Customer Reviews

Black Sea Man Tomato 10 Seeds - Heirloom

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This year I planted my first garden and in addition to the old reliable standbys, I bought seeds for several unusual plants, mostly heirloom tomatoes. This one was pretty good in that over half of the seeds germinated(not the case with my other heirloom tomatoes and peppers), the plants I kept for my own garden are very hardy and healthy, and the tomatoes are an impressive size.

On the negative, instead of 10, I got 9 seeds (minor, since I gave away most of the plants before transplanting), the plants don't have nearly as many fruits as most of my other tomatoes, and I have read that this is a determinate plant, meaning all the fruit comes in at once and then it's done. Also, when I chose these seeds, I was drawn in by the color of the fruit in the photo, and believed that these would actually be a deep purple to black when the tomatoes were ripe. After ordering them and looking further, I have found that they are most often deep red or brown in color, leading me to feel that the seller misrepresented the product and included doctored photos or images of some other type of tomatoes.

Edited to add: I am changing my rating from three to four stars because when I wrote my original review, it was still a little early in the season and I hadn't gotten to taste any of the fruit yet or seen exactly how much the plants would produce. They did produce more fruit than I expected, though not nearly as much as some, and after tasting the BSM tomatoes, they became my favorites of the many types of tomatoes I grew last year and I regretted giving away so many of the seedlings. They were delicious and had a slightly salty taste. I still can't justify a five out of five stars, however, because I still felt that the photo provided was very misleading. Because they tasted so good, I really would have liked it if the plants had yielded more fruit, but that seems a rather small nit pick considering they yielded more than I expected and they were hardly the least productive tomatoes in the garden. I feel it really should get four and a half stars, but if a half star is an option, I don't see how to do it. If you like a slightly saltier tasting tomato, I would highly recommend these, but would also suggest that you make up for lower yield with more plants.

Planted six of the 10 seeds,all sproted in around 3 to 4 days.Soaked the seeds in a 100 ppm solution of 90% gibberellic acid for 5 hours before to planting.Also used the germination station seed starter ,also sold on Amazon.Now have seedlings in south window under 3 floresent plant lights I bought at Wal Mart for 10$ a peice.Seems to be enough light to aviod leggy stems.

These germinated very quickly for me and are growing great outside. Also gave 2 plants away to friends and they have taken off very well. (Started indoors then transplanted outside) A caterpilar had eaten almost the enire plant down to a couple of mangled stalks. It grew back quickly and is starting to produce fruits again. Wasn't able to save any tomatos from the first batch.

we grew these tomatoes, Black Sea Man, and just picked the first ones and ate them. They are very good tasting, but the inside of the tomato does NOT look like the photo you have in the advertisement. It looks more like a Black Russian Tomato. That was a bit of a let down. However we entered it in our local Tomato Festival and it was voted "Best Tasting Tomato of Napa Valley". Thanks, Black Sea Man.

Amazing growth from these seeds. I got a crop of huge, gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and they didn't stop there. Now I have a whole second crop of amazing fruit on the same plant. Hardy, great producers.

My children and I ordered a selection of really fun seeds from you. (Hmong Red Cucumber
Black Sea Man Tomato, Rare Tigger Melon, Mexican Miniature Watermelon, Toga Striped Eggplant, Purple Cauliflower, Unwins Exhibiton 7 Pound Onion, Rare Red Bull Brussels Sprout)

My germination rate has been about 25% or less. All my other seeds from other companies are doing wonderful on my tables, but my Hirt's seeds are in a category of their own, small, stunted, wimpy, or not at all. I will not be ordering from you again, and I'm sorry I wasted my money.

Julie

I ordered these seeds and they came very quickly. I ordered ten seeds and planted them in my aero garden pro 200 which has done well with every seed ive put in it. I planted the ten seeds and out of those ten seven germinated, meaning that in the aerogarden I had a 70% success rate. I could see that with these numbers if I tried to grow them in soil, it probably would have meant a smaller success rate. The plants that have sprouted look pretty healthy so far, and they germinated within three days.
Take from this what you will, the seller was prompt with the product and I did have success with over half the seeds. Ill try to update this shortly to describe the quality of the plants. Im going to keep two or three plants in the aerogarden and throw the rest of them in pots and a topsey turvey on my balcony.

I had no problems with seed germination and the plants (6) all got off to a great start. Living in a cooler climate with shorter summers I had to start my plants indoors and moved them outside after about a month to month and a half when I was sure there'd be no more evening freezes. These were grown in 5 gallon, orange home improvement store buckets. It took a while for the tomatoes to start forming but once they did, they just kept producing and are in fact still giving us delicious tomatoes. The taste is very good, a sweeter flesh and a tart skin make for an overall rich and delicious flavor, perfect for sandwiches and salads which is how we have enjoyed them. Don't wait for them to turn completely red to pick because they don't, or if they do, they're too ripe. These are picked when the lower portion of the fruit is a reddish-orange or copper and the tops are still green. Only issues are that the fruit is a bit smaller than the average red tomato. Many ripened at cherry tomato size with others in the medium-to-small range, like a plumb or Roma tomato. Another problem I had (likely due to my own errors) was that some of the fruit developed bottom-rot early on. I corrected this by watering a little less frequently and adding some calcium/magnesium to the food. Over all, a productive plant with lots of small but very tasty tomatoes. I recommend it but will be growing more traditional tomatoes next year.

This was one of the only places i could find seeds i wanted to try. I have an organic garden that needed some heirloom exotics. I dont know what some people do but i got 98% germination on all of my Hirt's seeds. I started all but the purple dragon carrots and cucumbers i got from hurt's *which all of those came in* in seed pots. I loved the black tula, black seaman, black zebra, black russian and beefsteak tomato's that came in, the black tulas being very delicious and meaty flavor. I also purchased other heirlooms from Hirt's and havent had an issue with any of the seeds just the pests that come and try to eat my tomatos!

I plan to purchase the majority of my seeds again through hirt's, as some of my crop was killed by a freak hail storm atleast i got to get my first pickings out and tasted. This by far has been the only company that has had any great germination rate with me, even the local companies had poor rates with the legumes i purchased so from now on until another company dazzle's me with better offer's and pricing i probaly will stick with Hirt's for years to come. Also i say try out one pack from a new company, that way you wont have to get so upset if you loose seed germination, time and money then get angry over it.

I'm not a tomato lover, I was looking for flower seeds when I came upon these and I was so struck by the look of them that I purchased the seeds without doing any research. My seeds germinated very well, in fact, they were the only seeds that germinated out of all the seeds I bought on Amazon, AND I panted in the wrong season. Seeds grew very well. I give three stars because I was disappointed by the picture. They need a more realistic picture of Black Sea Man tomatoes. Had I known they were regular looking, I would not have purchased them. Could be my fault, as I did not know what they were prior. But I still think that picture is entirely unrealistic and a bit of a let down. I wanted pink and black matoes

I forgot to add, they gave me more than 15 seeds which was nice, especially since there are a lot of sellers out there that send you FIVE seeds, which we all know is NOT enough