Where can I find disease resistance info for heirlooms?

[indigosand]

I can't seem to find any decent info for heirlooms regarding disease resistances. I was devastated to discover that my "malachite box" tomato seemed to be dying off from fusarium wilt yesterday. I hoped I was wrong, but my gut was saying get rid of it today so I did after saving a few unripened fruits. Now I'm wondering if what is planted nearby is susceptible. So upset, I did everything I could this season to prevent this!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by indigosand

I can't seem to find any decent info for heirlooms regarding disease resistances. I was devastated to discover that my "malachite box" tomato seemed to be dying off from fusarium wilt yesterday. I hoped I was wrong, but my gut was saying get rid of it today so I did after saving a few unripened fruits. Now I'm wondering if what is planted nearby is susceptible. So upset, I did everything I could this season to prevent this!

There is no geneal info about disease tolerance, for no variety, OP or hybrid, has total resistance.

All there is is anecdotal info from some folks as to how particular varieties do where they live and grow tomatoes, which may not be applicable elsewhere.

And it also depends on if one is discussing foliage infections versus systemic infections.

If indeed what you have is Fusarium Wilt, folks with that problem and other systemic diseases have found that it can be in one spot in a garden and not others, so no way to predict if an adjoining plant(s) will succumb to the same disease.

Carolyn

[indigosand]

Well that's disappointing to hear. I don't really wish to grow my tomatoes in buckets but it may come to this. I hate a gap in a row more than anything but I dare not plant anything in it's place.

I can't be 100% sure Carolyn, the symptoms I saw didn't line up with anything directly but I felt it best to take drastic measure so that whatever was wrong didn't wipe out the whole row. Maybe you or someone can tell me if I thinking correctly on the disease?

At first it was some wilting in heat of the day despite regular, adequate water and shade with some strange leaf damage. Entire leaves simply dried up on the bottom of the plant. There was no yellowing. If anything, they looked darkened. It recovered partially at night. It stopped growing at the same rate as the other plants last week. It had already begun to set fruit. I cut off a branch and sliced it open, I didn't see anything abnormal except for a brown line along the core near where I had previously pruned it. There was no discoloration, oozing, softening or waterlogging. I pulled the plant and the roots were vigorous, even. The leaves were significantly curled with the growing tips also distorted into a curl. The plant was acting as though it was dehydrated, even though that's not at all possible. The ground around it was moist and it gets watered every 3 days with a soaker hose, same as the other tomatoes.

[dice]

Pulling diseased plants is a good idea if it is something insect
borne, like Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus,
Curly Top, etc. For Verticillium and Fusarium, those are soil
diseases, so it is less urgent to pull the plant. Good to get a look
at the roots, though, to see if the plant has Root Knot Nematodes
and just generally how healthy the roots are.

b54red has fusarium infested gardens. He uses sort of a wave
approach, where he starts seedling in his greenhouse every couple
of weeks, and if a plant is obviously not going to survive, he pulls it
and plants something else in its place. Lately he has been planting
scions with good flavor grafted onto VF-tolerant root stock.

In a lot of cases, genetic disease tolerance simply means
that farmers get an extra week or two of growing season
before the disease kills the plant. The disease organisms
mutate, too, so tolerance for one race of verticillium or
fusarium does not necessarily mean that the plants will
have tolerance for the race(s) in your particular garden.

I do not have fusarium in the soils where I plant, so no
personal recommendations there. If it is verticillium, you
could try planting onions in that spot.

[dice]

This thread should give you some insight into what happens
in fusarium-infested gardens:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=28574

[indigosand]

Thanks again everyone. I have my disease pinpointed after pulling up the second plant and looking at it closely. It's Verticillium Wilt. Still not good, but not as bad as Fusarium. I think I'm back to square 1. My game plan next year will be to grow a few rows of Celebrity ( a good producer with great resistance) for my canning needs for next year straight into the ground and then all my favorite heirlooms will have to be put into the raised beds with sterile nursery soil.

[Fusion_power]

There are several open pollinated varieties that have some disease tolerance. Red Mortgage Lifter has VF, Burgundy Traveler has VFN and weak tolerance to septoria, Cherokee Purple has weak tolerance to Septoria, Eva Purple Ball has weak tolerance to septoria, Atkinson has tolerance to VFN.

[indigosand]

Thanks for the info!

[tomatoguy]

Tropic has VFT tolerance.

mater

[z_willus_d]

How were you able to determine V vs. F. on your plants? If you really do have V. over F., I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy about that. Both are quite devastating, and V. can be harder to rid from an area given it's ability to survive without a host (or mutate). Here's one current thread on the topic:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=23241&page=10

You might consider grafting to help keep the systemic issues at bay long enough for a decent harvest. It's a lot of work, but it can be rewarding. Here's a link:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=26079&page=25

Here's a link to different root-stock varieties with their resistances listed:
http://agsyst.wsu.edu/usda-scri-etal...b2013-mk-1.pdf

Good luck!
-naysen

[Alfredo]

indigosand,

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange lists the following as being their favorite disease-resistant varieties:

Atkinson, Druzba, Eva Purple Ball, Homestead 24, Marglobe VF, Matt's Wild Cherry, Mortgage Lifter VFN, Neptune, Ozark Pink VF, Roma VF, Virginia Select, Tropic VFN and West Virginia 63. Not all of these are heirlooms, but some are. And although these may not be totally disease free, they'll tolerate the disease a bit more than others.

~Alfredo

[indigosand]

Originally Posted by tomatoguy

Tropic has VFT tolerance.

mater

Thanks!

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

How were you able to determine V vs. F. on your plants? If you really do have V. over F., I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy about that. Both are quite devastating, and V. can be harder to rid from an area given it's ability to survive without a host (or mutate). Here's one current thread on the topic:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=23241&page=10

You might consider grafting to help keep the systemic issues at bay long enough for a decent harvest. It's a lot of work, but it can be rewarding. Here's a link:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...=26079&page=25

Here's a link to different root-stock varieties with their resistances listed:
http://agsyst.wsu.edu/usda-scri-etal...b2013-mk-1.pdf

Good luck!
-naysen

I might consider grafting if I can find the time for my most favorite heirlooms but if I can make a simpler solution work for the majority (resistant varieties) that is preferable. I'm a busy mom to 4. Thanks for the links, I'll do some late night reading.

AS for the evidence, well of course without a test I cannot be 110% sure but my plants both showed classic presentation of that disease and a cucumber that I planted in the same location also succumbed to the same symptoms in short order never having set fruit. To say I'm happy about it would be a stretch, but unless the sources I read from are incorrect, V. wilt is much shorter-lived in the soil so that is at least something to consider. We plan to move within the next couple years so until then I at least know what I'm dealing with and how to work around it. Here are some photos of the plants, I wished I had taken a photo of the vertically sliced stem, there was a perfect brown thick line on either side of the stem and spongy core. No white oozing when a cutting was placed in water.

Originally Posted by Alfredo

indigosand,

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange lists the following as being their favorite disease-resistant varieties:

Atkinson, Druzba, Eva Purple Ball, Homestead 24, Marglobe VF, Matt's Wild Cherry, Mortgage Lifter VFN, Neptune, Ozark Pink VF, Roma VF, Virginia Select, Tropic VFN and West Virginia 63. Not all of these are heirlooms, but some are. And although these may not be totally disease free, they'll tolerate the disease a bit more than others.

~Alfredo

Thank you!

[Father'sDaughter]

Fusarium is making itself known in my garden this year, and unfortunately the weather caused a long period without fruit set for many weeks during which the plants were all still healthy. I'm growing 25 varieties in-ground and have started tracking which fell fast, which are showing signs but still holding on, and which ones still look healthy as can be. This is what I'll use as a basis for next year's plants, and continue trying new ones and see how they do.

I don't know whether it's relevant in anyone else's garden, but here's what I'm seeing:

Going down fast and hard (probably won't grow again):

San Marzano Lungo (has only six tiny tomatoes and it's probably about a week away from death)
Giant Sicilian Paste (produced two really good tomatoes before dying completely)
Costoluto Genovese (already harvested 26 tomatoes from two plants, so this one may be back for another try)
Jersey Devil (produced a pitiful 1/2 pound of tomatoes and on it's last legs)

Slower to hit:

Virginia Sweets
Giannini
Italian Heirloom
Indiana Red
Nudi Family Heirloom
Romeo
Rinaldo
Rocky
Polish Linguisa
Russo Sicilian Togeta
Rocky
Casino Chips
Ernesto
Cherokee Purple

Still looking quite healthy (will definitely grow again):

Zogola
Kimberley
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Dester
Franchi Giant Pear
Olpaka
Liz Birt

[mrdoitall]

Here is a chart with some Info. on a few of the heirlooms tomatoes. Just hit the link and scroll down the page.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...matoTable.html

[Alfredo]

Originally Posted by mrdoitall

Here is a chart with some Info. on a few of the heirlooms tomatoes. Just hit the link and scroll down the page.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...matoTable.html

Great Link! Good for a starting point.
~Alfredo