By Nik Crawley, founder of GardenTrack · Updated July 22, 2026
✓ In your garden
Black Krim is a dusky, dark-shouldered heirloom from the Isle of Krim in Crimea, on the Black Sea. The baseball-sized fruit ripens to a deep maroon — near-black in the heat — with reddish-brown flesh and a rich, smoky, almost salty savoriness that sets it apart from any red tomato. It's an indeterminate vine, so stake it, keep the water even, and pick it before it goes fully black.
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a harvested Black Krim on a cutting board — dark dusky shoulders and the light shoulder-cracking typical of the variety · Photo: Johnh
(CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
· source
IndeterminateHeirloomNightshade
“The Crimean black tomato — near-black in the heat, with a rich, almost salty savoriness no red tomato has.”
Days to first ripe70–80 daysmidseason
Plant5–8 ft vineindeterminate — stake it
Fruit~10–12 oz, baseball-plusdarkens near-black in heat
FlavorSavory & rich 5/5
Deep, sweet, and smoky with a distinctive salty, almost umami edge — one of the standout dark tomatoes.
Easy to growSo-so 3/5
Forgiving for an heirloom and takes heat well, but it's a tall indeterminate with no disease package and a knack for cracking.
Disease resistanceLow — heirloom 2/5
An old heirloom with no built-in resistance. Give it airflow, mulch, and water at the soil.
Crack resistanceSplits in wet spells 2/5
The shoulders crack with moisture swings and can catface. Keep the water even and mulch.
How well it storesEat it now 1/5
Once it's fully dark it's a moment from mushy — no shelf life. A garden tomato, not a shipping one.
That's the heirloom trade — the savory depth up top is why it's worth it.
RichSmokySavory-saltyLow-acid
✓ A dark-tomato standout~ Pick before it's fully black✗ Not for sauce or storing
Numbers from university growing guides. Ratings are our take, judged against all tomatoes. Tap a meter to see why.
Growing basics — shared by every tomato
Black Krim grows like any other tomato. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Tomato page so it's maintained in one place.
Black Krim keeps dark green-black shoulders and deepens to a dusky maroon — near-black in a heat wave. Pick when the body has gone dusky and it just gives to a squeeze; if you wait until it's fully black, you've got about two seconds before it's mush.
The stages: Green → Turning → Dusky → Pick it. Grab it at that last stage.
How big is a Black Krim tomato?
Cherry tomato1″
Baseball2.9″
Black Krim3.3″
A baseball-plus beefsteak, commonly 10–12 oz, with dark dusky shoulders.
Bush or vine? Black Krim's size & support
6 ft4 ft2 ft6–8 ft
Grows as
A tall vine that keeps growing all season (indeterminate)
Height & support
Tall — plan for 6–8 ft of cage or stake
Trimming
Optional: snip off the little side sprouts (called “suckers”) for a tidier plant
Picking
A few at a time, right up to the first frost
Our take for a vine like this — the real height depends on your soil and summer.
What is Black Krim good for?
✓Fresh, off the vineThat savory note is the whole point.Great
✓Slicing & sandwichesUnreal on a BLT.Great
✓Salads & capreseRich and dark — cut just before serving.Great
✗Sauce & pasteToo soft and juicy; cook down forever.Skip it
✗Canning & storingNo shelf life once dark — eat it now.Skip it
Our take, from how it grows and tastes — not every kitchen agrees.
Does it ripen all at once, or a bit at a time?
A little at a time. You pick a few every few days, from the first ripe one until frost.
A plant like this keeps making new fruit for weeks, so you pick a few at a time. Plan your kitchen around it.
Greenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Jul, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
Start seeds indoors
mid Feb – early Mar
Toughen up outside
mid Apr – late Apr
Move plants outside
late Apr – early May
Growing
early May – early Jul
Picking
early Jul until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Black Krim — and what to keep away
✓ Good neighbors
BasilTrialed
Basil can cut thrips numbers on tomatoes, and a modest yield gain shows up when it is planted at good density. They also want the same heat and water, so the bed suits both.
French marigoldTrialed
Grown thick and turned into the soil, they suppress root-knot nematodes. A couple between plants mostly just look nice.
Sweet alyssumTrialed
Its flowers feed hoverflies, and hoverfly larvae eat aphids. Commercial lettuce growers interplant it for that exact job.
LettucePractical
A tall tomato throws exactly the shade lettuce wants once summer heat makes it flower and turn bitter (bolt).
CarrotsTraditional
'Carrots Love Tomatoes' is a book title, not a trial. They coexist fine — just expect the tomato to shade them by August.
Onions & garlicTraditional
Chart canon says onions and garlic make good tomato neighbors. No trials to point at, no conflict either.
✗ Keep apart
Black walnutPractical
Walnut roots release juglone, and tomatoes are on every sensitivity list. Keep beds well clear of the canopy.
FennelPractical
Fennel foliage and seed are rich in trans-anethole, and extracts of them held back germination and seedling growth across a range of species in testing. Whole-plant effects at garden spacing are milder than the "fennel kills everything" reputation, but the chemistry is real — give it its own pot.
PotatoesPractical
Same family, same late blight. One sick bed infects the other.
Sweet cornPractical
Corn earworm and tomato fruitworm are the same moth. Side by side, you're setting its table twice.
Cabbage familyTraditional
Flagged on the classic charts, mechanism murky. Skip the pairing if you've got the space.
The badge is the honesty.Trialed = a published field trial · Practical = a real mechanism · Traditional = companion-chart lore. These pairings hold for every tomato.
Pairings compiled from University of Minnesota Extension, USDA Agricultural Research Service (Salinas, CA), West Virginia University Extension, Penn State Extension, El-Kenany & El-Darier.
Growing Black Krim — the things that trip people up
It's a green-when-ripe tomato — it keeps dark shoulders and never goes red. Pick when the body has gone dusky maroon and just yields to a squeeze; a fully-black fruit is already overripe and turns to mush fast.
In hot, sunny spells the skin darkens toward black and the flavor deepens — that's the variety showing off, not a problem. Give it heat and it rewards you.
Soft, juicy fruit with a tendency to crack and catface at the shoulders. Keep the soil evenly moist and mulch; feast-or-famine water is what splits it.
From university growing guides (see Sources).
Where Black Krim comes from
Black Krim takes its name from the Isle of Krim — Crimea — on the Black Sea, and it came into wider circulation out of the former Soviet Union. 'Krim' is simply the Russian and Ukrainian name for Crimea, so 'Black Krim' means, more or less, 'the black one from Crimea.'
It's an heirloom, passed down by saved seed, and it's one of the tomatoes that made the whole 'black tomato' category popular with home gardeners in the West — dusky-fruited, richly-flavored, and nothing like the uniform red of the grocery store.
What it tastes like — and what it's for
This is why people grow it. The flesh is reddish-brown and the flavor is deep, sweet, and smoky, with a distinctive savory — almost salty — edge that the dark tomatoes are famous for. It reads richer and more complex than a sweet red slicer.
It's a slicer through and through. That savory note is unreal on a BLT, in a caprese, or on a plate with salt and oil. It's too soft and juicy for sauce, and it won't keep — grow it to eat fresh within a day or two.
Growing Black Krim
Grow it like any tomato — full sun, steady water, regular feeding — with two things to know.
It's indeterminate: a 5–8 ft vine that keeps growing and setting fruit until frost, so give it a tall cage or stake at planting to hold up the heavy fruit. And it genuinely likes heat — the skin darkens toward black and the flavor deepens in a hot, sunny spell, so it's a strong pick for warm-summer gardens.
Like most heirlooms it has no formal disease resistance, and it's a bit crack-prone at the shoulders. Lean on the basics: airflow, mulch, water at the soil not the leaves, and even moisture. Set your zone on the tomato page and the calendar pins your start-and-plant-out dates.
When is it ripe? (before it's fully black)
This is the one that catches people. Black Krim is a green-when-ripe tomato: it keeps dark green-black shoulders around the stem and never turns fully red. It's ripe when the body has gone a dusky maroon — near-black in the heat — and gives a little to a gentle squeeze.
Don't wait for it to go completely black. As one extension note puts it, once it's fully dark you've got about two seconds to eat it before it's a puddle of overripe mush — it has no shelf life at that point. Pick it a touch early, at dusky, and let it finish on the counter.
a Black Krim cut through the top, showing the dark reddish-brown interior flesh · Photo: Johnh
(CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
· source
What goes wrong — and the fixes
Cracking and catfacing. The soft fruit splits at the shoulders after a heavy rain or a watering swing, and early fruit can come out lumpy at the base. The cracking fix is boring and it works: even moisture — mulch and water deep and regular. The catfacing is cosmetic; cut around it.
No shelf life. A ripe Black Krim is soft and doesn't hold, and blossom-end rot can show up if the water swings. Keep the moisture even, and pick and eat promptly — this is a tomato you plan a meal around, not one you stockpile.
Black Krim vs Cherokee Purple
The two most popular dark heirlooms, and both are excellent. Cherokee Purple is a bit bigger and leans sweet-smoky; Black Krim is a touch smaller and earlier, and carries that distinctive salty, savory tang. Both keep green shoulders and both want a tall support and even water.
If you love a savory, almost salty depth, grow Black Krim. If you want the classic sweet-smoky heirloom, grow Cherokee Purple — or plant both and taste them side by side.
Black Krim tomato at a glance
Black Krim Tomato — at a glance
Type
Beefsteak (big slicing tomato)
Days to ripe
80 days after you plant it outside
Color
Purple, Black
Fruit size
Large
Best for
Thick slices for sandwiches
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
Watch: growing Black Krim
The complete guide to growing tomatoes · MIgardenerWhen and how to harvest tomatoes · Kellogg Garden
Embedded from their creators on YouTube — full credit and views go to the channel.
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Common questions about Black Krim
Is Black Krim determinate or indeterminate?
Indeterminate — a 5–8 ft vine that keeps growing and setting fruit until frost. It needs a tall cage or stake set at planting to carry the heavy, baseball-sized fruit.
When is a Black Krim ripe?
It's a green-when-ripe tomato — it keeps dark green-black shoulders and never turns red. Pick it when the body has gone a dusky maroon, near-black in the heat, and gives slightly to a squeeze. Don't wait for it to go fully black, or it'll be overripe.
Why is my Black Krim almost black?
That's the variety, and heat intensifies it. Black Krim ripens to a deep maroon and the skin darkens toward black in hot, sunny weather — that's when the flavor is deepest. It's a feature, not a problem.
What does Black Krim taste like?
Rich, sweet, and smoky with a distinctive savory, almost salty edge — more complex than a sweet red slicer. It's a fresh-eating tomato that's superb on sandwiches and in salads, not a sauce tomato.
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