Tomato '1884 purple'

Try to plant in a location that enjoys full sun and remember to water moderately. Keep in mind when planting that 1884 purple is thought of as tender, so remember to wait until your soil is warm and the night time temperature is well above freezing before moving outside. Ensure your soil is loamy and has a ph of between 5.5 and 7.5 as Tomato is a weakly acidic soil to weakly alkaline soil loving plant.

Start seeds indoors six weeks before last frost date.

Try to aim for a seed spacing of at least 0.78 inches (2.0 cm) and sow at a depth of around 0.78 inches (2.0 cm). Soil temperature should be kept higher than 12°C / 54°F to ensure good germination.

By our calculations, you should look at sowing 1884 purple about 42 days before your last frost date.

Plant to first set of leaves to promote strong root growth.

Ensure that temperatures are mild and all chance of frost has passed before planting out, as 1884 purple is a tender plant.

This variety tends to be ready for harvesting by late summer.

Jeff Casey of Alberta, Canada received the seeds for “1884” tomato from Michael Gunn of Pasadena, Texas in 2005, and shared with Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T) in Dec 2005. Both Jeff and Tatiana grew it in 2006 and obtained large dark black-purple fruits which, in Tatiana’s opinion, were better than the original 1884. Tatiana named it “1884 Purple” to indicate the fruit color difference compared to 1884. Jeff later suggested an alternative name – “Purple Doughnut”, which was a better name, unfortunately Tatiana had already listed this variety in the SSE Yearbook as “1884 Purple”, and received several SSE requests for the seeds in 2007. ¹

Purple doughnut

¹ Tatiana’s TomatoBase – 1884 Purple