Surprise your guests and neighbors with unusual tomatoes - “Black bunch F1” tomato

Agronomists around the world are working tirelessly to create new varieties of tomatoes. Every year, varieties appear that are resistant to various diseases, unpretentious in care and delight gardeners with high yields. The appearance of the fruit also changes. Exotic variants of the most unexpected colors appear on the markets.

One of the tomatoes that combines an unusual type of fruit, immunity to disease, and amazing taste is the Black Bunch. The bushes of this hybrid are hung with clusters of small dark purple fruits, reminiscent of large currants. Your guests and family will definitely want to try them.

Description of the hybrid

The Black Bunch tomato is a first generation hybrid.

It appeared on the Russian markets relatively recently and has not yet been included in the register. However, it is actively grown by gardeners around the world.

The designation F1 indicates that the Black Bunch is the product of crossing two varieties. To obtain this unusual hybrid, a cultivated cherry tomato was crossed with nightshade crops growing wild in Chile with dark berries.

Look what the Black Bunch looks like in the photo.

Advice. The experience of gardeners growing Black Bunch suggests that the taste of these tomatoes is sweeter and the color is brighter when grown in open ground. After all, these parameters directly depend on the amount of sunlight falling on the bushes.

Distinctive features of Black bunch tomatoes

The main distinguishing feature of the Black Bunch is the unusual appearance of the fruit. They are dark purple, almost black. There is a small red or orange spot on one side.

The taste of Black Bunch is also different from classic tomato. It is sweet, with barely noticeable sourness and a plum aftertaste.

This is interesting! Reviews say that if you grow Black Bunch in the shade, the characteristic fruity taste of its fruit will disappear.

Characteristics

The Black Bunch hybrid surprises not only with the color of the berries. His description will please even experienced gardeners.

Characteristics of the Black Bunch:

Attention! Manufacturers position the Black Bunch as an early ripening hybrid. However, reviews from gardeners who grew this tomato indicate that it is mid-season.

How to grow seedlings

Seeds are sown at the end of February or the first half of March. In this case, the seedlings have time to develop enough to be transplanted into open ground in the second half of March.

How to properly prepare seeds

Before planting tomatoes, it is necessary to prepare planting material. This will increase germination and prevent the development of diseases.

Preparing seeds for planting:

1. All planting material is sorted out. Damaged and dark seeds are removed. To ensure their germination, the seeds are soaked in salted water. Floated copies are considered damaged.
2. The seeds are disinfected - treated with disinfectants, for example, soaked for 20 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate.
3. To speed up germination, seeds are soaked in growth stimulants. In addition to store-bought remedies, gardeners use homemade recipes (for example, a teaspoon of honey in a glass of warm water). In this composition, planting material is soaked for a day.

Selecting a container and preparing the soil

A huge number of containers suitable for growing seedlings are sold.Many gardeners make containers for tomatoes from improvised materials:

• top part of cake packaging;
• trimmed six-liter bottle;
• instant noodle packaging;
• disposable deep plates;
• old deep dishes.

For picking tomatoes, choose containers with a volume of at least 300 ml. Stores sell special plastic and peat cups. You can use homemade containers. Most often, seedling pots are made from disposable cups and cut-off 1.5 liter bottles.

All containers, except peat tablets and pots, are treated. To do this, just pour boiling water over them.

Soil mixture is available at gardening stores. It is also prepared independently from peat, turf, ash and humus. It is also disinfected by pouring a solution of potassium permanganate or calcining it in the oven.

Sowing seeds

Gardeners recommend burying Black Bunch tomato seeds deeper than other tomatoes. Therefore, the depth of the grooves for them should be 2 cm.

The recesses for the seeds are made in rows, the distance between which is 3 cm. The distance between the seeds should be at least 2 cm.

Advice. If you want to plant just a few seeds for testing, it is more convenient to use individual peat tablets. The prepared planting material is simply pressed into them. When watered, they increase in size.

The seeds are sprinkled with earth. The soil is moistened with a spray bottle. The container with seeds is covered with glass or film on top and placed in a warm place.

Repeated watering is not necessary until the seeds germinate. If the soil becomes waterlogged, remove the glass.

Seedling care

Seedlings need to be cared for with special care. This is the only way you will get healthy plants:

1. Before picking, water the seedlings using a syringe or pipette.This is done to prevent water from getting onto the above-ground part of the plant. After transplanting into separate containers, the tomatoes are watered from a watering can, also without getting on the foliage. Water is used at room temperature.
2. After germination, the tomatoes are placed in a well-lit place. It is better if the temperature in it is 12 degrees. After a week, the plants are returned to the heat again.
3. The film is removed a week after seed germination. While it remains on the plants, daily ventilation is necessary.
4. Feeding make complex fertilizers. During the entire period of growing seedlings there should be three of them. The first is done three weeks after picking the seedlings, and the last - three days before planting in a permanent place.
5. 14 days before transplanting to a permanent place, the seedlings are hardened off by taking them outside.

Growing tomatoes

The Black Bunch hybrid is planted in a permanent place at the end of May. It is necessary to ensure that by this time the soil has warmed up sufficiently. This is especially important when planting seedlings in open ground.

Planting seedlings in a permanent place

Before transplanting, seedlings are watered and fed. The soil is also prepared - dug up and etched with a solution of potassium permanganate.

It is important to choose a place for growing plants in advance. Do not use beds on which nightshade crops grew. The best predecessors for tomatoes are legumes, cabbage, and carrots.

To enrich the soil, it is dug up in the fall and mixed with compost, dry chlorine, and ash. Plant remains are removed as they become carriers of insects.

Holes for tomatoes are dug in rows. The optimal distance between rows and holes is 50 cm. It turns out that per 1 sq. m fits 4 plants. To save space, the holes are placed in a checkerboard pattern.

Directly during transplantation, the plants are removed from the pots along with a lump of earth and placed in holes, which are filled with water. Then the holes with seedlings are covered with soil.

Tomato care

Black bunch tomatoes are formed into two or three stems. This way they produce the maximum amount of harvest. The more stems, the more fruits they will bear and the later they will ripen.

Stepsoning for the Black Bunch is a must. When carrying out this procedure, wilted leaves and stepsons are removed from the bush. This is done in dry weather in the evening.

Watering tomatoes as the soil dries out. In hot summers, 3 waterings per week are sufficient. On cloudy days, the soil is moistened less often.

Attention! Do not water tomatoes during planting days - this increases the likelihood of infection.

Indeterminate type tomatoes must be tied up. To do this, use wooden supports or trellises.

The first feeding is done 3 weeks after planting tomatoes in open ground. For this, complex fertilizers are used. The following fertilizing is done once every two weeks, alternating mineral and organic fertilizers.

There are also non-standard types of fertilizers. For example, tomatoes are fertilized with iodine, peroxide, yeast, ammonia and boric acid.

Mistakes a gardener can make

Beginner gardeners often make mistakes when growing tomatoes. The most common ones are:

1. Watering directly from a well or tap. This can lead to death or wilting of plants. Water used for watering cultivated plants must sit in a container for at least 24 hours.
2. Increasing watering when there are signs of wilting of tomatoes. This symptom is also typical for flooded plants. Therefore, before increasing watering, make sure that the bushes really do not have enough water.
3. Refusal to loosen the soil. When watering, a crust forms on the soil, which prevents air from penetrating into the root system. This can lead to plant death. Therefore, the soil needs to be loosened after each watering and rain.
4. Watering tomatoes with a garden hose. With this method of watering, water gets on the tomato greens. This increases the likelihood of plant disease. Tomatoes are watered only at the root.

Diseases and pests

Hybrid Black bunch is resistant to all major plant diseasesm. According to gardeners, it is rarely affected even late blight. Therefore, these tomatoes do not need to be treated with chemicals for preventive purposes.

To reduce the risk of infection of tomatoes, it is enough to treat the seeds with a disinfectant solution before sowing, and also disinfect the soil before transplanting the plants to a permanent place.

But insects often attack Black Bunch tomatoes. To prevent their appearance, the bushes are treated with a soap solution so that the composition gets only on the greenery, but not on the soil. Preventive inspections are carried out weekly, removing pests manually.

Features of growing in a greenhouse and open ground

Black bunches in the central zone of our country are grown in a greenhouse or under a film cover. It is important to ensure that the tomatoes in such a room have enough sunlight, otherwise they will not turn black. Every day you need to ventilate the greenhouse by opening the windows.

When growing Black Bunch in open ground, choose the sunniest place on the site. In this case, the color of the fruit will be darker and the taste will be sweeter.

Mulching in open ground is mandatory. The beds are covered with hay, straw or film.

On cold days, tomatoes growing in open ground are covered with film.Black bunch is a heat-loving hybrid.

Harvesting and application

Tomatoes will ripen at the end of July or mid-August. The fact that the harvest is ripe is indicated not by the black color of the fruit, but by the presence of a yellow or orange barrel.

The fruits are collected in whole clusters, cut with a knife or torn off by hand.

The Black Bunch harvest is used for fresh consumption and preservation. Black tomatoes soaked in brine change color to brown. Feedback from farmers suggests that fresh tomatoes can be stored until the New Year holidays.

Advantages and disadvantages

Benefits of Black Bunch tomatoes:

• immunity to diseases;
• unusual color;
• unusual taste;
• high yield.

Among the disadvantages, we can note the need for gartering and pinching tomatoes. Some gardeners do not like the specific taste of this hybrid.

Reviews from gardeners

Reviews about the Black Bunch hybrid are mixed.

Valeria Kiryakova, Krasnodar: “Black bunch is an unusual hybrid with black tomatoes. They will surprise their family and friends with their appearance. Their taste is sweet, with a fruity aftertaste. The first time I grew it, I couldn’t determine the stage of fruit ripeness and picked unripe tomatoes. As it turned out, ripeness is indicated not by the black color of the fruit, but by the red or orange side.”

Inga Guseeva, Kirovograd: «I bought Black Bunch tomatoes because of their unusual color. I grew it in open ground in the sunniest part of the garden. I didn't like the taste, too sweet, not tomato-like. The price is high, I paid 150 rubles for 10 seeds.”

Conclusion

Black bunch tomatoes are a hybrid with unusual fruits. The color of its berries is black. The taste is sweet plum. It is perfect for preparing salads and cold appetizers.

Growing a tomato is not difficult.It is resistant to many diseases and produces an excellent harvest that can be stored for several months.