Heirloom Tomatoes Fusarium Wilt and/or Verticillium resistant?

[MissS]

I thought that it might be helpful if we could name some of the heirloom/OP varieties of tomatoes that can resist Fusarium and Verticillium wilts in our gardens.

Now, for the growers that decide to grow these varieties, be aware that they are "resistant" and not "immune" to these conditions.

[ContainerTed]

I've looked at this subject from the left, right, upside, downside, and everywhere. My conclusion has always been to do preventative sprays of fungicides (Garden Safe is my goto). This is my decision because I refuse to be limited in what varieties I will grow. It costs me a few more bucks and a lot more work. But I've been doing this for more than 50 years and the chemicals haven't gotten me yet.

Of course, your opinion and your results may be different.

Take care

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by MissS

I thought that it might be helpful if we could name some of the heirloom/OP varieties of tomatoes that can resist Fusarium and Verticillium wilts in our gardens.

Now, for the growers that decide to grow these varieties, be aware that they are "resistant" and not "immune" to these conditions.

And from the other thread where blight resistant varieties were asked about

(tolerance - relative capacity of an organism to grow or thrive when subjected to an unfavorable environmental factor
resistance - the inherent ability of an organism to resist harmful influences (such as disease, toxic agents, or infection)

Carolyn is right, the proper use of the term in this case would be
tolerance)

And as said in that other thread there is no variety that is resistant to any disease,the operative word would be tolerance.

As regards Fusarium and Verticillium,in order to answer that question a person needs to know which specific serotypes of Fusarium they are dealing with, there are 3 and there is no cross protection.Where I've gardened there has been no Fusarium using seeds I saved but those who buy plants shipped up from the south can see it,but only for one season since it is easily killed where the winters are cold and the ground freezes deeply.Offhand I don't know of any heirloom varieties that even have one,let alone three,but certain hybrids do.

I can speak to Verticillium,though, since my plants have experienced that one and one sees it initially with wilting on one side of the plant.And often a plant will grow out of it and be OK,but not always .I've tried taking cuttings from the good side of a plant,but the darn fungus apparently is also there already without any symptoms showing so that didn't work...

And maybe it's just me with a background in infectious diseases and the immune response,but I can't define the word immune when it comes to tomatoes.And yes I have read that aspirin treatment of plants can result in "immunity", but those studies were very flawed in terms of data and no controls and no immune substance was actually ever found,just visual observations, again,with no controls..

Carolyn

[ilex]

There is one called RAF in Spain (Resistente Al Fusarium). It's related to marmande. There are many fakes around as it sells for a premium. I don't think it tolerates all fusarium strains.

Don't they just graft to solve this one?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ilex

There is one called RAF in Spain (Resistente Al Fusarium). It's related to marmande. There are many fakes around as it sells for a premium. I don't think it tolerates all fusarium strains.

Don't they just graft to solve this one?

I know that one, didn't get it from Spain, got it from someone who SSE listing it and don't remember where that person got it from either.

I though it tasted awful,never grew it again.

I have grown Marmande, pretty good,so how could something taste that bad and be related to Marmande?

Here's what Tania has to say about it which answers some of the questions I had above.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/RAF

Carolyn

[MissS]

I brought up this thread to help all of those that had issues with wilt last year. As I recall there were quite a few. It is a pathogen that lives in the soil. There is no spray that will help an afflicted plant.

I used the term "resistant" because that is the term that most of the universities use. While I do know that Carolyn is right, I wish that those that have read most of these articles do not become confused over the meaning of resistant or tolerant. Here is one example of the use of the word resistant by a university.

https://ag.tennessee.edu/EPP/Extensi...20Problems.pdf

The above article does list many "resistant" tomatoes. I know that Homestead is known to have some resistance/tolerance to fursarium wilt and I was hoping that some of you could list a few more OP or heirloom varieties for these people.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by MissS

I brought up this thread to help all of those that had issues with wilt last year. As I recall there were quite a few. It is a pathogen that lives in the soil. There is no spray that will help an afflicted plant.

I used the term "resistant" because that is the term that most of the universities use. While I do know that Carolyn is right, I wish that those that have read most of these articles do not become confused over the meaning of resistant or tolerant. Here is one example of the use of the word resistant by a university.

https://ag.tennessee.edu/EPP/Extensi...20Problems.pdf

The above article does list many "resistant" tomatoes. I know that Homestead is known to have some resistance/tolerance to fursarium wilt and I was hoping that some of you could list a few more OP or heirloom varieties for these people.

As for university studies it depends on whether it's their extension services or actually permanent faculty who are doing research.

The list you show doesn't really have a lot of heirloom varieties at all.

Cornell has a similar list

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne.../TableList.htm

but it's in a different format than it was before.
University profs in their material and methods section still refer to the tomato as

Lycopersicon milleri or similar, see link below

https://www.google.com/search?q=Lyco...&bih=788&dpr=1

Oh for some heirloom or even hybrid varieties that never get diseases, dream on Carolyn,dream on.

Carolyn

[ilex]

Raf:

There are many, many fakes, including raff. As raf just means "fusarium resistant", other tomatoes with such resistance are also sold under this name. In other words, it's not that easy to get the real thing, you never really know what you are getting.

They can have good flavour, nothing amazing, not even very good, just good. We have many better varieties.

They are grown in cool weather in saline soil/water. Salt increases sugar. I've seen papers stating it has 9 brix ... no way. You must do magic for that. I've got a variety related to marmande that looses much flavour when it's hot. Might have the same problem.

Photos in Tatiana's web don't look like the real thing to me. Raf has a lot of ribs and very green shoulders.

As it's a common variety I don't plant it. Guess I should one year to compare with my other tomatoes.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ilex

Raf:

There are many, many fakes, including raff. As raf just means "fusarium resistant", other tomatoes with such resistance are also sold under this name. In other words, it's not that easy to get the real thing, you never really know what you are getting.

They can have good flavour, nothing amazing, not even very good, just good. We have many better varieties.

They are grown in cool weather in saline soil/water. Salt increases sugar. I've seen papers stating it has 9 brix ... no way. You must do magic for that. I've got a variety related to marmande that looses much flavour when it's hot. Might have the same problem.

Photos in Tatiana's web don't look like the real thing to me. Raf has a lot of ribs and very green shoulders.

As it's a common variety I don't plant it. Guess I should one year to compare with my other tomatoes.

About Raf.

I looked in my grossly deficient SSE 2017 Yearbook and here's what I found on page 362.

Called RAF Spain, listed first by Al Anderson,who says, and I'm abbreviating some words, 82 days, ind, RL, watered with salty water ,he thinks tomatoes have a salty taste, a premium tomato in Europe,med sized red with very good flavor,developed in Spain

Ake from Sweden says

red,flat,round 150 gm, 80 cm high,Spanish.

Ake has been an SSE listed member for many years,and yes,always gives very brief descriptions.In the 2017 he's listing 1 chicory,497 tomatoes, 1 currant, don't know why he lists it separately, for a total of 499 listings.

Carolyn

[Lee]

Anecdotally, Cherokee Purple has shown some tolerance to fusarium
in known infested soils in NC. (My old back yard and Craig's).

Lee

[ddsack]

Originally Posted by Lee

Anecdotally, Cherokee Purple has shown some tolerance to fusarium
in known infested soils in NC. (My old back yard and Craig's).

Lee

I think this is the kind of discussion that MissS was looking for in her original post. I'm sure I have read about members mentioning certain varieties that tend to have less disease in their garden over time. Bill (B54Red) comes to mind who has discussed varieties that do well in his challenging conditions.

Not everyone's results will match, but perhaps some trends might emerge.

[ilex]

Yes, that would be precious information this community could provide.

I once posted I have one that seems to be mite tolerant. ... but nobody was interested. Anybody wants to test it?

[FredB]

Open-pollinated varieties that are listed as having fusarium resistance are Mortgage Lifter VFN (not the regular Mortgage Lifter), Neptune, and Tropic VFN. Neptune and Tropic came from a breeder at the University of Florida. I'm trying them this year, so I don't know yet how they taste. All three are available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

As previously mentioned, another possibility is to use grafted tomatoes. The rootstocks used for grafting are resistant to fusarium and verticilium. For instance, several seed companies offer grafted Amish Paste, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Delicious, and Mortgage Lifter.

[b54red]

None of the OP varieties that I have grown show strong tolerance to fusarium wilt and I have grown hundreds of varieties. I have over the years found a few that show some tolerance but the real solution is grafting onto a root stock that is strongly tolerant of all three races of fusarium.

I can say from experience that Cherokee Purple shows little tolerance but it has more than some varieties. Spudakee the potato leaf version of CP shows more tolerance.

I have been grafting for quite a few years and can't remember all the ones that showed some tolerance but if you have fusarium bad then just start grafting. It will save you a lot of heartache and frustration. If your fusarium problem isn't bad then some of the ones that did well for me before it got intolerable were IS, BTDP, JD's Special C Tex, Spudakee, Neves Azorean Red, Limbaugh's Legacy, Tarasenko 6, Zogola, Wes, Old Virginia, Marianna's Peace, Lumpy Red, KBX, Fish Lake Oxheart, Druzba, Dr. Wyches Yellow, and Linnies Oxheart. Even hybrid varieties like Big Beef, Celebrity, and Bella Rosa (my insurance varieties) failed as the fusarium became worse over the last ten years. Those three all have good tolerance to two races of fusarium but it seems I now have all three in abundance.

Bill

[Starlight]

I'm growing V.R. Moscow this year. Says it is supposed to be disease resistant to Verticillium Wilt.
Guess I'll find out later in the season.