Who has experience with late blight resistant tomatoes

[Save$]

Has anyone grown a varity of tomatoes that survived LB when others failed? I looking for some that still have taste, but give a crop before LB takes them out.
Last year I grew Defiant. That one is small, production is fewer, taste is like store bought. A good looking tomato that cans well. LB didn't get them until I covered them with a tarp to protect them from frost. When I took the tarp off, the plants were infected with blight and that was their end.

[Save$]

Still looking for some experience with blight resistant varieties. Very troublesome to be wiped out every year with LB.

[stonysoilseeds]

i need to find lb resistant varieties as wellmy total crop bearly 400 plants were wiped out within a weeks time from LBi read something that the variety legend has blight resistance

[Mashman]

I was hit hard as well. Sky Reacher bred by Tom Wagner at New World Seeds was like a beacon in the storm. AAA Sweet Solano bred by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms did well too. 48 other varieties pretty much bit the dust.

[riceke]

Originally Posted by Save$

Has anyone grown a varity of tomatoes that survived LB when others failed? I looking for some that still have taste, but give a crop before LB takes them out.
Last year I grew Defiant. That one is small, production is fewer, taste is like store bought. A good looking tomato that cans well. LB didn't get them until I covered them with a tarp to protect them from frost. When I took the tarp off, the plants were infected with blight and that was their end.

I planted Bella Rosa last year which is supposed to be resistant and it lasted until late August but finally succumbed. Also Big Beef Hyb. I think is also claimed to be resistant that I planted with the same results. I too am having problems and have orderd a few supposedly resistant varieties for next year but I'm not holding my breath. There is a lot of leeway in the term resistant not immuned. Surprisingly my non-hybrid Mule Team seemed to keep producing and living the longest. In fact it's still green and has a few small greenies on it and it isn't claimed to be resistant.

[Mashman]

Here is a short list tested for performance against blight by Cornell University:

http://ccetompkins.org/resources/per...t-early-blight

Michael

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Out of curiosity, is it mostly a main crop type with blight resistance that you're looking for? Skiykomish is a very nice bicolor and Sky Reacher a medium sized oblate striped red so I'm thinking a red canner or medium slicer or perhaps a black type would be nice?

Because I can't resist having something to fool around with I've cloned my Skykomish and Sky Reacher plants and am going to play with making crosses over the winter if I can get them to flower/fruit inside. I'm looking out at the garden trying to figure out what other two parents to clone and play with before the frost takes away my choices...

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mashman

Here is a short list tested for performance against blight by Cornell University:

http://ccetompkins.org/resources/per...t-early-blight

Michael

Miichael, I'm glad you linked to that b'c I wanted to make a few points about it and it saves me the trouble of going to look for it.

First, there are several genes that provide tolerance, NOT resistance, to LB and noting Legend and some others on that first list you'll see that Legend and others have NO tolerance at all to current LB strains b/c they don't have the most recent LB genes.

THe reports of the heirloom ones are anecdotal as I see it and why would they have ANY of the genes that provide tolerance anyway since those genes come from another species of tomatoes.

For the saladette ones I know many are using Mountain Magic F1 which does have the latest LB gene in it and while I grew it and loved it, along with the PLum Regal listed there MM was by FAR my fave. But no one can assess tolerance unless they have proven LB in any given season.

Note that MM F1 and Plum Regal F1 were noted as not being available in 2010 which shows you that the chart is a bit dated b'c they have been available at several places since then.

And I'm pretty sure there are larger fruited varieties also bred by Dr. Randy Gardner that have recently been introduced or are being introduced. I think Fusion has grown a few of them and I did trial some for Randy several years ago myself, but didn't keep the data. Randy is the person at NCSU who bred MM and Plum Regal and also Smarty F1, a grape variety and a c ouple of years ago I offered seeds for all three courtesy of Randy's seed to me.

And I know that Grey Mold is easily confused with the symptoms of LB and I know b'c I did that once and panicked a bit.

Summary? There are NO known varieties that are Resistant ( which implies total resistance) to LB or indeed to RKN's, most foliage diseases and others, rather it's tolerance which is determined by weather, plant vigor, the number of pathogens that infect, how the plants are grown, as in many variables.

Edited to add: does anyone know if Tom Wagner has bred into some of the varieties mentioned the latest gene for LB tolerance which is ph3?

[maf]

I think the larger fruited variety that Dr Gardner released that had the same resistance as Mountain Magic is one called Mountain Merit. I have not grown it (Mtn. Merit) myself though, and when I grew Mtn. Magic in 2011 we did not suffer from any blight with which to test its resistance.

This year I did lose many plants to late blight, and the only one that survived out of a dozen varieties from a decimated garden bed was another hybrid from Dr Gardner's work, known to me only as GOB14. It is a grape type, decent (if not spectacular) flavour, very good shelf life (looks to be a rin hybrid), and seems to perform well into cool and damp autumn conditions, earning the nickname "Bulletproof Bullet". Hopefully this one will be released in the future.

I believe Tom Wagner is working with ph3, along with ph2 and possibly others. I know he had Mountain Magic to play around with some years before it was released for sale, plus I am sure he had other sources for blight resistant genes.

Also, good to hear that AAA Sweet Solano performed well against blight in Mashman's garden; I have had seeds for this for a couple of years but it has never made it into the garden. That will change next year.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Tom's Skykomish has ph2 and ph3 according to what I have read about it.

[riceke]

[QUOTE=carolyn137;304159]Miichael, I'm glad you linked to that b'c I wanted to make a few points about it and it saves me the trouble of going to look for it.

First, there are several genes that provide tolerance, NOT resistance,.............

For all,practical purpose what is the difference from gardner's aspect and not one of research between tolerance and resistance. Does it mean my plants won't get affected? or Does it mean they will survive and produce? What ever one may call it it always ends up with dead to nearly dead plants in August. Sorry if I sound so negative, but I have dealt with this every year to the point that it doesn't matter what kills them (LB, EB Septoria, et nauseum), they will die. But what even further disturbs me is that a mile down the road there is a garden that has 2 perfect 12 foot rows of tomatoes with not a trace of any disease...at this time of the year. Go figure. What is he doing different? I gotta stop and ask him one of these days.

[Mashman]

Just to add to Carolyn's points...... even if you have a resistant tomato variety, there are different strains of blight. So it might be resistant to particular strains, but not all.

The UMass Amherst Agriculture Center, which tests for blight in the area, issued an alert which identified the strain showing up in Massachusetts this August as US 23. Best bet is to keep an eye on local agriculture center alerts and make sure you are spraying with fungicides that are effective against strains present in your area.

I can tell you, Sky Reacher stood tall to US 23 while several dozen other varieties got hit hard. Kudos to Tom.

[Mashman]

Just a follow up. I found this presentation by Meg McGrath of Cornell University to be very helpful in understanding Late Blight; and distinguishing it from other pathogens.

http://www.extension.org/pages/28624...garden-webinar


Michael

[kath]

LB hit my plants probably about a week ago. I still had between 40 and 50 plants left in the garden and nearly all of them were single plants of different varieties with the exception of 4 Sungolds (which were my first clue that it had struck and the worst hit) and a couple of doubles of past favorites. The only ones still standing because they don't yet have any symptoms are: the only 2 Hawaiian Pineapple plants I had- not next to one another; one of the 2 Work Release Paste plants- also not next to one another; one of the 2 Hays' Tomato plants; 2 Barlow Japs plants that are on the other side of the patch from the rest but are planted side-by-side and they were in the row adjacent to the Sungolds and surrounded by others that were a mess by the time the rain ended this week and we were able to pull plants.

They all have some Septoria but no LB lesions on any leaves stems or small fruits that are left on them that I can see yet. When I discovered the LB, there were already affected leaves throughout the tomato patch and I didn't bother trying to spray a thing. All of the survivors were so close to infected neighbors that blight-affected leaves were nestled in amongst them because the stakes/cages were only 2'-3' apart.

I'm not claiming that these are resistant varieties or even that they necessarily have a gene for tolerance- just sharing what I find a curious phenomenon. The fact that they were still in the garden at all attests to the fact that they were still producing fruits that we or others were enjoying eating and not suffering too badly from the Septoria and EB that are also running rampant here. Still, I find it amazing that these last ones standing are all actually on my very small "very favorite list", and with the exception of Sungold and one other variety that didn't do so well, are the only ones that were on my "grow again" list. Just another reason to keep growing them, I say!

Today I also had to yank out some volunteer potato plants which had lesions on their leaves, so whatever strain this is, it does affect potatoes, too. I've been keeping a close eye on the pepper plants because the kind of LB we had in 2009 affected my peppers, too- just not as quickly.

[carolyn137]

[QUOTE=riceke;304190]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Miichael, I'm glad you linked to that b'c I wanted to make a few points about it and it saves me the trouble of going to look for it.

First, there are several genes that provide tolerance, NOT resistance,.............

For all,practical purpose what is the difference from gardner's aspect and not one of research between tolerance and resistance. Does it mean my plants won't get affected? or Does it mean they will survive and produce? What ever one may call it it always ends up with dead to nearly dead plants in August. Sorry if I sound so negative, but I have dealt with this every year to the point that it doesn't matter what kills them (LB, EB Septoria, et nauseum), they will die. But what even further disturbs me is that a mile down the road there is a garden that has 2 perfect 12 foot rows of tomatoes with not a trace of any disease...at this time of the year. Go figure. What is he doing different? I gotta stop and ask him one of these days.

I think I answered your first question from what I said above;

(Summary? There are NO known varieties that are Resistant ( which implies total resistance) to LB or indeed to RKN's, most foliage diseases and others, rather it's tolerance which is determined by weather, plant vigor, the number of pathogens that infect, how the plants are grown, as in many variables.)

Varieties having tolerance OR so called resistance does NOT mean that they won't be infected.

Nor does it mean that they will all survive and produce.

What are you doing to help prevent the fungal foliage infections of Early Blight ( A. solani) and Septoria Leaf Spot?

What are you doing to help prevent Late Blight ( P. infestans)?

And what are you doing with plants that are dead from any of those infections?

And please note that there are different strains of LB that's been noted above. Here in the East as far as I know we don't have both mating types of LB which are called A and B, but in the PNW last I knew they did, which means that A and B can cross leading to oospores which can survive without being associated with plant tissue. Whereas type A alone can't and nor can type B alone and are killed by winter temps except for potato cull piles where they can still remian viable and that's been the source of several outbreaks of LB on both tomatoes and potatoes here in NYS where I live.

And that's b'c those potato cull piles are primarily in the western part of the state and the prevailing wind and rain is from the west so those spores can get disseminated to the East.

Edited to add that geographic location can also be important. When we had the huge LB outbreak here in the NE in 2009 many within a mile or two from me lost all their tomato plants but I lost none. Yes, I was having Freda spray Daconil, but I'm up off the valley floor and my backyard is ringed with huge trees which interrupt wind and rain flow. Could that be a reason why those near to you don't get as many infections as you do and also do you know what they might be doing to help prevent LB?