Discover the Best Purple Tomato Varieties for Your Garden

Tomatoes stand out as one of the most rewarding crops for any home gardener. Their incredible diversity in size, shape, and flavor—spanning heirlooms and modern hybrids—offers a unique experience with every harvest. While red tomatoes are a garden staple, exploring the spectrum of tomato colors, particularly the rich purples, can unlock a season filled with bold, intriguing flavors and striking visual appeal.

Historically, truly purple heirloom tomato varieties were limited. However, advancements in plant breeding have led to the development of new purple tomato types, prized not only for their stunning color but also for enhanced characteristics like antioxidant content and disease resistance. Whether you seek the deep, smoky taste of a beefsteak or the sweet pop of a cherry tomato, this guide explores some of the top purple varieties perfect for adding unique character to your garden and meals.

Why Cultivate Purple Tomatoes?

Going beyond the familiar reds, planting purple tomato varieties offers a unique gardening experience. Their deep, rich hues add visual appeal to your garden and your plate. But it’s not just about looks. Many purple varieties boast complex, often smoky or tangy flavors distinct from their red counterparts. Furthermore, some varieties are specifically bred for enhanced disease resistance or higher levels of beneficial compounds like anthocyanins, potent antioxidants responsible for their vibrant color. Growing purple tomatoes means cultivating beauty, flavor, and added nutritional value.

Whether you’re a seasoned grower with years of harvests under your belt or just starting your tomato journey, exploring deep purple varieties is incredibly rewarding. With options ranging from time-tested heirlooms and reliable open-pollinated types to cutting-edge hybrids, there’s undoubtedly a purple tomato that will capture your interest and thrive in your garden space.

Exploring Top Purple Tomato Varieties

Ready to add some deep color and complex flavor to your tomato patch? Here are some of our favorite purple tomato varieties, each offering something special for the discerning gardener:

1. Cherokee Purple

Often cited as a classic among purple heirloom tomatoes, the Cherokee Purple variety is a standout for good reason. This large-fruited tomato exhibits a striking dark purple skin mottled with shades of red, hinting at its rich, complex flavor. Believed to have originated in Tennessee before 1890, this variety is renowned for its excellent taste, often described as smoky, sweet, and earthy—a true gourmet delight.

Close-up of ripening Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes on the vine, showing their dark purple and reddish mottling.

The large, indeterminate vines produce substantial fruit, typically measuring around five inches (about 12 cm) across. Gardeners can anticipate harvesting these flavorful treasures approximately 80 days after transplanting seedlings into the garden.

2. Purple Boy

For gardeners seeking enhanced resilience, the Purple Boy tomato is a hybrid variety developed with increased disease resistance in mind. This indeterminate tomato offers robust growth and symmetrical, slightly ridged fruits. As its name suggests, the purple coloration is prominent, appearing both on the exterior and throughout the flesh.

These tomatoes deliver a delightful balance of classic tomato juiciness with a pleasant tangy note. Purple Boy plants are known for their vigor, adapting well to various growing conditions, provided they receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. Their built-in resistance to common issues like nematodes, verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and tobacco mosaic makes them a reliable choice for a less challenging growing experience.

3. The Big Purple

Living up to its name, The Big Purple is a variety truly purple inside and out, unlike some with only external purple blush. This modern development by Norfolk Plant Sciences was specifically bred to boast significantly higher levels of anthocyanins, the powerful antioxidants found in many purple fruits and vegetables.

Clusters of The Big Purple tomatoes ripening on their stems, showcasing their uniform deep purple color.

High antioxidant content is a notable benefit of incorporating certain foods into our diet, and this purple tomato offers that advantage along with superb flavor and an impressive shelf life compared to many other varieties. It’s a variety that brings together compelling health aspects with excellent taste and practicality.

4. Carbon

Another large beefsteak type, the Carbon tomato is an heirloom variety cherished by tomato aficionados for its exceptionally rich, bold, and smoky flavor complemented by a wonderfully creamy texture. Its appearance features a reddish skin overlaid with deep blackish-purple tones.

Introduced in 1998, Carbon is an excellent vining option for those desiring both gourmet flavor and good garden performance. It offers noteworthy resistance to cracking and catfacing, common fruit deformities, in addition to demonstrating high disease resistance, making it a reliable choice for consistent yields of delicious, large purple fruits.

5. Indigo Rose

Considered one of the first true purple tomato varieties recognized for its high antioxidant levels, Indigo Rose emerged from research at Oregon State University. This variety is striking in the garden, producing generous clusters of intensely purple-black, almost grape-like fruits.

Bunch of Indigo Rose tomatoes on the vine, displaying their small size and dark, almost black-purple color.

Notably, Indigo Rose was developed through traditional cross-breeding and selection methods, not genetic modification. It grows as a cordon (vining) type cherry tomato, offering a balanced sweet-tart flavor profile perfect for snacking directly from the plant or adding to salads.

6. Purple BumbleBee

Adding a splash of artistry to the purple tomato lineup is the Purple BumbleBee, an indeterminate, open-pollinated variety known for its unique striped peel. Also classified as an artisanal cherry tomato, this vigorous plant produces small clusters of fruits that transition from maroon to deep purple tones as they ripen, adorned with distinctive yellow or green stripes.

Purple BumbleBee tomatoes are celebrated for their sweet flavor and visual appeal. Their vigorous growth habit makes them a productive choice for gardeners looking for high yields of beautiful, snackable fruits throughout the season.

7. Purple Calabash

With a history stretching back, the Purple Calabash is an heirloom beefsteak tomato recognized for its irregular, deeply ruffled shape and unique color palette—purple on the outside, blushing reddish within. This distinctive appearance is matched by a deliciously sharp and complex flavor, making it versatile for eating fresh or transforming into sauces and purees.

Pile of freshly harvested Purple Calabash tomatoes, showcasing their irregular, ruffled shapes and rich purple-chocolate colors.

The large, indeterminate plants are high-yielding and require sturdy staking or caging to support the weight of their abundant, uniquely shaped fruits. Modulating between rich purple and deep chocolatey tones, Purple Calabash is also notable among purple varieties for demonstrating good drought tolerance.

8. Black Cherry

Black Cherry tomatoes are a fantastic option for gardeners who love snacking on sweet cherry tomatoes straight off the vine. Visually reminiscent of large, plum-colored grapes, these purple cherry tomatoes burst with a rich, tangy flavor that’s highly addictive.

This indeterminate heirloom variety grows on large vines and is known for its excellent yield. Beyond their prolific nature and great taste, Black Cherry tomato plants are also remarkably heat-tolerant, making them a smart choice for gardens in warmer climates or during hot summer periods.

Grow Your Purple Tomato Harvest

Cultivating purple tomato varieties is a wonderful way to diversify your garden’s output and explore a spectrum of flavors and colors beyond the conventional red. Each variety offers its own set of characteristics, from gourmet taste profiles and unique appearances to valuable traits like disease resistance and high antioxidant content.

Whether you’re drawn to the rich history of heirlooms or the reliable performance of modern hybrids, there’s a purple tomato waiting to become a favorite in your garden. To get started on your journey to a vibrant, flavorful purple tomato harvest this season, explore the selection of high-quality seeds and gardening supplies available from Biogarden.asia. We’re here to help you cultivate success from the first seed to the final delicious fruit.