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'Paul Robeson' Tomatoes |
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| Sub-Category: |
Standard
Main-Season
Heirloom
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| Sub-Category 2: |
| | Description: |
Standard, main-season, Russian heirloom. Indeterminate vines bear 'black' (actually dusky dark red with dark green shoulders), 6-ounce, 2-inch by 3 1/4-inch wide fruit in clusers of two.
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| Days To Maturity: |
74
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| Seed Sources: |
Seed Savers Exchange - updated in 2014
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| Rating Summary |
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Overall: (3.8 Stars)
Taste: (4.4 Stars)
Yield: (2.9 Stars)
Ease/Reliability: (3.3 Stars) |
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| Reviews |
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Login to share your Review of Paul Robeson.
Number of Reviews: 13
KEY: O=Overall Rating, T=Taste, Y=Yield, E=Ease
Reviewed on 12/25/2023 by
HJL
- An experienced gardener
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 Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Frost Free Season: More than 203 days
Soil Texture: Loam
Garden Size: Small - Less than 400 square feet (20' x 20')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| I\'ve been growing this tomato for about three years now. It is one of my favorites. The flavor profile is similar to Cherokee Purple or Black Krim, but the fruits are smaller. It bears earlier than either of them, and continues to bear for most of the season, despite the usual early blight. |
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Reviewed on 01/15/2015 by
CCE Seneca County
- An intermediate gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
 Ease
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Seneca, New York, United States
Frost Free Season: 163 - 183 days
Soil Texture: Loam
Garden Size: Small - Less than 400 square feet (20' x 20')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Another great heirloom except for their susceptibility to late blight.
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Reviewed on 01/03/2015 by
klossoke
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
 Yield
Ease
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Howard, Maryland, United States
Frost Free Season: 163 - 183 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Medium - 400 square feet to 1,600 square feet
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| grew it for several seasons but very susceptible to blight so looking for another more reliable purple tomato. When you can get it to ripen, it is a great tomato. |
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Reviewed on 08/28/2011 by
Ferdzy
- An intermediate gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Ontario, Canada
Frost Free Season: 143 - 163 days
Soil Texture: Sand
Garden Size: Large - More than 1,600 square feet (40' x 40')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| For flavour, this is a hard tomato to beat. Quite a few members of our family rate this as their all-time favourite tomato for raw eating. It is not the most productive, but in my experience the yield is decent. It probably is a bit prone to disease (I have not had too many troubles besides a bit of septoria spot). Do not crowd it! It is worth pampering this plant. Just as a note, in seed-saving I have found that this is a tomato that crosses easily with other tomatoes. It is possible that some of those who have found this tomato disappointing have had impure seeds. |
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Reviewed on 08/27/2011 by
TheFluffyOne
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Kane, Illinois, United States
Frost Free Season: 163 - 183 days
Soil Texture: Loam
Garden Size: Medium - 400 square feet to 1,600 square feet
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Easily the biggest disappointment of the 27 varieties I grew in 2011. First the positive. It was an early tomato and fairly productive. It also was a very attractive tomato and beautiful when sliced - a very artistic looking tomato when sliced. Now the bad - it is disease prone and the 2nd quickest to start a downward spiral (Aunt Rubys\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' German Green was first), lots of concentric circle cracking at the stem. It was a very liquid, wet, and slimy tomato with very bland flavor. Even when dried it was nothing special taste wise, which is unusual as drying truly brings out the flavor of most tomatoes. This one is now on my termination list. I truly believe you shoudl grow any variety for a minimum of 5 years before giving up on it as conditions can very. So to be fair I try to give a tomato 5 growing seasons. But when I find one this bad, I only grow one or two plants per season after the initial planting. So I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ll grow this a few more times and hope it improves and lives up to its reputation.\\r\\n***************************************************************************\\r\\nI grew this again in 2012 it was not only a different year, but this time around Paul Robeson was a different tomato. This was again an early fruiter, but this time the fruits were far more highly flavored. And although it showed some disease stress it did manage to survive the full season. The taste was so remarkably improved that we looked forward to cutting into them. I am growing it again in 2013. I upped my rating for this variety. There is potential here. However this really is a very wet seedy tomato.\r\n++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++\r\nUpdate for 2018\r\n---------------------\r\nThis one is hard to rate. No matter what it is a wet tomato, but then, in that regard it works well as a salsa tomato. It has some good flavor but it is also seedy as all can be. it also is disease prone but it keeps producing. It also is a relatively early variety. For now I will continue to grow it until I am out of seeds but I shall limit my growing to 2-3 plants a year. As I said it is an early tomato, so if you benchmark is an Early Girl, well it is simply a far more flavorful choice, in a black. I will say it is a beautiful tomato. If I was market growing I would grow this one as I think it would sell easily. It is also a smaller tomato, and makes a nice, albeit it wet slicer. |
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Reviewed on 02/02/2010 by
Veggie Mom
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Licking, Ohio, United States
Frost Free Season: 123 - 143 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Large - More than 1,600 square feet (40' x 40')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Lots of disease problems with this variety.
Nice flavor. |
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Reviewed on 01/07/2010 by
SueG-ME
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Kennebec, Maine, United States
Frost Free Season: 103 - 123 days
Soil Texture: Loam
Garden Size: Large - More than 1,600 square feet (40' x 40')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Beautiful fruits and great flavor, but this variety was the first of my many tomato varieties to fall to late blight in our 2009 epidemic, so I only got a few fruit. I think it will be marginal in my zone but will try it for a couple more years. |
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Reviewed on 03/08/2009 by
Wild Oats Gardener
- A novice gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Los Angeles, California, United States
Frost Free Season: More than 203 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Small - Less than 400 square feet (20' x 20')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Surprisingly, the Paul Robeson did amazingly in our back yard in a large pot. It produced a large amount of fist sized tomatoes. Once the season was about over and most of the leaves had died, it produced a whole second round of fruit. The taste is superb, with a hint of smokiness and salt. Can't wait till this summer! |
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Reviewed on 04/23/2007 by
wyldutah
- An intermediate gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Salt Lake, Utah, United States
Frost Free Season: 103 - 123 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Small - Less than 400 square feet (20' x 20')
Sun Exposure: 6 to 8 hours per day
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| Plant was eaten by something shortly after transplanting- the only one to get eaten. It did come back but I got very few tomatoes. Wonderful taste though. Wish I would had more. |
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Reviewed on 03/16/2007 by
GardenMom
- A novice gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Albany, New York, United States
Frost Free Season: 103 - 123 days
Soil Texture: Loam
Garden Size: Medium - 400 square feet to 1,600 square feet
Sun Exposure: 6 to 8 hours per day
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| I was so excited to grow this variety. I'd heard nothing but the best about the taste. This tomato was my greatest dissapointment. The yeild was unbelievably low (2-3 tomatoes per plant), one of the plants died immediatly from blight, and the taste, while okay, was no star power. Researching more into it, I think it could be because it was a wet, chillly summer and Paul R. prefers it hot and dry. I'm planning on trying it again this year in pots, hoping that if I fuss over it more I can get the amazing taste that everyone crows about. I might change my rating, but until then, I have to give it a low rating because of its bad performance this past year. |
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Reviewed on 09/22/2006 by
jlo
- An intermediate gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Blue Earth, Minnesota, United States
Frost Free Season: 103 - 123 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Small - Less than 400 square feet (20' x 20')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Really found this tomato very easy to maintain. Staked and caged, it produced medium sized round fruit from the end of June through September. The foliage and blossoms weathered our hot 90 degree July days with only minimal blossom drop. The foliage was very disease resistant but then I was careful to not let the leaves touch the ground, and also used landscaping fabric. This was the first year I used fabric and I feal it really made a difference in disease prevention. Plant reached a height of 5ft, with clusters of tennis to baseball size fruit. The color was really intriguing with red, brown and some green on the shoulders. Each tomato had a slightly different color when sliced, some with distinct color areas, some maroon and green, some brownish green. It made for attractive slices, plated with the Brandywines. I also notice that leaving them on the vine until they were ready to be consumed made a difference in the flavor. Those that I picked before they were quite ripe never did taste as good and had some of the white undeveloped interior that never ripened off the vine. The tomatoes that developed in mid summer had better flavor than those that finished developing in Sept. Maybe this makes it a better warm weather tomato. Anyway it was a fun tomato to grow but there are too many heirlooms out there to to try, to grow this one again so soon. |
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Reviewed on 04/25/2006 by
Troutlily
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Henry, Ohio, United States
Frost Free Season: 163 - 183 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Large - More than 1,600 square feet (40' x 40')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Absolutely the most delicious purple tomato we've tried. A popular spring seedling and good late summer yields for markets. |
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Reviewed on 03/23/2006 by
Cowpoke
- An experienced gardener
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Overall
Taste
Yield
Ease
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Stokes, North Carolina, United States
Frost Free Season: 143 - 163 days
Soil Texture: Clay
Garden Size: Large - More than 1,600 square feet (40' x 40')
Sun Exposure: More than 8 hours per day
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| Best black edging out Nyagous. Consistent, heavy yields of tasty fruit. A favorite of all to whom I have given plants the last two years. |
| | | 1 of 1 gardener found this review helpful.
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