Ananas Noire / Black Pineapple Tomato: Grower Reviews & Photos

A buddy from another forum ordered these seeds from Solana (Canada) and shared some with me.

The color of the fruits is super funky. Taste is great, you can definitely taste the sweetness. All meat, not dry at all. Not totally seedless, but seed count is low. Mid-season maturity. The vine is an indet, pretty sturdy (way more vigorous than Qingdao, but Qingdao has a cooler exterior color).

📝 It’s not even black, Galya! But probably just as delicious as all the other pineapple types out there.

Ruma, exactly! It’s more of a greenish-brownish color. But the seeds came straight from a commercial pack, so I’m guessing that’s just how it’s supposed to look.

Galina, I think it leans more towards a GWR (green-when-ripe) variety. I grew the exact same one. But my plant came down with the crud, so I barely got a chance to really examine and taste it 😞. Definitely giving it another run next year.

📝 I ordered mine from Popenko, so this season we’re doing a massive Pineapple taste test!

I feel like yours are gonna turn out a lot prettier than mine.

Oh stop, yours look incredibly appetizing and gorgeous! 😘

Galya, my seed stock was from Popenko too. Dead ringer for yours. 🌺

My seeds were from Popenko too. Looks like I ended up with two different segregations. Both plants were really sickly though, their foliage just went totally black on me.

Marina, your fruits are way brighter than mine.

Esme wrote: Marina, your fruits are way brighter than mine.

Yeah, but which one of them is the *real* Ananas Noire? I actually preferred the taste of the one with more red in it. That’s the one I saved seeds from.

Here’s mine from the exact same seed source. (Apologies for the bad pics).

I remember everyone hyping up the flavor of Black Pineapple, but honestly, nobody ever came back to the forum to say the taste was actually “mind-blowing”.

Yeah, I expected more flavor too. There are definitely way tastier dark tomatoes out there.

Juicy and sweet for me.

Here’s how my Black Pineapple turned out. Taste is really good!

BLACK PINEAPPLES (ANANAS NOIRE).
This variety is absolutely unmatched, probably the discovery of the season for me. The beefsteaks get huge, pushing 17.6 oz (500 g), with magnificent taste and crazy coloring: greenish-brown on the outside, and a marbled mix of pink, red, green, and yellow on the inside! Just cut it into wedges and it totally steals the show on the dinner table. Mid-season, plant height topped out around 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m).

This year, from Popenko’s seed stock, I grew two completely different colored Pineapples. One was a gorgeous tri-color beauty that tasted amazing, grew outdoors in the dirt, and was a heavy yielder. The second strain grew in the greenhouse (two plants), and those fruits were way greener, basically acting like a GWR (green-when-ripe) variety. Lower yield and pretty bland… which one is the true strain? I’ll upload photos of the green one later, left my flash drive at work…

Here’s my Ananas Noire from Popenko.

Here’s the pic of my greenhouse one that leans towards the green types, like I mentioned earlier…

It’s crazy how different they were in color, taste, and yield. Seed sources were Gusev and Popenko.

Mine turned out this color. Super tasty though, definitely has that fruity flavor profile. 😋

My plant topped out around 4 ft (1.2 m) so far. Set about 5 fruits across two clusters, all pushing 10.5 oz (300 g) minimum. Hasn’t grown any taller yet.

Here’s my Black Pineapple. Seed stock from Irina Vladimirovna.

The sliced view is just unmatched! 👍 Huge beefsteaks, sets fruit really well. Compact vine. I kept waiting forever for it to turn red, only to realize this is just what it looks like ripe… 😳 So delicious!!!

Here’s mine: tasty, sweet, and huge. My strain definitely throws more red.

Black Pineapple, seeds from Lena Danko. 😘

Total crowd pleaser! Gorgeous, not fussy at all, heavy producer, and delicious! 😋 Here it is pictured alongside Letniy Abrikos (Summer Apricot).

Absolutely loved the flavor, super sweet. 😋

Black Pineapple, seeds from Tatiyanka1.
Sweet and tasty. Mine threw some really funky, irregular shapes. For comparison below is the Kiwi variety from Valentina, which was also delicious.

Look at this handsome guy! Gorgeous, and more importantly, delicious! 😋 Heavy yielder too. Grown out in the dirt.

Thanks Irishka-Arishka for the seeds! 🌺🌺🌺

An absolute stunner for sure!!!! 🌺

Black Pineapple (Ananas Noire), seeds from “Schastlivy Sad” (Happy Garden). Description from their catalog: (Belgium). Oblate fruits, weighing up to 2.2 lbs (1 kg), salad type. Color is brown with blurred green flecks. Flesh is green-brown, exquisite taste. Tall vine.

Mine grew out in the dirt, topped out around 4.2 ft (1.3 m) tall. When the heat wave hit, the fruits started to literally bake in the sun. Pulled my first ripe ones in mid-July. Color-wise, the tomatoes were green with a light pink bottom. I was also waiting forever for them to turn red 😄.

I liked the taste. It’s sweet, but not cloying. Sliced open, it’s a gorgeous tomato, and every fruit inside has a totally different marbled pattern of raspberry-colored stripes.

LiliyaYa wrote: Mine grew outdoors… When the heat wave hit, the fruits started to literally bake in the sun… Color-wise, the tomatoes were green with a light pink bottom. I was also waiting forever for them to turn red 😄.

Mine get super washed out in direct sun too, but the ones hiding down in the canopy colored up beautifully.

In the photo, you can clearly see the difference between the ones shaded by leaves (I also threw some shade cloth over the top) versus the ones blasting in the sun. Height was also under 5 ft (1.5 m). But that’s outdoors; if I ran it in a greenhouse, it would probably climb a lot higher.

Only pulled one ripe fruit so far, it’s a very late season variety for me. But the vines, while a bit short, are incredibly healthy… fuzzy, bluish-green foliage. Half my other plants have already yellowed out and caught leaf mold, but this one is completely bulletproof.

A big plus for that. It sizes up the fruits really slowly for me – until I picked the first one in the cluster, the rest just sat there refusing to grow. I’ll see if it kicks into gear towards fall, we are just now finally getting some real heat this summer.

Ran it to 2 leaders in the greenhouse. Tasty and juicy, but didn’t blow my socks off. Yield was pretty light for me. Gorgeous fruit though.

Seeds from Shevchuk (Ukraine).

Plant habit: mid-late season, sprawling vine, RL.
Fruit set: sets every blossom without dropping any, last fruits are ripening now.
Height in open ground: 4.6 ft (1.4 m) by mid-August.
Clusters: 2-4 fruits each.
Overall yield: average, leaning towards high.
Fruit: oblate beefsteaks, chocolate colored.
Density of ripe fruit: medium.
Taste: harmonious, balanced, delicious, sweetness gets a 5 out of 5.

First impression: a great tomato for fresh eating and processing. Downsides: slight cracking around the stem, minor green shoulders. Overall variety rating: 4+.

Supposed to have green shoulders like most dark varieties. Here is mine:

Mid-early, very prolific, but a total calcium hog – catches BER (Blossom End Rot) super easily. Sweet and delicious! Mine topped 6.5 ft (2 m) tall. Ran it to 2 leaders.

Mine didn’t even hit 5 ft (1.5 m), and I wouldn’t call it a heavy yielder either. Huge, tasty fruits though.

Grew it in 2014 from Lena Danko (so mine was labeled BLACK PINEAPPLES, not Noire).
Grew in a greenhouse. Tall vine. Ran it to 2 leaders, as of July 23, I counted 13 fruits on it. Beautiful and yummy 😋.

Ovechka wrote: Grew it in 2014 from Lena Danko (so mine was labeled BLACK PINEAPPLES, not Noire).

Luda, it’s the exact same tomato, just translated. The variety originally came from Belgium, hence the French name. Black Pineapple = Ananas Noire.

Sweet flavor, soft texture, but it doesn’t turn to mush. Solid 5+ for taste. Strong, healthy vine.

Grew it under a canopy with a shade cloth over it, so the colors aren’t super vibrant. Still sweet, tasty, and a heavy producer.

I grew this variety for the first time this year. Looking at my plant tag, I just kept waiting for it to turn black and totally ignored it. Ended up picking a bunch of overripe mush in early August 😂 Finally dawned on me that “black” doesn’t literally mean black 😄. Tasty and interesting, but it got hit hard with BER early in the summer. I’ll probably run it again… eventually.

Olya, it’s definitely not black 🤣 I made the exact same mistake waiting for it last year 😉

Masha, yeah, I figured that out already 😄 Only the name confused me.

I swore I posted my Ananas Noire from every angle. Turns out, I don’t have photos in my album of it cut open or on the scale. This is a photo from 2014, just hanging on the bush.

It’s been a staple favorite of mine for years now.

Valentina 54 wrote: Turns out, I don’t have photos in my album of it cut open or on the scale.

I’ve got some sliced photos (though mine grew out in the dirt):

This is my Black Pineapple. Grew in the greenhouse. Totally delivered on yield, looks, and taste.

Also really happy with the yield. Only hit about 4 ft (1.2 m) in the greenhouse. Super tasty and sweet fruits.

A beautiful and delicious favorite of mine 😋.
Yield was a bit light this year (2017) though. Definitely making my grow list for a 3rd time next year.

This was the #1 tomato on my wish list last year. I forget whose sliced pics I saw first, but it absolutely blew me away!!!!

I was afraid to plant it outdoors, so it grew in the greenhouse. It acted more like a semi-determinate for me. I let it keep one sucker with one cluster. Great yield. Ripens to a chocolate-brown color. I sliced up a whole platter for guests, and everyone who took a piece immediately went back for seconds. So sweet and flavorful, not bland at all – which is crazy considering how awful our summer was.

Didn’t get any scale or sliced pics… bummer, because it’s such a handsome tomato… honestly we just ate them faster than I could photograph them 😊 Thank god I at least managed to save some seed 😊 Massive, gorgeous, sweet, and looks incredible sliced up – made for some amazing salads 😋.

First year growing it, definitely running it again.

Quick question – is Ananas Noire supposed to be PL (potato leaf)?

Mine was RL (regular leaf).

Galina P. wrote: Mine was RL (regular leaf).

Mine was RL too.

Sweet, candy-like tomato.

Delicious 😊

Apologies for the bad pics, this one is way overripe.

It was still a bit underripe, but I couldn’t resist cutting into it. Super sweet tomato with zero acidic bite. Flavor is just top notch.

The vine somehow survived in my greenhouse despite all the odds, definitely running it again next year.

My Black Pineapple. Massive tomatoes. Ugly on the outside but gorgeous when sliced. The flavor was just kind of “meh/salad tomato” for me. I didn’t really get the hype. Definitely tastier varieties out there. Although to be fair, this year everyone is complaining that their tomatoes are huge but bland.

Terrible shelf life though. If you don’t pick it on time, it just rots right on the vine.

Valentina-11 wrote: My Black Pineapple… The flavor was just kind of “meh/salad tomato” for me. I didn’t really get the hype. Definitely tastier varieties out there.

Wow, look at that 😊 And I just added it back to my grow list! I remember it being really tasty… I wanted to refresh my seeds, it’s been 9 years already… I don’t even know if they will germinate. Up until 2012, I planted it every year. But everything is relative. Who knows, maybe if I grew it today I’d also say there are better tasting ones out there 😊

Alisa wrote: But everything is relative. Who knows, maybe if I grew it today I’d also say there are better tasting ones out there 😊

Yeah, based on my garden and what my buddies are saying, tomatoes are huge but totally bland this year. Even the old reliables. This was my first time running Ananas Noire, so maybe it just didn’t get a chance to show its true potential.

I run Ananas Noire every single year, absolutely love it. These pics are from ’18 – haven’t bothered photographing it since, I just plant it, grow it, and eat it. Super tasty and gorgeous, but I totally agree about the shelf life. It turns to overripe mush real quick.

I remember this one being super tasty and a heavy yielder when I grew it a couple years back. Definitely running it again.

ivanovochka wrote: I plant Black Pineapple every year… very tasty and beautiful, but I agree that it is not a good keeper, the overripe stage sets in quickly.

We usually just run 1-2 bushes per household strictly for fresh eating and quick slicing. It was one of our earliest to ripen, so we devoured them fast. But the later clusters would just overripen on the vine because by then we had a ton of other tomatoes to choose from 😊

Tomato Ananas Noire (Black Pineapple) from Gusev.

Large tomatoes with magnificent taste and crazy coloring. Inside they are a marbled mix of pink-red-green-yellow!!!

Mid-season indet, height 6 ft (1.8 m), grew in a greenhouse, ran it to 2 leaders. Really long harvest window. The fruits are wild, not just the color but the flavor too – super rich, sweet, and fruity. Awesome variety!!!

My seed packet arrived misspelled as Ananas noer.