Quick Summary of Cherniy Baron (Black Baron)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial variety. Important Note: There is significant seed confusion (off-types/mix-ups) on the market depending on the seed company (e.g., Aelita vs. Johnsons).
- 🍅 Phenotype 1 (The True Baron): From some “Aelita” seed batches, growers get the correct variety—a mid-season indeterminate producing beautiful, oblate (flattened-round) dark brown/burgundy fruits with slight ribbing. Weights range from 100g to 350g (3.5 – 12 oz). Meaty, sweet, and highly praised.
- 🍅 Phenotype 2 (The “Kumato” Type): From other batches (including English “Johnsons” seeds), growers report a completely different tomato: smaller (100-150g), perfectly round fruits that look and grow exactly like the commercial Kumato. These bushes are extremely powerful (“like baobabs”) and yield heavily, though taste reviews on this version are mixed.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Both versions produce exceptionally strong, thick-stemmed bushes. Some grew so sturdy outdoors that they barely needed staking.
- ⏳ Yield & Climate: Both versions are known for high yields and good disease resistance. The smaller “Kumato-type” needs a lot of heat to develop proper sweetness, otherwise, it can taste bland in cooler, northern regions.
Indeterminate, mid-season ripening. I grew 1 bush in the greenhouse. Yield was average. It’s a very meaty, sweetish little tomato. Fruit weight is from 100-350g (3.5 – 12 oz), very few seeds.
The fruits are very beautiful, bright brown; you can’t confuse this variety with any other dark-fruited one. I constantly admired it. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to take photos while it was growing or cut in half. I only remembered to do it when we had eaten almost everything and only a few small tomatoes were left. I will definitely grow it again.
Two absolute baobabs (huge trees) grew out of my seeds 😲. I trained them to 2 stems. Moreover, they developed and set fruit identically both in the open ground and in the greenhouse. Outdoors, you didn’t even need to tie them up—the stems were so powerful, and the leaves balanced them out.
They didn’t get sick with anything, and the yield was good. My fruits were about 100-150g (3.5-5 oz). Round shape, beautiful, even brown color, but the taste seemed… like nothing. Mushy, bland-sour. Maybe in southern regions, it would be tastier 🙄
Yes, Sveta, the variety turned out to be completely different from what was pictured on the packet. To me, it looks exactly like a Kumato.
My Black Baron was from Aelita [a Russian seed company], from a packet just like this. The fruits were oblate (flattened-round) with slight ribbing.
Tomatanya said:
Yes, Sveta, the variety turned out to be completely different from what was pictured on the packet. To me, it looks exactly like a Kumato.
Yeah, exactly, that’s what it was like 😞. Once I tasted it, I didn’t even bother taking pictures. I thought it was just me being clumsy (having two left hands) and failing to grow foreign seeds from a “solid” packet 😆. I have no faith in Johnsons seeds anymore 😎
The fruit shapes are completely different! I’ll try to find the Aelita seeds. 🤫
Girls, what was the batch number on the Johnsons seeds?
Sofia 27 said:
My Black Baron was from Aelita, from a packet just like this. The fruits were oblate with slight ribbing.
I bought this exact Black Baron today… could you tell me the batch number?
Elena, the batch number is 16.560, expires 12/2018.
I will also repeat it this year, so we can compare notes.
Sofia 27 said:
Elena, the batch number is 16.560… I will also repeat it this year, so we can compare notes.
I have the exact same batch! Good, we will compare 😉
I also had the English seeds, they looked exactly like the ones in garnet’s photo (the round ones). But I actually liked the taste—they were sweetish and not watery, and very productive. They bore fruit for a very long time, and the taste improved significantly at the end of summer when the plant finally soaked up enough heat.
Sofia 27 said:
My Black Baron was from Aelita, from a packet just like this.
I had seeds from exactly the same packet and the exact same batch number, but it grew out looking like Tomatanya’s (the round Kumato type). It was no taller than a meter (3.2 ft) in my polycarbonate greenhouse, compact, with a sturdy trunk. The fruits were dense and juicy, and I liked the taste, so I will try it again.
