Dester and EB

b54red · April 19, 2016

Last year I noticed my two Dester plants had the worst Early Blight of all the varieties I planted which was around 30 different varieties. This year in the first bed that I planted six weeks ago I set out 3 Dester plants among the 38 set out in the approximately 45 ft bed. We had a lot of rain and bad weather during this past month and I was unable to keep any fungicide on them for more than a day or two yet despite that I have very little EB and most of it is on the three Dester plants. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this susceptibility of Dester to EB? The Dester plants are in different parts of the bed and not near each other so I can only assume there is a weakness in this variety toward EB since I noticed this anomaly last year also. I'm not saying other plants didn't get EB but that the Dester plants got it earlier and they were more affected negatively by it than most other varieties. I was able to use the bleach spray two days ago and Daconil today so I hope that will slow it down some. Despite the loss of some lower leaves to EB the plants look great and I hope they taste as good as they did last year.

Bill

ScottinAtlanta · April 19, 2016

Bill, my Destor plants always went the full season here in Atlanta. I haven't noticed any particular susceptibility.

ginger2778 · April 19, 2016

Bill, I have tried twice now in 2 different seasons. Dester was sickly both seasons. Much more than almost any other. Fungus and who knows what else.I give up.

Gerardo · April 20, 2016

Don't give up Marsha. You gotta find the sweet spot in the weather. Mine had a long year and it did get attacked by EB, nevertheless, it rebounded in late fall and put out about 6 solid fruits.

Arctic Rose, a solid pink substitute for Dr. Dester's gift.

Gardeneer · April 20, 2016

Sounds like disease magnet, to me. Might even spread it.

Gardeneer

Ricky Shaw · April 20, 2016

Dester's getting the axe, EB's a problem here. I've got plenty of extra seedlings in the trays, I think I'll grow an extra Daniels or Elgin Pink instead.

ginger2778 · April 20, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerardo

Don't give up Marsha. You gotta find the sweet spot in the weather. Mine had a long year and it did get attacked by EB, nevertheless, it rebounded in late fall and put out about 6 solid fruits.

Arctic Rose, a solid pink substitute for Dr. Dester's gift.

Too many others that actually do well here.

**carolyn137** · April 20, 2016

Seldom an Early Blight problem with me or folks in my area.

But for everyone it depends on the season and whether or not the spores are in the air and also how rainy it migh be since the spores can get caught in raindrops as well.

And also what preventative measures might have been taken.

Carolyn

b54red · April 20, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Bill, my Destor plants always went the full season here in Atlanta. I haven't noticed any particular susceptibility.

My two plants last year made it from April til December but once the EB got high up the plants they produced almost nothing. I wouldn't have even mentioned it but it was so noticeable in my bed that the only three plants getting hit early by EB were all Desters and they were scattered from one end to the other of the bed.

I thought the flavor was fantastic last year especially early in the season before the plants got so covered in EB. I have seen one or the other plant get EB bad and there are other varieties that tend to get it more than average but this is way worse. Anyone that has followed my posts knows I take great care to reduce foliage disease as much as possible but if this season with Dester is like last season it will not be coming back despite the good flavor. I also noticed as the season went on that the plants adjacent to the two Dester plants picked up more of the EB than the rest of my plants so I think being near the Desters made them more likely to get EB. There are just too many pests to spread diseases to grow a plant that is super susceptible to spread the problem to the less susceptible. There are also just too many great tasting tomatoes to let one rotten apple spoil the whole barrel.

I am hoping this is just a fluke because I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor and thought it was in the top 3 for flavor last year.

Bill

decherdt · April 20, 2016

Dester and five or six others performed in the bottom half for EB here last year, but that may have been the wettest Spring ever. Not so bad so far this year, but it is early yet. EB (and GM) really get going in May. I did give them all this years first shot of bleach spray last night, thanks

b54red · April 23, 2016

Every time I walk up and down my bed checking my plants I find myself stopping at the Dester plants because of how bad the foliage looks. All the varieties got the same treatment with fungicide Daconil twice and one treatment of bleach spray. 3 of the 4 Dester plants have already lost half their foliage due to the rapid spread of EB so that I had to prune off most of the lower half of the plants. The fourth one doesn't look quite as bad but it is still worse looking than any other variety in the bed. I think I'll use copper on my next treatment as the Daconil doesn't seem to be working for Dester. Maybe it is some other disease but it sure looks like plain old EB to me.

I believe if I grow Dester again I may need to isolate them and give them more fungicide treatments and more bleach treatments than normally would be necessary. I'm not giving up on the variety yet because it tastes so good but Dester is making it hard to like.

Bill

E

guruofgardens · April 24, 2016

Bill, I'm so sorry you've had such a terrible time with Dester's EB. I'm guessing our very dry climate helps with Dester's fruiting here in CO because I love the flavor. We do get EB, usually a bit later in our season, but the heavy mulch helps curb much of the EB outbreak.

b54red · June 5, 2016

Well it is now conclusive that Dester is far worse than any other plant that I grow in getting hit hard by EB. In my bed of 37 plants I have four Dester plants scattered from one end to the other. Three of the plants are looking really bad despite three treatments with the bleach spray, five Daconil sprayings and two copper spray treatments since they were set out the second week of March. The fourth Dester is on the very end of the bed so it receives more light and air than all but a couple of other plants and yet it is still worse looking than all but the other three Dester plants. Surprisingly they are producing large beautiful fruit despite the decrepit looking foliage riddles with disease.

I think next year I may just plant all my Dester plants in my smallest bed and space them far apart and spray them even more often and see if they can do better. They are one of the tastiest tomatoes I grow and finding really excellent tasting large red tomatoes is not easy. The only other large red that has been as good tasting to me the last two years is Couilles de Taureau.

Bill

April 19, 2016	#1
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Dester and EB Last year I noticed my two Dester plants had the worst Early Blight of all the varieties I planted which was around 30 different varieties. This year in the first bed that I planted six weeks ago I set out 3 Dester plants among the 38 set out in the approximately 45 ft bed. We had a lot of rain and bad weather during this past month and I was unable to keep any fungicide on them for more than a day or two yet despite that I have very little EB and most of it is on the three Dester plants. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this susceptibility of Dester to EB? The Dester plants are in different parts of the bed and not near each other so I can only assume there is a weakness in this variety toward EB since I noticed this anomaly last year also. I'm not saying other plants didn't get EB but that the Dester plants got it earlier and they were more affected negatively by it than most other varieties. I was able to use the bleach spray two days ago and Daconil today so I hope that will slow it down some. Despite the loss of some lower leaves to EB the plants look great and I hope they taste as good as they did last year. Bill

April 20, 2016	#8
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	Seldom an Early Blight problem with me or folks in my area. But for everyone it depends on the season and whether or not the spores are in the air and also how rainy it migh be since the spores can get caught in raindrops as well. And also what preventative measures might have been taken. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

April 20, 2016	#10
decherdt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 329	Dester and five or six others performed in the bottom half for EB here last year, but that may have been the wettest Spring ever. Not so bad so far this year, but it is early yet. EB (and GM) really get going in May. I did give them all this years first shot of bleach spray last night, thanks Last edited by decherdt; April 20, 2016 at 12:43 PM. Reason: add link

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April 19, 2016	#2
ScottinAtlanta Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 2,593	Bill, my Destor plants always went the full season here in Atlanta. I haven't noticed any particular susceptibility.

April 19, 2016	#3
ginger2778 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10 Posts: 9,283	Bill, I have tried twice now in 2 different seasons. Dester was sickly both seasons. Much more than almost any other. Fungus and who knows what else.I give up.

April 20, 2016	#4
Gerardo Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: San Diego-Tijuana Posts: 2,598	Don't give up Marsha. You gotta find the sweet spot in the weather. Mine had a long year and it did get attacked by EB, nevertheless, it rebounded in late fall and put out about 6 solid fruits. Arctic Rose, a solid pink substitute for Dr. Dester's gift.

April 20, 2016	#5
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,919	Sounds like disease magnet, to me. Might even spread it. Gardeneer

April 20, 2016	#6
Ricky Shaw Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Zone 6a Denver North Metro Posts: 1,910	Dester's getting the axe, EB's a problem here. I've got plenty of extra seedlings in the trays, I think I'll grow an extra Daniels or Elgin Pink instead.

April 23, 2016	#11
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Every time I walk up and down my bed checking my plants I find myself stopping at the Dester plants because of how bad the foliage looks. All the varieties got the same treatment with fungicide Daconil twice and one treatment of bleach spray. 3 of the 4 Dester plants have already lost half their foliage due to the rapid spread of EB so that I had to prune off most of the lower half of the plants. The fourth one doesn't look quite as bad but it is still worse looking than any other variety in the bed. I think I'll use copper on my next treatment as the Daconil doesn't seem to be working for Dester. Maybe it is some other disease but it sure looks like plain old EB to me. I believe if I grow Dester again I may need to isolate them and give them more fungicide treatments and more bleach treatments than normally would be necessary. I'm not giving up on the variety yet because it tastes so good but Dester is making it hard to like. Bill E

April 24, 2016	#12
guruofgardens Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: zone 5 Colorado Posts: 942	Bill, I'm so sorry you've had such a terrible time with Dester's EB. I'm guessing our very dry climate helps with Dester's fruiting here in CO because I love the flavor. We do get EB, usually a bit later in our season, but the heavy mulch helps curb much of the EB outbreak.

June 5, 2016	#13
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Well it is now conclusive that Dester is far worse than any other plant that I grow in getting hit hard by EB. In my bed of 37 plants I have four Dester plants scattered from one end to the other. Three of the plants are looking really bad despite three treatments with the bleach spray, five Daconil sprayings and two copper spray treatments since they were set out the second week of March. The fourth Dester is on the very end of the bed so it receives more light and air than all but a couple of other plants and yet it is still worse looking than all but the other three Dester plants. Surprisingly they are producing large beautiful fruit despite the decrepit looking foliage riddles with disease. I think next year I may just plant all my Dester plants in my smallest bed and space them far apart and spray them even more often and see if they can do better. They are one of the tastiest tomatoes I grow and finding really excellent tasting large red tomatoes is not easy. The only other large red that has been as good tasting to me the last two years is Couilles de Taureau. Bill