Organic Tomatoes Workshop

[MsCowpea]

Did anybody attend the workshop on growing tomatoes commercially using organic methods at the Univ. of NC Research Farm in Waynesville?

One of the speakers was Randy Gardner who is working on developing a tomato with good appearance and shipping attributes along with early and late blight resistance THAT also tastes like an heirloom.

Other researchers studied growing tomatoes with 4 different methods --2 organically, 1 conventional , and one control. They found that the tomatoes grown organically had the same yield as those conventionally grown. They also did not suffer with any increased disease (however the control group that had NO disease treatments of any kind , either organic or synthetic , also looked good this year which was a puzzle).