Topic: Blight resistant tomato varieties

[Jayb]

This year I’ve splashed out and ordered Crimson Crush tomato plants from Suttons. http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Plants/All+Vegetable+Plants/Tomato+Plants+-+Crimson+Crush_242971.htm 

I’m really hoping they live up to the blurb as they suggest they are tasty and the most resistant tomatoes variety yet as they have both PH2 and PH3 genes which are resistant to the pathogen Phytopthera infestans. The L. Blight resistant varieties previously available only had one of the resistance genes. Although I believe several varieties available in America have good resistance too and contain the same double resistance genes.  Also breeder Tom Wagner has been breeding to incorporate PH2 and PH3 in some of his lines whilst breeding for taste, although his varieties are generally still segregating.  I've found Koralik has done quite well here in the past but they do succumb.

Anyone going to be growing Crimson Crush or another Blight resistant variety this year? Fancy comparing results later on?

[johhnyco15]

 i grow fandango gets blight eventually but last year none and all trusses ripen very well

[Digeroo]

It would be very nice to have a resistant variety that also taste good,  Have grown several including Koralik but no taste for me and only lasted slightly longer.

I have more or less given up on tomatoes.

It is tempting but they are rather pricey especially since the postage is extra.

[Jayb]

i grow fandango gets blight eventually but last year none and all trusses ripen very well

Not one I've tried, good to know it does well for you. Is it an outdoor type?

[Jayb]

It would be very nice to have a resistant variety that also taste good,  Have grown several including Koralik but no taste for me and only lasted slightly longer.

I have more or less given up on tomatoes.

It is tempting but they are rather pricey especially since the postage is extra.

Lets hope these are the the tomato they are claimed to be then, such a shame to not be growing tomatoes. They are pricy, but I bought them when they had a free postage weekend, else I probably wouldn't have. As long as they turn up and do well, I'll be saving seeds later on if you are interested? It might be one for the Seed Circle too. 

[rentawreck]

I am hoping to try "Fandango" this year but like many it's an F1.  "Peron" (Sprayless) is one of the better well known resistant heritage varieties which I have grown in the past.

The best results regarding resistance that I have had has been with "Garden Pearl" which I fan train to the house wall which is in half pots fixed to the wall and protected with the eves. I notice that when others have failed Garden Pearl remains unaffected.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Once you have them its easy to save seed, and if the taste doesnt come up to the hype it could still be used for breeding.

[Silverleaf]

I am hoping to try "Fandango" this year but like many it's an F1.

If you like it, you could try "dehybridising" it. Just save seeds as normal, and then sow them the next year - you could grow as few as 6 plants although more would be better. Then just save seeds from the best plant, prioritising taste and blight resistance. Keep saving from the best plant every year and in 6-7 years it should be stabilised and you'll have a new OP variety that's similar to (or hopefully even better) than the original!

You may also get a happy surprise... sometimes varieties labelled F1 actually aren't. There's a cynical part of me that wonders if seed companies occasionally "accidentally" call something a hybrid so they can charge you £4 for 5 seeds instead of £2 for 20.

[Jayb]

I am hoping to try "Fandango" this year but like many it's an F1. 

That's why I'm keen to try Crimson Crush

"Peron" (Sprayless) is one of the better well known resistant heritage varieties which I have grown in the past.

Sadly I didn't find Peron Sprayless was resistant to late blight when I grew it, a nice tomato though.

The best results regarding resistance that I have had has been with "Garden Pearl" which I fan train to the house wall which is in half pots fixed to the wall and protected with the eves. I notice that when others have failed Garden Pearl remains unaffected

Thats intresting, I wonder if it was the protective position that helped keep Garden Pearl growing so well for you. I've not grown Garden Pearl for several years, but founf it had no resistance to LB when I grew it outdoors.

[Jayb]

Once you have them its easy to save seed, and if the taste doesnt come up to the hype it could still be used for breeding.

Crimson Crush does sound like an excellent canditate for breeding with.

[kGarden]

You may also get a happy surprise... sometimes varieties labelled F1 actually aren't. There's a cynical part of me that wonders if seed companies occasionally "accidentally" call something a hybrid so they can charge you £4 for 5 seeds instead of £2 for 20.

Might just be that the F1 is stable?  Maybe seed company never bothered to test if F2 was stable?

All O/P varieties originated as an F1 at some point, I guess? :)

[Jayb]

If similar looking/tasting lines etc are used to produce an F1 with the desired qualities, then any grown out to F'2 can look very similar with perhaps only small varieations that aren't very noticable.

[gray1720]

I'm trying a resistant variety from Chiltern Seeds this year, though I can't remember what it's called - claimed to taste superb as well. Given that ours get blight every single bleedin' year, I'd given up until I saw them. As someone said upthread, though, it's wrong not to grow tomatoes!

Adrian

[Vinlander]

It would be very nice to have a resistant variety that also taste good,  Have grown several including Koralik but no taste for me and only lasted slightly longer.

I have more or less given up on tomatoes.

I agree - you occasionally get a new plant that tastes good and has disease resistance but it's usually one that was bred for flavour and the disease resistance is a fluke like winning the lottery.

If breeders are going for disease resistance they will always promote the most resistant strain and if there was one with 3x the flavour and only 90% the resistance they would dump it.

Nobody ever lost money by underestimating the good taste of the Great British Public.

"Outstanding flavour" legally includes "outstandingly bland"...  and "Superb Flavour" always turns out to be that PR favourite: The "Big Lie".

I haven't given up on tomatoes yet, and I grow the same 4 every year - but I still find that it is a different one each year that is blighted first and worst.

I think a far better stratagem would be to try and improve the flavour of the (horribly thorny) Lychee Tomato - Solanum sisymbriifolium.

It is completely immune to blight, hardy enough to overwinter in a cold greenhouse (so far one has survived this year's -5C minimum under just 3 layers of net) - and it tastes like a fair-to-middling supermarket tomato.

It is sold pretty much in its wild form - imagine what proper a breeding programme could achieve!

Cheers.

PS. The one under the net is a volunteer in my builder's bag of rotted woodchip (used for fly-free carrots) and the light soil has made it grow twice as tall in half the time compared to the ones in my heavy soil - despite a nutrient level tailored for root crops.

[goodlife]

Code: [Select]

I haven't given up on tomatoes yet, and I grow the same 4 every year - but I still find that it is a different one each year that is blighted first and worst.

So...what are your 'same 4' that you keep growing? (yes, I'm being nosy... )

[Jayb]

I'm trying a resistant variety from Chiltern Seeds this year, though I can't remember what it's called - claimed to taste superb as well. Given that ours get blight every single bleedin' year, I'd given up until I saw them. As someone said upthread, though, it's wrong not to grow tomatoes!

Adrian

Are they Ferline F1?

[earlypea]

Hi Jayb

I splashed out on the Crimson Crushes too as soon as I saw them.

I was thinking of trying to cross them with my best and tastiest outdoor croppers if I'm around at the right time (Stupice and Aurora).  I think it's worth a try and easy to see if it works.

But, I was reading the Savari Research Trust's website a while back and (from memory) they say in the mid-seventies a variety of blight which mutates was imported into Europe in potato tubers which is why it has become such a killer for outdoor tomatoes so for how long this variety will be blight-free it seems to me is debatable.

Anyway, nothing to lose!  Yes, let's compare notes and breed away....

Earlypea

[gray1720]

Are they Ferline F1?

I'll try to remember to check the packet, but as I'm away for the weekend don't hold your breath for an answer...

Adrian

[Vinlander]

Code: [Select]

I haven't given up on tomatoes yet, and I grow the same 4 every year - but I still find that it is a different one each year that is blighted first and worst.

So...what are your 'same 4' that you keep growing? (yes, I'm being nosy... )

I always grow both Gardeners Delight and Sungold from cuttings (I buy the biggest plants I can find in the garden centres as soon as big ones appear in March/April) they are generally way ahead of my seedlings and the cuttings root like crazy - then fruit only a week or so after the parent plant. This saves me a hell of a lot of precious propagator space (and lighting) in the next few months.

I don't often buy tomato seed - I prefer to taste real tomatoes before I buy (you can get an awful lot of nice tomatoes for the T&M packet price). Then wipe & rub the jelly off the best seeds - they germinate straight away.

They always come true - the only benefit of commercial monoculture - there will be 10,000 identical plants in one tunnel!

I grow Green Tiger (from M&S - aka. "Highlander" from seedsmen) for its unusual meaty flavour - also the round shape seems less blight prone than beefsteak types.

I grow Piccolo/Piccolino from supermarkets for its unusually tangy fruity flavour.

That's it - so far nothing has compared to these 4. 

The last seed packet that wasn't totally disappointing was Green Grape - but my wife was very unimpressed (not tangy enough) and it didn't quite make it to my favourites either. Similar results for Matt's wild cherry and many other so-called flavour kinds.

Cheers.

[goodlife]

I grow Green Tiger (from M&S - aka. "Highlander" from seedsmen) for its unusual meaty flavour - also the round shape seems less blight prone than beefsteak types.

I didn't realize green tiger was same as highlander.. ...but yes, it has unusual flavour and I like too..though sometimes the skin is quite tough one on them.