Varieties prone to foliage problems

[Cole_Robbie]

Not that it was any worse than anything else, but I grew Peron Sprayless next to Early Girl and several other heirloom varieties a few years ago. I watched it closely to see if it got fungal problems any less than the other plants, and I could see no difference at all. It's a decent red tomato, though, taste is good. It just didn't live up to the name for me.

[Csross]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

Sungold has been susceptible to EB, it doesn't matter.

Is early blight common on Sungold? I grew 8 tomato plants from seed this year and purchased one, Sungold or Sunsugar (can't remember which), and it's the only one with any early blight or other disease. It looked ok when I bought it. They're planted in a new garden, so there's no existing disease problem, and I'm trying to keep it from spreading to my other heirlooms.

[bower]

I'm reluctant to talk about varieties I only grew once, but several didn't get grown again (yet) because they were so prone to foliage disease in the greenhouse environment. Galinas Yellow and Anna Russian had major trouble with Early Blight and I was picking bad leaves off them all season long, for example.
In the blacks, Chernomor is one that I just don't want to grow in the greenhouse, it is so prone to grey mold in humid weather whether hot or cold. But I start some every year for my mother to grow outdoors. They do get a few moldy leaves but the stems are usually spared, and generally do much better outside producing very well in a marginal tomato environment, than they do in the protected warmer and more humid space.

[jmsieglaff]

I gave my in laws two tomato plants. Wisconsin 55 and Bear Creek. The W55 is hard hit by Septora. Bear Creek right next to it and even touching has very minor outward symptoms and it's been like this for a number of weeks making me believe Bear Creek is rather tolerant to Septoria.

[greenthumbomaha]

Yes! But it is so robust for me that it keeps branching and setting out more fruit despite the eb traveling up the plant,

Originally Posted by Csross

Is early blight common on Sungold? I grew 8 tomato plants from seed this year and purchased one, Sungold or Sunsugar (can't remember which), and it's the only one with any early blight or other disease. It looked ok when I bought it. They're planted in a new garden, so there's no existing disease problem, and I'm trying to keep it from spreading to my other heirlooms.

[greenthumbomaha]

double post

[b54red]

The two years I did grow Sun Gold it had bad problems with EB but like was said earlier it grows and produces so fast that the EB didn't affect production much.

Bill

[Compuaide]

I have grown tomatoes in a garden in New York state (outside of Buffalo, in Rochester and the Hudson Valley) for 20 years. I have more time on my hands this year so I expanded and dabbled in heirlooms and even tried grafting.

Simple setup in 10' long raised beds, 1' spacing, everything is single-stem and vertical. I have followed the bleach spray regimen since some spotting on the lower leaves in May. It's been working except for 1 Abe Lincoln that is being trimmed almost daily. Odd thing is, the AL next to it is my grafted experiment and that one is blight-free. (I know, jinx) It's grafted to a celebrity root and has the thickest stem I have ever seen. I can't twist it around the vertical string, I am using clips instead. The leaves also are hugging the stem and draping down, not growing out like the others in the bed. I have eaten ripened fruit from the other ALs but not yet from the grafted plant.

Is it simply strange behavior? Vigor because of the graft? FrankenLincoln? I also think that air circulation is poor on that plant because of the leaves hugging the stem the way they are. I know there is no chance of sun scald there.

I have 40 tomato plants. I trimmed them up about a foot from the ground once they started growing. No mulching, daily drip watering.

What I do know is it the bleach regimen is working for all my plants. Thanks b54red. You da man!

Ralph

[ScottinAtlanta]

Destor here in Atlanta doesn't have the weaknesses that Bill sees in Alabama - but I have never been able to get a Malachite Box to survive to fruit. It is a big healthy plant, and then suddenly, BLAM. Three years in a row. I am done with it.

Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Green, on the other hand, are standouts, seemingly surviving anything.

[Cole_Robbie]

My Malachite Box put off one set of fruit, then died. Gray mold, maybe.

[Ricky Shaw]

Did your Malachite Box look like this? This may be Cherokee Green in the pic, it had the same thing. The streaky mottling up the stems, some is cage chaff, but also looking higher on the stem it's in evidence.

[Cole_Robbie]

Maybe. Most of my plants have disease at this point. It's too much to even bother identifying. Leaf mold and septoria are probably most of it. I obviously need to get better about preventative spraying, but by this point in the summer, people are starting to get sick of tomatoes, and they are getting harder to sell. They hit 99 cents a pound during the last hour of market last Saturday.

[Ricky Shaw]

I can understand the frustration of having your work cheapened, that's crazy .99lb. When they open up the fields in Pueblo at the end of the season, it's been .99 for pick your own the last few years. They're just hybrid determinates, canners and paste.

[Cole_Robbie]

I was selling half-bushels of canners last year for $12, which is about 50 cents a pound. At the peak of summer, the produce auctions to the north of me price 25-pound boxes as low as $2-3. I live in mater country; it's supply and demand.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Compuaide

I have grown tomatoes in a garden in New York state (outside of Buffalo, in Rochester and the Hudson Valley) for 20 years. I have more time on my hands this year so I expanded and dabbled in heirlooms and even tried grafting.

Simple setup in 10' long raised beds, 1' spacing, everything is single-stem and vertical. I have followed the bleach spray regimen since some spotting on the lower leaves in May. It's been working except for 1 Abe Lincoln that is being trimmed almost daily. Odd thing is, the AL next to it is my grafted experiment and that one is blight-free. (I know, jinx) It's grafted to a celebrity root and has the thickest stem I have ever seen. I can't twist it around the vertical string, I am using clips instead. The leaves also are hugging the stem and draping down, not growing out like the others in the bed. I have eaten ripened fruit from the other ALs but not yet from the grafted plant.

Is it simply strange behavior? Vigor because of the graft? FrankenLincoln? I also think that air circulation is poor on that plant because of the leaves hugging the stem the way they are. I know there is no chance of sun scald there.

I have 40 tomato plants. I trimmed them up about a foot from the ground once they started growing. No mulching, daily drip watering.

What I do know is it the bleach regimen is working for all my plants. Thanks b54red. You da man!

Ralph

Ralph I have found with some of my grafts especially with some rootstock that they will be very late to put on fruit and ripen fruit but those are sometimes the ones that make very healthy large plants. Sometimes they never put on much fruit. This seems to be mostly with certain combinations of rootstock and scions. This year the difference between two different rootstock with the same scion in when they produced their first fruit was about two weeks so don't give up hope. I did have a few grafts over the last few years that never did produce more than a couple of fruits and I have no idea why. I just assumed it was a bad graft.

I'm glad the bleach spray is working out for you. You might want to use some Daconil or a copper spray the next day for the ones giving you persistent spotting troubles.

Bill