Black Krim Tomato

The tomato that traveled home in a soldier’s kit

In the 1850s, British, French, Italian, and Turkish soldiers fought the Crimean War on a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. When the war ended, some of them carried tomato seeds home.

Those seeds spread across Europe and stayed in quiet cultivation for more than a century. Then in 1990, a Swedish seed conservationist named Lars Olov Rosenstrom brought samples to the Seed Savers Exchange in the United States. The organization distributed them to American growers, and Black Krim, believed to be the first black tomato widely circulated in America, took hold.

The name is simple geography. Krim is the Ukrainian word for Crimea. Black Krim just means Black Crimea, which is about as direct a variety name as you’ll find.

What the fruit is actually like

Black Krim is a beefsteak type, 8 to 12 ounces, with a slightly flattened globe shape. The exterior runs from rust red at the base through brownish maroon to olive green shoulders. Sliced open, the flesh is deep red with near black sections around the seed pockets.

The flavor is the whole point. It’s complex in a way most tomatoes aren’t. Acidity hits first, then a rich deep sweetness, then a smoky earthy finish most people struggle to name. Growers consistently reach for wine analogies when trying to describe it. The comparison isn’t hyperbole. It’s the right word for something layered and full bodied.

This is a fresh eating tomato. Slice it thick, salt it lightly, eat it on good bread. Cooking away that complexity would be a waste.

Why it’s dark: a different story than Cherokee Purple

If you’ve grown Cherokee Purple, you know about retained chlorophyll producing that dusky appearance. Black Krim works differently, and understanding both helps you grow each variety better.

The dark exterior comes from anthocyanins. These are water soluble pigments that produce purples, blues, and near blacks in fruit skin. Black Krim concentrates anthocyanins in the outer skin while the flesh builds deep red lycopene underneath. Layered together, they produce that distinctive brownish maroon to near black exterior.

Black Krim also carries the heirloom green flesh trait, the retained chlorophyll that keeps shoulders olive green even at full ripeness. So this variety runs both mechanisms at once: anthocyanin rich skin and slow chlorophyll breakdown. That’s why a ripe Black Krim looks almost black on the sides and olive at the top simultaneously.

The dark pigment also deepens further with adequate sunlight and heat. More direct sun produces a darker, more intensely colored fruit. Keep that in mind when you’re choosing your best bed for this variety.

Those anthocyanins are worth noting beyond color. They’re potent antioxidants, more concentrated here than in standard red tomatoes. The dark color signals something nutritionally different from what a red tomato delivers.

When is it actually ripe?

This is the question every first year Black Krim grower asks by late July.

The shoulders stay olive or greenish brown even at perfect ripeness. The body darkens to maroon rather than an even red. Gardeners wait for uniform color that never comes, and a perfectly ripe fruit quietly goes over on the vine.

Stop relying on color alone. Use these three cues instead. Feel: a ripe one yields gently to pressure without collapsing. Firm means wait. Lower fruit color: when the bottom half and sides have turned deep rust brown to maroon, it’s ready. Aroma: ripe Black Krim develops a noticeably stronger earthy tomato smell. Together these tell you more than color ever can.

Better yet: pick at 80 to 90 percent ripe and let the counter finish the job over a day or two. You lose nothing in flavor, and you sidestep the cracking problem almost entirely.

How to grow the Black Krim Tomato, start to finish

Starting seeds

Start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost. Sow a quarter inch deep in a clean seed starting mix at 70 to 80°F under strong light from day one.

Pot up at the true leaf stage and feed at half strength weekly. This is a large indeterminate vine. Strong, stocky transplants go in far better than leggy ones.

Transplanting

After frost, once nights hold reliably above 50°F, hardened off over a week. Bury two thirds of the stem for extra root depth and stability.

Space 30 to 36 inches. This is a big plant carrying heavy fruit, and airflow between plants is the cheapest disease insurance you have.

Soil and feeding

Rich, well drained soil loaded with compost, pH 6.2 to 6.8. Work a balanced organic fertilizer into the planting hole, then switch to a lower nitrogen tomato feed when flowers open. Feed every 3 to 4 weeks through the season.

Keep nitrogen in check. Heavy feeding pushes leafy growth faster than the plant can supply developing fruit. Modest and steady beats rich and irregular for a large beefsteak type already prone to blossom end rot.

Light and water

Full sun, 6 to 8 hours minimum. As noted above, sunlight directly deepens the anthocyanin color. This variety rewards the best bed you have.

Water deep and even at the base: 1 to 2 inches a week. A soaker hose under a layer of straw mulch buffers soil moisture through both heat and rain. Consistent moisture matters more here than for most varieties, for reasons covered below.

Support and pruning

Plan for 6 to 8 feet of vine carrying 8 to 12 ounce fruit. Set a heavy duty cage or tall stake at planting. Check ties as fruit swells and branch weight builds.

Prune to two or three main stems. Strip suckers below the first flower cluster and keep the bottom foot of plant clear of foliage for airflow. Leave the upper canopy mostly alone. Large dark fruit in direct afternoon sun scalds faster than you’d expect, and those upper leaves earn their place.

The main problem: cracking, and why this variety is especially prone

Ask Black Krim growers what surprised them most. The answer is almost always splitting fruit.

University of Missouri Extension explains the mechanism clearly. Ripening fruit expands when the plant absorbs water. When soil moisture swings from dry to soaked, that absorption is rapid. The skin can’t stretch fast enough and it splits. All tomatoes are susceptible. Large beefsteak types with thin skin are susceptible worst, and that’s exactly what Black Krim is.

The cracks come in different forms. Radial cracks run from the stem end down the sides. Concentric cracks ring the shoulders. Fine surface checking is the mild version. Black Krim can show all three, and a single rain surge after a dry stretch can take most of a flush at once.

The fix is preventing the surge. Consistent moisture all season, full stop. Mulch 2 to 3 inches deep to buffer swings through both heat and rain. When a storm is forecast after a dry stretch, pick your mature fruit before it arrives. Counter ripened Black Krim is indistinguishable from vine ripened. The gamble isn’t worth it.

Growers in naturally dry summer climates report clean fruit season after season. Growers in wet summer regions lose fruit regularly. Water management is the whole game with this variety.

Heat: better than most heirlooms, with an asterisk

Black Krim gets planted heavily in the American South, which tells you something. Multiple growers in hot, humid climates report continued fruit set through their most difficult summer weeks.

The asterisk: some plants stall in August heat and recover when temperatures ease in September. Others keep going. The variation appears to come down to individual conditions rather than a variety wide trait.

Don’t plant Black Krim expecting the heat tolerance of a modern hybrid built for hot climates. Do expect a variety that handles summer better than Brandywine and most other large heirlooms. If your summers run extreme, give it morning sun with some afternoon protection from a taller plant or fence.

Other things to watch

Blossom end rot. Less common here than on paste types, but possible when watering gets inconsistent. Steady moisture and modest nitrogen are the fix. Skip the calcium sprays and fix the watering rhythm instead.

Short shelf life. A ripe Black Krim keeps two to three days. This is a pick it, eat it tomato. Harvest what you’ll use and share the rest at peak quality, not past it.

Disease resistance. Classic Black Krim carries no built in VF resistance. Rotate beds yearly, water at the soil, and strip spotted lower foliage promptly. Our tomato fruit problem guide maps out what each symptom means.

Hornworms. A big productive vine heavy with dark fruit is exactly what they want. Check weekly and treat at first sign.

Container growing

It’s possible, but this isn’t the easiest path. The vine is large, the fruit is heavy, and the cracking risk goes up when pots dry out between waterings.

If you’re going this route, use 15 gallons of quality potting mix at minimum. Set a cage at planting and water daily in summer heat. A drip line with a timer takes moisture inconsistency out of the equation. Without one, you’ll need to be very diligent. Dry to soaked cycles are exactly what splits this variety.

Yields will be lower than a ground planted vine. Flavor won’t change. If the container is what you have, it works.

Our guide to growing tomatoes in pots covers container growing in full.

Saving seed

Black Krim is open pollinated and grows true from seed. The variety reached America because one person preserved seeds and shared them across an ocean. Saving your own feels like the right continuation of that story.

Scoop seeds and gel from your best fruit into a jar with a little water. Ferment 2 to 3 days, rinse, dry on a plate, and label. Save from the earliest ripening, cleanest fruited plant, and your line slowly adapts to your specific garden over seasons.

Black Krim vs the other dark heirlooms

Cherokee Purple is the most direct comparison. Cherokee Purple is fruitier and sweeter up front. Black Krim runs bolder, saltier, and smokier in the finish. Both share the green shoulder challenge. Cherokee Purple tends to set more fruit per plant. Black Krim tends to reach a higher ceiling on complexity. Side by side they complement each other more than they compete.

Brandywine can match Black Krim at its absolute best, but Brandywine is famously inconsistent and slow. Black Krim delivers similar intensity more reliably and earlier in the season.

Our heirloom tomato guide puts the full dark family side by side.

The verdict

Black Krim is the most flavor intensive tomato most gardeners will ever grow. The word people reach for is complex. Growers who eat it plain, at room temperature, describe something they had no word for before they grew it.

The variety asks for consistent water and punishes lapses. The cracking risk is real. The shelf life is short. Disease resistance is minimal.

But get it right, and you get something that traveled from a peninsula in the Black Sea to your cutting board. The least you can do is eat it the same day you pick it.