Quick Summary of Bandol Blues
- 🌍 Origin: A visually stunning anthocyanin (blue/black) variety known for its incredibly dark skin.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, early-season. The plant itself is not overly vigorous; it has a rather frail, scrawny, and wispy build. However, it is very well-behaved, easy to manage, and responds perfectly to being pruned to 2 stems.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Produces long, beautiful trusses of small-to-medium tomatoes. The fruits are almost pitch black on the shoulders and sides, blushing to a deep burgundy at the blossom end. Inside, the flesh is a rich, dark crimson.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Very juicy. Growers note that the flavor can evolve throughout the season. While early fruits might seem ordinary, the late-season harvests develop a rich, punchy, tart-and-sweet flavor profile.
Seeds from N. Ananyeva. Description: “Tall, early-season, productive variety. It stands out for the beautiful appearance of its fruits and surprisingly juicy flesh. Almost black with a burgundy bottom, red on the inside when sliced, an excellent variety!!!”
This variety fully matches the description. An absolutely incredible beauty! The neighbors came over on a garden tour just to look at the black tomatoes. The beautiful long trusses of black fruits really made an impression. And while the taste didn’t impress me at all in the beginning, by the end of the season it suddenly became rich, tart, and sweet.
The bush itself is not very tall, rather scrawny and frail. Makes you just want to hug it and cry. But it is trouble-free and very obedient. It submissively agreed to be pruned to 2 stems, at a time when all the other varieties were rebelling and growing out of control. Also, it is very beautiful when sliced open, a very, very deep crimson color.
