Tomato Black Plum Plants

The Black Plum Tomato is a productive and hardy variety that produces many small (25 to 30 g), oval, dark red fruits, grouped in clusters. Its flesh is firm and juicy with a sweet flavour. It is excellent in salads but can also be used as an appetiser, or preserved.

Plant your plug plants from April to June after the last frost when the plants have reached about fifteen centimetres. The Black Plum Tomato can be harvested from July to October.

The Tomato is native to South America and Central America. Several varieties were cultivated by the Incas long before the arrival of the Conquistadors. The name "Tomato" comes from the Inca word "Tomatl" and refers to both the plant and the fruit it produces. It is one of the many foods that came to us from the New World, along with beans, corn, squash, potatoes, and chilli peppers. The Tomato took longer to reach our taste buds. For a long time, it was cultivated for its aesthetic and medicinal qualities, but it was considered toxic due to its resemblance to the fruit of the Mandrake, another member of the Solanaceae family. It only became a regular part of our diets in the early 20th century.

The Tomato is a perennial herbaceous plant in tropical climates, but it is grown as an annual in our latitudes. It becomes woody over time and produces small, insignificant yellow flowers grouped in clusters that will develop into fruits. Tomatoes can be grown in open ground but smaller varieties can also be grown in containers on a balcony.

It is a fruit or vegetable with many nutritional benefits. It is low in calories, like most vegetables, and rich in water. It contains lycopene, a powerful antioxidant and it is rich in vitamin C, provitamin A, and trace elements.

In terms of cooking, tomatoes can be eaten raw or cooked in various ways: in salads or as appetisers, grilled, stuffed, marinated, preserved, or used in ratatouille or sauces. There are tomatoes of all colours, shapes, and sizes. Take advantage of this and grow several varieties in your vegetable garden to enjoy a variety of flavours!

Harvesting: early varieties can be harvested from 55 to 70 days after planting, mid-season varieties from 70 to 85 days, and late varieties beyond 85 days. Tomatoes should be picked when they have reached their final colour and their texture is still firm but shows a slight softening. To keep better, pick the fruit with its stalk. Be careful, immature fruits, stems, and leaves contain solanine and should not be consumed.

Storage: The optimal storage temperature for tomatoes is between 10 and 15°C (50 and 59°F). Refrigeration is possible but alters the taste qualities of the fruits. For longer storage, tomatoes can be preserved by confit, dried, frozen, canned, or cooked. To confit them, cut your tomatoes in half and collect the juice. Place your half tomatoes face up on the baking sheet of your oven. Season with salt, pepper, and sugar, then bake at a very low temperature for at least one hour. Remove your tomatoes, store them in a glass jar, and cover with olive oil.

Gardener's tip: To limit watering, we recommend mulching the soil with thin successive layers of grass clippings, if possible mixed with dead leaves. This keeps the soil moist and limits weed growth.