Bakers Creek is apparently releasing the first non-gmo completely purple tomato in their 2024 seed catalog. I saw it on Instagram.
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Purple Russian has been around for years. It is a true blue/purple color, not like the high anthocyanin black tomatoes.
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I’d rather eat Rubus and Vaccinium berries for anthocyanin content. Tomatoes have too much acid for my stomach. I do like them occasionally in a sandwich.
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I don’t think I’ve had one high anthocyanin/purple tomato which tasted good/sweet (like Black Beauty, etc). I prefer the black/purple/red tomatoes like Paul Robeson/Carbon/Black Tula.
But I’ll prob order this one just to try it out.
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An update for anyone who was thinking of grabbing a pack of seeds:
I can’t say I was super excited, but I am a sucker for purple so I had signed up for notifications. Curious as to the specific issues, though. Maybe poor germination tests?
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Industry speak for “someone grew it but something went wrong and made no fruit”.
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I had forgotten that it was their 2024 seed catalog cover image, so that’s pretty regretful.
Perhaps, but I doubt it because often when this happens the company says it will be released at a later date. What seems more likely is that it is GMO and there are restrictions that prevent them from releasing it.
turtlewax, Apply Occcam’s razor. Simplest explanation is almost always correct. You can grow Zeigler’s Fleisch, Purple Russian, Blue Fruit, Blueberry Sugar, and a few dozen others to get unusual colors. A friend is working on an entirely new color tomato using the chartreuse gene. Colors are not rare in the tomato world. He also has some lines with an alternative color lycopene that is amazing.
Baker Creek is very anti-GMO, and explicitly bragged about this being non-GMO, so unless they were duped somehow I doubt this is the issue. There is a purple GMO tomato produced by a company that is also trying to make its seeds available to the public.
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The simplest explanation is that Baker’s Creek were duped into thinking it wasn’t GMO, and pulled it once they discovered that it was.
Is NHP’s Purple Tomato related to the “Purple Galaxy”?
We have received many questions about the purple tomato marketed by Baker Creek as “Purple Galaxy” in their 2024 catalogs. We understand from Baker Creek that they will not be selling seeds of this variety. Given its remarkable similarity to our purple tomato, we prompted Baker Creek to investigate their claim that Purple Galaxy was non-GMO. We are told that laboratory testing determined that it is, in fact, bioengineered (GMO). This result supports the fact that the only reported way to produce a purple-fleshed tomato rich in anthocyanin antioxidants is with Norfolk’s patented technology. We appreciate that Baker Creek tested their material, and after discovering it was a GMO, removed it from their website.
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@TurtleWax I just saw this shared on reddit and was coming back to the thread to say - you were right that it involved GMO!
I guess saying it was “production issues” is accurate in only the broadest sense.
It has to hurt when they put so much effort into marketing something they can’t sell…
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A statement at the top of Baker Creek’s FAQ is linked here. There is some discussion regarding the origin of the seed.
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If anybody has ny of the purple tomato seeds from either Norfolk or Baker seed, it be glad to barter for them
Thanks
Charles