Indigo Rose Tomato Review & Photos

A variety from the “blue” tomato lines. Bred overseas, I ordered the seeds off the web. Grew it outdoors in the dirt, and the vine reached about 4 feet (1.2 m). It’s a slender plant with sparse foliage, sets fruit in clusters. Very productive, tasty, and healthy. The fruits are almost completely painted in a blue-purple color. Fruit weight is 1.2-2.5 oz (35-70 g). I couldn’t nail down the exact days to maturity because I got them into the ground very late. Phenomenally resistant to late blight. Versatile for fresh eating or processing.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Drosera

Tanya, thank you so much! 🙏🙏 It’s definitely on my grow list for 2014. Have you tried canning them? Does the color hold up? How’s the taste?

Since I got them in the dirt so late, I had to pull them green. As they ripened indoors on the counter, we just gobbled them up 😳. Thought they were really delicious.

Tatyana, are those Gusev’s seeds? 😳

If you didn’t tell me these were tomatoes, I’d swear they were blackcurrants. Absolutely gorgeous beauties! 👍

Tatyana, are those Gusev’s seeds? 😳

Nope, not Gusev’s. Honestly I have no idea, Renata ordered them online 🤐

Tanya, is this a cherry size or slightly bigger?

Tanya, is this a cherry size or slightly bigger?

Alya, I just updated the description in the first post 😳

Alya, I just updated the description in the first post 😳

What a STUNNER! Really does look like blackcurrants. I wonder how it’ll do growing in a greenhouse.

Man, I went down a rabbit hole on this forum (so many threads, my head is spinning) and stumbled in here. I shouldn’t have seen this. 🙁 Now I want it.

How well does it hold on the truss? Does it split? Does it get mealy?

Tanya, it holds onto the vine tightly and doesn’t crack at all. In a greenhouse, I suspect the plant would get much taller.

Phenomenally resistant to late blight.

Totally agree!! It was the only plant I didn’t rip out at the end of August when the blight wiped out everything else in the patch. I just felt too bad, it was SUCH A HANDSOME VINE!!! It just stood there completely healthy, looking pretty right up until the freeze!

Gorgeous plant!!! Superb!!! 👍

Tanya, you mentioned “late planting.” Did you sow the seeds late or transplant them outdoors late? 🙂

Transplanted out late, the poor thing suffered way too long in a solo cup. I actually don’t know when it was sown, Renata just gave me a seedling.

Hey folks, how do you tell when this variety is ripe enough to save seeds? If it turned completely black, is it ready for seed saving?

Natasha, the fruits are supposed to get brick-red blushing at the blossom ends. My variety is just called “Indigo” (without the “Rose” part), but it looks like the exact same thing.

Day before yesterday my daughter kept trying to snack on them, but the blossom ends were still totally green, had to talk her out of it.

Hi Galya! What did the fruit look like as babies??? Sounds like I got an off-type 🙁, the truss is very long, the fruits are sparse and small like regular cherries. Right now they are green, but one is starting to turn pink 😲

I’m starting to suspect… looks exactly like my Black Bunch F1 (Chernaya Grozd). 😂

Thanks Galya. The bottoms really are still green. I was just looking at them from the top down and squeezing them, didn’t even cross my mind to check the bottoms. 😄

What did the fruit look like as babies??? Sounds like I got an off-type 🙁

Mine never turned pink, they just immediately started turning black (blue). Cherry sized. The trusses aren’t long, but the fruits are somewhat sparse. My seeds were from Gusev.

Checked this morning, they aren’t turning pink, they are turning red! Not a hint of blue to be seen anywhere. Unfortunately, this is the second stray seed I got from that forum member, and she disappeared off the boards. Maybe something decent will grow out of it, but right now I’m disappointed in both (the second one was Tarasenko 2 Hybrid – it topped itself at 31 inches (80 cm) 😲).

Olya, I’ll try to post a picture tonight, but mine isn’t even completely round 😲. No blue at all. Maybe it needs to bake in full direct sun?? Last year I grew OSU Blue and it was fine right out of the gate – got nice and blue even without intense sun.

Marisha, the tiny green babies on my Indigo started out green, and as they sized up they turned blue, gradually in spots and stripes. Then they turned completely inky-purple all over. Now the green spots are finally showing up at the blossom ends. Hoping it starts ripening soon. It’s turning out to be a noticeably later variety for me compared to OSU Blue.

Thanks Galya!!! 😘 Tell me, is yours growing in direct hot sunlight??? Maybe mine is just shaded out? I have one fruit that just started turning red. I’ll post a picture tonight, take a look when you get a chance, okay? Other folks take a look too. And it feels like my fruits are a bit empty inside, like hollow little nubs.

Marisha, sunny spots in my old garden are strictly rationed out, but overall Indigo gets a decent amount of sun.

By the way, my OSU Blue gets even less sun, but it blushes blue and red just fine.

Here are the promised photos. If you look reeeeeally closely, you can barely make out some faint lilac streaks, and that’s it.

Mine turns blue right from fruit set anywhere the sun hits it. I even had solid blue ones and totally green ones on the exact same plant. And they ripened that way. Some were dark red, some purple-red. I’ll take a picture of Bosque Blue tomorrow.

Here’s my Indigo, seeds shared by Olya (o-lya-lya), and she got them from Tanya I believe. Here is what it looks like now.

My Indigo finally started ripening a few days ago. The flavor isn’t bad at all, very thin skin, not sour. Doubt it will hold up in canning jars though:

Gave my friend an Indigo Rose seedling this spring. Visited her garden today to check out her plants, and I ended up taking back an Indigo Rose that she grew! 😂 It weighed 6.3 oz (180 g). The plant had both regular round cherries and these chunkier ones on the same vine.

Mine are just sitting there with green bottoms. They absolutely refuse to turn red. (I just wanted ONE to turn red). And now it got cold out (nights are around 50F (10C)). They probably won’t ripen at all now. 😢

Late, but good little gems. I liked the flavor, they have a really pronounced tangy bite. Grew it outdoors, and since a lot of the fruit got sun exposure from all sides (even from below, apparently), they were a solid blue color without a single green spot… which of course caused a problem because I had no idea when to pick them! 😂

Hey folks, posting photos of my “ripe” fruits. A little bit of blue finally showed up on it, but barely, guess it just lacked sunlight. What’s crazy is my OSU Blue got genuinely blue this year even though it was growing in total shade. Taste is sweet, and in the first 3 trusses there wasn’t a single seed. We’ll see what happens next. Huge thanks to Lena from Italy!!!

Here is what my Indigo Rose looks like outdoors today – and we just tried the very first ripe ones today. Late, but delicious. We liked them..

Here is what my Indigo Rose looks like outdoors today – and we just tried the very first ripe ones today. Late, but delicious. We liked them..

Ira, what a great reference photo 👍

Cold weather and late blight arrived here. Indigo didn’t catch the blight (which is a massive plus), but I went ahead and picked them underripe just in case. Ended up pulling a heaping 2.5-gallon (10 L) bucket off 2 plants (regret not weighing them). My husband got super excited to pickle them. Looked terrible in jars. The color morphed into some weird, unappetizing mess.

I agree with previous posts—totally immune to late blight, but it’s impossible to tell when to pick them. It’s already late September, foggy, and dropping to 37-41F (3-5C) at night. The tomatoes are still not ready—rock solid, though almost all of them are a solid dark purple with a few green-burgundy shoulders. I tasted one—an absolute sour nightmare. 😲 But the few that dropped off the vine on their own were very sweet.

I tried bringing some inside to ripen on the counter. But here’s the crazy part—they turned dark burgundy, completely lost their black color, leaving only a tiny bit of purple behind. What a mysterious, magical tomato. 😵 I don’t know what to do now. Frost is threatening. Anyone got any ideas???

I picked them green; better to let them ripen indoors and change color than to lose them entirely. By the way, I actually found late blight on a fruit from a different blue variety I’m growing…

Maybe yours lost color because of a lack of sunlight? I think I’ll try putting mine on the windowsill in the sun to ripen (if we get any sun, that is).

I’m growing two varieties: Indigo Rose and Blueberry (Chernika). Bought them as two distinct types. Blueberry is supposed to be larger. Honestly, I didn’t see much difference between them. 😂 Maybe I need to look closer at the nuances in coloring.

I just came across an article about black tomatoes, maybe folks here will find it interesting:

…The difference in color comes from changing acidity in growing cells. The older the plant, the deeper the purple shade, and the more anthocyanin is produced to slow down and stop decay. The anthocyanin pigment is light-sensitive, so the longer the fruits sit in the sun, the darker purple they get. A perfect balance of sugar and acids in Blueberry tomatoes creates a nice classic taste and aroma, while the anthocyanin pigment itself is tasteless.

Blueberry ripens 80-91 days after planting, and its yield is significantly higher than any other purple cherry type. The fruits are considered ripe (sugars and acids peak) when their color shifts from purple-black-blue to a matte-purple-brown, and the fruits soften just like regular tomatoes. Blueberry is the only true black-purple variety—its fruits get as black as eggplants.

And here is my plant. Seeds from Tatyanka1, labeled Purple Perfection (Fioletovoe Sovershenstvo). Is this a different variety?

I genuinely don’t even know how they differ. At first glance, they all look identical. ??? Maybe some are just slightly smaller, some bigger. Need to wait until full maturity and take notes on taste and color. My underripe ones that I picked early hoping they’d ripen indoors looked exactly like your photo. Right now the plants are all bundled up outside under frost blankets like Santa Claus. Gonna rip them out tomorrow since a major cold front is coming in. I’ll take pics and post them tomorrow. Take a look if you’re curious. 😉

Here are the photos of Indigo Rose and Blueberry. Haven’t tasted them yet. The fruits are still rock hard. Gonna wait a bit longer.

I haven’t tried mine yet either. But even if they end up tasting good, I’m never growing this again. 😂 Takes way too long to ripen. 🙂

I’m never growing it again either. Couldn’t wait for full ripeness and took a bite. The bitterness!!! 😲 Worse than a hot pepper.

Here are the photos of Indigo Rose and Blueberry. Haven’t tasted them yet.

Can I ask when you started your seeds indoors?

How did you prune the Indigo Rose plant outdoors? …… To one stem, two….. ?

How did you prune the Indigo Rose plant outdoors? …… To one stem, two….. ?

Mine definitely grew out to 4 stems. Almost everything ripened. Very late, but a massive yield and basically all of it managed to ripen on the vine.

I bought the seeds, but there’s barely any info. Says tall vine – 4 feet (1m 20cm). It’s an indeterminate tomato. Did you actively train it to 4 stems, or did it just grow that way on its own? Should I start seeds early like a late-season variety or late like an early one?

Should I start seeds early like a late-season variety or late like an early one?

Mine threw out a ton of suckers, I pruned them off. Never reached 4 feet. Hit maybe 2.3 feet (70 cm) max. I started seeds in early March, but honestly I could have started them even earlier, right along with the super late-season varieties.

Never reached 4 feet. Hit maybe 2.3 feet (70 cm) max. I started seeds in early March…

Natasha, my IR hit almost 5 feet (1.5 m) out in the dirt. It was absolutely loaded with little gems. But… I never got to see them actually ripen. I harvested them mid-September. And in October I threw them all in the trash because they started shriveling up instead of ripening. 🙁 Photos are from September 11, 2014.

📝

Well, mine ended up being a stubby little thing. I pulled a few slightly underripe ones (with a hint of green) and they eventually turned red ripening indoors. Mine didn’t even make it to October. I used them for canning (let me tell you right now, I hated them canned) and gave the rest away to friends. My family just didn’t like them at all. And I got so sick and tired of crawling under the plants trying to see if their bottoms had turned red yet!

Sown on March 8. Stocky seedling with a purple stem. Growing in the sunniest spot in my greenhouse, it reached 4 feet (1.2 m), pruned to 2 stems with 5 trusses on each, and then it topped itself. Gusev’s seeds. It sized up fruit really fast, but ripening was weird: started in early August, but only 1-2 tomatoes per truss (starting with the biggest ones). Never caught late blight, looked beautiful right up until the frost. To me, the flavor was just okay, the flesh is pinkish-red, and it has a lot of seeds. The leaves got that boat-shaped leaf curl starting in July, but I don’t think it hurt the yield. I’ll grow it again, but only 1 plant, strictly as an ornamental novelty for guests.

I’m gonna plant them outdoors pruned to a single stem, spaced 6 inches (15 cm) apart just for decorative purposes… no idea what will come of it… we’ll experiment.

I wasn’t overly thrilled either. Next year I might grow just one plant. Better off trying out new varieties instead.

Excellent little beauties, beautiful, tasty, and productive! 👍

Elena, did you grow this variety in a greenhouse or outdoors? What zone/region are you in? These tomatoes just aren’t working out for me… 🙁

Grew them both outdoors and in the greenhouse, definitely way more productive in the greenhouse. I live in the Kharkiv region. I’d post photos, but I haven’t figured out how yet… I’m a newbie here…

Indigo Rose – in short – TOTAL GARBAGE!!! I won’t grow it and don’t recommend it to anyone… as hard as I try, I can’t find a single positive thing about this “variety”……. tossed the entire harvest in the trash.

Why throw the whole harvest away, couldn’t you at least use them for juice? 😲

Indigo rose – in short – TOTAL GARBAGE!!!

What exactly didn’t you like about it? I grew fuzzy blue varieties—Woolly Blue Jay and Woolly Kate. Tasted exactly like normal tomatoes, but you just didn’t want to eat them) plus the fuzz was weird)

Way too late, absolutely zero flavor, impossible to tell if it’s ripe or not… what juice are you even talking about?

Why throw the whole harvest away, couldn’t you at least use them for juice? 😲

Nellik, I wrote the exact same thing last year, my whole harvest went straight to the compost pile.

Sweet and productive…

Andrey, for someone who does polar bear plunges in the winter, blue tomatoes are incredibly healthy. Anthocyanins are the real deal! They boost immunity, strengthen blood vessels, and support men’s health (if you know what I mean). I think it’s not a bad tomato. Grew it in the greenhouse in 2015. Pros: high yielding, unfussy, and stores incredibly well. The flavor is basic, a little bland, but not terrible. Photo isn’t great—I couldn’t reach the IR plant in the greenhouse since another plant was blocking it—but it was totally loaded. I’ll save the seeds and try it outdoors next time.

For boosting immunity… I’ve got a small patch of ginseng and schisandra vines. As for little tomatoes, I grow “normal” varieties that are leagues ahead in both flavor and yield, though to each their own… but personally, I think Indigo Rose is total garbage.

Whoa! Such beauties! 🎩 No arguments there. I just meant specifically the anthocyanin lines—the blue ones. The only really tasty, sweet blue one I’ve tried is Red Charcoal. It’s bigger, but the yield is lower and it doesn’t store nearly as well.

Indigo Rose Tomato – USA.

Very interesting variety with two main features: it survives frosts down to 23F (-5C), meaning it can be grown outdoors across most of Russia without ever getting late blight, and of course its exotic purple color with bright red flesh. Height 24-31 inches (60-80 cm), trusses of 6-8 tomatoes weighing 1.7-3.5 oz (50-100 g). Ideal for pickling.

What do y’all think about that description?

Beautiful, but the taste is completely mediocre IMHO.

survives frosts down to 23F (-5C), meaning it can be grown outdoors across most of Russia without ever getting late blight…

Well… you shouldn’t blindly trust advertising promises. I had one plant in a poly greenhouse and two in the dirt. You can spot the seedlings a mile away because the stems and leaves are purple. Out in the dirt, it died from late blight right alongside all the others. In the greenhouse, it got leaf mold just like the others. I didn’t test the 23F (-5C) claim, but I highly doubt its survivability. Overall, the variety did not impress me. The summer was cold, lacked sunshine, and the taste was pretty meh.

Growing Indigo Rose outdoors, absolute stunner. Picked a burgundy, grape-sized one right off the vine and the flavor beats anything sold in stores today. Starchy, meaty, sweet. We Siberians aren’t too picky. Won’t be able to get a photo of a full plant because people keep taking them as souvenirs. My neighbor has a truss ripening on her counter right now. She’s saving seeds to grow it.

Didn’t catch any diseases, sturdy vine, looks beautiful. BUT! The taste is so-so, and when I pickled them in jars they pretty much lost all their black color. The family tasted them once, then ate the rest very reluctantly. Will never grow again. Gusev’s seeds.

Mine tasted good, had an interesting flavor, and as far as looks go, it’s a total exotic…

Got it in the ground late, so naturally it ripened late. It didn’t get very tall, maybe 24 inches (60 cm) or a bit more. It didn’t throw out a ton of suckers or grow like crazy. The fruits didn’t get sunscald at all.

Tiny fruits, low yield, and the flavor was totally forgettable.

I’ll get my anthocyanins from beets, blackcurrants, serviceberries, gooseberries, and cherries. At least I don’t have to start those from seed and baby them under grow lights.

Yeah, the fruits are on the smaller side, but we all grow red, pink, yellow, and orange cherries, and Indigo Rose is actually bigger than those. Plus, you can easily grow them here without any special grow lights. I definitely won’t plant a whole field of varieties like this, but just to mix things up, I’ll probably keep growing it for years to come.

I mean, we start flowers indoors under lights too, and they’re basically useless aside from being eye candy. You get that same aesthetic pleasure from these little beauties. But hey, to each their own…

I was actually pretty happy with this variety this year. Had a single plant growing in the greenhouse. It looks incredibly festive and all my guests were blown away by it. The flavor is just average and it’s a bit soft inside, but those stunning looks make up for a lot. I treat it strictly as an exotic novelty. I don’t need a whole patch of them, but one single plant is definitely worth the garden space.

Hey everyone! I just carefully read through all the reviews for Indigo Rose. A few times while reading, I kept asking myself why I even bought these seeds, especially since they were pretty expensive. Mine are from Biotekhnika. Well, I have them now. Guess I’ll sow a few just to see.

Well, I ended up sowing them. 4 whole plants. Transplanted them out in the dirt on April 28th, if I remember right. Between the bright sun and the chilly nights, the leaves turned a deep blackish-purple. Only the new growing tips are green. They’re already blooming. The vines themselves look absolutely stunning. Dedicating space to 4 plants won’t kill me. I put them right in the most visible spot in the garden. I’ll just admire them and wait.

Based on last year, I definitely noticed that the more sun they get, the darker they turn. Out of the 4 blue varieties I grew (Blue Pitts, BLEVE, Almost Blue Blood, and Indigo Rose), the last two were the tastiest and the darkest. BLEVE looked interesting but had average flavor, and Blue Pitts didn’t impress me at all. This year, I’m giving Indigo Rose the absolute prime, sunniest spot in the garden.

This variety is really just a show-off piece to surprise your friends. It’s beautiful, and I can’t say it’s a poor producer, but you really don’t need more than two plants.
The flavor was all over the place. Some were sour and some were sweet, entirely depending on when we picked them. The ones we pulled in September were super tart.

Edited February 3, 2019 by Drosera

I grew Indigo Rose back in 2016. It completely matches the description regarding looks, yield, and how low-maintenance it is. Extremely beautiful, like giant blackcurrants hanging in big clusters. But there’s a catch. I absolutely hated the flavor for fresh eating (sour and bland), and they were terrible for canning (they turn into a watery, mushy mess). My sister got super jealous of how pretty they looked and planted some this year using my saved seeds. Hers didn’t turn completely black, just got a dark patchy tan (probably didn’t get enough sun, whereas mine grew in full sun), and hers tasted awful too. Neither of us will be growing it again.

I don’t know why there are so many negative reviews…

Even in my less-than-ideal conditions, the vine was gorgeous and loaded with fruit. We ate all of ours ripened on the counter, and they had a really pleasant, mild sweetness. The ones ripened indoors ended up being more black than red.

I’d definitely grow it again 👍

Indigo Rose

The absolute star of my “rose garden”. 😁 One of the main stems snapped off in July. Oh well, it still produced just fine. Later on, I just let the vines sprawl sideways and walked by just to admire them. We are still finishing up the last ones ripening on the counter (and it’s December 6th!).

Grew 2 plants. One in the greenhouse, and since I ran out of room for the second one, I planted it behind the greenhouse. Not even in a prepped bed, I just shoved it in the dirt wherever I had space. Both vines did incredibly well! Tons of little gems, beautiful blue-black color. As they ripened, they turned dark burgundy. The ones outdoors actually sized up a bit bigger than the greenhouse ones. After pulling all my plants for the season, I just couldn’t bring myself to rip out the Indigo Rose. It just stood there all by itself, loaded with fruit right up until the freeze. But the taste is literally nothing. Not sour, not sweet, just nothing. If you grow it, do it strictly for the aesthetic.

But the taste is literally nothing. Not sour, not sweet, just nothing. If you grow it, do it strictly for the aesthetic.

I completely hated the flavor too. Just totally bland. I swapped it out for Blue Bayou and I like that one a lot better.