Dwarf Project Plants!

I grew Dwarf Mr. Snow, Dwarf Beryl Beauty, and Dwarf Emerald Giant this year as well as New Big Dwarf which was not part of the Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Project. All of my tomato plants were hit early in the season by Septoria Leaf Spot which is normal in my garden. The Septoria usually kills the lower branches and leaves on my plants and it did the same thing on the Dwarf plants, but it rarely harms production or kills a plant. As the weather warmed and the summer long drought began, I started noticing some appearance of Gray Mold on a few plants but on all of the dwarf plants. As the heat and low humidity intensified, the Gray Mold pretty much devastated the dwarf plants. I didn't attempt to treat the plants because I wanted to determine the plants ability to recover from the disease as they do with Septoria. While some of my other varieties exhibited Gray Mold infection, they continued to grow and produce fruit. The growth and production of the dwarf plants was totally stopped by the infection. The New Big Dwarf and Mr. Snow eventually died. The Emerald Giant and Beryl Beauty kept producing new growth through the summer which eventually became infected and dried up. With the beginning of cooler, moist, fall weather the Gray Mold has subsided and new growth is emerging which seems to be disease free. They are even producing healthy blooms. I have now treated the plants with fungal retardant products to see if the plants will produce in the fall.

I don't believe the dwarf plants are more genetically susceptible to disease than other varieties, but I am wondering if the rugose foliage with all it's crevices and irregular surfaces contributes to the retention of disease spores making them more difficult to treat.

Ted

[nctomatoman]

Very good post and an interesting observation. I think that the disease occurrence in any particular season is always the determining factor in plant health and productivity - last year my whole tomato area was a disaster and yield pathetic. This season many of the dwarfs hung in there right until the end - I pulled all plants yesterday, and picked nearly 12 fruit from Dwarf Mr. Snow - our only tomatoes remaining! Of the nine released varieties, Tasmanian Chocolate went down first - then Wild Fred, then Rosella Purple - but Emerald Giant, Summertime Gold, Beryl Beauty, Jade Beauty, Summertime Green, and Mr. Snow were still living and blossoming - and producing a few (or quite a few) fruit right up until my mass plant pulling yesterday. Total season was planted May 3, pulled Sept 15 - so aside from the 3 that went down prior to yesterday, that's about 105 days of total growth from transplant - right in there with pretty much all of my indeterminates, including the hybrids Sungold and Big Beef.

Craig,

I planted all my varieties on March 7, and harvested my first early fruit 55 days later in the first week of May. I continued harvesting some early, mid season, and late season fruit into the last week of June. My spring garden produced fruit for about sixty days from the first week of May until the last week of June. When the 100+ degrees hit in the first week of July, all production stopped. Some plants became dormant and some plants died in the heat. After the sixty days of mid summer passed and September arrived with cooler weather, my surviving plants and newly planted plants are blooming with production expected to begin in mid October. The early varieties will also be the first to produce in the fall. Production should continue until mid to late November for some mid season varieties.. It's usually a waste of time for me to plant late season varieties for a fall garden. Some years the first frost doesn't arrive until almost Christmas. We are able to harvest fruit from early May until first frost most years except for the two hottest summer months. We typically have about 140 productive days if we plan and plant around the severe heat and severe cold.

Ted

[nancyruhl]

You pulled them all yesterday!. I live way up in Michigan and can't bring myself to do that yet.

[nctomatoman]

Had to....in Raleigh, it is plant early, big burst of harvest, then the sun angle changes, the plants get sick and it isn't worth letting them continue....just makes you depressed to see all those un-yielding, sickly plants!

[Jeannine Anne]

Mine are all producing huge fruit and all plants are still doing well, which is especially good as they were planted so very late..just taller than I expected
|XX Jeannine

[ContainerTed]

Interesting, of all the dwarf varieties I grew in the main garden, the lone survivor is Iditarod Red - 3 plants. They have gone thru the same scenario Tedln described. Right now, I have new fruit set and new blooms, but they might not have enough time to deliver ripe fruit.

I, too, let things go "unsprayed" to see what would survive. I purposely let some of the weeds grow to add shade to some plants during the heat onslaught. I still had the worse sunscald ever.

As far as diseases, the first plant into the garden was also the first to show speck - Burpee's Big Boy. It is also one of the last left alive with new fruit and new blooms. Even the cherry tomatoes have gone down to the heat we had here. I know Texas had it worse, but we also set a record for most days with a high temperature over 90F.

I DO have some container'd plants up here at the house that have done very well. While I still had some disease problems up here as well, the amount of damage was much less. I think the main difference is that they have had shade from about 3 PM to sunset which was the time of the most intense sun stress. It makes me wonder if maybe environmental stresses drops the plant's self-protection factors and then the diseases can take hold.