PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Carbon'

After trying and failing to grow this tomato twice before, I grew it this year with great success. The fruits were extraordinarily beautiful, pink on the bottom with sparkles in the skin, black on top. The taste was very rich--great for sandwiches and also roasted. The fruits at the bottom of the plant were enormous. I had one from fused flowers that weighed 3 lbs. Definitely growing this one again.

I just ate my first Carbon of the season, and it was fabulous! It has a rich, earthy, sweet flavor like any good black tomato. Also, the plant toughed it out through less than stellar weather and produced a decent crop when others wouldn't, so I have many more to enjoy. Carbon is definitely invited back next year.

This is the perfect tomato, texture, taste, size, beauty - it's all there. As my friend pointed out, sliced with salt & pepper, it tastes like bacon!! The plant is much more prolific than the Cherokee Purple I grew last year, but then that was my first year with tomato plants and I didn't prune it like I'm doing with this one.

One of my favorites. I find it very similar in taste to Cherokee Purple, another favorite. Plants tend to be slightly more compact than CP, and the fruits are perhaps a bit more crack resistant.

I've grown Carbons from seed for 3 years. In my experience, the plant is not very prolific but the taste of the fruit makes it worthwhile. When mature, the skin is a pink/brown, the flesh deep red. I've found the flavor to be tawny and sweet.

Carbon is an exquisitely beautiful tomato with a very creamy texture and mild flavor. There is substantial fleshiness to it, but enough juice so it is neither dry or mealy. The size and shape can vary, and each plant was very high yielding. Most tomatoes were medium to large burgundy-colored fruits.