How much is black tomato seed per jin? Plus tips on choosing varieties

Black tomato is both medicinal and edible, and is a treasure of the tomato family, with advantages such as good taste, excellent coloring, high sugar content, good harvest uniformity, and strong disease resistance. So how much is black tomato seed per jin? When to plant black tomatoes? What are the little tips for choosing black tomato varieties?

1. How much is black tomato seed per jin?

Black tomato seeds are generally sold by the seed, priced at about 90 yuan to 140 yuan per 100 seeds. Prices also vary somewhat between different varieties.

2. Planting time for black tomatoes

For southern regions, the sowing period for black tomatoes is best in early August and early to mid-January; in northern regions it is best cultivated in protected greenhouse facilities, best in mid to late August; in high-altitude cold regions of the south, sowing is best done in summer, or seedlings can be raised on flat land and then transplanted to cold highland areas, which can solve the problem of balanced year-round supply. For late-autumn cultivation, it is best carried out in protected facilities or greenhouses, where quality is best.

3. Choosing black tomato varieties

It is understood that the main black tomato varieties promoted today are three: Black Pearl, Black Concubine, and Black King Kong. There is no such thing as a completely jet-black one; photos showing fully black fruit are fake; moreover, black tomato seeds are currently suffering fairly serious degeneration.

At present, the following varieties are mainly promoted in China.

1. Korean Black Pearl

This variety was developed by a Japanese company from Korean variety resources and entered the mainland market for promotion in 2006. It is purple-brown, appearing brown in the south and deep purple in the northwest; the fruit is perfectly round, with an average single fruit weight of 18 grams, and the shoulder of the fruit turns dark brown after ripening; each truss generally sets 7—13 fruits, with a rich flavor; it is indeterminate, with strong plant vigor, and an average of 7 trusses of fruit can be harvested per growing season; disease resistance is average, so disease prevention should be strengthened; under fully organic cultivation, open-field yield is generally 7500 jin per mu, and greenhouse cultivation approaches ten thousand jin; it is suitable for different cultivation methods across the country and is currently one of the most important black tomato varieties.

2. American BLACKCHERRY

This variety comes from Maine in the United States and is habitually called black cherry tomato. The plant grows lushly, with light green leaves; the fruit is perfectly round and red-brown, with a bright, beautiful color and a sweet-sour, palatable flavor; the average single fruit weight is 17 grams, with good commercial traits and excellent market appearance. It is indeterminate, with each truss generally setting 9—14 fruits; under organic cultivation the sugar content is slightly higher, with a general yield of 8000 jin per mu; this variety is very sensitive to low temperatures and not cold-tolerant, with average disease resistance, so prevention of pathogenic and physiological diseases should be strengthened. It is suitable for early-spring and autumn-extended cultivation in both northern and southern China, spring-summer cultivation in the northwest and northeast, and overwintering cultivation in early-winter vegetable regions of the south; overwintering facility cultivation in the north requires strict temperature control, as large temperature differences and insufficient light lead to many deformed fruits.

3. British BLACKCHERRY

This variety comes from the Thompson & Morgan seed company in the United Kingdom. It is indeterminate, with dark green plants and strong growth vigor; the average single fruit weight is 17 grams; the shoulder of the fruit is dark green when unripe and does not turn brown after ripening; the flesh is deep purple, with a rich sweet-sour flavor, and the seeds are especially small, making the taste more suited to high-end fruit. Each truss sets 9—14 fruits; under organic cultivation, sugar content and flavor improve markedly; especially under conditions of sufficient light, color and flavor are even better…… open-field yield is generally 8500 jin per mu. This variety has wide adaptability, relatively strong stress resistance, and good cold tolerance. It is suitable for overwintering greenhouse cultivation, early-spring and autumn-extended cultivation in the north, and also for spring-summer cultivation in the northwest; in early-winter vegetable cultivation areas of the south it can also achieve relatively high yields, with obvious economic benefits. It is an excellent black tomato variety to be developed as a focus in the future.