very helpful.

Seysonn, I don't think JTB is similar to IR. I've grown it before and am growing it this year, and it's a black tomato not blue. And JTB has a really great flavor at least for me.

Thanks Sharonie, for clarification.
I am happy that JBT is a great tasting tomato. I am also growing Kumato and Cherokee purple in that category. I have grown CP before and liked it a lot.

moosemac, you may have unveiled a secret. Sometimes original color might not indicate ripeness.

Growing Indigo Berries this summer, just started harvesting them last week.

They started out very dark purplish, but when fully ripe, are almost a rose color with little splotches of dark brownish coloring on the "shoulders". So they don't really stay indigo once they are ripe and at their best to consume :(. Seems to defeat the purpose, unless you like growing them ornamentally so that they can look pretty on the plant before they mature.

Flavor wise, they're okay. Not terribly sweet, but a good strong tomato flavor.

Overall, I wasn't impressed. Probably won't be growing them again.

My Indigo Rose is doing great in a 5 gallon pot. I was surprised to see it so productive. The fruits are ripening now. So it is also early.

Sey

Indigos take forever to ripen. I grew these last year but started them late. I planted more this year to see if I can get a ripe one before frost. They look ripe for along time but need to soften on the vine. I think I have indigo rose and Apple this year. I also have Japanese black trifle and I can't remember anything about it. I guess it had to be some reason I bought the seeds. Not a great tomato year here, as we are just starting to get some warmth. I have yet to have a ripe tomato.

Mine was pretty early. I bought a plant/seedling from HD and planted it Late Apr/Early May. I picked my first ripe IR, 4 days ago. and more are coming.

When the color turns nice plum red, it is ripe. Like the one on lower right of the picture below.

I would still consider the photo above not ripen, it is ripe for eating, but not flavorful, leave it so most of the purple is gone.

Seysonn, did you like the taste of your recently picked IR tomatoes?

Max, we will follow your advice about picking when purple color is gone; I want to make sure we give the IR a good chance to prove itself, before we decide that it's not tasty enough to grow again. We are hoping that the hydroponic process and California climate will produce better tasting fruit. Thank you for your advice. Our IR was 'planted' on May 2nd, so we might have another couple of weeks yet before we see signs of ripening.

Jeannie

My first IR tasted just OK, not exceptional. Being the very first one I hope the ones later should have a better taste. But I like it for its visual attraction in the garden and in the salad . It should taste fine with some salt , oil and vinegar.

Sey

Cut in half a nice addition to a Greek salad, yes, I've had a nicer tasting cherries but as I'm not a big fan of overly sweet tomatoes this one suits me just fine until something better comes along.

Annette

Thanks, Sey and Annette. I am so hoping that we will like the taste enough to plant again next year. I love the indigo color, so ornamental. It does take a long time before the fruit is ready for picking. I'll post again in a couple of weeks. Jeannie

I have tasted the first one. Not the best tasing but otherwise ok. And the color (visual appeal) more than compensate for the taste. The color of fruits and purplish foliage all are very interesting to me. I will grow it again.

Sey

When I want the flavor of eggplant skin in my tomatoes transferred from other Solanum species and bitter stems, and employing genetic engineering techniques to breed (the technicality here is that they were used to direct the breeding, so they are not officially "GMOs", but rather the beneficiaries of the technology), I will invite this tomato back to my garden grow-out list.

This Indigo line is the only tomato line I really am not interested in eating, and I even like the taste of 'white' tomatoes. About the "waiting for ripening" comment above, I can speak to that: I dispute it. Almost all indigos I grew I bit overripe and tasted bad since that's what happens to tomatoes I need to remove from my plants before they rot and cause trouble. The good tasting tomatoes get picked before or at peak maturity because they are desirable for flavor. After eating enough of them to know the taste was not my cup of tea, that's when I started leaving them on the plants too long. On the bright side of things, I gave them away to my neighbors but sadly no one came back for seconds or commented on flavor, which was a telling comment in itself.

If I want colored tomatoes in the future, I'll soak white ones in a rainbow of colors of food dye. I have plenty of whites and food dyes :-) E163 is a natural food dye that is made from anthocyanins. However, in Europe there are even concerns about anthocyanin safety when not coming from traditional dietary veggies. One point of view is that people growing or buying Indigo Rose are once again being used as guinea pigs to test food no matter how this is spun or promoted, non-GMO or whatever you choose to feel good about, like helping breeders with "over 1996-2015 ... $2,082,837 in noncompetitive funds and $6,861,209 (my portion only) in competitive peer reviewed grants" in our country's dwindling ag universities.

I admit I would like to grow the GE British tomato once just to see what it tastes like - I'm so curious. It has the indigo all the way through the flesh, which is more interesting to me and I suspect would taste better than having it concentrated in the skin. Considering both tomatoes were developed in a laboratory using GE techniques I don't see any reason to suspect that one is more or less safe than the other, just because one managed to express the appropriate genes by cross breeding assisted by molecular markers and analysis throughout the process and the other just stuck it in straight out and came up with a pretty expression throughout the flesh too, rather than concentrating it in the skin.

Cheers

PC

PC,

What is the problem with IR ?

<<<"This Indigo line is the only tomato line I really am not interested in eating, and I even like the taste of 'white' tomatoes" >>

a) It is GE ( almost GMO)

b) You did not like the taste

c) your neighbors did not like it

d) The universities are getting too much funds ?

e) They have concern over it in Europe .

I did not get the eggplant connection .

......................................................................

Having said all that those are all legitimate reason not to like IR. . To each his own.

Sey

I happen to like the flavor - more acidic than sweet. It is not GMO. Here is the background information from Oregon, where it was bred.

Indigo Rose's genesis began in the 1960s, when two breeders – one from Bulgaria and the other from the United States – first crossed-cultivated tomatoes with wild species from Chile and the Galapagos Islands, Myers said. Some wild tomato species have anthocyanins in their fruit, and until now, tomatoes grown in home gardens have had the beneficial pigment only in their leaves and stems, which are inedible.

Graduate students working with Myers crossed together the lines carrying wild tomato species genes to create the population from which ‘Indigo Rose’ was selected.

Indigo Rose is a full-season cultivar in Oregon with an average first ripe date about 91 days after transplanting, which is about 13 days later than 'Siletz' and eight days later than 'Early Girl.' Fruit yield of Indigo Rose was similar to the heirloom cultivar 'Black Prince,' and significantly lower than 'Early Girl' and 'Siletz,' but Indigo Rose produced significantly more fruit than any of the cultivars in trial.

The new tomato is released as an open pollinated variety, and as such, seed saved from self-pollinated plants will grow true and not produce hybrids. "It's also important to know that genetic engineering techniques are never used to develop these lines," Myers said. "These tomatoes are not GMO."

Sey,

"I did not get the eggplant connection"

Anthocyanins and other flavonoid chemicals are concentrated in the peel of the eggplant (and the stem of tomatoes) giving eggplant in the common varieties the purple color. Native Mesoamericans may have bred anthocyanins out to domesticate the edible garden tomato, or it may never have been there; Indigo Rose may get some of its color from expression of stem skin on the fruit by some clever directed breeding that originally produced purple in the stem, either way, from anthocyanins. If you eat eggplant skins or tomato or eggplant stems you will get far more of the nutritional value which was the motivation of Indigo Rose in the first place. What is left for me is just the ornamental value of the plant and taste. The concentration of this class of chemicals is in the vicinity of 1300 ppm in eggplant peel and nearly the same in stem. Anthocyanins and related chemicals were most successfully introduced into tomatoes as a GMO in a joint Euro-British project in 2008. What is left is flavor...

Anthocyanins and their related sugary bound forms are found in blueberries in a fairly specific profile, about 20x more concentrated vs. Indigo Rose. The indigo-blue tomato developed by the joint British/Italian group has about 100x the anthocyanin content by weight percent vs. OSU's Indigo Rose indigo-blue tomato!

Anthocyanin containing wild Solanum berries (sometimes called wild tomatoes in the sense a chimp is a wild man LOL, as researchers argue evolutionary and reproductive similarities and differences) were first characterized as far as I knew around 1962 by Charley Rick, the Univ. of California Davis, humble guy who rode his bike shirtless around campus and was the original world tomato expert, and who was undoubtedly a resource in the early days of conception of Indigo Rose.

A bright graduate student was responsible for beginning the project that led to Indigo Rose with his faculty adviser, and the student brought some seeds from Seeds of Change, a high carotenoid line, where he had worked when it was recently taken over by the Mars Candy Company. This complemented wild and hybridized lines from the Charles Rick Center at UCD, and the garden tomato variety chosen to carry the alien genetics (wild stuff) was the English heirloom Ailsa Craig.

A generation of students later the project was finished, four years after the Euro-British team had theirs by express GE technology using two single snapdragon flower genes to get the far superior anthocyanin yield and alleged superior taste to conventional varieties, which is or was being commercialized in Canada to make purple tomato juice and pizza sauce last I heard. Micro-Tom, a 1989 dwarf red variety from Univ. Florida ( :-) ! ) was apparently used as their original variety to receive the snapdragon flower's two genes, though it appears to me that it might now be crossed. I don't know the current status since the entrepreneurial head of the Canadian operation, from Leamington, the tomato capital of Ontario, was murdered recently under unexplained circumstances in Brazil, where he might have been scouting down a lead for an improved grass that can produce high yields of ethanol that outdo corn.

I went through this to simply explain my understanding of the two different tomato programs since then I think you can better understand my opinions on taste and why I'd actually prefer the European GMO blue tomato. The OSU variety so far contains large sections and genes from Solanum lycopersicoides, a wild Solanum that has no available information to show it is safe in our diets. Similarly, I'm not aware another of its parents, S. chilense, is even edible either. It is the contribution to flavor that all the alien DNA and resulting expression of wild biomolecules these alien or so called 'wild' genes have that I'm sure are responsible for the taste I find awful and don't really want to eat. A critical distinction is that the anthocyanins are not responsible for the off-taste themselves. On the other hand, the European variety only has the two specific alien anthocyanin (purple-expressing) genes from the flowers, a surgically precise trait without any baggage, in a completely otherwise garden tomato. I'm cautious about believing super-flavor claims but also see it is much more achievable.

Bottom line for my opinion only, is that until Indigo Rose goes through many generations more of selective breeding for flavor, it is the only tomato I ever met I spit out and make a face :-(. For the minority that post they like it, I'm very pleased to hear it!

lgteacher, As for the GE background of Indigo Rose, the brilliant developers of it are quick to point out that it has not been genetically modified, and I'd be ok with that it weren't being promoted as if the biotech techniques developed for making GMOs, which themselves require extensive production of research GMOs to elucidate all the gene functions they pieced together to make the final conventional product. Whether the OSU team did it or relied on others' research seems irrelevant to me. To get the accurate story rather than reading what are marketing (press releases etc.), I'd ask who funded the research besides taxpayers, and maybe the original grad student who worked on Indigo Rose who might now be a lead strategist at Monsanto for integrating worldwide Capsicum (Pepper) traits that Big Ag feels are important, you never know ... and if he talked, he might have a unique perspective on the history of the project! Don't get me wrong, OSU had a brilliant academic project, it is only the marketing...and poor flavor that make it a zap except for a nice ornamental until someone gets one of those deep, solid, vivid indigo British tomato nuggets to share, the only game in town for us so far.

Cheers

PC

Taste Test #2

The first one tasted soft and creamy and not juicy that I prefer.

I tasted the second one today. It was much better. I found out that it was slight lyover ripe. The next time I will try to test it early and see the difference.

I am growing it next to several dwarfs in the same size container. IR is beating most of them in productivity and earliness. So IR will be back in 2016.

Sey

Indigo Rose is finally starting to ripen in bunches for me. This plant puts out a ton of fruit very early in the season, and take their sweet time maturing for harvest. Hard to tell exactly when the best time to pick is, so I'm experimenting by pulling some and leaving others on the vine a little longer. So far I've picked about a dozen when the bottoms turn red -- off the vine they don't seem to ripen much more. Very little reddening on the kitchen counter.

On the sunny side of the plant, the fruits are totally purple, and I've picked a few that have the softness of a ripe tomato.

Size of the mature fruit ranges from golf ball to plum.

Overall, not the best tasting tomato I've ever grown, but the plant is among the sturdiest so I might give it another shot with a little better support system in place.

Not growing this next year, I finally got a ripe one yesterday and I did not care for the taste and I think it is wasting space may pull it out today and plant a cabbage.

I also agree now that overall IR is not a tomato that you would grow for best taste.

I will grow it again for its nearly unusual foliage and fruit color. It is a conversation starter in the garden : .."Wow, look at that ..!"

Sey

I had bought an IR plant but gave it to my neighbor since she loves black flowers, etc. Finally just remembered to check in with her about the flavor. Since I'd told her they were mainly ornamental, she hadn't picked or eaten any. I just ate an extremely ripe one and it had a mild, very sweet flavor and it did taste reminiscent of a rose. I also detected that rose flavor in Mortgage Lifter? (The first one, not a good standard.) I would not grow again but I didn't spit it out...

Jenn

After having waited for a couple of weeks after our tomatoes started to redden, my husband and I tasted our first IR tomato. It was actually juicy with a mild tomato flavor and slightly sweet. I enjoyed the texture. I agree with everyone that it is not the most flavorful tomato, but I am still looking forward to the rest of the fruit ripening and being able to make a IR tomato salad. I found that home grown IR tomato is still better than many of the store bought tomatoes. If you have read my first entry, we are growing our IRs hydroponically. I don't know if that makes a difference. I like the IR enough to try Indigo Sun next year, if I can find it. It will probably be sweeter. I planned to post a photo of a cut up IR, but we gobbled it up too fast. Maybe I will remember to take a photo next time, maybe in salad form with some olive oil, chevre, basil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Of course we'd have a fresh baguette to go with it. Oh, has anyone roasted the IR yet? Thanks for reading this post.

I canned some roasted tomatoes and threw a bunch of ir in there. But I didn't taste it lol.

My IR has still a lot of fruits. I am very happy that I bought and planted it.

Just minutes ago I tasted couple of them and paid read good attention:

== The taste was nice and sweet.

== It has a very thick skin. Otherwise it tastes like most cherry tomatoes.

Review :

Surprisingly it was very early and kept producing from June up until right now. I like its ornamental features as much as the fruits taste.

The plant being indet is very small, almost a dwarf. That is the feature that I like about it.

It is a KEEPER . I will definitely will grow it again in 2016.

Getting into more indigo :

In addition to IR, next season I will grow the followings :

--- INDIGO APPLE: not related directly to IR but is very very similar. Maybe fruits are slightly bigger. here it is:

-- INDIGO CHERY DROPS (OP): this is a new breed offered by OSU's Jim Myer.s

It has excellent reviews as far as taste goes.

Here is a picture.

I like the inside color very much ; nice red.

There you have it, The Indigo Gang.

Sey