Topic: advice on blight resistant tomatoes...with flavour

[dingerbell]

I am lucky to live in a beautiful part of South Somerset but unfortunately I am literally surrounded by potato farms. I have tried...unsuccessfully for the last three years to produce an outdoor crop of heritage tomatoes....I've lost the lot to blight!! I am not one to give up easily but burning my lovingly tended crop every year has finally defeated me.
I want to grow toms again this year but I am going to reluctantly move towards blight resistant varieties. Can anyone recommend blight resistant tomatoes with lots of flavour as the only criterion I set for anything I grow is taste.
Many thanks....Dinger

[jonny211]

I tried Dragotsenot (probably spelled incorrectly) from realseeds.co.uk, they did pretty well against blight in a greenhouse but I do sow early to try and avoid this.

*reminds me that I must sow some more  :P

[Robert_Brenchley]

I live miles from potato fields, and I've still had my outdoor toms devastated by blight two years running. Keep your fingers crossed!

[STEVEB]

sorry but if it p**s for ages your up against a fomidable foe...let nature take its course and accept the failures

[hopalong]

I tried a blight resistant variety called Ferline last year.  It was certainly more resistant than the other varieties that I grew but it succumbed eventually.  This year I am going to spray regularly with Bordeaux Mixture.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I haven't tried it yet, but people say if you use a platic roof to keep the rain off you don't get blight, or not so often anyway. It makes sense as the spores need moisture to germinate.

[Doris_Pinks]

Robert grew mine under the plastic roof.........still got the blight, 3rd year in a row! >:(

This year I am trying Legend................Dinger if you would like a few seeds to give it a go, then PM me.

Info on it here

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/726/1.html

DP

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'd love a few, I haven't tried that one. I've had so many varieties zapped the last couple of summers! See your PM's.

[Barnowl]

My last one standing was Olivade F1 - this was taken on 20th September - I just kept picking off leaves as soon as they looked as if they might be infected and as you can see the stem is ok.  Ferline also proved pretty resistant.

[attachment=1]

I may have a few seeds left of both.  PM me if you'd like me to have a look?

[raisedbedted]

I grew under a plastic cover last year at the allotment, the whole site was struck by blight but the ones under the cover were absolutely fine.  The ones at the edges that had got a bit of rain succumbed in time but those right inside was fine.

A venerable old gent at the site looked at my selection of heritage potatoes last year and said 'my old dad used to grow those, do you know why they disappeared from the catalogues? because they were rubbish, give me modern ones any day'

He turned out to be right.

[ina]

Blight is a big problem on our allotment complex but I did find Ferlines and Legends held out the longest.
I find Ferline a very tasty tomato for eating raw and salads.
Legend is bigger and meatier, wonderful for cooking and putting in jars to keep for sauces later in the year but we also eat them in salads.

[PurpleHeather]

I honestly do not think that it is possible to prevent blight on an allotment site.

I took tomato plants home and put them in the garden last year in between the dahlias, they were not obvious to view, but they produced lovely cherry tomatoes and did not get blighted.

I do not know if I have found out that dahlias stop blight. Or that we do not have blight spores in our garden. I suspect the latter because none of our neighbours grows any vegetables.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You get a lot of susceptible plants on an allotment site, in a small area, and it's a classic situation for an epidemic. Plus a lot of sites probably have people who aren't sufficiently fussy about dealing with potato accidentals. These are a common source of infection.