Heirloom susceptibility to disease?

b54red · April 3, 2011

Since I have fusarium fairly widespread in my garden and have for the entire time I have gardened there, I can attest to some hybrids having significantly more resistance than most of the OPs. That being said I still find OPs that do very well and some that do terrific despite being planted in spots known for their heavy fusarium presence.
I was advised many years ago by the county extension service to only plant hybrids with strong fusarium resistance and I followed those directions for years but gradually tired of the sameness of the hybrids and started trying out many OPs on a limited scale and for the most part the extension agent was right. Most of the OPs died without ever producing any fruit but there were a few exceptions and so I started expanding the number of OPs and reducing the fusarium resistant hybrids. Last year I went crazy and planted over 70 varieties of OPs that I had never grown before and when one died of fusarium I would replace it in the same spot with another variety of OP immediately. Many of the replacements died just as fast or faster but some flourished in the fusarium tainted spot. I am trying to do the same thing this year except with even more varieties. I am also replanting the varieties that did well last year so I can see if it was just a fluke. Now if the TSWV, Early and Late Blight, along with that black crud that hits the black tomatoes will take it easy this year I could have a good test going. So far I have found about 20 OPs that have sufficient fusarium resistance to produce a good crop before succumbing to the disease as most of the hybrids do also.

I had a couple of plants that continued to produce for months after getting TSWV and I saved the seed to see if that trait will be passed down. Most plants including the hybrids died rather quickly from TSWV once symptoms first appeared. I did notice one thing about TSWV last year and that was that it tended to hit the tomatoes with the lighter colored foliage far worse than the darker colored plants. I also had no TSWV on any of the black tomatoes but that all could just have been a matter of luck. I am trying one of the TSWV resistant varieties of hybrid tomato this year for the first time to see how it tastes if it survives long enough.

April 3, 2011	#16
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Since I have fusarium fairly widespread in my garden and have for the entire time I have gardened there, I can attest to some hybrids having significantly more resistance than most of the OPs. That being said I still find OPs that do very well and some that do terrific despite being planted in spots known for their heavy fusarium presence. I was advised many years ago by the county extension service to only plant hybrids with strong fusarium resistance and I followed those directions for years but gradually tired of the sameness of the hybrids and started trying out many OPs on a limited scale and for the most part the extension agent was right. Most of the OPs died without ever producing any fruit but there were a few exceptions and so I started expanding the number of OPs and reducing the fusarium resistant hybrids. Last year I went crazy and planted over 70 varieties of OPs that I had never grown before and when one died of fusarium I would replace it in the same spot with another variety of OP immediately. Many of the replacements died just as fast or faster but some flourished in the fusarium tainted spot. I am trying to do the same thing this year except with even more varieties. I am also replanting the varieties that did well last year so I can see if it was just a fluke. Now if the TSWV, Early and Late Blight, along with that black crud that hits the black tomatoes will take it easy this year I could have a good test going. So far I have found about 20 OPs that have sufficient fusarium resistance to produce a good crop before succumbing to the disease as most of the hybrids do also. I had a couple of plants that continued to produce for months after getting TSWV and I saved the seed to see if that trait will be passed down. Most plants including the hybrids died rather quickly from TSWV once symptoms first appeared. I did notice one thing about TSWV last year and that was that it tended to hit the tomatoes with the lighter colored foliage far worse than the darker colored plants. I also had no TSWV on any of the black tomatoes but that all could just have been a matter of luck. I am trying one of the TSWV resistant varieties of hybrid tomato this year for the first time to see how it tastes if it survives long enough.