Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-11 Experience)
Negrillo de Almoguera. Here is the catalog breakdown from Tatiana’s TOMATObase: late maturity, indeterminate, regular foliage, red/large beefsteak, Spanish heirloom.
Here are my own hands-on notes: late season, excellent keeper with sleek, glossy skin. The fruits are lightly ribbed with scalloped lobes, almost like a flower shape. They counter-ripen indoors exceptionally well. Very firm fruit. Rated flavor a solid 4 out of 5! I don’t agree with the database listing the color as red, it’s definitely purple-brown.
Edited November 3, 2014 by Pomidoroved
Such beauties, Elena! 👍👍👍
Definitely putting this one to the test next season. Huge thank you for sending these seeds my way! 💐💐💐😘😘😘
Definitely putting this one to the test next season. Huge thank you for sending these seeds my way!
You’re more than welcome, Natalya! 😘
What really sells you on this variety is that it simply does not split at all, unlike almost every other black heirloom out there, and it keeps for a long time on the counter without going soft. Sets fruit consistently right up into deep autumn cold. When all the other vines had already dried up and shut down from the chill, this one was still wide awake and powering through!
Negrillo de Almoguera. A Spanish heirloom originally hailing from the La Mancha region. It was widely believed to be extinct until researchers from the University of Castilla-La Mancha managed to track down surviving seed and preserve it.
Cataloged as highly drought tolerant. It is a tall, high-yielding, mid-season indeterminate with regular foliage. In my greenhouse it shot past 6.5 feet (2 m). Very stout, vigorous vine. I pruned it to three leaders.
The fruits are round and slightly flattened, starting at 10.5 oz (300 g) and going up from there. They sport a gorgeous dusky brownish-pink color crowned with olive-green shoulders. The interior flesh is thick and meaty with a rich garnet-rose color, packed with lots of aromatic gel and seeds. Unbelievably delicious. Cranked out huge yields with an extended picking window, and holds up in storage without losing its eating quality.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Resilience and Flavor
- 🌿 Plant & Heritage: Traditional Spanish landrace from Almoguera (Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha). Indeterminate vine reaching well over 6.5 feet (2 m) that thrives trained to three stems. Noted for exceptional drought tolerance in warm regions and surprising cold stamina in northern zones.
- 📈 Yield & Toughness: High production across a prolonged harvest season. Large beefsteaks weigh 10.5 oz (300 g) and up. The skin is notably glossy and tough enough to resist cracking completely, even during moisture fluctuations that ruin typical thin-skinned black varieties.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Gorgeous dusky brownish-pink exterior with deep olive shoulders; interior reveals thick garnet-rose flesh loaded with seeds and juicy, savory gel. Complex, sweet, and aromatic.
- 📦 Storage: Long keeper. Holds firm on the counter for extended periods without softening and ripens up cleanly off the vine.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Elena (Danko), Natalya (Yaroslavl, Zone 4), and Yulia (Tiffany, growing under Spanish conditions).
Negrillo de Almoguera represents one of Spain’s triumphant agricultural preservation projects. Native to the arid plains of Guadalajara, it had virtually disappeared from commercial cultivation by the late 20th century. Agronomists from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha collected surviving germplasm from elderly village farmers, stabilizing and documenting its exceptional genetics: high heat tolerance, low water requirements, and durable, crack-free skins rarely found in heirloom black tomatoes.
