How do you get your Plant rated VFN?

[OkieJason]

I have read the stickies in crosstalk, and searched the web but have drawn a blank when it comes to rating your plants resistant to a disease or nematodes.
The big companies all have ratings on the seed but no OP,s do. I know you have to have them tested and that takes money. Their is no ownership in most OP.s so no one bothers to test them. That being said how would you go about testing one so you could list your seed or seedlings with resistance?

I loved the talk on basic tomato genetics that Tom gave in Europe. Are any more of his talks published?

Thank you,

Jason

[dice]

Some OPs have VF, etc ratings, done by universities,
government organizations like the USDA, etc. Some were
originally disease tolerant commercial varieties that were
released as OP cultivars rather than as F1 hybrid seed.

A few that come to mind are Rutgers, Oregon Spring, Siletz,
New Yorker, Tigerella, Campbell's 1327, Super Marmande,
West Virginia '63, etc.

I imagine that there are many places where one could get
a sample of a cultivar tested for common disease tolerances.
The URL below shows an example:

http://www.calspl.com/cat_detail.php...tance%20screen

[OkieJason]

Thank you for the fast reply and accurate answer dice,

That is exactly what I was looking for.

Jason

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by OkieJason

Thank you for the fast reply and accurate answer dice,

That is exactly what I was looking for.

Jason

And here's an article I was asked to write for National Gardening when it was still alive and well and I did discuss a bit about how varieties get to list disease tolerances, how much it costs, etc., and the cost/variety would be much higher today. I had interviewed quite a few folks about how the challenge tests were done, who prepared the pathogens and a lot more.

And in addition to what I said there are now quite a few independent labs that do it but the challenge tests have to follow rigorous guidelines which must be followed.

http://www.garden.org/articles/artic...?q=show&id=389

[OkieJason]

Thank you Carolyn,

That is a great article! I particularly enjoyed the distinction between systemic and foliar disease. Do you still hold to your observation of potato leaf having more resistance? I enjoy the look of the potato leaf eminencely! The plants look so majestic.

Jason

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by OkieJason

Thank you Carolyn,

That is a great article! I particularly enjoyed the distinction between systemic and foliar disease. Do you still hold to your observation of potato leaf having more resistance? I enjoy the look of the potato leaf eminencely! The plants look so majestic.

Jason

Yes Jason, for me the PL varieties are less susceptible to the common foliage diseases. Near the end of the season most of my plants can be down and out with usually Early Blight ( A.solani) and Septoria Leaf Spot, but most of the PL varieties are still green and nice.

All I've ever come up with as a possible explanation is that the leaf epidermis of PL's is possibly thicker or is just less inviting to fungal spore germination and infection.

But I also know that my experience is not shared by everyone else. Some agree, some don't.

[jeffinjonestown]

Interesting. With a much smaller sample size, my experience with PLs is the same as Carolyn's. Rutgers and red RL brandys here have shown more disease on the leaves earlier than the PL pinks grown in the same kind of pots on the same deck. I sort of recall Camo saying the PLs work better for him, too, and he lives not too far away from here, so maybe it has to do with which diseases are most predominant in the mid Atlantic and northeast?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by jeffinjonestown

Interesting. With a much smaller sample size, my experience with PLs is the same as Carolyn's. Rutgers and red RL brandys here have shown more disease on the leaves earlier than the PL pinks grown in the same kind of pots on the same deck. I sort of recall Camo saying the PLs work better for him, too, and he lives not too far away from here, so maybe it has to do with which diseases are most predominant in the mid Atlantic and northeast?

I was talking fungal foliage diseases and they and the two bacterial foliage diseases are the most common diseases in the world, let alone our USA and I wouldn't expect to see a difference in the prevalence of those foliage diseases between the mid-Atlantic, the PNW and the SE and along the Gulf Coast.

The arid SW and CA usually see lesser problems with the foliage diseases.

[jeffinjonestown]

Carolyn, I was thinking of the humidity, so your point is especially good with regard to the gulf coast and PNW. I wonder if people in those areas report a difference b/t PL and RL resistance. I just thought it interesting that rutgers was cited above in this thread, but my PLs showed less fungals, and that your article also suggested that the PLs do better with them.

[dice]

Rutgers was cited as an example of an OP cultivar with
known disease tolerances (fusarium, verticillium, and
some versions of it apparently have alternaria tolerance,
vis a vis the "Rutgers VFA" sold by Tomato Growers Supply).
Fusarium and Verticillium are diseases that infect the plant
through the roots. Alternaria can be Early Blight, a foliage
disease, or a fruit disease (alternaria alternaria). I do not
know which one the A in "VFA" stands for, but I am guessing
that it is the fruit disease.